You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

I liked your article, but it kind of contradicts itself. You quite rightly, and your absolutely spot on, in stating the club has failed dismally in terms of a valid strategy after the massive injection of capital by Moshiri, nearly five years ago.

But, in the same instance, you hark back to the good old days of Moyes and Uncle Bill. The continuing presence of Kenwright and his policy of recruiting senior personnel from within his 'circle' is symptomatic of exactly what's wrong with Everton.

We had an opportunity to look globally for our new CEO, there are fantastic people out there, not necessarily Evertonians, but top calibre businessmen or women, who would have looked at all aspects of the club's business and taken the appropriate steps to propel the club forward.

I have no axe to grind with Denise Barrett-Baxendale, but why on earth appoint an individual to the most senior position in a company with a turnover approaching £200M, who comes from a strictly educational/charity background?

I'm not even sure the position was advertised, absolutely criminal.

Instead Bill opted for the easy option, and promoted from within.

That's why our peer group in the Premier League have now overtaken us: years of mismanagement.

The real answer to the mess were in lies much closer to home.

The main worry for me is when Moshiri decides that he has burnt his fingers enough and stops subsidising the club. Then the real disaster will unfold very quickly.

If Carlo gets 3 or 4 players like the ones we have been linked with, it's still going to have a lot of luck to take us where we all want to be. Steve Fern is waiting in the background with his "I Told You So" tee-shirt ready to be worn.

Get rid of teary fucking Bill and just maybe our non-financial fortunes will come good.

So he proved to be exactly what he was before, a decent scout, but no DoF. Not strong enough with the manager. But based on signings alone, he comes out well.

If, as you say, Koeman was responsible for those you have attributed, then he really did screw the club. Too many short-term signings that cost a lot but didn't actually have the quality to give that short-term boost in performance. Not one signing can be classed as a success. Big fail on recruitment.

I personally didn't mind the Rooney signing, but that he was used as a midfielder when we had 2 other players specifically in that role buggered it all up. He also raised the profile of the club considerably. Finished top scorer. If we went back in time and just signed Rooney and not Klaassen we would probably be better off now!

Pickford actually looked for 18 months, including a World Cup performance of real promise, to be a good signing. He went to shit this season big time. But so did De Gea, Kepa, Lloris (pre injury). He was in pretty esteemed company!

Kenwright comes out with an average score for me.

Walcott and Tosun? See Koeman comments. Short term and not good enough. Blaming them on Moshiri is a bit harsh as I see these as Fat Sam signings, but I suppose he signed them off. Poor marks again

I agree that the money with the previous scouting system might well have been spent more wisely - but people wanted rid of that and were demanding 'ambition'.

There was an impatience that resulted in some very poor value purchases.

Rooney made some sense to me - he should have been the icing on the cake - but there wasn't any cake.

Brands was seen as the rudder who would set and maintain a course to long term success. Maybe he will in time. But, as always, staying afloat in the Premier League is the priority. What we need is the short term, staying up; what we want is the longer term, success and trophies. Short-term fixes are sometimes necessary. Blending this with a long term strategy is essential.

Ancelotti needs some short term fixes so some of his current preferred signings may not seem to gel with Brands development strategy. But, if both are given enough time, they might make a success of Everton.

As others have pointed out the Director of Football model has been successful at a number of clubs. As ever, success is dependent on appointing the right individual and being crystal clear about roles and responsibilities.

Our current woes can be traced back to decisions made in 2016-17. Plainly Walsh was not qualified for the DOF role which ought to carry a much broader set of responsibilities than that of Chief Scout, the role he filled successfully at Leicester.

The error of that appointment was compounded by that of Koeman who showed neither ability nor inclination to work effectively on a day-to-day basis with the DOF. What ensued was a fiasco not only in our transfer dealings but also in the evident incoherence on the field of play.

In terms of where we are now, the jury is still out. To address some obvious and very urgent weaknesses in the squad, it appears we have reverted to signing players in their late twenties. That is fine for the immediate challenge facing Ancelotti but suggests a departure from the notion of building for the medium to longer term which ought to be one of Brands's priorities. Whether or not the two can achieve a balanced approach remains to be seen.

I think the difference at present is that we now have a manager who has a CV rather than a manager who is endeavouring to build one. However, having got the man who we should have tried to get 5 years ago we now find that the ship carrying the pot of gold has sailed or at best is untying at the dock side. What is left behind is a load of lead painted as gold and unfortunately most of us can now see the dull virtually valueless stuff underneath.

Had the club gone down the road that I think Dylan is suggesting, investments in youth 5 years ago would now be bearing fruit and we would be reaping the rewards in terms of success or sell on fees which would enable us to reinvest and keep the cycle going.

I really struggle to get my head around the fact that an obviously astute businessman such as Moshiri can drop the ball so badly in terms of who he has allowed the club to be run by. I cannot believe that we still, after all his lies, deceptions and ineptitude, have Kenwright at the helm, playing with someone else's money.

The Board of Directors that Moshiri has in place has never run a substantial corporate organisation between them and they have Everton in the centre of a fast flowing river with a huge waterfall 100 yards ahead and very soon the current will be so strong that they will take us over the edge. Leeds and Portsmouth are prime examples of this.

I have said it before and I will say it again: Walsh and Brands did not loose their abilities over night, they have been hamstrung by someone who only wanted stellar signings now the money was available and consequently Walsh and Brands have never been allowed to do the jobs they were hired to do.

I also think that the one need that Dylan didn't mention is Bramley-Moore Dock or is it a wish? I think Moshiri has become so wrapped up in this project that he has lost sight of the bigger picture and allowed people totally unsuited for the job to manage the whole club.

This is the classic case of "be careful what you wish for". We had the chance to get what we needed and totally blew it.

Apologies for the analogies. This stuff makes me so so mad.

After he twice reportedly refused to give up the chairman's position, firstly when Paul Gregg offered to bail out the King's dock project, then again when the Sheikhs who went on to buy Man City came calling, I am sure that him staying as chairman would be part of the deal with Moshiri. It was probably in writing.

My feeling is that Moshiri has by now seen through him but is stuck with him as a figurehead chairman.

Kenwright has sold or mortgaged Bellefield, Finch Farm and Goodison Park. He took out a loan with Bear Stearns in 2002 for £30M repayable over 25 years at a total cost of almost £70M.

Since winning the FA Cup in 1995, Everton have spent £1 billion on players – which is extraordinary.

We still have Tarashaj on the books for God's sake, don't we?

I suspect their 1st teamers are probably on about one thousand pounds per week, yet here was a lad in their Reserves, being payed £12,500 per week by EFC!!

I think we hit the bottom of the barrel with Koeman, but the responsibility for the clubs demise must always rest with the board. They dictate who is bought and sold, what investment there will be and where it comes from.

In that we have been dreadful. Even with an owner with money we managed our future with about as much planning as a kid in a sweet shop who has just been told he can have anything in the shop.

The sad fact was we didn't have the capability to manage well either with or without money. So poor choices of players lost direction and then poor choices of managers.

Watching Cahill and Arteta play made me smile. Both of them were class acts, yet as of today there is no-one you could say could hold a candle to either of them at the club now.

That's how big a task Carlo has, its no quick fix but we need him to find the quality, the character and skillset to win in style.

Just a question, league positioning and net spend, were Everton more successful under Kenwright or Moshiri?

11 years under one manager. A far better transfer record and wage to final placing ratio, players bought at low prices and sold at healthy profits.

He maybe unpopular, but during his time he kept the club competitive whilst not spending a fortune. Since Moshiri took over, the club has spent a fortune to go backwards in terms of league and cup performance.

There should be no distinction between pre and post Moshiri because Kenwright has been at the helm throughout.

The only difference is, that since Moshiri came on board and sorted out the financial corner Kenwright had backed us into, Buffalo Bill has had access to someone elses money.

Bob Wyness, another former CEO, also packed in over the same issue, but before he could spill the beans, on the whole pathetic shape Everton FC were in, Phillip Green, who Kenwright idolised, made a very quick trip back to England, from Monaco, and paid him to keep his mouth shut.

According to The Esk, even the Club accounts have gone south under the money man although the thick end of' £half a Billion has gone down the drain on the recommendation of DoFs (and others).

The only light is that Moshiri and friends seem to have money to burn (I wonder what's wrong with it?) and they are providing us with a new iconic stadium. So what's to worry about?

Yes the fiitballing appointments have been questionable? However, he has funded us far greater than BPB ever has. Moshiri has also got greater returns on our commercial operations.

The new Bramley Moore Dock stadium is on the horizon with Moshiri's business connections and possibly yes Usmanov's money; however, these are areas Boys Pen Bill has not been allowed anywhere near!!!

Interestingly, the footy recruitment is our biggest frustrations, it is only this summer that we've not had our trousers dropped and been shafted.

So we are finally seeing the Moshiri effect coming to the fore...

It's a real concern but one that's applicable to just about every club. If something happened with the Glazers or Qatar, Manc football would be in peril.

The dominant manager is what we've been missing. Martinez was ultimately out of his depth, Koeman was completely disinterested, Silva was unlucky but always out of his depth. Big Sam was only ever a plug for the dam.

I think there was a total breakdown of joined-up thinking between all of them and the recruitment/DoF.

Moyes was dour, but he was a very strong personality, his stamp was always all over the team. It may have been often dour but we functioned as a team how he wanted it to with the resources he had.

Only since Mr Ancelotti has arrived have we had that dominant voice again. Someone the recruitment/DoF have to take notice of. Carlo knows what he needs to build a tough, organised football team with some talent. He is assembling it now before our very eyes.

Brands and the recruitment are following Carlo's lead and a proper football team will emerge for the first time since Moyes's days.

The commercial increase came mostly out of Usminov's pocket – a bit like all the other money, I suspect! But then, why not?

I don't think it's possible to know who was responsible for signing which player but it's a collective decision and therefore many people to blame or congratulate depending on a financial or non-financial viewpoint.

The lack of funds pre-Moshiri ensured Moyes looked at the bargain basement. As stated, it's not just about money, that can help, it's about the right players to fit the manager's tactics and plans. Moyes largely managed the club and football teams.

A lack of football knowledge since Moshiri and his money arrived has set us back no doubt. There was no one in charge of the football.

We have spent a lot of money on relatively inexperienced managers and an inexperienced Director of Football in Walsh. No strategy or structure on recruitment or football style.

Brands was probably the first step in the right direction. Bringing organisation and a general strategy to recruitment. But we still lacked experience in developing the football. Sam Allardyce's football was not deemed good enough and the rest were longer-term developments at best.

If in the short term, Carlo Ancelotti can steady and improve the first team he and Brands can lay down some proper footballing foundations.

Then hopefully the next manager will not have to start from scratch or Brands change manager styles. Any new manager is to continue to build on the foundations. Which should help Brands identify any successor much sooner.

Instead of flipping managers and styles like pancakes we can add layers to our cake.

Before I go to feed my rumbling stomach the conclusion is Carlo has the experience and pedigree to reset the club ASAP. We need a bit of time and luck but hopefully this time next year I'll be enjoying cake and not bitter lemon.

Whilst I appreciated the tone and content of Dylan's well scripted article, plus that of a number of the posts that followed, I (too?) couldn't help but feel we were simply seeing the same old comments about our fall from grace during Roberto's tenure, and how this started to come about when financial clout replaced business acumen in the grand order of things.

And equally, how all this has been based – as most views invariably are – on visually unimpaired hindsight! For that reason, I thought perhaps you'd decided it was something of a bullshit cause. But, having had another scan through, I'm not so sure.

As for the Walsh & Koeman aspect: I cannot get out of my head some of the posts I saw on here as Everton sought to negotiate the acquisition of Sigurdsson.

Now don't get me wrong: he was someone I too believed could add a new dimension to the squad, but I nearly spewed when I saw folk baying for his signature at an eye-watering £45M. Now I don't have a high success rate when it comes to evaluating or assessing the impact of new acquisitions, but Sigurdsson is one I nailed dead-on.

But where am I going with this...?

Well, I've often wondered how business processes – of which sales and acquisitions must be an important part – are measured, assessed and evaluated in a football club.

Now whilst it might be impractical to develop a set of Key Performance Indicators for your individual players on the pitch, what with all the variables, and uncontrollable factors that can influence the metrics, it should not be that challenging to set performance criteria for those who make these key business decisions, and then linking these to the rewards they earn.

Perhaps such a system exists already. It might also be the reason we saw the likes of Walsh move on. But I've a niggling feeling it's something we are sadly missing. And, if we're still identifying transfer targets by committee, with no single-point accountability... God help us.

That's sarcasm... right?