Brands hesitant to leave PSV following league triumph

I wouldn’t touch us either.

He and we would be better off if he stayed at PSV.

Despite it being a global game, from my experience, those involved at the sharp end keep in touch and love to gossip, so I wouldn't be surprised if he had been "put off" by what Keoman may have told him about our current set up.

At the top end, football people usually move for the money. Brands isn't a born PSV man: he went there for progression... and the money.

Up the contract please.

If you're coming, keep schtum until it's officially announced. If you're not, say so and let's move on.

We can't afford to be messed around on this one.

What a mess.

Also, he'd give up Champions League and trophies to take over a team that wants to attract a big name manager and plays the worst football in the Premier League. After watching some Championship games he's see we would struggle in the top half of that league.

It's hard to watch Everton but it's even harder to see how they can... I don't know what. I have never been so disheartened following football. I am disillusioned by how my favorite team is being run and how we now play anti-football.

He has played a very small part in putting together a squad because the majority of teams in crap leagues rely on their youth systems because they can play decent young players in a poor league.

Lessons need to be learnt, they should want to come and then they will earn good money. Not pay me x before I consider it.. Move well away from another Dutch disaster and either don't bother or get in a proven Spanish or German name whose contract is based largely on success and can attract top players.

First in should be a new manager whose paid a decent basic £3m and massive bonus for success ie £3m for each
Silverware, top 4, win 60 %, 80+ points, 80+ goals scored etc. Well worth £18m if we achieve all that.

Time to look around, get a list together and then let them fight for the right to come to us. We do pay good money, as has been shown with Walsh, Koeman, Martinez and now Allardyce.

Feeds into what Cahill, Henry and our very Christine was saying yesterday, What do we want?

Brands seems like another will he or won't he. I'm not arsed about him tbh.

And having news leaked like this through the media isn't a good sign. And please, do have a plan for the shortened transfer window this year or we will be up against the odds next season again.

Why should he take the risk?

Please God we aren't starting pre season with him or Wizard Walsh.

We may as well settle for mid-table before we kick off!

I'm sick to the back teeth nowadays as the club has become a standing joke, and represents Slumberland in view of no energy or appetite to progress, on and off the park...

The criteria for success this season have been, in summary: to beat Stoke, scrape a point at Stoke, play the most boring, mind-numbing football seen across the Premier League since its inception. The stats can't all be wrong.

Accepting there was a stinking mess before Allardyce came, a huge latrine created by Koeman and his backroom staff, he alone is not solely to blame for the demise in playing standards but the only playing standard now is it seems to sit back and pump aimless alehouse balls across the pitch, and to never press but always stand off.

We've gone from very piss-poor to rank bad and abject... The youth of today won't live off fading memories from 30 years ago and beyond. This next month is gonna be decisive in the prospects for next season.

If the planned club admin move to the Liver Building in August 2018 is to happen, then surely the changes will be rung very soon. This is a business matter but what's the chances of this being done properly? And for it to signal the start of the rejuvenation of EFC?

We live in hope...

If people want to latch on to speculation from Sky Sports and get in a state about it, that's up to them.

I'd rather hear nothing from the club until someone is appointed.

Exactly; one is very much linked with the other but which comes first – the DOF or the Manager?

For all FMs so called business prowess in terms of PR and football, the club is light years behind.

Like many before him, I think he's realising that business world prowess is different to football business prowess. He's made a good start by keeping his gob shut for now. He can wait till the end of the season to 'replace' Allardyce and say the 'next level' stuff then.

He needs to quickly sort out the club off the pitch and hope he gets the right manager quicker than Spurs, Man City and Liverpool did.

My concerns are simple. If this guy is a master scout, like Walsh before him, then does the master scout not try to justify his reputation and salary by signing a lot of players. Therefore, another period of flux, such as what wrecked this season, and another layer of crap to stop our own gifted youth team players from breaking through.

As the season comes to an end, ask yourself this simple question, what have we missed the most? I know we missed a lot, but what one player or type of player did we miss the most? For me it's someone to command the ball. A player in the middle of the park who will get on the ball and dominate it and make things happen. Of course, it's very difficult to do this, and often a player will try to impose himself, but the opposition are too good.

We haven't had such a player since Arteta. Barkley showed a few glimpses that he could be the player, but he's at his best receiving the ball a little higher up the pitch off such a player.

I'm not going to say that we definitely had such a player, but we did have a player who had a chance at being such a player. That is until we sold him for a pittance.

I'd love to go back in time to the start of the season, and whisper in the lad's ear, don't go on loan, stay at Everton and wait your chance. Then when Koeman was sacked, and the lad's number 1 fan was in charge, instead of being unable to recall and play him, he'd have thrown him into the side. I'm sure he would have got a game. I'm not saying things would be very different, but had Unsworth had him at his disposal, then he would have played him and he'd have games to show that he could be the player I hope for, at least with a lot more experience under his belt.

If you haven't guessed, I was referring to Liam Walsh, stuck in no-mans land at Birmingham after Redknapp was sacked, then recalled, unable to play until 1st January, and then sold to Bristol by Lardiola shortly after the window opened.

So back to Brands and the like, my concern is that we bring in third rate foreigners, an we don't give the likes of Walsh a chance. Lads who give a shit about the club, can bring through that team spirit from the u23s and their winning mentality. Sure, most of them aren't good enough, but we only need a few to come off and 1 more every other season, and suddenly we have what you guys were talking about above and on other threads.

Whoever comes in at Director of Football has to be someone brave enough not to make a signing, and to trust in what we have, rather than just get the chequebook out and sign every wonderkid he can find.

Some on here are now using the faltering form of the youth teams (U18s and U23s) to criticise our system. But just as one good year doesn't make a system great, one bad one (and it's still relatively successful) doesn't make it broken.

Our youth system is the best in the country. I measure it on internationals. Do the maths and work out how many internationals have come from our academy compared to all of the other sides, in the last 18 years. Ours has the most. Then factor in location, most of our players were local (within 25 miles of Liverpool), and you'll see or nearest rivals Man Utd and Spurs have very few of the same.

Sure, by the same token, Brazil is the best producer of football talent. Few would argue that it is not. Countless delegations have been sent over to analyse what they do that we do not. English coaches were quoted as being shocked to find that Brazil are doing things "we did 20 years ago". The conclusion being that it's not the coaching.

I think our success might well be down to similar factors, and the coaching might well be good (going all the way back to Tosh Farrell and the "Everton Way" that produced Rooney to Barkley) but there's nothing ground-breaking.

Instead, I would say that it comes down to culture. When you drive around the UK do you ever notice parks and see that they are empty? It seems that Liverpool is still a place that kids play football, often on any piece of grass they can find. Not quite in the numbers we used to when we were kids, and certainly not with jumpers for goalposts on side streets and cul-de-sacs. But it seems to me that there is a bigger pool of kids to choose from. There's that culture for kids to run out and play football, as opposed to stay in and play FIFA on X-box and PlayStation.

I remember when I was a kid, and my mates were in the Everton academy. We used to play at Netherton, and had a Portakabin for changing rooms. That side still brought through some good kids, England internationals like Jeffers and Ball. Sure, some of you think Jeffers is dogshit, but play for England he did.

I don't think the criticism of Finch Farm, if it extends to the youth setup, is justified.

I don't know if you have come across this piece before, but it suggests one of Brands prime objectives when starting out at PSV was to orient them away from being primarily a 'buying club' and toward becoming a 'training club':

The Kingdom of Marcel Brands

Presumably, this is having had a glance at Wolves and thinking we could nick a couple of players off them, or get similar talents in ourselves, whilst forgetting that Raiola will then auction off our best players at the first sign of a big pay day.

Brands and Raiola would seem to be opposites, and how could we have a club in which both of them have significant input?

Finch Farm under his very lengthy tenure has been a haven for ex-players coming in as coaches who've never, apart from Unsworth a few years ago from what's reported in the media, been sought after by anyone else, ever. Jeez, some of them even had no coaching qualifications at all when they came a-begging Kenwright for another chance, and all of them had modest playing careers where visible heart and commitment was usually conspicuous by its absence.

Despite this they seem to remain as managers come and go, like barnacles on the hull of the good ship "Everton", slowing us down as barnacles are known to do whilst all the while eating into the very fabric of what they depend upon for existence, weakening it all the while.

To me, it all begs the question, "To whom are our coaching staff fundamentally answerable?" And the obvious answer to me is "Kenwright alone". Not whoever's in the manager's office, or he who now holds the most shares, and least of not to all the tens of thousands who commit to attending games. Just Kenwright, who "looks after them".

The old adage attributed to Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over whilst expecting a different result" could not be more proved correct by what Kenwright does in terms of populating Finch Farm with his chosen few, with Unsworth inadvertently perhaps reporting the extent of Kenwright's virtually daily input/interference.

But that's only my opinion shared, with respect to them from me, by quite a few other TW'ers.

So I ask again, how do you know our current coaches are not up to the job?

Take Jeffers for one. He didn't have the badges as you say, but yet he worked unpaid and got them and proved himself to Unsworth. Not Kenwright. And Unsworth was the one who put him in charge of the U23s when he took over the first team.

Coaching is not rocket science. As long as the guy puts the time in, reads the thoughts and theories of others, keeps up to date by continuously going to seminars, then why can't a former player become a good enough coach?

If we did clear them all out, where would we hire the coaches to replace them? Take one such highly regarded coach who has nothing to do with Everton before: Craig Shakespeare. He's got some flack on here recently. Yet he basked in all the credit that came his way after Leicester won the league. The owners believed he played a big part, otherwise he wouldn't have been given the job after Ranieri got sacked, and he's been part of the England setup. Yet, as I said, he's been heavily criticised by fans recently.

In the 80s, we won everything with a coaching setup that was certainly jobs for the boys. From Kendall to Gabriel. Liverpool used their boot room. Even Alex Ferguson recruited a lot of former players, with the odd guy like Quieroz.

So how do you know our model is broken and we need to fix the youth team setup, which despite recent results, is still producing talent and still very much competitive. And mark my words, watch out for the U23s next season when a few of the decent U18s filter in, like Anthony Gordon.

And yet you don't hold the coaches to be problematic despite the fact that they've had the opportunity to make a case for themselves under the very pragmatic Moyes, followed by the bizarrely cavalier Martinez, followed by the iconoclastic Koeman followed by the turgid Allardyce. I'd have thought any of them good at defensive know-how would have flourished at some time in those years, as would anyone good at attacking know-how, and yet, as you have repeatedly pointed out, we always come up short all over the pitch.

If anything, the results, both on the pitch as teams, and individually as players, our youth setup appears to be one of, if not the, best in the whole of the UK. I set out reasons above, drawing comparisons to Brazil, that it may be down to a quirk of culture for Liverpool (see #32 for details) than actual quality coaching.

I do not see how any of us can say with any authority that the coaching setup is poor. Not unless you have first hand experience of watching multiple sessions or have in fact been on the receiving end of said coaching.

I question how anyone can be talking of just sweeping it all away and starting again, and ensuring that none of the new coaches have ever been part of the club before.

There's an awful lot of very important questions that would need answering first, not least who will be the Manager/Head Coach and what are his views on transfer policy.

As for him just coming out to deny any offer has been made, why? Not to do so strengthens his hand whatever he decides.

With regard to the main article, I have no truck with anyone who does not care about Everton FC and this guy already looks like Koemen lite with his faux love for his current club subject of course to a massive offer.

Did Harry and Howard need inducement other than the opportunity to return and make good the club they loved? We need a manager of that mentality now and back him with staff he can work with to get constructive tension behind the scenes – not the destructive tension we have encountered.

They've just won the league and he's being coy – sod off. The last thing we need is another clown flirting with the media for their next pay rise/stepping stone.

He should have shut any line of questioning down with, "Today is about PSV..." not "Who knows what tomorrow brings?" nonsense – even if he has no intention of staying there. He should have more respect for the club that pays his wages.

I suspect that if his first few signings seemed under par initially the familiar maxims of 'nothing good ever came from the Dutch league' would soon abound...

Surely the players he scouted for their league would hardly be good enough for ours? Then the question becomes, can he get us bigger names / better players then whoever he brought to Holland? He only caught small fish before.

Also, out of the players mentioned that make him such a success most of them are either Dutch / or played in the Dutch league. Considering PSV are one of the biggest teams there it wouldn't have been hard to sign them at all?
It's like crediting a DOF at Man City for signing Stones, Walker or Sterling.

Given Koeman's popularity in his homeland, "Everton" must be akin "Trump" to the populist media and receive similar treatment inc. fanciful speculation I suggest that this 'link' is lazy journos (with too many vowels in their name) knocking out any shite they can dream up in order to fill those column cm²s.

Notwithstanding the disaster that was Koeman, our history with Dutch footie is poor – why go back to that watering hole again? Consonant please, Rachel.

We should snaffle Porto's Buyer (DoF if you like), Porto invariably appear to have a constant stream of exciting talent.

It is going to be some old manager who has "loved" this club for over 30 years as anyone under 30 has only known virtual failure. Billy Bingham is still knocking about and I suppose there will be a manager somewhere sat in a nursing home watching cartoons all day asking "Is tea ready yet?" That is the problem: "the past" – forget it; past glories win you nothing.

Everton need a manager who can adapt to modern-day football come up with ideas before others do and keep the club at the highest level. I would think that EVERY other club is also looking for THIS manager.

I have absolutely no faith in anyone at the club, be it the directors, the manager or the players.

In fact that's a lie, Jordan Pickford deserves credit for having to put up with another year of abject dross playing in front of him and still emerging as England's best Number One.

Thanks John -33- for that link, that was a bit of a surprise I must admit. Do I take it John that your opinion favours that of Steve?

For me all I care about right is now Allardyce out as that will be the first step in the right direction. Who comes in will be debated on TW, so I will sit back and wait for the fun to begin.

Thanks for that fascinating link. It was a really good insight into PSV's resurgence and Brands's part in that.

In the wider topic of Everton's coaching staff and various posters passing opinions as to who is useless and who is not. How, on earth, would any of us know?

Have those that denigrate the abilities of Ferguson, Jeffers et al have access to information denied to the rest of us? Have they first hand experience of being coaches by these people? Unless they have, such opinions are childish and ludicrous.

He also acknowledged whilst he was manager that he spoke with Kenwright 'most every day. That depressed me, and whilst I don't want to criticise the youngsters he's coached, I'm sorry to say that few, if any, of them possess qualities to make me believe they may be part of the answer in seeking what Moshiri said he wanted when he took over.

Ferguson and Jeffers, both living locally and both having made a right bollox of their lives, had no coaching credentials when Kenwright took them on. Living at home as they do, I suspect they're also both "comfy" at Everton.

I suggest Kenwright therefore feels very "comfy" indeed with coaches who are essentially very dependent indeed on him, limited as their options might be in terms of plying their trade at any other club.

In summary, our club is soft in heart, increasingly soft in head, with players who can't or won't master the basics of control, pass and move. To me, that spells out a lack of coaching, all under the wing of a bloke who gets away with Blue murder with every passing year/decade.

Even with what remains of Moshiri's spendability I cannot imagine how the introduction of new staff throughout Finch Farm could serve us any worse than what we've seen in this and recent seasons.

Even if it is not a position of total control in developing young players. I always envisaged a club where the teams at every level played the same system, with slight variations, and the same style of football. That would hopefully mean a smooth transition from youth football to senior.

I have never understood how different age groups at the same club play different systems and styles of play.

It's all contradictions really, because I thought Bobby Mallon made a great point but then I read John Daley's link, and thought that is the best method, in how to both run and build a football club up.

It's all about talent – get the right people in charge and things usually improve but it's easy to talk about it; the hardest thing is always finding that right person!

I would like to see a tracksuit manager who takes training. The other side can be left to others, the manager also has to have an input on signings.

"Everton academy coach and former player Kevin Sheedy has put the boot into Manchester United manager David Moyes.

The former Republic of Ireland winger Sheedy has been on the Toffees' coaching staff since 2006, and is currently in charge of the Under-18s, so has first-hand experience of working under Moyes before he moved to Old Trafford last summer.

However, he was far from complimentary.

“All of you out there, Moyes was never interested in our youth team or players,” Sheedy, who played 314 times for Everton from 1982 to 1992, tweeted after the Red Devils' 3-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.

“In my 7 years, Moyes showed no intereset [sic] in our youth team.”

Asked on the social media site whether that must have “done his head in”, Sheedy replied: “Yep, he did.”

Doesn't surprise me at all. Although I doubt Moyes was the only manager with this attitude. These days, all Premier League managers want is the finished article. Youth players will only get a chance if they stand out by a mile. Like Rooney did. Otherwise, forget it.

However, no-one has addressed what is, in my view, a major factor that has haunted us for years.... LUCK. We have never had it. Last minute goals, unfortunate injuries. Rules changed, English clubs banned from Europe. Corrupt referees.

Yes I know all fans complain but, if I wasn't a lazy fucker, I think I could get together enough evidence to prove, yes, PROVE, that there has been an alignment of the stars that has given Liverpool FC all the luck allocated to Merseyside. Ask Brian Hamilton.

How clear does it need to be, at this point, to the 'Blue powers that be' that we really REALLY have to get this big once beautiful ship back sailing full sail, piloted, captained and manned by a crew – right from the new 'launch' – for whom failure is not an option??? Fuck everyone else.

Sheedy is no longer with the club. Rumour has it, there was a disagreement with Unsworth.

This season, I'd say we've had plenty of luck. More penalties, often missed and scored rebounds, penalties against us missed, poor performances yielding draws and the odd win.

Regarding our neighbours, they've found a good manager who has grabbed the club, got the players fit and playing with pace, buying players that suit the style of play. You get more luck when you spend more time in the opposition penalty box.

That's the kind of manager we need. Over to you, Mr Moshiri.