Everton have failed with a second offer for Watford manager Marco Silva, according to the Telegraph.
The newspaper claim that the Merseyside giants contacted the Vicarage Road outfit for a second time on Wednesday after making the 40-year-old their No1 choice in the latest twist in their search for a replacement for Ronald Koeman.
The Telegraph report that a £10million compensation package was offered to Watford in the hope that they would grant Silva permission to hold talks about taking their vacant manager position.
It is said Silva is open to talks with Everton but Watford’s owners “insisted he will not be allowed to leave at any price”.
OPINION
It is a curiosity that clubs happily pay tens of millions for players but try to secure managers on the relative cheap, when all the evidence is that the man in the dugout is the most important at the club. It is he who chooses the players, picks the team, creates the playing style, devises the tactics and makes all manner of technical decisions on an hourly basis. It is his neck on the block when everything goes wrong. Everton’s offer of £10million for Silva appears a staggeringly high one, until you consider that Premier League survival alone is worth £100million, and that the club spend £140million on new players in the summer only to find themselves desperately trying to avoid a relegation battle. Watford are not willing to jeopardise their own top-flight status by releasing a manager who is only 11 Premier League matches into his reign. And, who could blame them? Watford appear to be an unstable club, but the truth is they are excellent forward planners who believe a manager has a shelf life of no more than two seasons. Don’t expect Silva to be at Vicarage Road next season, but it is hard to see Everton getting him in this campaign, no matter what they offer.