'Just £1.7m' - Rafael Benitez explains false Everton transfer promises from Farhad Moshiri

Former Everton manager Rafael Benitez has opened up on his dismal spell at the club claiming that there were false promises made when he took the Goodison Park hotseat.

In what was a dark spell in the club’s most recent history, many fans claim the appointment set the club backwards as the Toffees went from challenging for Europe to scrambling around the relegation places - a position in which they could still be fighting against this season under Sean Dyche.

That summer saw just £1.7m spent, with Demarai Gray arriving from Bayer Leverkusen. However, Andros Townsend, Solomon Rondon, Asmir Begovic and Andy Lonergan joined on free transfers failed to inspire hope. On the outgoings fron, James Rodriguez, Bernard and Joshua King were all shown the door. Benitez also allowed fan favourite Lucas Digne to leave for Aston Villa before he was dismissed in the middle of January.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Overlap, the usual pundits welcomed the Spaniard to discuss his illustrious career and the topic of the Everton job was one that arose. Benitez tried to justify his questionable decision by protesting to Jamie Carragher about why he took on the role in the first place, despite his history with Merseyside rivals Liverpool: “Because it’s my family, it’s in Liverpool, I wanted to stay there.”

Before the former Liverpool defender could respond, the 64-year-old interjected again: “Wait, Carra. I had the conversation with a person which was telling me you can spend money and we can compete and we can go to another level. The problem is how much money we spent, Everton was spending £100 and £150 million. We spent £1.7 million. We signed five players and the only one we paid for was Demarai Gray. I have some Everton fans. We saved the club because we didn’t spend the money. If we spent the money it would be even worse!”

Benitez was never backed to last long at Goodison Park and he managed just 22 games in total. Winning seven, drawing four and losing 11, they managed 25 points during that time - and his win percentage of 31.8 per cent ranks him as one of the lowest in Everton managerial history. His successor Frank Lampard did manage to avoid relegation but his win percentage was even lower at 27.3 per cent and, since then, Dyche has been fighting an uphill battle left by the weakened squad and financial position after Benitez’s time at the club.