Everton’s bubble has well and truly burst

One thing that can’t be levelled at Everton’s owners is the lack of backing for their most recent managers.

Ronald Koeman’s reign may have been ill-fated, but he was given funds in the transfer market to secure his targets.

Ditto Marca Silva.

Richarlison (£35m), Yerry Mina (£27m), Lucas Digne (£18m) and loan fees totalling almost £10m for Kurt Zouma and Andre Gomes, bring the Toffees’ spend to somewhere in the region of £90m.

When the blame game starts, and it will, for once it shouldn’t be aimed at the board.

With just one win from six games and the joint third-worst defensive record in the Premier League, one can argue that Silva’s work thus far hasn’t been gold standard.

Currently sat in 12^th position, Everton are just four points above the relegation places, and their recent form makes grim reading.

Since a creditable opening day draw at Wolves and their first home win of the season against Southampton, they’ve failed to beat both Bournemouth (2-2) and Huddersfield (1-1), and been soundly beaten by both West Ham (1-3) and Arsenal (0-2).

Conversion of chances seems to be chief amongst their problems. At the Emirates on Sunday, they had more total shots and more shots on target than their hosts yet were unable to find the net.

At home to the Hammers; more possession, more passes, better accuracy and 16 shots – compared to nine from the east Londoners – still wasn’t enough.

It’s not as if the Merseysiders have a bad team either. The likes of Jordan Pickford, Theo Walcott, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Gylfi Sigurdsson to name just four, could walk into any other team in the Premier League.

Since David Moyes left in May 2013, Roberto Martinez, Koeman, Sam Allardyce and Silva have been at the helm, as well as David Unsworth for a short period.

Only Martinez had a better win percentage, and even that was marginal. The rest fall well short.

Ultimately the manager carries the can, even though the insouciance of his players almost always plays the biggest part.

Silva hasn’t yet lost the dressing room, but the bubble has well and truly burst. The club were being spoken about as potential Champions League contenders before the start of the campaign, but they are a long, long way from that.

Perhaps a forensic look at behind the scenes practices on the training pitch and otherwise is in order, because the same issues and mistakes keep happening.

That’s more than just coincidence.

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