Everton manager Rafael Bentez has been fired following the club’s 2-1 defeat to fellow strugglers Norwich City. Farhad Moshiri, the main shareholder, is now looking for his sixth permanent manager in six years.
Everton now have just five points from their previous 12 games, putting them in 15th place, just six points above the relegation zone. Bentez exits with a victory percentage of 26%, the lowest of any permanent manager since Howard Kendall’s disastrous third term at the club.
“Everton Football Club can confirm the departure of Rafael Benítez as First Team manager,” read a brief statement. “Benítez, who joined Everton in June 2021, has left the club with immediate effect. An update on a permanent replacement will be made in due course.”
Former manager Roberto Martnez – who was sacked by Moshiri in 2016 – former Granada coach Diego Martnez, José Mourinho, Niko Kovac, and Wayne Rooney could all be considered by Everton’s erratic owner.
Everton supporters raised a banner at Carrow Road demanding that Bentez “go out of our club,” and they got their way on Sunday, with the former Liverpool manager finishing barely over half of his three-year deal.
After Willian Edward Barclay in the nineteenth century, Bentez became the most divisive managerial choice in Everton’s history, and just the second man to manage both Everton and Liverpool. Before signing the deal in June 2021, he experienced personal insults and threats, and Merseyside police examined a poster that said “We know where you live” but was posted outside the incorrect property near the Spaniard’s family home in Wirral.
The 61-year-old, on the other hand, was greeted with a standing ovation before his first home game as manager, but a poor run of play, a falling out with Lucas Digne, and tactics conspired to turn many more against him. He departs Everton only days after the club sold Digne to Aston Villa for £25 million and after Marcel Brands, the club’s director of football, and Danny Donachie, the club’s head of medical services, both left the club.