Club’s former under-21 manager finds himself in a relegation battle with Sean Dyche’s Everton
“I didn’t expect to be here to be honest,” acknowledges the 40-year-old former PE teacher who knows that decent results at Everton and at home against Southampton next weekend would secure him the post until June. “I’m happy in my Under-21 role. Rightly or wrongly, I have no planned route in coaching. I just enjoy the job. I’m doing from day to day and try to get the best out of players.”
Skubala’s varied CV has encompassed a stint as director of football at Loughborough University, technical work for Uefa, the aforementioned national futsal role and an assistant coach’s job with the England men’s Under-18s. Even worse, some of those auditions were arguably offered for the wrong reasons. Almost exactly a year since Marcelo Bielsa’s sacking, Orta and company still seem obsessed with reprising the Argentinian’s high-energy pressing game.
After all, those Elland Road regulars calling radio phone-ins to reflect their puzzlement that the out-of-work, Champions League-winning Rafael Benitez has not been persuaded to accept at least a short-term contract appear unlikely to be perturbed if a few pressing principles are compromised so long as it it keeps their team in the top tier.
Instead another caretaker, Rubén Sellés, takes Southampton to Chelsea on Saturday before aiming to outwit Skubala. Sellés is the team’s third manager of the season, after Ralph Hasenhüttl and Nathan Jones. The 39-year-old Spaniard has acquired considerable backroom coaching experience in Greece, Russia, Azerbaijan, Denmark and Spain, seems keen to secure the job full time and can hardly do worse than Jones.
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