Everton closing in on new Director of Football
It’s rumoured in the press that Everton are getting closer to agreeing a deal for a new Director of Football, to replace Steve Walsh this summer.
Walsh, who joined Everton from Leicester City, has been under pressure following the failure of some high-profile signings that he was instrumental in bringing to Goodison Park last summer.
Now the club are being heavily linked with PSV Eindhoven Director of Football Marcel Brands. According to the Liverpool Echo, Everton are edging closer to securing his signature.
When Walsh joined, his appointment was seen as something of a coup for Everton following as it did Leicester’s unlikely title win in 2016. Walsh had played a big part in scouting some of the key players in that team.
However Walsh has not been able to replicate in his recruitment the success of Leicester signings such as N’golo Kante and Rihad Mahrez, at Everton.
There have been a couple of players bought under his watch that have been reasonably good buys such as Jordan Pickford and Idrissa Gueye.
But too many of the current crop of additions has failed to live up to expectations and that has of course contributed to the dreadfully underwhelming season Everton have endured.
Expensively signed players such as Davy Klaassen (although then-manager Ronald Koeman must have been heavily involved in this signing), Michael Keane and also to some extent Gylfi Sigurdsson, have been disappointing.
Given his track record it certainly seems that majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri is not a patient man and Walsh’s time at Everton could be coming to a close.
Now it appears the board at Goodison have moved to secure one of Europe’s most respected chief scouts as a potential replacement for Walsh.
If Brands does come to Everton it would surely also bring further doubt as to whether manager Sam Allardyce would survive as well.
I would assume Brands would have his own ideas about who he’d like to work with as coach/manager at the club.
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At any rate all this seems to coincide with the recent rumours that have been floating around that Allardyce will not be in charge come next season, regardless of how well this current campaign finishes.
My own feelings about all this incessant change are mixed.
On the one hand if the club did bring in someone with Brands’ reputation and track record it would surely enhance Everton’s ability to find and secure top talent.
But it also feels like there is a panicky, knee-jerk and off the cuff strategy to recruitment, which doesn’t seem like a sound approach.
The Toffees need to settle on a structure and key coaching/scouting personnel and not keep chopping and changing whenever there is a short-term problem.
Despite the recent success of Chelsea’s strategy of constantly changing manager nearly every season I don’t generally think this is a good way forward.
Next: Defensive changes needed?
Chelsea possessed some outstandingly consistent players and natural team leaders in successful, winning sides. The Blues don’t possess those types of players or that tradition of success.
Everton need a period of relative stability if the club are going to build a winning culture and move forward to a place where they can compete for honours again.