With Everton looking close to appointing Rafa Benitez as the club’s new manager, Alan Hutton has outlined one way in which Benitez could move to win the fans over.
The Scottish ex-Spurs and Rangers defender has claimed that Benitez keeping on his compatriot Duncan Ferguson in a senior coaching role could be an olive branch to enraged fans.
Ferguson served under Carlo Ancelotti as an assistant manager, along with his son Davide, following a spell in charge on an interim basis.
He featured 7 times for his country, but Blues will fondly remember Ferguson as a fiery hitman who scored 68 times and featured in 257 games for the Toffees.
Benitez was the target of banners bearing offensive messages that were recently strewn outside Goodison Park in protest at the prospect of a Benitez tenure in charge of the Toffees.
For that reason, Hutton feels that keeping on Ferguson in a senior post could be a minor but necessary first step in smoothing over fan concerns at Everton:
“I think you need somebody within there who knows the club front and back,” Hutton told Football Insider.
“He knows the fans, he can relate to the fans. If he backs the manager then he’ll maybe bring them with him. I think you need somebody in your backroom staff like that.
“These guys that are in clubs, they need to stay there. They need to be involved in some capacity because it’s experience and you need it.
“As a new manager in a club you need that face. You need to bounce back off the players and stuff. I think that would be a good appointment if they could keep him in some sort of role.”
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As far as moves in club politics go, keeping on Ferguson as a critical part of the backroom staff could be a shrewd move by both Benitez and the board.
It will not be lost on Toffees chiefs that the seemingly imminent appointment is a controversial one, and pressure will be mounting to ensure he can deliver from day one.
