Rafa Benitez says Farhad Moshiri wants to back him in future transfer windows but accepts Everton must “manage the rules” to allow the club to spend. The Blues paid out the least of all 20 Premier League clubs in transfer fees this summer, spending less than £2m on five additions. Everton headed into the window, hoping to arm Benitez with a budget that would have allowed him to secure a number of prime targets but financial fair play regulations meant the Blues’ business was significantly restricted. Benitez, however, is in no doubt that Moshiri wants to arm him with a transfer kitty and that the club’s majority shareholder ‘wants to spend’ on Everton’s squad.
Rafa Benitez said: “My life as a manager has normally been with teams where we did not have too much money and we had to sell players to bring players. Normally when you do that you sell good players and have to be sure the new players can perform at the same level. That is not easy. “That was a constant, apart from a couple of seasons, where I had to sell to buy. Here it was more or less the same. We have to sell to buy players. But I cannot say anything because the owner is ready to spend money and he showed that in the last year, even with the commitment with the new stadium. So now I have owners who want to spend but we have to be sure we can manage the rules to do it the best way possible to be allowed to spend. I cannot say anything because they spent a lot in the last three or four years. Hopefully we can manage it better and then have money in January or in the future.”
Benitez says that while the current rules around spending, helps prevent football clubs folding, they also help the established elite clubs continue to improve. The Everton boss says the regulations might need to be relaxed in order for a greater number of clubs to spend more freely.
Rafa Benitez said: “It is very complicated. I had the experience in Spain where a lot of clubs that were struggling had financial problems and then disappeared. The rules allow a lot of clubs to keep competing. At the same time, the way the rules are at the moment allows the strongest team to get stronger every year. It is about finding the right balance between spending if your income is big and I do not know the exact rules, only that the strongest teams are spending more money because they can bring in more money with sponsors or whatever. Maybe they need to change a little bit to allow more teams to spend more money if they can support that. We are where we are. We have good owners who want to spend money and we have to show we are ready for the next window and then we can do it.”
Benitez became the fifth permanent managerial appointment of Moshiri’s Everton reign, when he replaced Carlo Ancelotti in June. So does the Spanish coach believe that the club’s difficulties with financial rules this summer, will afford him more time in the Goodison hot-seat than a number of his predecessors?
Rafa Benitez said: “I have enough experience in football to understand the situation. As I have said before, now we are lucky to have owners who want to spend money and we have to find a way to do it properly. They know we are working really hard to improve the players we have and improve every individual player and the team as a team. The fans know and appreciate that. They know how the team finished last year and can see the difference in commitment and style of football. Everything is about improving what we have. At the same time, we cannot talk about that in three months if we do not perform. The best way to convince everyone is to show we can challenge for something important.”
