Everton have given up hope in their pursuit of Watford manager Marco Silva, according to the Independent.
Silva has been favourite to land the Toffees job for the last couple of weeks, but Everton have reportedly accepted that they will not be able to prise the Portuguese away from Vicarage Road.
Watford are intent on keeping hold of the highly-rated boss, and despite Everton’s £10million compensation offer, they will not be moved.
The Hornets were insistent that they would not lose their manager half-way through the season, and as Silva’s contract contains no release clause, they had no reason to negotiate with the Toffees.
Silva was reportedly interested in the Everton job, which represented a big pay rise and a January transfer kitty, but did not want to resign or leave without Watford’s permission.
OPINION
And so, Everton’s manager search continues. Yet another name falls by the wayside in the Toffees’ hunt for Ronald Koeman’s replacement. Sam Allardyce, Diego Simeone, and now Marco Silva are now reportedly out of the race, and Burnley’s Sean Dyche looks no closer to becoming a serious candidate. You could see why the Toffees were chasing Silva. He is a young, talented manager, who plays attractive football and knows how to win in the Premier League. However it seems they must now look elsewhere. The longer this search goes on, the more one thinks they may as well just give it to David Unsworth for the rest of the season. No one else seems too keen, and no one else knows the club as well as he does, especially with the month he’s now had with the squad.