CEO unveils new-look leadership team

What does it mean for Unsworth with Joel Waldron being in charge of the Academy? I know Unsworth was Head of Coaching, but is he passed over for this? Joel Waldron is meant to be a good young coach though. Hopefully, he can make the Academy even better.

What about "Brands's No 2"? Who's he, and why didn't Brands bring in his own guy?

In real terms, I suspect there will just be more people doing the same work although there is obviously a lot more 'easy money' to be accounted for thanks to the broadcasting bonanza.

This regiment of no-marks matters little. All that is of interest to the large majority of supporters is whether the new manager can make watching the team an enjoyable experience as well as a successful one in terms of points chalked up. I'm one of them!

That is what every big-wig does on appointment. Always. Makes their mark.

None of us can truly say how this will work. Sometimes it frees folk to realise their talent, other times it is just redrawing a hierarchy diagram.

So let's not get carried away with a "no change" rant, the mention of ex RS staff or any other worry.

Half full, "more change that was needed".

Half empty, "where's the fucking change".

Will leave nuances to the clever!

I think its great we have a successful woman at the helm, a good progressive message which matches the positive messages from the Brands - Silva duo.

So there are some vacant ”Head of's” now.

As all of us who post re this, we know fuck all.

So, jokes re management to fill the space better?

Although: Richard Kenyon - Director of Marketing, Communications and Community... Is he the bloke they've been asking for? Marketing should be a full-time single-focus appointment; so should Communications if they are going to take it seriously...

And as for Community – Why does our continuing focus on this amidst our confirmed mediocrity continue to annoy me as it does?

"Why does the parrot cost so much," asks the man.
The shop owner says, "well, the parrot knows how to use a computer".

The man then asks about the next parrot to be told that this one costs 1,000 dollars because it can do everything the other parrot can do plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system.

Naturally, the increasingly startled man asks about the third parrot to be told that it costs 2,000 dollars. Needless to say this begs the question,
"What can it do?"

To which the shop owner replies, "to be honest I have never seen it do a thing, but the other two call him boss!"

Elstone apparently chose his introductory speech to reveal that henceforth, the Super Eights play-off format for promotion and relegation would be replaced by a simple one-up, one down system although little or no discussion had taken place between the game's clubs.

Leeds Rhinos are said to be most vexed by the decision which they claim he had no authority to make.

Consultation, who needs cosultation, eh?

I find it exceedingly frustrating! It's like a brewery making better (free) crisps than their (expensive) beer!

Everton are doing what they have to internally and organizationally to move on. No longer are they run the "Buddy Billy" way.

Good. Well done.

I actually by nature think this is a brilliant sign.

I just have a problem with managers per se!

Professor Barrett-Baxendale – this is a title universities give to uni teachers to indicate 'the best' in the dept.

What exactly has Baxendale done? Why is she still called professor if she is no longer associated with her former university?

Is she a PhD graduate (ie Dr)...Dr of can of Coke and packet of crisps.

I know you live in USA but some believe we can help that angst by a tax regime. We all pay, no dilemma!

I have a "Be Average But Love" therapist if you need number.

D

They need some working class people in there instead of middle class 'jobs for the boys' with their new plush water-front air-conditioned offices.

Revel in the prospect and its excitement!

Glad that Kenyon was promoted. He earned a reward with the survey!

I think it is an honorary professorship for Barrett-Baxendale rather than an earned academic title – normally given in recognition of work which has an impact, potential to raise profile of University, etc. Doesn't mean it isn't merited.

Denise Barrett-Baxendale did a great job with Everton in the Community, Everton will only go forward if the right Chairman and Board is in place. The present Chairman has been unsuccessful. It's not all down to the football management team.

Exciting times ahead.

A bit early to be calling them all no-marks unless you want to be seen as the living, posting proof of concept.

In any event, it is great to have a well-qualified woman at the helm of the club and the structure outlined seems to make sense. All-in-all, the club appears to be entering the 21st century after the dark age of the past two years or so.

(And I don't think you understand the various types of professorshi.p)

The significant bit is the fact that they are communicating. We've just had a football management structure where we didn't know who was responsible for what... now we know who is accountable for everything!

And finally we're getting a Stadium Development Director. Not a part time vanity gig for the CEO. That screams accountability – someone is going to be held accountable for making it happen!

Let's hope they're not part of the future.

So, here it is, the first steps we have needed in order to get our act together off the field as well as on it, because if the first is crap so will be the second.

I wholeheartedly agree and welcome the changes and restructuring, as well as the move to the iconic Liver Building, I hope there is a blue sign up somewhere that's lit up to show it's ours, as well as the blue lights on the liver birds...

For those who criticise regarding the move just being a moving of the deckchairs etc – I remind you that when the captain of a ship ignores his crew because he feels he does what he wants, what's the point of a crew?
We now have a crew and a team, we now have a leader focused on delivering performance on and off the pitch... at last!

The same people have been given new job titles but their responsibilities have not altered – how is this going to transform anything?

If she can bring the clarity of her leadership vision and social commitment to help support success on the pitch, then Hope is the word.

Same old shit?

A 2.1 at one time was the sign of academic achievement in a bachelor's degree – now it's just what I call 'plastic degrees' and 'glass ceilings'. We have a plastic population of academics, what Ritzer would call a McDonaldisation of society (where society is like a McDonalds... convenience foods... fast.... efficient.. cheap... the degree itself means nothing, ie, the plastic degrees – the unis value shit at ٧,000 a year... and society blindly pays it... because they're conditioned to).

When anybody mentions social class, why is there a comment that wreaks of communism humour, ie, 'power to the people'?

Social class is a very real phenomenon – all the best jobs in industry, right up to the top, entail middle class, upper middle class, and upper class.

In Everton, titles mean nothing unless there is accountability – it needs working class people represented in there, not bourgeois twats who call themselves working class ('lower social class') because their parents were. Lower social class live rather different lives to the bourgeois class.

We are a massive business run by the local lad made good with no money for years. The professionalism was reflected in that. The home spun, family, People's Club rubbish is conflated with the hard-nosed business savvy required to make your pennies work for you. You can have both, if you want.

They're transparent announcements with delineated responsibilities. At last, I say, hurrah!

Good luck to them all, a further step in modernizing the club.

"In Everton, titles mean nothing unless there is accountability – it needs working class people represented in there not bourgeois twats who call themselves working class ('lower social class') because their parents were".

The gift that keeps on giving! Who of the new appointments call themselves working class? Any evidence or just your usual stuff?

I was just making a point – think of the answer yourself. I was speaking in general about those who assume they're working class because of their parents. I use 'middle class' to convey the idea that they're out of touch with the poor working class.

Your legal training should tell you that to make such a sweeping assertion as you did really needs some evidence. You're trashing the whole of the new leadership team through bizarre statements.

So, in comparison, your current arguments are not up to that standard?!

Out of curiosity, how do you define"working class" nowadays and what are the differentiators between working class, middle class and upper class, in today's society?

One of 5 kids, I was taught only one thing about class: The RS fans are the lower class and Everton fans are the bright ones who properly understand football.

Of course ,I'd add a smiley face here, if I knew how to!

In her role at Everton, she has no need to use the (honorary) Professor title. In her role as CEO, she has to avoid any conflict of interest that might interfere with how she works in this role.

It's possible she and / or the club don't realise this, and they think using Professor makes them look clever by association.

Otherwise she's trying to make herself sound important, which in academic circles means she's being a pompous twit.

I hope, for my sanity at least, they just start calling her Denise for now on. Imagine having to call your boss Professor? I know I don't.

Yours, skulking back to the shadows

(not Professor) Chris

http://ToffeeWeb.com/comment/live/

I can discuss social class up to upper class if you want but only on the 'live forum'... as there are no such caps there for me.

http://ToffeeWeb.com/comment/live/

Otherwise here I say one thing and so many different people respond. In any event, stop taking offence and rushing to Everton's defence.

http://ToffeeWeb.com/comment/live/

You're football club fans and nothing else – you're not shareholders, you're not millionaire football players. In terms of evidence, I generally don't use specifics – instead generalise to make a point not to get caught up in the detail.

http://ToffeeWeb.com/comment/live/

I am trying to make a point with the live forum, do you think you have taken the hint yet? Is the live forum link not showing?

I'm probably lower middle class rather than his coveted, salt of the earth, working class. Yet I'm a season ticket holder, I cheer, I pay my Sky subscription, I buy the merchandise. I contribute as much to our club as most other fans. What the fuck does class have to do with anything?

The biggest difference in class between John Wilson and me is that I might have some.

I would like something more to make us proud.

have read 67 responses before my own. I only read the name "Allardyce" once so we must be making some progress. I no longer have to read his idiotic "Pearls of Wisdom."

Maybe it reminds me of the organization I work for where the those at the bottom get shit pay and those at the top get grand titles and loads of money. Now, we may have appointed great people, I hope we have, but if any of them fuck up, they will not suffer the financial oblivion of the doorman who fucks up.

Kev@ 51, academia is full of the most absurd PhDs, and mad thesises (is that a word?). I have seen "Veils in the Old Testament", which I reckon must be a good read. It seems to me that worthiness might not be what we need right now.

Perhaps I have a chip on my shoulder too but I get John's point while not agreeing with all of it. Class has a lot to do with many things.

I wonder why?

And that is part of the toe-curling management speak that is designed to make those who use it look smart. KPI's (yeah that is even worse) is just an offence against the English language.

I want our club to be run professionally and I hope this will do it. I just feel an outdated attachment to the roots of the game.

Also, I am uneasy about purveyors of good works who are vastly paid for it.

It would be a shame to have all those bods sat in the Liver Building and not actually contributing on the field.

Ooer missus, a literary allusion, mean I'm no longer working class, whatever would my arl nana from Garston say.

Quit while you're ahead, mate... on second thoughts - just quit, stop being a wannabe Chico from Bootle.

I follow Everton for the football and because my dad before me (God rest his soul) did. He was a committed socialist and tried to make a difference to the ordinary people he came in contact with during his day-to-day life.

As a great sage of China (now the people's republic of China) once said:- "if you want to change the world light a candle in your own corner".

Everton in the Community makes a difference. I think it is a good thing that our new CEO has recognised this.

Unfortunately, football is a business these days. I'm actually more enthused for the appointment of Marcel Brands than Marco Silva. It was clear Walsh was way out of his depth.

From what I've seen, Denise Barrett-Baxendale seems a step up from Robert Elstone.

No wonder the RS call us bitters.

Those people I know about seem excellent appointments and the ones I don't know about seem to have good pedigrees.

I really don't see any negativity in having strength at the top.

FFS we have cried out for better leadership for years and because we get an overdose of it all at once we complain.

Personally I am so pleased to close the door on the Kenwright years.

Sometimes five posts is four too many, particularly when you feel you need four more to explain about the first one.

The only class I care about is class shown on the field by such players who elevate the game to standards of excellence. Unfortunately, we haven't had any of late.

I share your disdain for corporatism. When you hear the terms come out of their mouths and mouth-pieces like, "shift the paradigm", and, "we have a fiduciary responsibility", and the like?

Well, you puke just a tiny bit in the back of your throat.

BUT! (yes, wait for it) Everton needs desperately more corporate governance and a restructure. Don't let the class issues and the plastic facades cloud your vision of what's occurring here.

We fucking need to have a different approach, with clearly defined, broken down, accountable roles! It's good management. Ignore the bullshit. Embrace the professionalism.

Class has absolutely ZERO to do with this in this instance. It's simply an effort to improve that which you love. That's it. End of.

If someday Everton fires all its long-standing employees, sells off all it's best players, scraps EitC due to "high costs", and Moshri goes on a wild cocaine and prostitute binge in Vegas, then go burn down the Liver Building and Goodison Park.

But he isn't working for Goldman Sachs or AIG. He's trying to help Everton.

Not football

1. Overall Operations
2. Manage risk, adhere to the law (and safety etc)
3. Manage money
4. Market the club, Support the community, Tell everyone about it
5. Look after your staff

Football

6. Develop young players
7. Recruit and retain players, manage contracts etc
8. Improve the team on the field
9. Get a new stadium

What's so hard to like about this? We know who's doing what, and we know who is in charge. If it wasn't clear, we'd be rightly moaning about it, but this is difficult to be against.

They seem to have a plan at least, let's hope they can manage to it, and that it is the right strategy (or that they can adjust and adapt and change the strategy WHEN it goes wrong... because it will, like most all plans).

Organisations are plagued by these types who won't accept accountability. They are easily manipulated by upper classes and are full of manipulation themselves.

Put plain and simple, if the Board is poor, the football management and team will be poor. Fancy titles and qualifications mean nothing. It's their ability to manage and achieve results that counts.

Everton's performance reflects this. There need to be changes in personnel at Board level. Organisational changes are useless when you are dealing with muppets.

As another bloke from Liverpool said; "Life, that's the stuff that happens while you're making plans."

In case you missed the news in April of last year:

Moshiri is part-owner of the Liver Building

This matters because what happens off the pitch influences what happens on the pitch. Football is a business. The reason we are not as successful as in the past is because our business has declined relative to a few rival clubs (but not all...look at Villa and Leeds Utd). DBB is passionate and effective. What she has done at EiTC is outstanding and I have a very positive vibe about her influence throughout the club.

I do love a TLA (three letter acronym).

Were being run like a "proper" business / football club!!! Not some some "play thing" for the chosen few.

Onwards and upwards!

COYB

Libby Precariat has now been drafted in as Director of Operations. Libby's previous experience consists of 11 years as a trainee cobbler and countless hours stood outside a theatre lobbing sharp objects at opera lovers.

Sol Tovzyerth will step into the role of Finance Director after stunning success in the first half of 2018. Sol stayed within his £600 overdraft 5 out of 6 months, swiftly secured a 25% single person council tax reduction after his wife ran off with his mate Dave and, last but not least, set a new world record for writing the word 'scandalous' 279 times on a single side of A4 paper in a scathing letter sent to Heinz lambasting the rebranding of 'Salad Cream' to 'Sandwich Cream'.

"Well the reality is you can buy a new pair of shoes made in The People's Republic of China for less than it will cost me to repair your old ones."

Every Everton supporter has a contract when they purchase a ticket, never mind a season ticket. Everton are not an individual - they are corporation legal personality which means Everton can make commercial transactions in the name of the company, and individuals can make commercial transactions.

These titles don't mean a whole lot - the transfer window fiasco at the 'club' senior hierarchy level is what should have changed. Moving the then Director of Football and the Manager in club like Everton with its commercial resources could have just been 'smoke and mirrors,' akin to a chess board moving the pieces but keeping the same board.

In reality, the footballing world aside there would have been a thorough investigation and heads would have rolled, been liable in the tort of negligence. The constitution (how the company is run) would have changed to stop the same problems happening again.

In this modern democracy, for a public authority, we should know who gets paid what and the specifics of the person's roles (job description) and accountability factors, ie accountability to whom and to which extent.

NB: I may have gone over the 5 cap.

Reg, the doorman, has now been appointed Director of Aperture Services...

"I'm probably lower middle class rather than his coveted, salt of the earth, working class. Yet I'm a season ticket holder, I cheer, I pay my Sky subscription, I buy the merchandise. I contribute as much to our club as most other fans. What the fuck does class have to do with anything?"

Class affects every aspect of our life as it determines our life chances and therefore our education, working life and life expectancy. The general ridiculing of John's post is like saying, 'sitting on the board is not for the likes of us,' and is part of the problem of the lack of working class representation on boards across industry, commerce and sport.

>Of course, none of us know what class other ToffeeWeb contributors are but, like John, I'm working class. I have a season ticket, go to most away matches and I'm a shareholder. All that says about me is that I can afford it but I may not be that welcome at the local golf club!!

I refuse to subscribe to Sky (unlike some who boycott The Sun but happily support Murdoch's Sky) and don't buy merchandise. Does that make me more, or less, of an Evertonian than a middle class person who goes corporate? I'll leave that for others to judge!

Support can't be measured by class, alone, but it will play a large part in determining who ends up in positions of influence.

If Everton truly aspire to be "The People's Club" they should co-opt a fan's representative onto the board. I can think of a few ToffeeWebbers who I'd be only too willing to nominate! (Although they may well turn out to be middle class, too lol).

- We need more working class people in top positions.
- Top positions almost exclusively go to the middle and upper classes.
- If you rise to those sort of positions you're no longer working class.

How does the first point work if the second two are true? Are we really proposing that we sit Reg on the board?

Not necessarily. German firms must have a Trade Union person on the board and their economy, and standard of living, is far ahead of ours.

How people and their families move or stay within social and economic classes is a much wider issue than football club appointments.

There is the easy thinking about the cliched attributes and social norms of the working, middle and ruling classes. If anything keeps people in their boxes it is those outdated stereotypes.

Always loved that Python "Well we 'ad it tough...".

Judging by the response to John's initial post, many fans must feel the very idea of having a board representative is absurd. Maybe that's how the working class view their role in society; being grateful for scraps thrown from the master's plate. It may also explain how a Conservative Party successfully persuades people to vote against their own interests.

However, football doesn't have to be the plaything of the rich and this is perfectly illustrated by the Bundesliga (and also by Barcelona).

But hey, this isn't for the likes of us working class. We consider the suggestion ludicrous and we're quite content to leave the running of our businesses to our 'betters'.

Why the Bundesliga business model is the best in Europe

For every obscure PhD, there are PhDs that are more obviously relevant. You might be interested in this PhD:

'Football class and identity in Liverpool and Newcastle 1951-1979'.

PhDs at their best open up blue-sky thinking that can lead to new ways of thinking about the world that were never expected. An issue for me would be which people get access to doing a PhD if they want to. I found ‘Social Class Inequality in Educational Attainment in England' helpful for that.

Google ‘Denise Barrett-Baxendale inaugural lecture at Hope university' and you will see that not only does she know ‘er history, she also through EiTC worked with some of those same groups of people who matter so much to Neville.

What do we even mean by working class? It's it code for blue collar? Low paid? Not tertiary educated? What does a working class person look like? I work for a living – am I working class?

Personally I'd rather we picked an Evertonian who had some other relevant experience, along with their blue blood. But I'm told in the above comments that anyone with expertise is no longer working class!

Kev, with all due respect, if Mrs Baxindale was doing such a great job at EiTC, she would have been better staying there with Big Nev as her assistant. He could have introduced himself to her, as apparently last time they met she didn't have a clue who he was, so much for her knowledge of Everton Football Club.

I did not know about the DBB own goal with Southall. Still, there's no question that she did do a lot of good work with EiTC and will bring those skills and experience to the CEO role. With Nev on board, she could make up for the gaps in her knowledge and together contribute to connecting success on the pitch to the local communities that are Everton.

"the appointment of a Stadium Development Director puts all the doubt to bed"

How so? It could mean that Goodison development is in the offing too. Let's hope not, but more clarity on which stadium would have been helpful.

Ernie (#118) "I work for a living – am I working class?" As my wife has always reminded me, I might work for a living but I have no class.

Home and away every game, level-headed, always has good ideas.

Sorted.

I'm retired and happy in the knowledge I'm being kept in the style I've become accustomed to, by the toiling masses, whatever class they may be!

Good to see the debate has been widened to having a fan representative on the board!

There is no voice on Everton's board. There is no football ombudsman. So we need something different. When I heard Peter Reid say "Sam Allardyce is my mate," I thought no ex-players should be on the board. It should be the fans representing the fans.

It should be at least a couple of competent fans who can articulate the views of the fans. We need this level of transparency from Everton and accountability to the fans.

Time to modernise at last and have Everton run as a proper business, not a bloody hobby. I'm sick of supporting plucky little Everton – I want a cut-throat business, well-oiled machine capable of actually winning football matches on a consistent basis with a bloody great big stadium that isn't an embarrassment every time I look at it.

We're a relic of a bye-gone age, and it's time to look to the future and drop all this 'istory bollocks.

Fans on the board – why? I don't see any reason that would benefit anyone, aside from appeasing our fanbase that's so obsessed with the People's Club crap and how good we were in the 60s, 80s etc.

But I know what you mean, James.

It all at least shows that Farhad Moshiri is keen on having a modern set-up. The back room is very important in any organisation.

"The Blues face Bury at Gigg Lane on Wednesday, July 18 before a trip to Ewood Park to take on Blackburn Rovers on Thursday, July 26." Echo today.

Don't crucify me, just having a laugh.

Romelu Lukaku: I've got some things to say.