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‘I want to manage Everton… I am aiming for the top and it’s the club I love’
MORECAMBE boss Jim Bentley has declared his wish to mange Everton.
Jim Bentley ‘disappointed’ after Morecambe FA Cup exit
Bentley, 42, became the longest-serving boss in the Football League when Paul Tisdale left Exeter City.
He has managed Morecambe for nearly seven-and-a-half years having taken the reins in May 2011.
Bentley grew up in Allerton - seven miles from Goodison Park - and he is a boyhood Everton fan.
Discussing his wish to make it big, the League Two boss said: “I want to manage Everton.
“It's the club I love and I don't know why you can't aim for the top.
“Then obviously somewhere along the line if you could manage England it would be fantastic.
“It's not going to happen to many people but if I can't have dreams or ambitions then I may as well not be in the job.”
Bentley is a spring chicken in management terms having got the job while still a player at the club.
Everton were the visitors for his testimonial match in 2012 and Bentley spoke warmly of the Toffees back then too.
The former centre-back said: “I’m a massive Evertonian.
“To play the team I’ve loved all my life at the home of the team I’ve played for throughout the last 10 years – head-to-head – was overwhelming for me. It was superb, I’m absolutely made up.
“It was a great reception I received from all the supporters. I’ve been well liked by the Morecambe fans but I think Evertonians appreciate one of their own.
“If I wasn’t here doing my job at Morecambe I’d have been behind the goal with them.”