Last Chance for Marcel Brands

by Mike Oates | 13/07/2020

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Wolves 3 Everton 0... that's right: Wolves 3 Everton 0 — could have been 8-0 and it would have been deserved. Two teams a year ago hoping to get onto Europe; Wolves did, we didn't. Two teams this season hoping to break into the top 4, Wolves nearly are; Everton are nearly bottom 6.

Where's it gone wrong for Everton? And why is it working for Wolves? It's easy: the answer is quality recruitment by Wolves and appointment of a quality manager who knows how to get the best out of his squad. His purchases are tailor-made for his playing style.

If you compare the last 3 seasons (2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20) of recruitment by each club:

Wolves have spent £142M and got quality — Jimenez - £30M, Neto - £9M, Cultrone - £17M. Dendoncker - £12M, Jota - £12M, Neves - £16M, Traore - £18M, Bolly - £10M, Moutinho - £18M. They have recouped £17M on a few sales, none of the above, for a net spend of £125M.

Everton have spent £390M — Gibson - £6M, Gomes - £22M, Kean - £28M, Iwobi - £35M, Gbamin - £25M, Delph - £10M, Mina - £27M, Digne - £18M, Richarlison - £40M, Klaassen - £24M, Pickford - £25M, Sigurdsson - £45M, Keane - £25M, Vlasic - £10M, Walcott - £20M, Tosun - £27M. They have recouped £190M on Lookman, Gueye, Lukaku, Vlasic, Klaassen, Deulofeu, Cleverley and Barkley (half of that on Lukaku!), for a net spend of £200M.

So, Everton have spent nearly double that of Wolves, and of that lot above, the only players certain of playing, week-in & week-out, are Richarlison, Digne, and possibly Pickford, Keane and maybe Gbamin if and when we see him. Most have been an absolute waste of money and will suck us dry still for a few more years.

This obviously is not all the work of Marcel Brands, who came in May 2018, but it's up to him to sort the mess out. A number of questions need to be raised:

Who is finding the so-called talent?
What are they looking at?
What type of player are they looking for?
Where are the grafters, the workers, the runners, the energy lads... and, of course, the odd creative spark?

We seem to buy static, slow, fragile, injury-prone duds — to be brutal. Brands has been responsible for a net spend of £200M and has recouped £190M. So financially he's okay, but for him finding a quality of player, fit for Premier League duty, he's been found wanting. He's taken a gamble with Mina, Kean and Iwobi, the latter two look completely lost whenever they've played. It's a £65M gamble looking very dodgy at the moment.

With the mess we are in, I'm sure Ancelotti will want Brands to find him two or three experienced players — not 19- to 21-year-old potentials. His choice players will be 26- to 29-year-olds who have seen it, done it, and will not cave in under pressure. They will be fighters to the last cause. Not the type Brands normally has on his radar, but ones Ancelotti already knows, I'm sure.

Marcel — time to put your philosophy away, and deliver to Carlo the assets he needs to drag us away from this perennial mediocrity.

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