Everton announce new football leadership structure

As the great Bruce Forsyth said “Now all we need are the players!”

You would think with all these, supposedly best at whatever they do, we would have bought a couple of signings in by now.

Do we have enough first team players for a match day squad?

Keane won’t sign, Calvert-Lewin won’t sign, Gueye won’t sign, Branthwaite looking at a new contract, players already left…

Maybe some of the so-called board room recruits could be given player contracts, just in case dithering Davey doesn’t get a move on and actually sign somebody.

But I suppose thing’s are looking up, with more matchday trains and buses, what can go wrong?

Bringing in some hopefully carefully selected professionals who will improve our recruitment, our academy and the overall running of the club, can only be a good thing.

The academy has been in need of an overhaul for some time, more youngsters should be pressing for first-team places. From here, it depends on results and putting quality onto the pitch at first team and junior levels.

We’re not going to buy £60M plus players, we need to identify emerging talent.

Ian 4.

“The academy has been in need of an overhaul for some time, more youngsters should be pressing for first team places.”

The academy should be scrapped, it’s not fit for purpose. Not one player from the academy is good enough for the first team; if they were, we would have them as first-team regulars by now.

Moyes had better get a move on, or once again we will be looking in the bargain basement bin for cast-offs, and free transfers to just increase the squad – not improve it.

Do some people just have to slag off everything the club do?

It’s not even 1 July and some people just moan moan moan and fucking moan. Do people not get tired of moaning and complaining? Your poor wives… We won’t sign players until after 1st July so stop going on.

The academy should be scrapped!!! What a load of nonsense. Do people not remember Anthony Gordon!! Without his sale, the club would have had an even bigger PSR breach and been relegated.

Thick as mince, some people on here.

Oh and it’s Keane, not Kean.

Slag the club off and people can’t get players’ names right who have been here 8 years.

I think this might be how it works:

The Athletic (aka New York Times) has good ear to the ground in Paddy Boland.

Paddy writes up what he knows in a very erudite article in The Athletic.

Keen eyes and ears at ToffeeWeb Towers spot a good story and try to summarize the meaty bits for our small gaggle of ardent Everton watchers.

The Echo, never slow off the bench, reads ToffeeWeb and realizes they should really be on top of the new flat white structure.

The Team at ToffeeWeb, scouring the wires for news, see an important story published in the local press, and we’re all over it! No flies on us!!!

Did I miss anything?

Ryan, if you are referring to me the answer is a definite Yes! I’m a habitual moaner, of the highest order and I admit it. My favourite painting is the moaner Lisa (I would have used more colour and a better frame.)

I firmly believe my calling on TW is to bitch, and moan and complain. If it gets people to do what I’m doing, which is moaning and bitching, then I’ve achieved my goal, which is to turn people like you, into a moaning bitching poster.😁

Ryan, stick to your more knowledgeable comments.

You’ve now labelled fellow Evertonians as “clueless idiots” and “thick as mince” in one week for having an opinion.

We are better than that.

You need to meet some of us pre-match.

“Football leadership structure”?

Wonder how much these four jobs will cost?

Excuse my cynicism but this all seems very complicated (?) and… um… un-Moyes-like.

“..the club’s football strategy and analytics operations and player trading activity and negotiations”

And…

“..covering the medical, operations, facilities and player care departments, as well as the academy functions.”

Or…

“..I believe step-changes our analytics capability and will deliver us a long-term competitive advantage,”

Really?

Why, will other clubs not be doing all this?

Sorry but I find it very difficult to get worked up about signings who aren’t players.

Wonder who’ll be next…

Russell Upsome-Grubb – Squad dietician.

Duane Pipe – Assistant youth development officer.

Chris P Baykon – Assistant to the assistant youth development officer.

Tom Orro – Youth Development Officer.

Juan Kerr – Development liaison officer.

Sawyer Ringpeece III – Head of US Recruitment.

Bjorn Toby Wilde – Scandinavian Recruitment Director.

Etc… blah.

Eugene, I thought this all sounded like a fairly sensible division of roles and installation of good quality people to do those roles. Not unlike, presumably, what the clubs that actually win things do?

I am sure Moyes will manage with quality people around him. In any case, he’s only here for another 2 seasons. Hopefully successful club infrastructure is around for a lot longer than that.

Let’s give it a chance. It won’t deliver success immediately to a club currently ranked as 17th out of 20 by Transfermarkt – with a squad of only ~10 players without question marks hanging over them.

But it has a much higher chance of success than doing nothing with the operational side of the club (which has been really shit for a long time).

Mice and dumplings are yummy. Or even better in a Yorkshire Pudding.

(Okay, Danny point taken.)

He’s got a point to be fair ‘dithering Davey’ I mean….. it defies belief. The idea that Moyes has got anything to do with the contract negotiations etc is mad. That’s why we are putting a structure in place. Getting it right behind the scenes after decades of being a laughing stock.

But Eugene isn’t happy?!! Would people prefer it if we carried on in the old way? Run by mates of the chairman or people who might do a half-decent job given the chance?!

We all know there will be no signings until the new PSR year. That’s 1 July. Before then, they’re getting serious football people with great CVs in to important positions so we’re run like an actual professional club.

But the cynicism and moaning just keeps coming. Not one of these fellers has done anything yet and they’re already getting slagged off?

The academy isn’t fit for purpose. Well let’s get the feller from Man Utds academy. The team that has fielded an academy player in every game they’ve played for about 30 years!!! No? Okay, bad idea. Fair play.

Er yes, this is what Michael explained yesterday! JP @1

This. FFS.

Si 20.

“The academy isn’t fit for purpose. Well let’s get the feller from Man Utds academy. The team that has fielded an academy player in every game they’ve played for about 30 years!!!”

Surely you agree then the fact that we have had to get that fella from Man Utd’s academy in means our academy isn’t fit for purpose!

Eugene 24, five-star comment, couldn’t agree more.

All seems the recruitment policy is ignoring the player side and creating jobs that are possibly not really needed.

Oh for the old days when the manager coaches and owner sat down and talked about what (players) would be brought in to improve the team, not how many more seats are needed in the boardroom.

Re mince, Chilli con carne cannae be beaten.

I wont mince my words. (Sorry)

Ryan seems to be in the unique position of winning Mastermind every day and therefore feeling able to call other people idiots and thick as mince.

Ryan, in a free world, everybody has a right to an opinion – whether you agree with it or not.

If you have a counter-argument, put it up… but do not call fellow blues thick as mince or idiots because, believe you me, they are far from that.

My perspective is not a moan but a concern in that we need 6 to 10 players to achieve a reasonable competitive squad, and it will probably take 4 or 5 days per acquisition to land them, so we don’t have much time left unless we have already agreed deals — which I very much doubt.

Jay, last word on the subject.

How does one mince? Get on the cat walk.

Jay, sorry, I may have misread your last paragraph. You suggest we need 6-10 players for a competitive squad. Agree.

You then say it will probably take 4 or 5 days per acquisition to land them and that we don’t have much time left to sign them.

Are you suggesting that we can only sign one at a time and that we are unable to multi-task on transfers?

Free transfers: Vardy, Danny Ings, last 20 minutes to grab a goal, Christian Eriksen. To create the chance for Vardy and Ings.

Fabianski… do we have a Number 2 or 3?

Eugene 14.

You get today’s comedy gem!!! 😁😁😁😁😁

I think its generally accepted that in tandem with Moshiri’s fixation with appointing “Hollywood” managers… his biggest failing by far was his laissez-faire attitude as to how the club was run beyond the manager.

Who did the hard yards behind the scenes was irrelevant for Moshiri.

I’m content that TFG seem to be taking a more holistic approach.

Eek! My teeth start grinding when I hear the word “holistic”.

Nowt wrong with the general idea (far from it) but effectively it’s just a corporate marketing slogan. I am totally not buying it.

I’m all for making the manager’s job easier as long as he has the final word on who we sign.

There’s always the danger of too many cooks in the kitchen.

Sorry Kev #29,

I knew that word would irksome… (see what I did there!)

Are you merely not buying the term in general or the suggestion that this is TFG’s approach?

Paul K.

No I don’t agree that the academy wasn’t fit for purpose because we’ve bought a newer supposedly better man in. We should look to improve in every department at all times.

Alex Ferguson would get rid of players in their prime if he thought he could bring in someone better. This clubs last thirty years have been built on settling. So we’re improving.

As others have said. Anthony Gordon was an academy product. The likes of Ishe Samuels-Smith, Tim Cannon and Ellis Simms combined with the Gordon sale and a few others (Isaac Price?) made us I think the most profitable academy in the country over a 5-year period.

The academy’s job isn’t just to get players for the first team. It’s also to develop and sell on players.

Last year three academy products made their first team debuts. Let’s see where they end up.

Of course it could be better (hence the new appointment…) but hardly not fit for purpose.

Hi Brendan.

Yeah, I dare say that The Friedkin Group sit around the table using the word “holistic” but that wouldn’t amount to very much, IMO.

The idea of things being taken as an integrated whole is a good one, very much so, but at this point, the word has lost any real meaning, descending into mere marketing spiel.

Ian,
When have you known us to multitask.

Even with the new regime everything seems as slow as the reaction on the Titanic.

Don’t get me wrong I love the improvement in talent in the boardroom and management steering the ship for the future but in the here and now we need players in for preseason not just the start of the season and despite the media linking us with every reject going there does not seem to be any imminent incoming.

Jay we can’t get players in until July 1st so it’s not slow it kind of ‘is what it is..’ if we went out now and spent money on some shiny new players we’d breach PSR and undoubtedly get another points deduction. It’s Everton after all.

Some of the ‘new regime’ have literally been in place for ONE DAY and are being accused of being slow.

Don’t get me wrong if we don’t have new signings by August 1st I’ll be pushing the panic button.

But getting things right behind the scenes is surely the first thing on the agenda of any serious business or you end up with three Number 10s, a string of sacked managers, repeated relegation battles and points deductions.

Hi Kev #34

I have absolutely no clue if the word “holistic” was ever uttered at a TFG meeting.

I’m still not clear if it’s the term you’re not impressed with or the the suggestion that this is the approach adopted by our new owners?

Football has long since been seen as a business rather than a sport, and I agree,

Football business however, is far removed from what I grew up in regarding accountable businesses.

In football business we now have job descriptions that are foreign to me – see the job titles in the lead piece, and accountability is mysterious in a good season (or so I’m told, none of us lot would know, would we?).

In the business world I knew, you had workers, foremen/office supervisors, a manager, a board and an owner – all answerable to everyone above them with the owner punishing laxity below.

In modern football the workers are the players, but to whom are they accountable? And the myriad new jobs? Who are they accountable to? The manager or the owner? If it’s the owner, the role of manager is massively diminished in every employee’s mind isn’t it?

And given that the majority of players are truly as thick as mince, therefore employing avaricious, conniving agents to screw the max for them and themselves regardless of the success of the club, just when will it be when us lot can be allowed to openly comment on the viability or not of our newly appointed off-field squad?

I’m not sure most players are thick as mince Don, but you share a good insight.

How this new structure all gels remains to be seen, but as you have said the evolution of the sport has moved on, we are into a more business/ profit / economy driven model, so long as this delivers a strong sporting club then it’s OK with me, let’s see where we go. We’ve been crying out for change, heres hoping our prayers are now being positively answered.

Don #40

“And given that the majority of players are truly as thick as mince,“

I think the players have moved on a lot… some fans not so much.

so this new structure will work in tandem with the head coach of the men’s and women’s teams.

Lord this sort of virtue signalling tripe just makes me want to hurl. I mean surely we aren’t putting the women’s team on some sort of equal footing, but this sort of stuff is just par for the Course now. the guardian headline today under transfer news has Ktiigawa heading to Everton. Who?! I thought, clicking on the article. And of course it’s as you’d expect.

this much heralded new system, well it’ll look great if we start winning. but if we don’t? well, that’s four people we’ve got to sack rather than one. And are all these new signings either from Leeds or Manchester? WTF.

Brendan, we’re all familiar with TV experts rushing to speak to players before they’ve even left the field, win or lose.

I watch cricket, both codes of rugby, golf and whatever other sport but football players in my opinion are distinguishable by rarely looking the questioner or the camera in the eye when they speak or are spoken to, rarely putting forward any kind of cogent explanation for victory or defeat, or looking even vaguely interested.

Okay, there are a few exceptions, but football history is full of words from numbskull professionals.

But that’s merely my opinion. I respect your right to yours.

Relax Kevin #45

Only after they’ve done the housework… would they be allowed to fondle a ball.

Kevin #48

For reasons I can’t fathom… you have tied your mast to the Kinnear will fail ship.

Perhaps he will but I’ll at least give him and the new “flat structure” a smidgeon of time to prove themselves.

Course not Kevin #52

No-one’s ringing endorsement nor criticism makes any difference either way.

I’m just curious as to why you are so full on “Kinnear out” before we’ve even kicked a ball under his tenure.

Brendan

there’s a number of things which concern me. His specialism is maximisation of match day revenue following a ground move, he’s spent a long time doing not very much with Leeds, he’s making big decisions on how the club moves forward, when I was hoping he was going to just let Moyes have a free hand. More than all that, I don’t like the way he talks. His first interview, ‘we want to make Evertonians proud’. What does that even mean, it’s a slippery statement if ever there was one. In my gut I just get a bad vibe, with his Gareth Southgate style genuflections to the ladies, he’s very 2025. He knows what he’s got to say to get on. I’d rather he was just good at his job.

‘our two managers’. It’s actually a subtle put down to Moyes, who is the most important appointment at the club. Can you imagine the Chief Exec at United talking about ‘our two managers’ when siralex was there