Danny Mills believes that Everton winger Bernard has been told by Carlo Ancelotti and Marcel Brands that his opportunities at Goodison Park are likely to be limited.
That revelation comes despite the winger ensuring that the Toffees would progress to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup after his scintillating strike sunk Tottenham in extra time last week. According to Mills, however, Bernard’s heroics appear to have done little to convince top Toffees officials that he should receive many more chances to impress.
The former England international claimed that conversations with Brands, who is Everton’s Director of Football, allowed him to become familiar with an ‘honesty-first’ policy of man management which malignly impacts Bernard’s future.
The 28-year-old was set for a £9m move to Dubai-based Al Nasr in the January transfer window, but talks broke down and a move was therefore scuppered.
Mills spoke to Football Insider on Bernard’s situation, saying:
Ancelotti is clever and very, very good at what he does alongside the sporting director Marcel Brands. They’ll have told Bernard that his starting opportunities are going to be very limited.
I’ve spoken to Marcel Brands and he and Ancelotti are quite open and quite honest. They’ll have said: ‘If you want to stay and fight for your place, that’s entirely up to you. But if you want to go elsewhere and the fee is right then we’re not going to stand in your way.’
From that, you get instant mutual respect. Honesty in football is few and far between. All players want is the brutal truth, however brutal it may be, you can deal with it. What you don’t like is being spun a yarn or two and being made to believe something isn’t true.
For whatever reason, the deal fell through and he’s still in and around the team. He’s going to be on the bench more often than not.
Read Everton Verdict
Everton may well have planned ahead for life without Bernard, so a failure to secure a move away from him likely threw a spanner in the works of Brands’ transfer machine.
The Brazilian appears to be a victim of a breakdown in plans and should not be expected to suddenly be brought in from the periphery with a view to strengthening the team, irrespective of his recent FA Cup heroics.
