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Goodison may turn to O'Neill

Ian Whittell
Saturday 31 May 1997 23:02 BST
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The Everton chairman, Peter Johnson, has set himself a 10-day deadline to appoint a new manager at Goodison Park and George Graham has until tomorrow to declare an interest in a vacancy that is proving increasingly difficult to fill.

If Graham is true to his word and is committed to remaining with Leeds United, the Everton shortlist contains only two names under serious consideration, Leicester's Martin O'Neill and Bryan Robson whose stock has dropped dramatically after presiding over the disaster that was Middlesbrough last season.

Johnson is paying the price for having vowed to appoint only a manager with a proven European track record, a policy decision that saw Everton make Bobby Robson their number one, and only bona fide, candidate. The former England manager's highly successful second half to the season at Barcelona has put him out of the running and forced Johnson to fall back on plan B - the only problem being there is no plan B in place.

The matter is becoming increasingly pressing at a club that at present does not have a single management member on the pay roll. Since Joe Royle's departure, his coaching staff of Jimmy Gabriel and Willie Donachie have left and even the caretaker manager Dave Watson has now relinquished his role.

That has left the Everton board anxious that the club will be left far behind in the annual summer transfer merry-go-round, a frustrating state of affairs when the new manager is believed to have a transfer kitty of at least pounds 20m at his disposal.

Johnson and his directors discussed the problem at a board meeting on Thursday night when the names of Graeme Souness and Joe Kinnear were also considered, the former discounted, the latter ranked as an outsider. The Goodison chairman is embarrassed that his pledge to recruit only a manager with a world-class pedigree looks set to fail. The closest he could come to that level was, ultimately, Graham, a move that concerned other board members alarmed by the former Arsenal manager's off-field problems and reputation for negative football.

Johnson had been keen to avoid going down the route taken in the club's previous two appointments - Mike Walker and Joe Royle, managers with excellent track records at lower levels but unproven at the very highest standard. By tomorrow, Johnson will probably find himself going down precisely that avenue in trying to lure O'Neill, who has just enjoyed a memorable debut season in the Premiership with Leicester, to Goodison Park.

THE Leeds striker Brian Deane, out of contract at Elland Road, seems likely to be the British player to take greatest advantage of the Bosman Ruling this summer. The Dutch club Feyenoord are understood to have offered Deane, eligible to move to the Continent on a free transfer, a one-year package worth pounds 1m - half of the contract in the form of a signing-on fee, half in salary. Marseille have also made contact with his representatives.

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