Unless the second half of the Premier League season sees Everton take a disastrous downturn in form, Carlo Ancelotti looks certain to better the twelfth-place finish of the last campaign. Ambitious Toffees shareholder Farhad Moshiri celebrates five years of investment in the club this February, so now is the perfect time to take stock of things.
Try as they might, Everton has yet to break into the top six during his time on the board. Moshiri wasn’t even at the helm for three months before axing Roberto Martinez just before the end of the 2015-16 season.
The Spaniard had previously taken the Toffees to fifth place in his first campaign in charge, but never replicated that. Martinez fell on his feet at least, landing the cushy job of Belgium national coach later that summer.
Through a succession of managers, Ronald Koeman (currently Barcelona boss), Sam Allardyce (trying to keep West Brom up), Marco Silva and now Ancelotti, Moshiri has tried everything. None of his predecessors can match the Italian’s coaching pedigree and that may be why the latest 2020/2021 English Premier League odds have Everton at 13/8 for the top six finish craved in the boardroom.
Ancelotti has managed some of the biggest clubs in European football – AC Milan, Bayern Munich, PSG and Real Madrid to name a few. Goodison Park and the Toffees are a grand old team, but not exactly in his usual ballpark.
Not since his days in charge of the beloved Parma side of the mid-1990s had Ancelotti failed to win some kind of trophy at a club, until his spell at Napoli. He came to Everton with something to prove for the first time in a long time, then.
Buoyed by what he felt was a huge feather in his cap by luring Ancelotti to the Toffees in December 2019, Moshiri backed his new appointment to the hilt and then some over the summer. Three transfers in four early September days revolutionised the midfield options available to the Italian.
First, Ancelotti went back to old club Napoli and snared Brazil international Allan for a reported £21,700,000. His next signing was one only someone with major pulling power could make.
Six summers earlier, James Rodriguez was the talk of global football after landing the World Cup Golden Boot. Real Madrid paid €76,000,000 to take him from Monaco while Ancelotti was Bernabeu boss, but he brought the Colombia star to Everton for a mere fraction of that price.
Abdoulaye Doucoure, a solid enough midfield player poached from recently relegated Watford for a similar-sized fee to Allan, completed the whirlwind of Toffees deals. These names, all scouted and agreed as targets with Everton director of football Marcel Brands, brought qualities with them that fitted Ancelotti’s tactics to a tee.
Toffees fans are looking up now. In a season where regular European challengers Arsenal are well off the pace, this could be Everton’s time to shine and see Moshiri vindicated in his huge backing of Ancelotti.