Finally change at Everton as three board members leave their roles

Well, at last things seem to be shaking up at Everton as it was this evening announced that three current board members would be leaving their posts.

The three are CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale, Grant Ingles, the Director of Finance and former Blues legend Graeme Sharp, who was a Non-Executive director acting as a sort of fan liason.

Fundamental changes at board level have long been advocated by many Everton supporters, including me.

And this became absolutely essential after the dreadful failures of the last few seasons, leading to that final day decider against Bournemouth at the end of another terrible campaign.

The ultimate responsbility for all this has to reside with the owner and board. At last perhaps, owner Farhad Moshiri is listening and acting.

Alongside these three already announced departures, the club also said that a statement about Bill Kenwright’s future would be made in the next few days. Could that mean he is leaving too?

The timing of these departures also conincides with increasing speculation that MSP Capital are close to agreeing a deal to inject money into the club.

So, it is very possible that these moves have been part of the negotiations taking place between the investment group and Moshiri.

However, now the key question is who is going to replace these individuals? Obviously, if this is related to the MSP talks then they will presumably have their own people in mind.

This situation represents a potentially critical opportunity to make a decisive break with the failures of the last three or four years and the relentless decline in fortunes which characterised this period for Everton, both on and off the pitch.

And, this brings us to the other key issue: what might this mean, if anything, for any transfer plans that Sean Dyche and Director of Football Kevin Thelwell have drawn up.

For some Toffees fans, Thelwell himself should be included in any clear-out as his tenure in charge of transfers has not exactly been a great success.

Of the signings made last summer, Neal Maupay proved to be a disaster, and others such as Dwight McNeil and James Garner were young and not universal choices and took a while to find their feet, although both finished the season strongly.

Then came a truly wretched January window in which despite the overwhelming need to add firepower before the second half of the season, not a single new player was added.

Whatever happens after these changes and whoever is in place on the board, Everton simply cannot have a summer window like that this time around.