Why aren’t Everton making a serious play for Marco Silva?

This season was always expected to be a historically significant one for Everton, but perhaps not in the way that has ultimately materialised. Currently manager-less, slumped in the Premier League’s bottom three, the Goodison Park side find themselves at something of a juncture.

They must ask themselves what kind of club they want to be.

Some have suggested they must concern themselves solely with mitigating the damage done by a reckless summer, with reports of Sam Allardyce edging closer to the current managerial vacancy supporting that notion. Others have been more ambitious in their estimation of the direction Everton should take next, with Diego Simeone’s name this week thrown into the mix.

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Of course, the idea that Simeone would swap Atletico Madrid, with their gleaming new stadium and Champions League football, for a potential relegation battle on Merseyside is fanciful, verging on ridiculous, but this isn’t to say that Everton shouldn’t be ambitious with their next replacement.

Which begs the question – why haven’t they made a play for Marco Silva? The Portuguese is, after all, widely considered to be the next Premier League managerial giant in waiting, with Watford enjoying a highly impressive start to the new season, sitting in the top half having occupied a top four place for a few weeks.

There’s an air about Silva that says he has only just started his rise up the ranks. It’s been evident from the moment he took over at Hull City, even if Paul Merson was so keen to deride him on the basis of being a foreigner. Some managers just have an intangible aura about them, in the way they control a team, in the way they present themselves to the media, and Silva has that.

It won’t be long before bigger clubs come calling for the Watford boss. This is where Everton can steal a march on their rivals. Sure, Silva might joined the Hornets at the end of last season, but the ceiling to what he can achieve there is much lower than it would be at Goodison Park. They can offer him much more in terms of resources.

In terms of Silva’s own personal ambition, Everton would present him with the chance to progress his career. As things stand, the Premier League elite – the clubs who challenge at the very top – are unlikely to look to a club like Watford for their next manager, but they might look to Everton. It would be another quick step up the ladder for the former Sporting Lisbon and Olympiacos boss.

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Everton have plans for their own to become a member of the bona fide elite, sending £140 million in the summer in an attempt to gatecrash the party. So far, their efforts have been in vain, undermining just how important it is to find a manager who can help them bridge the gap. Is Allardyce going to do that? Or even Sean Dyche? Silva occupies another level. He can take Everton along on his upward trajectory.

By all accounts, though, Everton are unsure of where to go next as a club with regards to their next appointment. It’s been two weeks since Koeman was sacked and still there would appear to be no number one pick.

Owner Farhad Moshiri put forward Simeone as a candidate, with chairman Bill Kenwright leaning towards the stopgap appointment of David Unsworth. There is no consensus at Goodison Park.

Moshiri envisages Everton as a challenger at the top of the English and European game, hence his farfetched proposal of Simeone as a candidate. That, of course, is unrealistic, but Silva could be a feasible target who can take the Toffees where their owner wants them to be. They should get real about bringing the Portuguese to the club.