Everton, across the last five or so years, have endured some of the worst moments in the club’s history.
Narrowly avoiding the drop with barely any games to spare. Hounding out managers and players after poor performances. Being forced to sell their brightest stars without thought of a replacement.
It has just been setback after setback, with no sign of progress.
That was, until Sean Dyche and Kevin Thelwell joined, and started the Toffees on their road to slow and steady recovery.
Much of the mess they have had to clean up can be attributed to a few men, with Rafael Benitez one such culprit.
Rafa Benitez on why he joined Everton
Speaking on the latest episode of The Overlap, the usual pundits welcomed the Spaniard to their table to discuss his illustrious career and everything that went on within it.
However, whilst he enjoyed plenty of successes, both with Liverpool and in his homeland, his spell with Everton remains by far the worst.
Questioned why he would ever have even taken the job by Jamie Carragher, Benitez started by stating the obvious: ‘I went to Everton.’
‘Why?’ Carragher replied.
Benitez tried to justify his questionable decision by protesting: ‘Because it’s my family, it’s in Liverpool, I wanted to stay there.’
Then, before the former Liverpool defender could retort, the 64-year-old interjected again: ‘Wait, Carra. I had the conversation with a person which was telling me you can spend money and we can compete and we can go to another level. The problem is how much money we spent, Everton was spending £100 and £150 million. We spent £1.7 million. We signed five players and the only one we paid for was Demarai Gray.
‘I have some Everton fans. We saved the club because we didn’t spend the money. If we spent the money it would be even worse!’
This justification is even as frustrating as hearing Moshiri explain why he hired Benitez for Everton.
Rafa Benitez set the club back years
Whilst he may well have had the worst of it financially across his poisonous tenure at Everton, there is no accounting for what he produced managerially.
After all, the squad was more than good enough for him to have avoided the drop with ease, yet were it not for a brief purple patch to start the season, relegation would have been a certainty.
His mess was briefly cleaned up by Frank Lampard and the fans, but they are still suffering from the regression he enacted today.
An awful appointment from the very beginning, and typical of Farhad Moshiri to opt for the biggest name available regardless of past affiliations, Benitez played a turgid style of football that did not endear him to a fanbase he had already alienated many times before across his time with Liverpool.
Even if he did not see out the season, many actually claim that the former Real Madrid and Valencia manager is the worst manager the club has ever had, battling alongside the likes of Walter Smith and Mike Walker.
That was, not solely due to the poor performances, but for how he tore the fanbase in half and set the club back years with his negativity.
He can complain all he wants about the hand he was dealt. He should never have taken the job in the first place.
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