The unforgiving world of football: The Everton-Marco Silva edition

Gameweek 15 of the Premier League resulted in yet another managerial axing - Marco Silva.

In the late hours of Thursday night, Everton Football club announced that they had parted company with the Portuguese after a poor series of results has resulted in the team languishing in the relegation zone. 

A 5-2 Merseyside derby defeat against their local rivals, Liverpool, which saw the point difference between the two teams increase to 29 after just 15 games seems to be the shove that pushed the board into action. To put into perspective, Silva's sack at Everton came just 18 months after he was appointed.

The former Watford and Hull city manager started his Everton career pretty well and guided the Toffees to an eighth place finish in 2018-19. He was allowed to reinforce the squad to challenge for European football, with a number of quality players coming in at a cost of about £100 million.

However, things have since been topsy-turvy for the Portuguese manager with many results not going as he would have liked, with results slipping away at the dying moments. Thee 2-1 loss at Leicester where they were in for a result until literally the last minute comes to mind. 

This ultimately culminated in the club terminating his appointment following a disastrous start to a season which promised so much, not in the least because of the talent in the squad which he supposedly wanted and assembled.

Everton has amassed just 14 points from 15 matches and are facing a previously unforeseen relegation battle. With things looking unlikely to change, and tough matches around the corner - at home to exciting Chelsea, away at unpredictable Manchester United and home to similarly faltering Arsenal all to come within 2 weeks - it's understandable that the board sought to look to a different captain to steer the ship.

This change midway into the season, however, might not necessarily result in a permanent upturn in fortunes. It seems to be more of a band aid fix. With first team coach, Duncan Ferguson, asked to be the interim manager for the game against Chelsea, some names have been touted as possible permanent replacements including Victor Pereira and David Moyes as per reports from Sky Sports News.

It's very saddening that Marco Silva was sacked as Everton under him wasn't necessarily playing terribly nor playing "negative" football. The results somehow did not just seem to go their way. Sometimes, managers need time to be able to instigate the improvement themselves and a replacement might not always be the best answer.

Clubs have in times past stayed with promising managers till they came good, rather than expecting an immediate transformation, even in gloomy times and reaped the fruits. Most notably the Premier League's best-ever manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, was given enough time to build his team as he wanted it and subsequently repaid the club with unmatched success.

No doubt there is huge pressure (especially when a lot of money has been spent) on the board and consequently on the manager to succeed no matter what. It is this pressure from fans and the press to deliver results that sometimes forces the clubs into making such decisions in a bid to change fortunes. 

Maybe, just maybe, clubs and their boards need to temper immediate expectations and look instead to the future for as it is said that haste makes waste.

Whoever comes in next at the club should, in my opinion, be given time to stamp their playing style and ideas into the team. A continuous turnover of managers is never beneficial. Rome wasn't built in a day, and no successful football team can be too.

This saga points once more to the unforgiving nature of the beautiful game of football that we love where success is continuously expected from clubs, managers and players.

Featured image credits: Liverpool Echo