{"id":607824,"date":"2022-01-15T17:27:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T22:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=607824"},"modified":"2022-01-15T17:27:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T22:27:06","slug":"rafa-benitezs-sacking-imminent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/15\/rafa-benitezs-sacking-imminent\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafa Benitez\u2019s Sacking Moving Closer Following Norwich City Defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David Ornstein and Greg \u2018O\u2019Keeffe of <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/news\/everton-manager-rafa-benitez-close-to-losing-job-after-dismal-run-of-form\/MDdgPHaMTQJ7\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic <\/a>have reported that Rafa Benitez\u2019s sacking is moving ever closer following a dismal <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/12\/25\/january-transfer-window-2022-deadlines\/\" target=\"_self\">Premier League<\/a> defeat to bottom club <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/07\/todd-cantwell-told-he-can-leave-norwich-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Norwich City<\/a> on 15th January.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the ever-reliable <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1482476292536680449?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fabrizio Romano<\/a> has confirmed that the board is pushing to change the side&#8217;s management as soon as a viable replacement has been found and a compensation agreement with Benitez reached.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Everton board now pushing to sack Rafa Benitez immediately. Next steps before final decision is to find the right replacement and agree on compensation. \ud83d\udd35 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#EFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nothing official yet &#8211; but the plan is to fire the Spanish manager, as first reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/David_Ornstein?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@David_Ornstein<\/a> today. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rfqituIVZg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/rfqituIVZg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1482476292536680449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 15, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Rafa Benitez\u2019s Sacking Imminent<\/h2>\n<h3>Dismal Form<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/07\/rafael-benitez-confirms-lucas-digne-desire-to-leave-everton\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Everton<\/a> fans have not been happy from the day that Rafa Benitez was appointed as their new manager, with his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/13\/afcon-absentees-can-be-blamed-for-arsenal-draw-but-deeper-midfield-problems-exist-at-liverpool\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Liverpool<\/a> connection and reference to Everton as \u2018a small club\u2019 just too much for many to forgive and forget.<\/p>\n<p>Now, following a poor performance and defeat to bottom club <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/07\/todd-cantwell-told-he-can-leave-norwich-city\/\" target=\"_self\">Norwich City<\/a>, it is looking as though the board are starting to adopt the same viewpoint as the fans, with Benitez&#8217;s sacking reportedly imminent.<\/p>\n<p>Everton have only managed to win one game in their last eleven, and during the Norwich game a number of banners demanding that \u2018Benitez, get out of our club\u2019 were spotted.<\/p>\n<p>At the final whistle, he scurried down the tunnel as if he knew that his time was already up.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a positive start to the season, Everton have now slipped to 15th place in the league and are now just six points above the relegation zone. \u00a0There is a real fear that they could get dragged into the battle to beat the drop if a change is not made soon.<\/p>\n<h3>Future<\/h3>\n<p>The Athletic reported on Benitez\u2019s comments after the defeat at Carrow Road and there is a sense that he is aware his future is very much hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a professional. I have enough experience and I came here to fix issues that, maybe, are coming from five years ago. I have to make sure I analyse these kinds of mistakes we are making and avoid that for the future. Other things are not in my hands. I have to do my job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everton face <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/14\/aston-villa-target-yves-bissouma-manchester-united-liverpool\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Aston Villa <\/a>next but whether Benitez remains in charge for that game may well be decided in the coming week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"7-4qUYzgT9RN7psjAJFDVw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1364811760\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'7-4qUYzgT9RN7psjAJFDVw',sig:'hBSw0ovzj4-jlL9G7iKb_xrCCpMUmb5s2qzQGZvN0mo=',w:'594px',h:'390px',items:'1364811760',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Ornstein and Greg \u2018O\u2019Keeffe of The Athletic have reported that Rafa Benitez\u2019s sacking is moving ever closer following a dismal Premier League defeat to bottom club Norwich City on 15th January. Meanwhile, the ever-reliable Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that the board is pushing to change the side&#8217;s management as soon as a viable replacement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2488,"featured_media":607856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,30,3],"tags":[1497],"class_list":["post-607824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everton","category-news","category-premier-league","tag-rafael-benitez"],"modified_by":"Joseph Howes, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}