\n
Liverpool, Dec 6 (AFP): Rafa Benitez was given the \u201cfull support\u201d of Everton’s board on Monday amid a drastic downturn in the team’s results in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
The backing came on the day Everton hosts Arsenal as the team looks to bounce back after failing to win any of its last eight games in the league, a run that has dropped the team to 16th place \u2014 five points above the relegation zone.<\/p>\n
The club’s director of football hasn’t survived, though.<\/p>\n
Marcel Brands “has left his post,” Everton said, after three-and-a-half years at Goodison Park during which he oversaw an outlay of close to \u00a3300 million ($400 million) on signings.<\/p>\n
That failed to translate into on-field success and with financial fair play restrictions hitting the club hard, Everton spent only \u00a31.7 million ($2.25 million) in the summer transfer window \u2014 the only one under Benitez so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cA strategic review of the football structure will now take place which will inform the best model for the club to proceed with in the long term,” Everton said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the meantime, the owner and board of directors will continue to provide our manager, Rafa Benitez, with their full support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brands, who signed a new three-year deal in April, was the target of abuse from fans as Everton lost 4-1 to local rival Liverpool last week.<\/p>\n
He spoke with the board on Friday and agreed to step down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision has taken some time and some consideration and was one of the most difficult I have faced in my career,” Brands said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board and I agreed that there is a clear difference in the vision and direction for this beautiful club and, with that in mind, the decision was taken,” he said.<\/p>\n
Brands said he is \u201cconvinced that there is enough quality to improve the current situation quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool, Dec 6 (AFP): Rafa Benitez was given the \u201cfull support\u201d of Everton’s board on Monday amid a drastic downturn in the team’s results in the Premier League. The backing came on the day Everton hosts Arsenal as the team looks to bounce back after failing to win any of its last eight games in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-178634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}