Vitor Pereira and (inset) Farhad Moshiri
Vitor Pereira and (inset) Farhad Moshiri
Almost three years on from his desperate pitch for the Everton manager’s job in a live telephone interview on Sky Sports News that made for car crash television, Vitor Pereira’s Premier League dream could be about to come true.
The Athletic’s David Ornstein reports that after sacking Gary O’Neil, Wolverhampton Wanderers, who are planning to make an appointment before their trip to Midlands rivals Leicester City on Sunday, are working on a deal to hire the former Blues candidate who has a release clause at current employers Al-Shabab.
Ironically, his long-coveted move to the English top flight could come in a week that wantaway Everton owner Farhad Moshiri, the man who was almost coaxed into hiring him in January 2022 but Goodison Park chiefs instead unanimously decided to go for Frank Lampard instead, finally departs with club with a takeover by the Friedkin Group now understood to be imminent. Pereira is far from the only Blues managerial candidate to have come out of a meeting with Moshiri thinking his chances of landing the role were better than they were in reality though.
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The Monaco-based businessman’s capricious nature has left plenty of other high-profile names within the game scratching their heads. Nuno Espirito Santo, who has subsequently made the move from Saudi Arabia to the Premier League himself having swapped Al-Ittihad for Nottingham Forest last year, seemed to think he was on course to replace Carlo Ancelotti in the summer of 2021, only for Moshiri to ignore the reservations of director of football Marcel Brands and chairman Bill Kenwright, and decide to hire Kop Idol Rafael Benitez instead in what was the most controversial appointment in the history of English football’s most passionate football city.
Even David Moyes, who had previously served as Everton manager with distinction for over 11 years, thought a return was on the cards on more than one occasion, only for the Iran-born billionaire to change his mind. Following the announcement of the Friedkin Group’s takeover deal in September, former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan compared dealing with Moshiri as “like nailing a jelly to a wall,” but after doing just that, Pereira deciding to pick up the phone to Sky Sports for an attempt at self-promotion that ended up just as messy.
It might have made a gripping watch for the neutral fan but the Portuguese tactician’s television audition for the managerial vacancy at Goodison Park had many Evertonians perplexed by what was unfolding before their eyes. It certainly was an unorthodox approach to going on a charm offensive with your prospective new fans.
Some wondered whether this was the work of Moshiri – himself no stranger to a cheeky text to Jim White – and Kia Joorabchian, putting their preferred candidate into the spotlight to win over those many, and there were very many, doubters among the supporter base or was this just a last-ditch attempt to curry favour for a job he was already out of the running for. Others simply branded it as “mad” but they had been using similar adjectives to describe an increasing number of decisions at the club at the time.
The televised telephone conversation lasted for over 20 minutes and at least displayed the decent command of English Pereira possesses, something that had also been questioned in the past, even if he did seem to pronounce the name of Everton’s home ground as ‘Godison’ Park. He certainly talked a good game in the eyes of some, speaking about pressing, possession football and the eight trophies he had won during his career, but cynics might fear such honeyed words were about to lure Moshiri into making another inappropriate choice for the job rather than listening to the opinions of his own club’s supporters.
He also pointed out that the critics don’t know him but his attempt to explain the relegation from the German second tier with 1860 Munich in 2017 that stains his CV was unconvincing. Pereira said: “They didn't have money and they were relegated because of the money” but that’s not entirely true.
Their subsequent double drop to the Regionalliga Bayern for 2017/18 was because they were unable to obtain a licence for 3. Liga but they initially went down because they finished third bottom of the table under him and lost a play-off.
You could tell that Sky were trying to milk this golden opportunity of getting a Premier League managerial candidate on the blower for all it was worth and series of follow-up questions, including chancing their arm with ones about when he last spoke to Everton officials and whether he felt he was ultimately going to be the next Blues boss, failed to get a bite. The circus also plummeted to new depths when a phone was heard ringing in the background and Pereira was asked if it was Everton, to which he replied: “No!”
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