Rafa Benitez is certain he has the backing of Farhad Moshiri and the Everton board as the club step up plans for the January transfer window. Chairman Bill Kenwright visited Benitez at Finch Farm on Wednesday to offer his support as the manager looks to end a six- game winless run at Brentford this weekend. Asked about Kenwright’s visit to the training ground this week,
Rafa Benitez said: “I would say I am talking with the chairman at least three times a week, I am talking with Denise, talking with Marcel, I am talking with Mr Moshiri, so I am in contact all the time with the people on the board and the people who really care about the club. We know it is a really difficult time because we are not winning, but at the same time we know what we did and what we could do in the transfer window, and we know what we want to do in the future. So my conversation with the chairman and yesterday [Wednesday] we were talking a little bit about January and what is going on. Everybody is a little disappointed with the situation but at the same time confident we will do well and change things around, especially if we can in the January window. Can we do exactly what we want to do in the January window? Maybe not. But we will try to do the best possible that we can do at the moment.”
Benitez became the fifth permanent manager appointed by Moshiri since the summer of 2016 but the Spanish coach insists Everton’s owner understands the scale of the job at hand.
Rafa Benitez said: “I think Mr Moshiri is quite clever and we cannot complain because he has spent a lot of money. He is someone who is trying to improve the team and improve the club in every sense. He wants to do well but he knows, from when we had conversations in the beginning and what happened later on, he knows they have to support me and support the structure in general to be sure that we can improve. All the conversations with him have been really positive and every time he’s telling me: ‘Rafa, tell us what you need’ and ‘how can we improve, what can we do?’ We talk about this all the time but we have to be realistic. If we analyse what happened in August, or the summer window, and what will happen in the January window, it’s not easy to find exactly what you want but it is important to change something and improve in the area where we think we need to improve. When I came here I knew everyone was talking about some positions, especially the wingers and also right full-back. We tried to improve these areas and I think we did it without spending money. I’m really pleased with that but you can not expect, when not spending money, to be much better than the teams around you who are spending a lot of money. We have to be clever enough to find the players we will use in the right way but they will not be exactly the players who are top of the list for everyone because they will not be available. The players in the top sides want to play Champions League or the Europa League right now. We can offer to them that we will improve but in the short term we have to be realistic and do the best that we can.”
Asked if he was confident of retaining Moshiri’s support if results were continue being poor between now and Christmas,
Rafa Benitez said: “Yes. I don’t want to be here for three years, I want to be here for even more. I want to be here for the new stadium and try to be successful there also. Mr Moshiri, he knows.”
