As manager Marco Silva is today featured in a seven-page interview with Portuguese newspaper Record, there was certainly some time in the conversation for them to talk about Everton.
His time in charge of the Toffees is still seen as one of the peaks of his career, so the coach had a lot to say about the challenge he had at Goodison Park.
After starting the interview talking about the upcoming season with Fulham, Record were quick to mention that Everton are ‘one of the biggest clubs’ Silva ever managed, asking him if he had that idea when working there.
“Undoubtedly. A club with a tremendous fan base, with a full stadium and great support even away from home. They’ve won many titles in the past and it’s very much based on that, in a city passionate about football and with a tremendous rivalry with Liverpool,” Marco Silva told Record.
“It was a three-year project with a complete overhaul: new coach and new sports director. It was about continuing to have results and creating a younger team, with a sports director who came from the Netherlands where the focus on young players is important. We made a very good market. We spent a good amount of money, but we signed Digne, Richarlison and other players.”
“We built a young team with the potential to play in the toughest championship in the world, where the best players and coaches are. We started the season well, we had a break in the middle with the elimination in the cup, a competition in which Everton has a history and the fans look at the cups with tremendous ambition – and we finished the league in my image and playing very good football. We fought until the end to reach European competitions and we lost that possibility with two games to go. We took 8th place and improved on what had been the previous year at Everton. The second season came in which we lost very important players and we couldn’t replace them.
“The sporting director admitted that he was against the decision, with players fully involved with the coach, but the decision was up to the owner. The year before we also had bad results and we beat that moment of the season and it would happen again in the second season. We wouldn’t win titles, because Everton weren’t prepared for that to be in the top six. It was said outside, but internally we knew it was almost impossible and that brought a lot of pressure from outside. It’s good to have ambition and expectations, but there can’t be too many expectations for what you want to create. We finished the first season in 8th place, the club changed coaches and got a huge name from football, like Carlo Ancelotti, and stayed in 12th and 10th. And last year they fought to the last to not go down.”
Record also asked Silva about what he felt when he left Everton, and the manager’s words make it clear that his departure was a big blow for him at the time.
“It was perhaps the most costly moment in my career. I’m not one to look back and regret, but leaving Everton, as it happened and with people inside the club who didn’t want me to, cost me. We felt we could do something important for the club, but it’s part of it. It made me grow.
“I left in December and, in January, I was immediately approached by a big club in Turkey, but I didn’t want to get into another project right away. And then, in March, the pandemic started and football stopped. In the following season, some things came up, but not what I wanted. I ended up staying a year and six months without training. It coincided with the pandemic and I was able to be with the family, but I missed football a lot.”
Marco Silva joined Everton in May 2018. In his 60 games in charge of the Toffees, he had 24 wins, 11 draws and 25 defeats, and was sacked in December 2019. That had been his last job until he accepted the role at Fulham in July 2021.
