This Saturday’s fixture at the Amex Stadium pits the manager who got the Everton job this summer with the man who many Blues wanted.
It’s fair to say that former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez was never the fans’ favourite when it came to replacing Carlo Ancelotti and his appointment is arguably the most-controversial in Merseyside football history but following Farhad Moshiri’s choice, many Evertonians have greeted his arrival with an open mind.
After all, the team’s fortunes always come first and like everyone in his profession, the Spaniard will be ultimately judged on results.
In many ways, a manager crossing Stanley Park was English football’s last great taboo given the number of other bosses who had straddled many of the other local rivalries in the game.
Perhaps older, and wiser, Benitez, now 61, has so far taken something of understated approach.
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Remember, this is the same man who in the space of a few short weeks in 2007, made his infamous ‘small club’ remark about Everton before deriding Chelsea for handing their supporters plastic flags.
What price he’d eventually rock up in the dugout at both Stamford Bridge and Goodison Park back then?
As Benitez did say on his unveiling as Blues boss though, he will always “fight” for his teams and despite his past affiliations to Anfield, he is now fully-committed to the Everton cause, whether the majority of the fanbase wanted him or not.
Pat Nevin, a winger who graced the blue shirt of first Chelsea then Everton, last week hailed Benitez as being a “fantastic manager”, citing the dignified way in which he carried himself during tenure in west London where he was “loathed” and added: “It’s not time to judge him yet, we need a wee bit longer, but in the end I suspect the Toffees will like him.”
While Merseyside fans from both sides of the park had to do a few double takes when they first saw Benitez waving a blue and white scarf and donning Everton’s training apparel, there have been other subtle gestures from him so far with his blue three-piece suit and club crest lapel badge for his first game in charge at Goodison Park.
Although some have long championed his cause as the best man for the job, he’s canny enough to realise he wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea – sorry if that makes you think of Ancelotti – and remains happy to let his players remain the focus of attention.
For many though, the biggest concern wasn’t that Benitez was, once upon a time, employed by another Premier League team who just happened to be based less than a mile away, rather a fear that the bulk of his admittedly impressive achievements in the game came, in football terms at least, a long time ago.
As much as almost everyone at Goodison was delighted to have Ancelotti in charge and hoped he would provide the continuity the club craved to steer them towards a new era at Bramley-Moore Dock, the Devon Loch-esque collapse that saw Everton go from second place on Boxing Day and fifth (and potentially fourth if they won their game in hand) in early March to slump to a 10th place finish would have prompted many Blues to replicate the Italian’s famous raised eyebrow over the slump.
Perhaps the old maestro’s powers were on the wane, so was replacing him with a manager just 10 months his junior, really a forward-thinking step?
Which brings us to the man he faces this weekend, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Graham Potter.
A journeyman left-back as a player, he put in the hard yards when serving his managerial apprenticeship, taking Ostersund – a club only founded in 1996 – from the fourth to top tier of Swedish football and qualifying for Europe.
Now 46 and with three years’ under his belt back in the UK with first Swansea City and now Brighton, the Solihull-born boss is viewed as being one of the new generation of modern coaches with progressive methods and ‘holistic’ training principles.
Such credentials, combined with Everton’s history of traditionally achieving success with younger managers led many to believe Potter could wave his magic wand to inspire a Blues revival.
Two victories from their opening couple of matches in a top flight campaign for the first time with Brighton have certainly helped keep his stock high going into this fixture.
Perhaps he prefers experience or maybe he trusts managers closer to being his peers but since taking control at Goodison five years ago, Mr Moshiri, 66, has dramatically increased the age of Blues bosses.
His first appointment Ronald Koeman at 53 in 2016, was the oldest man ever to take the job, but, like US presidents, that figure just keeps going up with Sam Allardyce, Ancelotti and now Benitez all being appointed in their 60s.
The one exception was Marco Silva, just 40 when he took the reins after being pursued so enthusiastically by Mr Moshiri but after his underwhelming tenure, the Everton majority shareholder might have been put off younger coaches for a while.
Being ‘The People’s Choice’ at ‘The People’s Club’ ultimately isn’t any guarantee of long-term harmony though.
With his ‘Carlo Fantastico, Carlo Magnifico’ chant from the start, Ancelotti was an instant hit.
When he simply blew on his cup as the rest of the bench erupted in delighted around him after Bernard’s extra time winner in the 5-4 FA Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur, he was at the time lauded as being a cool customer who’d been there and seen it all in football.
Maybe the harsh reality was it just didn’t mean as much to him as the others?
Known as a ‘chameleon’ coach who would adapt to his surroundings, having returned to Real Madrid, Ancelotti is possibly now back in his more natural habitat where his skills for massaging the egos of some of football’s most talented but temperamental galacticos loom large.
While he and Benitez have embarked on similar ports of calls throughout their respective careers, as renowned tactician and micro-manager, perhaps the attention to detail provided by the Spaniard’s more hands-on approach is actually better suited to the needs of Everton’s players?
It’s baby steps but during the manager’s pitchside post-match interview following the 2-1 victory at Huddersfield Town in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie, pro-Benitez chants could be heard from a small group of fans.
As one Evertonian Sean Hollywood put it on Twitter: “Rafa is not the manager we wanted but the one we needed.”
