Morgan Schneiderlin and Kevin Mirallas were omitted from Everton’s match-day squad against Watford on Sunday after walking out of a training session 24 hours earlier.
Duncan Ferguson, Everton’s first-team coach, was conducting a session at the club’s Finch Farm training ground on Saturday when he accused the pair of a lack of commitment. It is understood Ferguson told the two highly paid internationals that they should go back inside if they were not prepared to take the session seriously.
Schneiderlin and Mirallas took up the coach’s offer and walked off, prompting Everton’s caretaker manager, David Unsworth, to banish them from the training ground and exclude them from his squad for the vital 3-2 win over Watford. It is unknown at this stage whether the midfielders will face further disciplinary action.
Schneiderlin took to Twitter on Monday afternoon saying that it was not true that he had been “sent away from training” and added: “I am fully committed to Everton and will continue to work hard for the club and the fans in training and on the pitch.”
Everton are mired in a relegation struggle and Unsworth was seeking the first win of his caretaker reign as he looks to land the manager’s job on a permanent basis.
Mirallas had started Everton’s previous Premier League game, the 2-0 defeat at Leicester City, but was substituted at half-time following an anonymous display. Schneiderlin started the 3-0 Europa League defeat by Lyon on Thursday but was sent off for the second time this season after a second yellow card. The France international, signed for a fee rising to £24m from Manchester United in January, has been in desperate form this season and seen his place threatened by the emergence of the 19-year-old academy prospect Beni Baningime.
Ronald Koeman, Everton’s former manager, questioned Mirallas’s attitude earlier in the campaign. The Belgium international, who was awarded a new three-year contract by Everton last summer, took to Instagram on Sunday to say: “Thank you for all your messages. It’s a difficult situation for me, but in life there are things much more serious than my personal situation.”
Unsworth remains in the running to replace Koeman following the eventual win over Watford. His appointment would have clear implications for the Everton futures of Schneiderlin and Mirallas, although the club’s hierarchy will consider several managerial candidates at a board meeting this week.
Watford’s Marco Silva declined to comment on links with the vacancy at Goodison Park on Sunday but remains of interest to Everton’s major shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, who will have the final say. Moshiri has also sounded out the one-game England manager Sam Allardyce on Sunday about taking on another survival act. Craig Shakespeare, the former Leicester City manager and a close ally of Everton’s director of football, Steve Walsh, would be in line to become assistant manager to Allardyce, with Martyn Margetson as goalkeeping coach.
Everton have not made a formal offer to Allardyce, although one could materialise this week given the lack of available candidates in mid-season.