Moise Kean: How did Everton land deal for superstar youngster?

Brands appears the best business we have done but it talks well of Kenwright also. Long may it last and go get some more gems please.

This is how Paul Joyce reported the return of Kenwright's influence earlier this year.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bill-kenwright-regains-influence-at-everton-but-owners-criticism-of-marco-silva-is-unhelpful-ft6kgnwtd

Brands seems to be changing the current image of Everton for the better. He comes across as very professional and a master of the personal touch, particularly evident when Kean was put in front of the cameras with his mother. I suppose this could be called 'charisma', but whatever it's called it can only help us in convincing very good players to sign for us.

McNulty's description of Brands & Kenwright's relationship with Raiola (or Areola, as he can be a tit), is interesting. I suspect it goes back to the Lukaku days.

Nonetheless, Raiola is a powerful player; if Kean becomes a success then Raiola will hold an important card.

Brands is the professional hired to deal with Agents & clubs. Kenwright is not.

If I owned the bulk of the shares at the club, this would disturb me. I would want my appointed hire to have the key relationships, and board members (who are not paid to do the job) to stay out of his way.

What's more, it could provide a platform for disproportionate influence. Lets hope its Brands who ultimately calls the shots on the Raiola relationship.

There are still people on here having a pop at Brands. Overated, unconvincing and so on. The mind boggles. Great article.

That’s a good article on Brands and Everton. Shame about all the Liverpool trolls on the comments page. But that’s par for the course I guess.

Great to see us getting some recognition on the BBC of all places. Maybe Tim Cahill bent some ears when he was there on Sunday.

Amit - is it better to have someone on the inside with a good relationship with Raiola, or not have that person on side? I would suggest the former.

We all know agents are powerful, that's precisely the reason you have to pander to them, and having Brands is clearly a good thing.

You also mention having a defined difference in your hired-hand and board members, à la Brands & Kenwright. Now correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Brands on the board as well?

James @ 8 - Brands is a board member who is Director of Football and paid to negotiate transfers. As I say in my post - I would personally want Board Members (who are not paid to do the job) to stay out of the way of the guy hired to do that job.

Kenwright on the other hand is on the Board by dint of his past ownership of the shares in the club and his influence as the previous club owner.

Regarding your first point - sure, Kenwright's relationship might be a good thing seen one way.

But I'd be uncomfortable if I was the owner of the club. Moshiri appears fine with it (and perhaps takes the same view point as you), but I would not be.

Why do I take a different view?

Considering Raiola's reputation as a powerful agent who could take away a prized asset, it would leave me a little anxious if I had pumped cash into the club (not least to support transfers expenditures) in addition to buying 75%+ of the shares.

I'd personally prefer my hired professional to have all dealings with the Agents. It would remove any potential undue influence Kenwright may accrue over the fate of a future star (i.e. Kean). I would want that responsibility to lie with the guy I pay - Brands - who has a good relationship with the same agent.

Reminds me of the (albeit movie) references to Brian Clough, when he wanted a player he went to their home and signed them.

Good film that, Eric, but a million miles away from the book. They chickened out of going with the full David Peace version of Clough, which is fictionalised based on rumour and conjecture. The Clough family were outraged.

A lot of it may well be lies, but there was a (fraud) prosecution being put together before his health deteriorated, some there was some evidence to the rumours, but it was ultimately never tested in court.

Marcel Brands is fast proving to be Everton's best signing for a long long
time.

Organisation, planning, character, perception, persuasion, etc, etc, rolled into a pleasant affable personality.

He appears to work well with Silva and Kenwright and he definitely seems to 'get' the club and the fans.

We are seemingly building something special, and Marcel is an integral part of this optimism.

Jim,

Scary difference between our former Director of Football and Brands. He cost £2m in wages plus all the losses on players. I know we made on Lookman and Onyekuru but add wages paid etc and it's closer to even. The cost of replacing managers is also astronomical. Anyway, Brands is doing very well.

Agreed, Jim #12, I've said before that he's been our best piece of transfer business in years.

The article says that Brands has forged a terrific working partnership with Kenwright. I wonder how that went down with the vocally anti-Bill contingent on TW.

Mike, the wonderful working partnership could be sending Bill out for the coffee whilst the professionals get down to the real business!

Steve, the words "shrewd negotiating partnership" would imply otherwise, at least if you consider McNulty a credible reporter.

And to think a minority on here were calling Brands out at the end of this window – unbelievable.

We are in very safe hands.

It's not Brands's hands we should be worrying about, Jim.

Mike, I was jesting.

Jay - well, whatever he holds his pen with then.

Steve, you should alert me the next time you do that. Little smiling emoji or something.

Steve, David Peace is, in my opinion, the best novelist of this century. The Clough book is a work of genius, with so much texture to it. It is truly remarkable. The Shankly one is even better.

Anyone interested in literary fiction and football should read these brilliant novels.

I should add a disclaimer: I am, according to my wife and friends and colleagues, a pretentious bastard. I really don't think so.

Andy (#22), so David Peace's books on Clough and Shankly are actually "novels", ie, works of fiction?

Very good article. Lot's of people think we did great business in getting Moise Kean for relatively little. Let's hope he repays.

Joep Schroeder gave his opinion on Marcel Brands, like in most cases I agree with him, he's a very shrewd interviewer.

Dutch football in general is on the lift, now the clubs have to perform better to improve our coeffiecient. At the moment, it's ridicously low, and we're having to compete with Austria and the Ukraine.

Last night, I saw PSV beat Apollon Nicosia 3-0, they've adjusted to losing the selfish Hirving Lozano (going to Napoli, will be announced soon, as the Dolberg one), and are playing more youth. Mark van Bommel, a name most of you should know, is the manager.

Mohamed Ihattaren, a mere 17 years old, and midfielder, scored his first league goal last Sunday. Yesterday, he scored his first European goal.

Steven Bergwijn, Donyell Malen (a local lad) & Cody Gakpo are all in the sights of national coach Ronald Koeman.

My local team AZ Alkmaar have two great striking talents in Myron Boadu (18) & Calvin Stengs (20).

Koeman is one lucky bastard: after making a pigsmeal of it with us, he'll be getting success of some sorts with the national team. His career really is topsy-turvy, having been fired three times (AZ Alkmaar – by Marcel Brands, as noted by someone else earlier – Valencia & Everton)

Is it my imagination or does Moise Kean look bang average. I haven't seen him do anything special yet. I know he's only 19 but seems to be way over hyped (so far). Hurry up and become great. :P

Give Kean some time at least, Peter. He's only had one Premier League start so far, and his hounding down the defender / keeper led to our first goal at the weekend.

I do think he'll have to learn not to turn into the midfield thicket of two or three opponents when he should be taking the ball into a safer space. But I like the fact that he knows where the goal is and is prepared to shoot on sight - something we (including Calvert-Lewin) rarely do.

The kid has played exactly 217 minutes. Assisted on a goal, hit the post after a great move, and barely missed a shot wide.

And this is not the first post complaining about him already.

Bang average. Right. Spare me.

Kean will be fantastic for us. You can sense the talent and power just waiting to find their moment.

If he continues like this, he can be the next Brett Angell!

Marcel Brands has said in an interview earlier this year that 'he would have Mohamed Ihattaren (@24) at Everton tomorrow', if he could. This is something to keep in mind. We all know Marco Silva rates Abdoulaye Doucouré highly, and tried to get him in the summer.

Well, Marcel Brands knows Ihattaren from the PSV youth ranks. For a 17-year-old, he's a big strong lad. This season he has scored 3 goals and one assist in six games, in the Dutch league and Champion League qualifiers. And this for a box to box midfielder.

He is of Moroccan descent, and has played for Dutch national youth teams. He has not yet chosen for which national team he wants to play. Koeman has invited him, but he politely declined, saying he hasn't made his mind up yet.

Everybody with an orange heart wants him to choose for us, and not the North African team. Another dilemma, could Marcel Brands weave his magic, and get him to play for us?

He's absolutely a future star in the making.

I'm still excited about Kean's potential but, if anything, his first few appearances have made me more appreciative of Calvert-Lewin. They're very different players obviously, but Calvert-Lewin's hold-up play and reading of the Premier League game is – as you would expect – in advance of the new fellas. When he came on against Wolves you could see he offered something that Kean doesn't – the ability to win the long ball from Pickford and bring the players around him into the game.

Kean has the look of a player who will cause defenders nightmares when he runs at them and, once he gets the opportunities, surely has more goals in him than Calvert-Lewin. But I'm hopeful that the signing of Kean will take a bit of pressure off Calvert-Lewin and the two of them will bring double the headaches to our opponents. It gives Silva options and that's what we need.

Michael, whilst I've so far seen nothing in Kean's two appearances in an Everton shirt to 'excite' me, I do agree that the youngster's limited skill set does much towards fostering a greater appreciation of Calvert -Lewin.

I don't think Silva's game plan will allow him to start with more than one so-called striker even though he's been known to have three on the job when we are behind away from home.

Of the four 'centre- forwards' he has at his disposal, I regard Calvert-Lewin as the stand out performer EVEN THOUGH he seems unlikely to ever become feted as a regular goalscorer. It may well be a different story in a year's time but, for now, it's the older lad for my team.

If he was any good, truly a star in the making, there's no way the big players would have let him slip by their clutches.