Brands leaves his post as Everton shakeup begins

Major news is breaking today as media outlets claim that Marcel Brands has left his job at Everton as the restructuring of the club starts.

The Dutchman has been Director of Football since joining Everton in the summer of 2018 and now leaves the club having only signed a new three-year deal earlier this year.

It is almost pantomine season in the UK and in recent weeks this football club has certainly started resembling one. And now, having given him a new contract less than nine months ago he’s apparently gone.

So, where does this leave the club?

To some extent this feels a bit like a short-term PR excercise to take the pressure off the owner and others in the club hierachy and maybe they hope it will prevent further major protests at tomorrow night’s match against Arsenal. We’ll see if that’s the case.

In a way you could argue though that this move makes some sense because there is a feeling that there are two many cooks at this club and Brand’s elevation to a positon on the board muddied the waters further.

It’s been very difficult to discern who exactly is making the decisions when it comes to the first-team. It seems clear Brands wasn’t in charge of choosing a manager and if not why, as he was Director of Football and that should surely be a key part of his position? And what about player transfer decisions, how much say did he actually have? No one outside the club is sure.

Players sometimes arrived without apparently fitting any set pattern, a classic example would be Alex Iwobi. On the other hand a signing such as Moise Kean was certainly his type of player.

The other inference to make is that this decision is the result of a power struggle between Brands and Rafa Benitez, especially because I think we all know the Spaniard wasn’t Brands choice to succeed Carlo Ancelotti this summer.

This move presumably gives Benitez more security and time in post and makes his departure less likely, at least for now, while it also means he will have greater power over things like player signings.

This move might also make sense from Farhad Moshiri’s point of view as the Blues’ owner gave his public backing to the manager after the derby debacle. If Brands was uncomfortable with that, then his leaving solves a problem from Moshiri’s point of view.

There is also another way to look at it too. At least if Benitez is completely in charge of transfers in next month’s window, we will clearly know who is responsible for the players that arrive and their impact. If results continue to slide then there is no hiding place for the manager.

Again though, it’s a risk to give Benitez that much control. What happens if he does get some money in January, spends it, brings players in and the club continues to struggle on the pitch? It might well be too late then to rescue the season.

As I write this there has been no official statement from Everton (no surprise there then!) to confirm this has actually happened but all the major media are carrying the story.

And, as the players prepare to play Arsenal in just over 24 hours time, I suppose we will see what if anything else happens over the next few days. What a soap opera this fooball club has become!