Carra makes Ancelotti-Klopp link as contract details emerge

Matt Stead

Jamie Carragher is “surprised” that Everton are on the verge of appointing Carlo Ancelotti as their manager.

Some reports suggest that Ancelotti has ‘agreed’ to take over at Goodison Park, while other suggest only that a formal approach has been made.

The Italian is the overwhelming favourite to permanently replace Marco Silva in what would be an incredible statement – particularly on the reported four-year contract as the third highest-paid manager in the world.

Carragher is impressed and cautious in equal measure.

“I have to take my hat off to them if Everton pull this off,” he told MNF. “The Everton fans will be ecstatic.

“I’m surprised that Carlo Ancelotti would take the Everton job with the position that they are in in the league. For Everton to get a manager of the calibre of Ancelotti would be an unbelievable coup for them.

“The supporters have been complaining a lot about managers they’ve had in the past and why not, rather than spending a lot of money on the pitch, give them one of the real elite managers on big-money wages, someone who’s a real top football coach?

“In Ancelotti you are getting someone who is right at the top of football. This is a man who Evertonians, if it comes off, can say has won more than Jurgen Klopp and has won Champions Leagues. It gives them something to buy into with that manager.

“When Farhad Moshiri came in the first manager he appointed was Ronald Koeman and he mentioned that he wanted a Hollywood manager because Liverpool had Klopp down the road, Pep Guardiola was down the road in Manchester and Jose Mourinho was at United at the time, and I loved the fact that he’d come into Everton and he was actually thinking on that level.

“He wanted to get Everton back to that level so, I have no problem with Everton going for Ancelotti. But I can’t change my view that I’m not sure he is the man to do the job Everton need. I think that no matter how successful Ancelotti has been in the past he’s never really had this type of job or certainly excelled in this type of role

“This is a manager who has managed the top clubs in world football. The first club he had was Reggiana, who were in Serie B. That’s a long time ago and you can imagine the energy and the intensity he’s got to make his name in football, and it gets him those bigger jobs.”