As the dust settles on Marcel Brands’ exit from Everton, there will inevitably be repeat claims about what went wrong for the director at Goodison Park.
That started on Sunday evening, with several Dutch claims saying Brands had never wanted Rafael Benitez to be appointed, but despite the director’s contract only having been renewed months before, his views were ignored.
Once the Spaniard arrived at the club, he dealt directly with major shareholder Farhad Moshiri, and the Dutchman was sidelined.
Dutch website Voetbal Primeur reports Brands had wanted to sign Denzel Dumfries, using his connections at PSV to get a deal done. It’s stated ‘Benitez did not like that’, and vetoed the move, and then ‘brushed off’ other options put forward for signings.
Despite that claim, it’s worth pointing out that Everton were heavily linked with Dumfries prior to Euro 2020, and didn’t get a deal done before the tournament, with Benitez arriving midway through it.
By then, Dumfries had put in some impressive performances, which saw Inter Milan move for him. Therefore, it’s hard to put the Dumfries failure solely on Benitez, because Everton could have sealed a deal before the manager even arrived.
