He is exactly the type of player Rafa would hate. Ideally suited to Bruce's 'stick him on the pitch and let him go school of coaching'. Rafa would have him playing wing-back and criticise him for not sticking to the game plan or doing his defensive duties.
Everton fans are gonna absolutely hate Rafa. He'll stink out the place and get sacked. Needs top 6 or a trophy to survive I think
I liked him because I felt he had the long term interest of the club at heart and he stuck by us through relegation. He also did a good job of establishing us back in the PL. However we were happy to just stay up those two seasons back, so accepted the dour nature of the football offered. As you say Everton are not looking to consolidate, but push on. It will be interesting to see whether he can deal with those expectations.
Rafas got a big ego on him. Hes demonstrated that throughout his career, he will be absolutely livid that Everton fans dont want him. I suspect if pressure mounts he will swing at them.
Neah I think they will be happy with top 10. The great Ancelotti only finished 10th last season. According to their forums, they will be happy if he can match what Carlo did. Surprisingly a lot of people who were venting at Rafa a week or 2 ago are now backing him. They've been impressed by his press conference, his training and the match they had the other day.
Smart signing by rafa if true. He's sat there thinking they hate me and they think I'm boring, so what can I do? I'll bring in the most entertaining exciting player I can find.
I'm more of a "let's go for it all gun's blazing and **** it if we lose but it was a great game"" type of fan. I found Rafa's football to generally pretty ordinary and boring. It did a job but that's about it. But he's better than Bruce, although that's hardly high praise.