Everton have fallen away under Rafa Benitez after a fast start, and presenter Keys has taken aim at the manager after another defeat saw them drop to 14th
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New Everton boss Benitez quizzed on past ‘small club’ comments
Things got tougher for Rafa Benitez over the weekend as his Everton team lost to Brentford, and the result prompted Richard Keys to tear into the manager.
Everton were in the top four after picking up 10 points from their first four games, but have won just one of the next nine – losing five of their last six – to increase the pressure on the man in the dugout.
Benitez’s appointment received a mixed reception, given his previous stint in charge of rivals Liverpool, and he has struggled without the injured talisman Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
In the light of the latest defeat, though, Keys has dubbed the Spaniard “Agent Rafa” and hit out at the Toffees’ decline under the former Real Madrid boss.
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“Of course, no-one is really suggesting that Benitez is running H’everton [sic] into the ground on purpose, but this is the blog I knew I’d be writing sooner or later,” Keys wrote in a blog post.
And it certainly isn’t a self congratulatory ‘I told you so’.”
“Benitez should never have been given the H’everton job. Wrong man. Wrong club. It was always going to end in tears.”
Benitez spent six years as Liverpool manager, winning the Champions League in 2005 and reaching the final of the competition in 2007.
Given his past, the manager was a controversial choice among some Everton fans, but Keys went one further in his assessment.
“[Owner Farhad] Moshiri promised a safe pair of hands – someone with pedigree. He delivered Benitez, whose hands were covered in Liverpool red. Let’s just say ‘red’,” he wrote.
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Keys described the decision to hire Benitez as a “shameful appointment”, suggesting Duncan Ferguson should replace the 61-year-old in the dugout if Liverpool hand their neighbours a sixth defeat in seven league outings.
“If Everton lose the derby this week Moshiri should sack Benitez the very same evening – and apologise to Evertonians for his error,” the presenter argued.
“Give it to big Dunc. And give Benitez what he really wants – an early conclusion to Agent Rafa’s master-plan.”
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Ferguson served as assistant manager under Carlo Ancelotti, and remained in the role after the Italian left Goodison Park for Real Madrid.
The Scot, who also scored more than 70 goals across two spells as a player for the Toffees, has been around the club as a coach since 2014 and has had a brief stint in charge of the first team already.
He went unbeaten across three Premier League matches as caretaker manager in 2019, beating Chelsea and drawing with Manchester United and Arsenal.
On that occasion, he had taken over after the previous manager – in this case Marco Silva – was beaten in a Merseyside Derby in his final game.
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