Johnny Phillips: Toffees’ sticky situation a warning to Daniel Levy’s Spurs

“Not at all, glad to help, you’ve done it often enough for us lately.”

When Everton and Tottenham Hotspur meet on Monday evening at Goodison Park there could be some interesting conversations in the boardroom.

If any proof were needed that money is not necessarily the answer to solving problems, then here it is.

The two clubs are at different ends of the Premier League, but perhaps this will be the reminder that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy needs that events can take a turn for the worse quickly in troubled waters.

In March 2021, Everton were sixth in the table with a world-class manager in Carlo Ancelotti at the helm.

Their state-of-the-art Finch Farm training ground boasted facilities that could lure big-money signings, with owner Farhad Moshiri well on the way to spending half a billion pounds on players.

But the club had not been run well for several seasons with too many managerial changes and not enough joined up thinking on the recruitment side.

When Ancelotti left in June, the cracks that he had papered over quickly reappeared.

His successor, Rafa Benitez, fell out with the club’s director of football, Marcel Brands, and everything began to unravel at pace from then on, with the club changing manager mid-season for the past two campaigns.

Now Spurs have joined the club, with Antonio Conte’s departure by mutual consent announced this week.

In many respects it is a miracle Conte has lasted this long.

In February last year, in one of the more bizarre post-match interviews this job has thrown up, in the pouring rain after a 1-0 defeat to Burnley, Conte all but resigned on camera before settling on the view that the club needed to “make an assessment” of everybody at the club.

An unsteady truce between club and board has existed ever since but after failing to beat Southampton a fortnight ago Conte finally let rip and virtually sacked himself with an astonishing outburst about Spurs and its recent history.

It has been hard going for Levy since he dismissed Mauricio Pochettino in November 2019, a decision made to look increasingly poor over time.

Huge contracts were spent on securing Jose Mourinho and then Conte. The Italian was on a reported £15million a year.

Both managers were allowed to spend far more than Pochettino, but the club have struggled to shake off the tag of being an easy touch when the going gets tough.

Yet despite Conte’s removal, Spurs’ season was not in huge trouble. Cristian Stellini and Ryan Mason remain in the dugout and there is all to play for in the fight for a top four finish.

But what has undoubtedly stirred up a hornets nest is the situation regarding director of football Fabio Paratici.

He was the man the club turned to in order to explain the change of head coach.

On Tuesday evening Paratici insisted in a club video message that Spurs would fight on in their battle for Champions League football.

Yet just the following day, Fifa announced that Paratici’s 30-month football ban in Italy had been extended to cover the entire globe.

Spurs were caught off guard by this announcement and have been trying to seek clarification from Fifa before making any comments about Paratici’s future. He is effectively redundant, or at least on a long period of gardening leave.

But what is undeniable is that Paratici’s future has been uncertain for many, many months.

Across Europe, but particularly in Italy, the coverage of the 11 former Juventus executives accused by the Italian FA of financial misconduct has been fairly widespread.

Conversations have been taking place high up in boardroom circles for some time about who might replace Paratici if he is found guilty by the Prisma investigation taking place in Italy in next month.

A number of sporting directors have privately expressed an interest in the Spurs job, such is the extent of the coverage across Europe.

Yet the Spurs board appear to have turned a blind eye to it all, until now.

Whatever Fifa’s response might be to the clubs’ request for clarity, it is inconceivable that Paratici will be at his desk again this season.

The likelihood is that he has time in North London is coming to an end, regardless of the outcome of the ongoing criminal investigation.

Just as at Goodison Park, where empty seats in the directors’ box have been the abiding image of this season, there appears to be a vacuum at the top.

In such circumstances, speculation and conjecture can thrive and it is hugely detrimental to any club when that happens.

Supporters of both clubs can at least be reassured that there are qualified men at the helm on the touchline.

Stellini and Dyche are capable of leading their players through the remainder of the season and beyond.

But both clubs are in desperate need of strong leadership and communication over the coming months.