“Yes, definitely,” Rathbone told Football Presse when asked whether a return to Everton feels like destiny. “His whole journey — he had some really tough times.”
Brilliant at Preston. Brilliant at Everton. Then came Manchester United.
“I was there. My first six months were Ferguson’s last six months. Then I was with Dave nearly a year. And I say in my book, if they’d given David just another three months at the start of the next season, everything would’ve been different.”
Instead, Spain followed. Then Sunderland — “a poison chalice.”
“But then finally,” Rathbone says, “he got his mojo back.”
The proof came at West Ham.
“I saw him in the dugout. I saw the look on his face. I thought, ‘He’s back.’ I texted him. I said, ‘Dave, you’re back, mate.’ And he was.”
Rathbone believes those difficult years hardened him.
“He just needed a couple of years to relax and reset.”
Now?
“He’s ready to go again.”
And with Everton entering a new era, Rathbone believes the timing is perfect.