Agent Rafa?

Certainly possible our owners are in the "can't beat 'em join 'em" club I just think the protection of BMD is all that concerns which means guaranteeing Prem status. Something Benitez is well capable of.

I just can't see any other reason as Benitez is arguably at the foot of most Evertonians appointment list by some margin. And even allowing for the fact that with every passing utterance and footballing deed Moshiri appears as dull as dishwater he must surely see he's finished if this goes badly.

Mosh & Uzi = Hicks & Gilette mk2

The real challenge is uniting a divided Everton and successfully implementing changes to do so. Even at the presentation of the new manager the conflicts of Liverpool vs Everton; Change or No Change; The Everton Way or Benitez's Way; Us and Them, were evident.

It's good that these differences are right out there from the start. It focuses Benitez on what his task is. I even thought him quite nervous. What's more, none of us expect things to be hunky dory. The owners are determined.

I don't expect Everton to ever play like Liverpool. I expect Everton to be more like Valencia, who did look like a good Everton side when he managed them. Liverpool were only at their very best when they played like Valencia. They could never keep it up.

The main concern I have is that Benitez is a short-term manager and Everton is a long-term project. Some of us think Everton is an eternal project… 'project' is Everton's middle name. Every new manager says 'project'. They never say, how you say in English. They know the word 'project', like they know Everton. Benitez said 'project'.

So now Benitez is near home on Merseyside, will he be determined to stay longer? That is probably the main reason he got the job, as much as any other reason, such is the football knowledge of Everton's owners.

Will it work? It's anyone's guess. Being Everton supporters, we are going to have front seats and I am sure are going to go through every emotion as a result. Give them plenty of emotion and let them force change.

One thing that occurred to me is, if Benitez is successful, he could out-do his own legendary status on Merseyside. Dream on…

Everton are not ‘broken'. By and large, we have achieved what you would expect given our expenditure. People talk as if only a few clubs have our financial backing when we are still very much in with the also-rans. Breaking into the next level is the aim; we haven't done it yet but we live in hope.

Neither have Liverpool been anywhere near universally successful for the majority of nearly 3 decades, well certainly not compared to their expectations! Klopp is miles ahead in terms of the best of their Premier League managers.

And finally we come to Benítez. A pretty average manager for them. Does anyone remember that game in Istanbul? They could easily have lost it and then what would be his legacy? If 2 trophies in 6 seasons makes him a legend, then the term has been diluted.

The rest of it is pure speculation, but going for the most positive spin possible. How do we know this isn't just a good opportunity to line his pockets? His family may have loved their time on Merseyside but his kids must be close to leaving the nest, if they haven't already done so. Perhaps him and the missus have their eye on a nice villa on one of the Costas or the Balearics in few more years?

I'll give him some time but I will need to see some proper progress before I believe he's anything other than yesterday's man.

Since Kendall Mk 1, we have appointed:
Harvey - worth a gamble…
Kendall Mk 2 - already past it
Mike Walker - flash in the pan
Royle - fits into our way and successful
Kendall Mk 3 - see Kendall Mk 2
Smith - too old and dated
Moyes - fits and successful
Martinez - fits and moderately successful
Koeman - Big name, not done a lot
Allardyce - dinosaur
Silva - off the back of abject failure
Ancelotti - dinosaur

We should be looking for the next big thing, not the big thing from 15 years ago.

I hope I'm proved wrong.

The RS may not have been universally successful over the last 30 years, as you put it, but I'd be a lot happier with a trophy every 2.3 years, as they have averaged, rather than 1 every 26.

I get your point about Istanbul but my point is exactly that; they didn't buckle at 3-0 down at half-time. They didn't know they were beaten, and that's the mentality we need to replicate if we're going to be serious contenders again. Same thing when they needed to score 4 past Barcelona a few years back. They were written off but didn't believe it themselves.

You may well be 100% correct about Rafa Benitez and his ambitions, intentions etc… though I hope you are not.

We are definitely not ‘broken', unless you genuinely believe it is odds-on that we should be winning something every few years. It has got harder, not easier, to win things in the last 10 years.

So the RS didn't buckle in Istanbul? Whoop-de-doo! How much more do you think Benítez has to improve our side to compete with the likes of Citeh, the RS, Chelski, PSG, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barca, etc, etc, than he had to improve Houllier's side (4 trophies in 5 years)?

Everton are the 6th highest net spend club over the last 10 years, with an average league placing of 9th, so I'd have to disagree that we've achieved what you'd expect though I would agree that "we" are unrealistic in our expectations of success.

Not a lot of clubs have won anything since we last did and the fact that we were once successful means sweet fuck-all these days.

We may be 6th but I bet we are closer to 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th than we are to 5th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd.

Yes, we aren't reliable and the squad needs an overhaul, but we aren't ‘broken'. If our wage bill was the same and we were consistently finishing bottom-half, then I'd agree we were.

Oh, hang on. You've pulled the old switcheroo on me and gone for net spend rather than wage bill!!!

You old devil, you! I thought it was universally acknowledged on here that we'd often way overpaid for players and recouped a pittance since Farhad Moshiri took over?

I get what you're saying and we do need a strong manager to point the way and make it clear to the players how to get there.

The thing is, I thought we had that with Ancelotti, he had a quite a ruthless reputation and haul of silverware, he simply gave up and ran off.

Basically, with what we have no manager can work miracles. For Miracles to happen Brands has to be allowed go and find a good few Ben Godfey types, this can't happen if Benitez does an "Ancelotti" and wants to be reunited with his old boys and I believe Moshiri will back him in this.

In Benitez's first club video he said he has a list of potential players he wants and will give it Brands, no mention from him of wanting to see the talent Brands might want to bring?

There's the biggest weakness in our setup, coaches should turn up and have a decent squad to work with, because the DoF has provided one, Brands has never had the opportunity to do this and will probably not get one now.

I'm uneasy about Benitez, forget the "small club" jibe, it's the fact he's done nothing in the past 7 years. He took over at Newcastle, they were 1 point from safety with 9 games to go and he took them down?

I'll give him until Chirstmas, that's long enough to see if he still "has it", if not I'll start booing with the many thousands that will have started well before me.

I always thought Royale was a lost opportunity to continue Kendall's legacy. I remember after the FA Cup win he was faced with a abnormal amount of player contracts all ending at the same time. Not of his doing.
That prevented him holding a core squad and building to push Everton to the next level.

I would never classify him as the same Moyes. He had no glass ceiling. More money would have not made up the difference for Moyes to be able to move to the next level.

Rafa has the mettle for this and we all recognize that. Where we differ is along the risk/reward spectrum. Yes, he can get some players in line we believe where others haven't due to a no nonsense approach that will embed his obvious knowledge of tactics into our squad. I'll give Rafa the benefit of the doubt here but one must admit he would be the perfect cover for some astute business people that are stuffed suits when it comes to football.

He can also have the potential to be a sub-Carlo that stays when he knows the game is up with Doshiri and ride us deeper into firmly accepted mediocrity. In this scenario I would have preferred someone who is a rebuilder but is younger in their trajectory like Rudy Garcia. If it was a short term intention from the start choosing Rafa as a fixer was not a low-risk move and this should concern us all. Unless you're willing to discount those plebian concerns about quality of football for the sake of getting into a decent stadium with quality shops all around that is.

And I haven't seen you like this Si, keep that going man.

You can argue we are broken, but I would disagree. I posted elsewhere, we are only one of 3 current top flight clubs not to have been relegated in my lifetime (born 1971). We haven't tasted second tier football since 1954. Compare that with Chelsea, Aston Villa, West Ham, Manchester City, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester United, Wolves, Tottenham.

The list could go on, but we haven't been through what those supporters of those big clubs have been through. We are underachieving by our rightfully self-imposed high standards, but broken? No. Not for me, we are just lost and have needed, for far too long, leadership to point us back in the right direction and get us on track.

Moyes was not a success. He didn't win anything. He done what was necessary in the early years and I for one understood and appreciated that. But he couldn't and didn't break out of that mindset, whilst concurrently playing down the expectations of a generation who now accept that era as success. There were some good Moyes teams; 2009 sticks out for me. But two league titles, an FA Cup and a European Trophy was success for me, not an FA Cup Final appearance and some decent league positions, often after recovering from a dreadful start to the season.

With the stadium in flight and the manner in which they've gone for a similar replacement in the manager, whether we agree or not, the owner and his backer seem to have a plan and intent.

Moshri doesn't want to flush his money down the pan and, after a pretty extensive search, he's landed on Rafa. Not my first choice but, then again, I've not invested a large fortune in the club including a new Stadium.

I rather admire Rafa taking this – he's certainly got very large cajones.

I'd give both hands and both arms to have half the mentality of LFC on the pitch. Our mentality at the club has been, in my opinion, our biggest problem.

I understand that people may not like that statement but it simply comes down to winning. I've supported Everton since 1999-2000 so I haven't seen us win any silverware and I'd like to see that change as soon as possible.

So yes, I'd like to see Rafa instill a winning mentality in all corners of EFC.

I wouldn't go with your rating of Jagielka, although he was good.

Everything else, I pretty much concur with. Two phases of the Moyes era for me. The longer and earlier part where I understood what he was doing and why. The last few years one of frustration at not moving the needle.

And yes, a manager who will stick up for his club and actual be f@*cking visibly fucking pissed if his team doesn't win.

Benitez has got a lot to prove and more than any other manager, Everton could have hired.

Do the board see this as the driving force to try and bring consistency and success on the park?

Time will prove but to start this latest new management era, I’m hoping that there’s some new signings soon and some dead wood off loaded.

The past 18 months Everton got duped via Ancelotti, and despite the past with Benitez I believe he will be loyal and will be out to prove a point.

Some good jokes doing the rounds about Benitez and Unsworth discussing the canteen at Finch Farm.

Hope eternal.

We've all mostly said we need better mental and physical attitude and intensity. If he can lay a long-term foundation... and win a cup, we'll love him like we love Morrissey or Sheedy. If he's half as tough as the first and half as skillful as the latter... well who knows? There could be an Everton Knighthood for the Squire of Caldy.

But if he fucks up? Then it's tin-hat time... and then some, for the rs twat.

[The above is as fine a piece of 'Everton Fan Doublethink' as you'll see... sorry.]

So, whoever it was that decided to bring him onto us has a duty, I suggest, to put their money where Moshiri's mouth is and give him the cash to sign some proper players.

If he needs a clue (and who in Finch Farm doesn't?) we are bereft of pace all over the squad, and without it in this day and age you're fucked before kick-off.

I rely on my own eyes and the testimony last year of our very own (for now) DCL who described Godfrey and Branthwaite as the only two club players able to move quicker than him, and Lord knows DCL's no whippet.

That said, I expect the increasingly un-credible Moshiri to postulate Benetiz as just the latest "magician" he's appointed to make chronically slow (for sound physiological reasons that a science A-level student should detect at a medical) players the sort of signings the football elite world will crave.

Moshiri is the guy who's transformed the cheesy "An' If, Yer Know, Yer 'Istory" club song into the old Cole Porter song to now read, "It's delusional, it's delirious, it's defeated" as our anthem.

Anyone struggling to know who Cole Porter is can find ample evidence in the vast Everton museum by the way. He was famous when Dixie was.

Regarding the wage bill discussion, how does Leicester's wages stack up against ours? Haven't got the answer but I bet ours is higher over the last few seasons and we haven't come close to winning anything. True that you have to spend to get quality players but it's not all about how much you spend, it's how you spend it too.