Marco Silva’s Last Stand

He was supposed to guide Everton to the Champions League. He led them to the brink of relegation.

Marco Silva spent his Sunday evening with the visage of a man forced to attend his own funeral. It was a funeral for Silva’s tenure as Everton manager. At the time of this writing, Silva has not been fired. But Everton’s board of directors are meeting via conference call on Thursday morning to discuss their next step, and any next step that involves Silva continuing as Everton manager is unthinkable.

Update: Silva was sacked on Thursday afternoon.

Everton’s shellacking at the hands of their hated rivals wasn’t the final nail in the coffin for the Portugese manager. Losing to Liverpool—which it pains me to say is the best football club in the the world at the moment—was expected. The loss to Leicester City was painful in the way it unfolded, but it was also expected. Those two matches alone would not have cost Silva his job. It was Bournemouth, Norwich City, Burnley and Brighton that did him in. Everton were expected to win those matches. They did not. Silva needed a miracle along the lines of 5–0 win to extend his stay.

There would be no miracle at Anfield.