A couple of weeks ago, I ran down all the contenders for the last Champions League qualifying slot. I left out one team: Everton. The other Merseyside club may just prove me and everyone else wrong.
Derbies have a tendency to make or break seasons and managers. The first Merseyside derby on December 4th, 2019 was no exception. At Anfield, Liverpool’s Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri scored in the fifth and sixteenth minute respectively, starting a thrashing that led to a 5-2 victory over Everton.
It was all too much for Toffees supporters and their board couldn’t bear it. Their embattled manager, Marco Silva, was shown his pink slip and was out the door the next day.
When Silva was sacked, the Blues had lost their third match in a row and were in 18th position in the table. This was after a summer where the club had spent $131.88 million on transfers bringing in notably Alex Iwobi, Moise Kean, Andre Gomes, and Fabian Delph.
The spending spree was meant to signal that Everton was going to make a push for European qualification rather than settling for their typical mid-table drift.
The season seemed lost and it was not even Christmas.
Duncan Ferguson, a former Blues player, was named caretaker manager and led his club to a win and two draws in his first three league matches.