Brands set to sign new contract with Everton

Take us forward to the promised land.

New stadia, new contract, beat City tomorrow, happy days.

See you at the live forum.

Delph cost £8m, a minuscule fee that reflected his injury record at City. He was bought as a cut-price addition to add experience and depth in midfield. I don't think anyone expected him to miss quite as many games as he has.

In his time at Barcelona, Gomes missed a total of 6 weeks through injury, four of those comprising one lay-off. Hardly "injury prone".

Brands is our future, it's a slow turnaround, but it's a turnaround. Believe.

On the one hand, personally I'm disappointed that he hasn't unearthed any 'diamonds in the rough' for (near) Seamus Coleman-like fees as he did at his previous clubs.

But then to be fair, he may have done that in recruiting Brainthwaite and Nkounkou last year. Still too early to tell, but their few outings for the first team certainly show promise.

On the other hand, he inherited a right shit-fest. Too many poor to average players, on long contracts and high salaries, making it almost impossible to shift them.

On that score he has been hamstrung on how quickly he could clear out the deadwood and freshen the squad up with better quality players for the manager to utilise.

No DoF or manager has ever had a 100% hit rate on his purchases, but for me Brands' success rate remains in credit.

Now five years into Moshiri's ownership I think it serves us best as this time - all the more so with the likely new stadium on the horizon - to maintain the stability and continuity a Brands-Ancelotti combo gives us in the DoF-First team manager model we now follow.

This season (inc last Jan)
James and Allan - blatantly Ancelotti's signings but Brands did drive a good bargain
Branthwaite and Nkounkou - both look promising
Godfrey - a gem.

King - wait and see

So until this season I would say that Brands had a 1 in 8 success rate costing the club close to £170 million in transfers and nearly £1m a week in wages. He has been piss poor up until this season.

If Brands can pull off a couple more Godfrey high standard level of signings, now he's fully in the role, then why not.

And to clinch the deal ... He was the only one strong enough in the last 10 years or so, to resist handing Garbutt a new 5 year contract. :)

Or, put another way...

The Owner, having brought in and got rid of 3 Coaches, gets the idea (sometimes put) in his head that, hey, maybe its not all the Coaches fault, maybe its the fault of the guy who, for the last, 8, 9, or 10yrs has been giving my 3 Coaches all these crap players to work with, aka...'He's not the sort of player you wanted? - You're the shit hot Coach, so coach him until he is.'
This usually results in The Owner getting Rid of both.

Even if Brands's record is, in my mind, at best 50/50, I never really thought he was going anywhere...and if he's angling for and will get a pay rise, given his average performance he's doing well.

Anyway, much as I'm not a fan of the position he's only part way through his 2nd manager yet...allegedly.

Yeah, but everybody has one now...and 3 of them get relegated every season, even more of them never win a carrot.
Yeah, but Brands is different you'll see, etc, etc. - we shall indeed see...or not, as the case may be.

Richarlison, Digne, Mina and Gomes? Three out of four ain't bad. (Sorry, Kev, but Mina is really good.) James, Allan, Doucoure and Godfrey? Spectacular, although obviously it was more about Carlo with the first two. Kean? Yes, he's playing much better for PSG than he did for us, but he's still ours. Nkounkou and Branthwaite? We don't know yet, but is anybody complaining about what little we've seen? Not me.

And as Lyndon points out at #9, the injury thing with some of the other acquisitions is sort of a red herring.

My point is that Marcel has done what he was assigned to do -- start to build out a Champions League club. The core is in place now. The job is still in progress, of course, but the progress is obvious.

And he's done very well pruning the dead branches from the tree (although obviously I thought he went overboard with Robinson). I'd say, without doing backflips over the guy, he has more than earned the new contract.

MK simply didn't want to be here. It was a way out of Italy, but it clearly wasn't what he wanted, and he was like a fish out of water and never settled. He looked lost out there at times, like a blindfold Ross Barkley, and gave stupid fouls away at a startling rate for the time on the pitch.

We've seen this kind of turnaround before to be honest. Remember that De Bruyne was at Chelsea as a young player and it didn't work out, and he's perhaps the most gifted player in the league, certainly one of the most gifted.

It seems to me the role of this man is to bring players in to suit any manager we get. Problem is, these managers have to follow in a similar style if you have a crop bought by the DOF.

So if and when Ancelotti goes, we need a manager that can work with the players bought for Ancelottis style.

Isn't it funny how Brands has more celebrity status than the DOFs of Barcelona, Juve, The Madrids, Bayern, Man City, Man United etc etc. Brands has seen documentries made about him and it seems he gets more attention than any DOF i've ever known.

The old way of the manager picking a player and the board going for him seems far more practical and logical to me.

Therefore what we have is "the board going for him"... don't we? And considering the other members of the board are Moshiri, Ryazantsev, Bill and DBB, who would you rather have bringing in the players Carlo wants? This is no game for amateurs.

Your mention of other major clubs just proves the point of needing a DOF in the modern football world and not leaving player acquisition to business executives. Name a top club that doesn't use the DoF model these days? One, Manure, and last I heard they were trying to recruit one. True football people like Rummenigga, Abidal, Begiristain, Rangnick, Leonardo, Emenalo build winners, not "the board".

Welcome to the 21st Century.

This is just going to be another thread on ToffeeWeb, which shows how divided Evertonians, have been for a very long time, and probably since the days of stability that was offered by Kenwright and Moyes.

All opinions, mine is that Brands has got more than a few things wrong, but he seems to have a plan, and you don't get nowhere without a plan, which is very evident looking back at the people he replaced.

I keep reading Richarlison is purely a Silva signing. Now of course the two knew each other from Watford but Brands - at PSV - did scout Richarlison in Brazil before he moved to Watford. Richarlison just chose to go to Watford over PSV (and Ajax). Was widely reported in Dutch press. Buying Richarlison was something that Brands and Silva agreed upon easily.

I want more Ben Godfrey type signings to reinvigorate the club. I think Brands will be pushing for this type of recruiting. Ie, The club needs a midfielder the mould of Godfrey. Someone younger, bursting with energy and the single minded will to win. A wide man too, with pace energy and skill, again with the same mental attributes.

Like others above I agree he has been far from perfect, but who would have been perfect? He's done ok and done well enough for us to trust him to do his best for the club over the coming years.

I understand he will be seen from time to time but as a whole, we speak about him like he plays for the side.

I don't understand this club sometimes. We were successful in the 80s and most people hated the board members. Now we are shit its a popularity contest.

Kean has exceeded all my expectations, promising player, good finisher, good work rate, good pace, always looks motivated, hungry and energetic

Moise was fighting until the second he was subbed out.

Best part is, that mentality also exists in "unimportant" games. He has incredible work rate on almost all games he played with us.

Really makes you wonder why we didn't see any of that at Everton. Sometimes this just doesn't work out. Perhaps the culture clash was too big and Paris is a better fit for him.

I quote from above
Delph - up there with Iwobi as one of the worst signings in the clubs history.

So these two are two of the worst signings in this club's history.

Bernie Wright. Claus Thompson, Danny Williamson, Glen Keeley, Aiden McGeady, Oumar Niasse, Antolin Alcaraz, Marc Hottiger, Kepler Wessels, Per Kroldrup.
I think all these 10 are higher in the list of worst signings. And that is just from the top of the head.
Too much hyperbole in the statement above.
Not fulfilled expectations or maybe our desire - but worst in our history?Please.

Brands having celebrity status? I'm not sure that's even remotely true mate!

I don't speak about Brands really, I've never understood why he signed Iwobi, I think he failed Silva, but possibly because his hands were half-tied, but now he's finally got rid of most of the deadwood, and has also got the experience of Ancelotti, which might just help him concentrate on continuing the revamp of the most underachieving football club in the country, I'd say I'm glad Brands is staying, because I honestly think he deserves the chance.

All that jargon with Keans mum, handing her shirts and promising to look after her boy. What is that about? Cringe.

If he stays he gets things right and wrong but if he goes, Moshiri will get some other hit and miss Simon Cowell of football to do the same.

The bigger picture is he gets far too much attention (and love) for someone who has never played a game for us.

Hes just a DOF that will one day leave and very possibly without the club achieving anything but a lovely bank account and more sellable assets.

Same for £8m on Delph and £80k p/w wages, I would say is worse than most on your list, again due to the amount of money spent.

Niasse and Koldrup would be high (although we recouped some money on Koldrup I think), but I would still say Iwobi and Delph are up there with the worst.

Why I'm personally glad about this new is that it represents the two things that this club has been lacking for the best part of a decade, stability and continuity.

Okay, some might say this is the same mindset as the much maligned satisfaction with the 'seventh-ish' mentality that characterised the Moyes era, and I totally get that.

You can't build the sort of sustained success that we need going forward from a place of chaos, such as we've seen over the last seven years, so if Brands (or any other hypothetical DoF, for that matter - he hasn't been such a success that I'd say he alone could do this job) needs another term to continue the restoration of order I can see the logic in giving him a new contract.

But the most worrying aspect is what sort of transfer budget will Ancelotti and Brands have to improve the club. We are very close to our FFP limit so we will have to sell big to be able to finance the improvements Ancelotti will be asking for. I read last night one of the European press guys suggesting that we had loaned Kean to PSG with a a potential for them to make the move permanent. Now when Carlo was asked this question when we loaned Kean out he said no deal to sell had been agreed, seeing how well Kean has done lets hope Carlo is right. I am sure given a choice Kean would prefer to stay at PSG, and if Everton do decide to sell him we should play really hard ball as rumour has it that also Juventus would like to buy him back. When you think of how much some German clubs are asking for Sancho and Haarland both in excess of £100 million. So lets hope if we do sell him we are looking more towards those figures than that £30 that we paid for him.

Also Tosun is out on loan but I cant see Besiktas offering the sort of money we would want, so maybe he will come back in the summer. So apart from Kean, Tosun and Bernard I cant see any of our other fringe players bringing in much cash. I would think that Carlo would be looking to bring in a full back as well as a couple of strikers and another midfield player. Can he get the quality he wants if we only have maybe £60/70 million to spend. I would also think that FFP will be looking very closely if Usmanov tries to inject more money into our club so maybe that source will be closed for a while.

Re FFP.
Did I read somewhere that there is an amnesty for this summers transfers?

Of course, he's not the only single variable affecting squad value and quality over time, but has played a major part. With all the young players he's signed going up in value, that asset valuation will keep on going up.

And this is the key.

If the value goes up or stays the same (or not down much), at least we can swap out non-performers at no cost over a period of time. That's how we will become a team challenging for the top because we always have dry gunpowder to buy a player when he's available to us as our transfer kitty grows year-on-year when we swap out non-performers.

What I mean is: If 3 years ago we sold all our players and started again, the squad we can rebuy back would be with £300 million in cash. Now if we sold and started a new squad, it's with £450 million of cash because that's what we can spend.

Keep this trajectory, and in 3 years we'll have a £600 million squad and can swap out non-performers and spend more on better quality. It's working :)

Yes they have suspended FFP rules for this season but they will add this seasons to next season when both years will be added together. So although no FFP action will be applied this season anyone thinking they could spend what they wanted this season and it be a free hit is wrong. So seeing we were very close to our FFP before this season started I am sure with the signings we made that will push us even closer to our limit. So the start of next season will see us under more pressure to reduce our spending.

The first wave a big, bad contracts expire this summer and enables more effective squad building. A huge wage bill and FFP have tied his hands a bit to date. I expect an encouraging summer with 2 or 3 new first teamers and some talented back up. I'm pleased Brands will now oversee that.

He's also made a good start on getting our bloated academy in better shape and developing players through much needed loans. More work to do here, including recruitment of high quality 14 to 16 year olds that we've been banned from for a few years.

So all in all this is good news - and with Brands and Ancelloti in place we have proper experienced professionals running the footballing side on and off the pitch. That will bear fruit.

"My point is that Marcel has done what he was assigned to do -- start to build out a Champions League club. The core is in place now."

Mike I don't share optimism about the strength of our current team/squad.

We have champions league class players in James, Alan and Decoure, but James if fit enough for a game will as you seen against Fulham,will sub himself if he doesn't enjoy the game, Alan getting on in years, we can't rely on him, Decoure yes, he's looking good for a few years. Both James and Alan were brought in for the here and now and not future.

Iwobi? Sigurdsson? Gomes? These aren't capable of anything meaningful in the CL, maybe the odd good game but not consistantly so.

I can't include Bernard, Ancelotti wants him out, Tom Davies is improving and I like what I'm seeing, I think he can devolop into an Alan type.

Digne yes, Godfrey yes, Keane yes/no, Mina yes/no, Holgate I'm strarting to worry about., Seamus his age excludes him.

Richarlison yes, but he needs to wake up or somebody attach jump leads to him and put a few volts into him.

DCL excellent poacher, work rate/ethic, he harasses defences, but he's no Harry Kane or Cavani, we need another striker and Moise Kean is not it, even if he is finding the net for PSG, he's just another Balotteli if he stays with us. King, Ancelotti obviously doesn't rate him.

We have a way to go, there are some healthy looking green shoots coming through, but not quite a verdant garden.

Well, who have we sold well? We got decent money for Lookman and Gueye. We got £2.5 million for Schneiderlin. The rest of the players have either left us on loan or on frees when their contracts expired. This is not really Brands' fault, as the players were given such inflated contracts before he came here. But I can't really say he has sold well. He's done ok, no more.

In terms of buying, it's hit and miss if I am being generous. The recruitment improved this season with Ancelotti's input. Before Ancelloti, Brands brought in some dross, such as Lossl, Delph, Bernard, Gomes. He made some good buys in Digne and Mina. The jury is still out on Iwobi and Kean. Ancelotti insisted we got Allan, James and Olsen. Brands brought in Godfrey, Doucoure and Branthwaite.

So at best, a mixed bag. I may have missed one or two players out, as I'm just writing this off the top of my head. But we need far more Godfreys and Doucoures and far less Bernards and Delphs if Brands is to be judged a success.

Won't go through the whole squad but here's some highlights:

Martyn or Pickford? OK, quiet at the back I was just getting this started...

Coleman or Coleman - here's the point: WE'VE NEVER REPLACED HIM, but I do prefer the younger Coleman

Lescott or Keane - Lescott for me

Digne or Baines? It's about par for me but I'd lean to Baines tbh

Rodriguez or Arteta? Par again for me though I'd probably lean to Arteta for two reasons: I recall him tracing back and I also loved singing his song...

Richarlison or Cahill? Par again...though perhaps different players anyway

Bernard or Pienaar? Stupid question

Graveson or Gomez? Stupid question

DCL or the Yak? Yak (but DCL does admittedly have time)

Allan or Carsley - only one has scored for us against that lot so he's a shoe-in...

The point is this: within the context of this thread (DoF), it's the DoF's role to add value to the pitch. Say what you want about Moyes/Kenwright, but I just don't see many of the current players displacing any in Moyes' team which was achieved on a shoestring without the DoF.

Yes! That's why we got Carlo. To attract better players. Now Brands has a slightly more achievable remit than ‘sign champions league players' on premier league wages who are fine with potentially playing in the championship for Silva/Koeman.

Purse. Sows ear. Etc

You can debate ages, injury records etc but the quality is certainly there. And we bought in the positions which most urgently needed attention. That bodes well.

If we can bring in similar quality to address the wide / forward positions (with younger, fitter players as Brands says he wants) then we should be a much stronger.

And by the way it has been great for West Ham so far too. When he was out of work and linked with the Job after Koeman, I wanted him as DOF if there was such a thing and if he was coming back.

For what Everton could afford and manage in that era, Moyes should have been given an MBE for recruitment.

This Brands fella is doing nothing special. Buying and selling for a football club. What a job. Moyes ran the team too.

In fairness to Brands i couldn't expect a 100% record from him either. Its just not possible without a rednoses luck but he has to aim for 100%

Just trying to work out what MBE initials stand for in Moyes case.

I'll sit on the fence:

"Manager of Battling Everton" or "Manager of Bottling Everton"

I've got M for minge, B for bag...

Struggling for the last one.

Moyes MBE stands for "Moyes buggered Everton"

Cahill, Pienaar, Arteta, Fellaini, should all have been in successful sides. A couple he got wrong but, overall and with the resources he had, his work getting players in was superb.

"What explains the appalling performance against Fulham, and what do you propose so that it never happens again?"

Everything else is useless waffle.

Disliked him when he was our manager. Even more so when taking into account the sly, underhanded way he went about the Man Utd job.

A slippery fucker, not a man to trust imo.

It is beyond frustrating now but I can't help commenting on here and mostly through frustration.

What Moyes does, done or goes on to do personally has absolutely nothing to do with his recruitment at Everton.

Of course he was going to fail on some players. The best managers also do but overall its total stupid to even question it. I mean what was his biggest kitty, about 25 million?

If I am ever in court I will beg the judge that nobody from ToffeeWeb be part of the jury.
There would be calls of guilty to murder because I swore on ToffeeWeb a while back.

What is the point of commenting on anything if your personal feelings are attached?

If someone asks you was Pienaar a good signing for Everton do you answer, no because Moyes is a prick and I don't trust him?

There are many intelligent people on here but relevance is thrown away by emotions, hate and ignorance in so many cases.

Moyes signed Coleman, Arteta, Cahill, Jags, Lescott, Martyn, Howard, Fellaini, Baines, Johnson, Yakubu. Yobo, Valente, McBride, Donovan off the top of my head.

Someone then calls out Beattie and gives him a 50/50 on signings, fucks sake that is truly emotional.

To play for the top side you have to be technically brilliant too Thomas. Godfrey is miles from that but doing well for us.

What did you consider "emotional" in my post?

We were talking about players signed and you brought side dish stuff in like you didn't trust him, don't like him.

I don't either mate but those emotions have nothing to do with the subject we were addressing.

Its not personal against you Thomas its ingrained. You mention a nice thing Kenwright has done and it'll be shot down with something irrelevant like the kings dock or something.

I find it impossible Thomas I cant get my head around why so many choose to digress.

You could say to someone tomorrow, Carragher was right about Everton there wasn't he and even if he was, someone will tell you he talks shite.

Its funny at times but not helpful if you want a serious debate.

Not too difficult to predict to be honest.
You posted an emotional post after pulling me for doing the same.
I didnt post emotionally btw.
I posted an opinion.

I didnt discuss the "players signed"
That was you and other posters.

You post in your manner, I will post in mine Paul.

Hows that for you?

€60-70m seems fanciful from the euro journalist - but if PSG can get a good run going and Kean delivers, this could add valuable money to the summer transfer pot.

Collins definition of happy clapper😁,of or denoting a form of evangelical Christianity in which members of the congregation sing and clap enthusiastically during acts of worship.

Collins definition of happy clapper😁,,,1,17:46:02,,109.249.181.37,ok,23848,02/17/2021 17:46:02,Tomrichards2@outlook.com,reader,,,no 1133027,40480,toffeeweb,17/02/2021,Rob Halligan,bobsbluehouse@sky.com,"So, a happy clapper is someone who is optimistic, or someone who doesn't agree with someone else's opinion. Thanks lads!!

Thomas your posts are fine with me mate and you seem sound I just thought you were digging at the judgement on Moyes signings but I did say it wasn't just your post but my apologies anyway.

Lets see how emotional we all feel at 11 tonight mate. 😫

Im in the back row

Paul A.

Likewise mate.

No need for apologies Paul, i never took any offence.

I can see clearly how much of a Blue you are.

End of the day thats all that matters 👍

Another "great" current PSG player at the moment is Ander Herrera, the guy who was a waste of space at Old Trafford.

France is like Scotland folks, a doddle for the top dog, and Barca last night were like us against Fulham.

If that was Walsh we would have paid double or triple for any player brands brought in.

And even with iwobi, (I don't rate) 25m rising to 30m for a 23 year old with plenty of Orem league experience. It was the going rate

I just found out we are on amazon and BT tonight so hopefully I have the choice of not listening to that phoney Steve McManaming.

I thought it was only on LFCBT.

Coyb