We need to talk about Kevin: a defence of the DoF

Well put, Matt.

Even the ToffeeWeb podcast this week is assuming that, in the light of Freidkin's purchase, we will brush aside individuals such as Thelwell and Dyche in our quest for something better – "We're talking about him (Dyche) as if he's already gone!"

Your section about 'Head over Heart' could ironically also apply to Thelwell's departure; but if he does go at the end of the season, I hope every Evertonian will recognise his contribution to us entertaining Palace this Saturday, when it could have been Hull City.

I think, under the circumstances, Thelwell has done a very good job.

The role that each individual plays in the management of our club is very vague so it is hard to know exactly who is responsible for most of the decisions made.

I think that the players signed this past window have been a massive plus. While some of the contracts retained (Seamus Coleman, Ashley Young, and Michael Keane) represen a huge chunk of change that would have been better spent elsewhere.

On balance, I think Kevin Thelwell has done an above-average job but would hope that defining that roll would be a priority for the new ownership.

As the convenor and sole chartered member so far of the Thelwell Brigade, I congratulate you on an eloquently written article and thank you for a stern defence of Thelwell.

I agreed with the "cons" of Thelwell's work so far. No DoF is perfect (although Monchi had almost as close to a flawless record at Sevilla in terms of player trading and management and is replicating that effort and his partnership with Unai Emery at Aston Villa), but considered Thelwell stepped into a Chernobyl or Fukushima (thanks to Moshiri, Liar Bill & Rafa the Shite) and steered us through tsunami after tsunami in the past 2.5 years, Evertonians should be grateful for his work.

(Quick tangent: I still hold the opinion that the Danjuma disaster was more on Dyche's mismanagement than Thelwell's identification of a sub-par talent.)

Otherwise, if we have to be picky on Thelwell's work, it is his lack of introduction to Evertonians on how the responsibilities for the club's youngsters are divided amongst his trusted trios in Gareth Prosser, Carl Darlington & James Vaughan. Perhaps the Club's Communications Team should have made some profiles & interviews with them, instead of being driven by Thelwell?

I know enough Evertonians who are equally (if not more) keen on knowing more about how the Academy is going to produce good enough youngsters for both elevation into the first team and for sales purposes (as you said, another item that we need to catch up to our neighbours' prowess; I am very confident that Thelwell has been steering us towards that direction, albeit in an enforced turtle-like pace).

"As the convenor and sole chartered member so far of the Thelwell Brigade".

Erm, no, you are not, Dupont – and what an absolutely ridiculous and silly thing to say.

Imagine if we'd sold Pickford and Virginia and our goalie options were Begovic and Pickford junior. That's the equivalent of what we have at full-back.

Obviously there are mitigating circumstances but he's left a huge void in 20 percent of our team.

On the surface and using your pros, Thelwell has done well but for me has turned us into Wolves of a few years ago with inadequate goalscoring and a very weak squad.

I realize he had to do some cost-cutting but we are down to the barebones with criminally no cover at either fullback position and very poor goalkeeper cover.

So that's 3 key positions: goalkeeper, central midfielder and striker where we are exposed – especially if Calvert-Lewin decides not to stay.

I would say his tenure has been average and we could do better.

I know it's fantasy but imagine what Monchi or Edu could do with Everton.

I would also question if the reduction in the wage bill and junior players' transfer fees are as much serendipity as calculated and the true test maybe at this season's end as several well-paid players' contracts end, Doucoure, Keane, Calvert-Lewin at least.

For example, were the Dobbin, Iroegbunam transfers his or Villa's idea? Or, if they fell under his time with us, the sales of Digne, Richarlison and Onana? Or if they were necessary sales to reduce PSR liabilities?

It is less my questioning his ability as knowing if the few left in administration are finally moving towards the light and in the quickest and most obvious way and a way where contracts may restrict the usual business acumen of stemming outgoing costs first.

I still wonder at building a new state-of-the-art stadium of 52,888 capacity when you have about 30,000 season ticket holders and a waiting list for the same of about 27,000 plus visiting teams allocations? Or were there size restrictions due to the site size or just the cost?

Having such a limited budget forces prioritisation and choices on the DoF and manager. But starting the season with Patterson injured (and inconsistent when fit) and Mykolenko injured (and average in all aspects of his role) meant we had to prioritise full-back coverage. Relying on 39-year-old Young and 33-year-old Coleman as cover was, as Kieran says, a massive black mark.

However, Thelwell's biggest mistake was signing Beto for such a huge transfer fee (£25.75M!). I am baffled at what the recruitment team saw when they scouted him, as anyone who watched him over 2-3 games would have seen his technical limitations.

I don't want us (the club, fans, management) to go all gung-ho and go back to the bad days of Steve Walsh and Koeman. I believe that that duo (with Moshiri's blessings, of course) was singularly responsible for taking us on a death spiral, which hopefully we have seen the end of.

The club has a huge playing staff crisis coming up, with the following players out of contract at the end of the season:

Calvert-Lewin
Doucoure
Gana
Keane
Coleman
Young
Harrison (Loan)
Broja (Loan)
Mangala (Loan)
Lindstrøm (Loan)
Virginia

That is 11 out of 25 squad players presently (I may have missed out some more). For the sake of continuity, TFG should allow Thelwell to continue to try and get some players re-signed, identify replacements as necessary and also strengthen the squad.

I would not trust someone new in the DoF position coming in and doing a good job considering the severe financial limitations that the club is constrained by.

I get the impression that...for instance...Thelwell says '4 Candles' and Dyche is expecting 'andles for forks

However I'm not sure his work tallies well with the footballing philosophy of Sean Dyche. If he's still around after Dyche moves on (which seems a step closer now the take-over is almost complete) then a manager more aligned to his values might bring about a more fruitful partnership for the club.

Everything is easy, when it’s easy, but when it’s not, most people sink and then shake their head hoping that everyone can acknowledge that they had been given a thankless job, (albeit a very well paid thankless task) in the first place, so in that respect, Thelwell deserves our upmost respect and our gratitude, imo.

How good is he? I had a man who was involved at Everton, for a very long time tell me recently, that he was a nice man, but he his out of his depth, but that’s football, full of opinions and there is always somebody ready to put a knife in your back, for whatever reason.

Can he take investment from TFGI and spend it wisely? If Beto is anything to go by I'd have my doubts.

I’m not having pop and I do think he’s done a good job but there’s a reason we’ve shipped so many goals this season and it’s one that most fans could see for about the last five seasons. We need a right back!

I personally think Thelwell has done a good job with what is going on around him. At times, he seems to be running the club and the only one communicating.

I said it with Brands, if you're going to adopt the DoF model, let them do their job. Brands got sucked into the board.

He is doing his job, but can't fix every position in our current circumstances, providing the Manager with attacking and midfield options.

Let's see what he can do with backing once the takeover is sorted. I don't want to go back to the reckless spending of the Moshiri years and I think Thelwell could be more astute in using money wisely.

Both have worked wonders in their own way but that obviously isn't good enough for us. I am grateful for what both have achieved under the circumstances.

Both are culpable for not bringing in full back cover. Even championship journeymen on free transfers would have done a job.

Ajay's post above is pretty worrying.
From the out of contract players who should we extend or at least try to?

Calvert-Lewin
Doucoure
Gana
Keane
Coleman
Young
Harrison (Loan)
Broja (Loan)
Mangala (Loan)
Lindstrøm (Loan)
Virginia

We aren't out of this mess anytime soon.

I think Friedkin will change the manager as that's what his track record tells us he will do, and depending on the manager will determine if Thelwell is kept on as DOF.

I don't think Carlo was the culprit. Like you, I wish I could have seen James Rodriguez play at Goodison.

The reckless spending happened before Ancelotti. The pre-season when the board, manager and Walsh seemed to go to their own sweet shop with no strategy and came back with several number 10s.

There has been improvement in the squad and the results will come.

Regarding the eleven players out of contracts at the end of the season I think Keane, Colman and Young will be seen as wages off the weekly bill, Doucoure and Gana are coming to the end of their use at Everton, four are on loan and can be replaced by other loan deals or kept on if seen to good enough, that leaves Dominic and Virginia, Dominic staying or going is entirely up to him, I’d like him to stay as well as Virginia who I think can become a good goalkeeper.

Thelwells hands have been most severely tied by only being able to offer ‘get now pay later’ deals. Beto (if the back of his goal scoring in Italy) was probably a £18m player that we had to overpay for because we were offering a whopping zero pounds up front. As ineffectual as Beto has been we’ll still probably get £15m when we sell him and he had the assets (speed, size, strength and work rate) that make him a logical alternative to DCL. He’s just never had a good run of games that most players need to build confidence and touch.

I think Thelwell has done a pretty decent job and am especially impressed by the players we identified but couldn’t get over the line due to resources. I’d like to see what him and his team could do with less restrictions.

"At Everton, that blanket has been more like a dishcloth lately" - Yep.

I am glad that you listed a handful of forwards which cost a combined amount of around 500m to emphasise your point about the difficulties every club has in identifying guaranteed goals. I know if you wanted to, You could have emphasised that point even more by naming many, many,more.

The point you raised about former academy players now leaving for a small fee as opposed to being allowed to leave for nothing may seem relatively unimportant, but, as the old saying goes "Many a Mickle makes a Muckle". You have to ask; Why it was even an issue he had to address ? Thirty million is most definitely not to be sneezed at. A perfect illustration of how KT is quietly but very efficiently going about his business.

The likes of utd and particularly Chelsea are spending top dollar on players and failing how we expect anything with a game plan of mostly loanees in the most unstable club in the division is mad.

Transfers are a massive gamble if one in two work out you're ahead of the game and we're not even the game proper!!

How can a fair assessment be made of any Everton personnel with things as they are?

Not that fairness comes into it when results are going south we just channel our inner Inca and demand human sacrifices. My advice to the Friedbread group would be give Thelly and Dyche a fair go

In regard to the right-back position, the club was linked with several possible signings in the summer. Unfortunately we were unable to make a deal happen presumably because we could not meet the selling club's valuation and/or match the player's salary expectations.

A key requirement of a Director of Football's role is not to chase signings for the sake of it but to focus on recruiting players who will be better than the ones we already have. In that regard, I think Kevin Thelwell has been successful.

You can bet your bottom dollar or pound that Thelwell and Dyche tried to sign full-backs and, for one reason or another, all attempts did not happen.

It's the same with signings made, they probably would have preferred to sign other players than they have, only to fail to attract them to the club.

You can go on all day about Ancelotti's career elsewhere, he never did anything at Everton with or without money and yet Dyche is getting slaughtered by some, not you, and having literally next to nothing to spend, no boardroom to speak of and he kept Everton up for the last two seasons with the help of Thelwell and the fans.

Carlo was very well paid and came back for more while we carried his son through his apprenticeship learning the game and also no doubt well paid for it. Carlo is well versed in the game and the arts of looking after himself.

But I am not sure we would get £15 million for Beto presently. His physical assets should match Calvert-Lewin, but I am not sure he deploys them to any real effect. His basic technical abilities as a player are where he exasperates me most – the football is not his friend.

Either way, though it is a transfer that's not worked out, I can absolutely see the thinking and logic behind it; which was not always the case with Thelwell's predecessors.

King raised his game to score 3 goals for Watford against us because he had a beef. He has scored 11 goals in total since he left us, so let's put that hat-trick in perspective.

It amazes me that we have watched Everton circle round the plug hole since Ancelotti left in 2021, but he apparently did nothing when he was with us. He had a win rate of 46.27% and got us into a position where we could qualify for Europe in his final game. He left because he was told a pack of lies when he was hired and found a dysfunctional mess when he joined – like every other manager since.

We have since been treated to league finishes of 16th, 17th, 15th and we are 19th currently. The average win ratio of the managers who succeeded Ancelotti is 30.86%.

But we were fortunate when the Italian Dinosaur left to head to Real Madrid to win La Liga, the Copa Del Rey, 2 Champions Leagues and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Before I argue your points, let me state my generic understanding of Everton Football Club's strategy regarding player acquisitions and sales.

For the majority of his presence, Kenwright was solely responsible for them. Spectacularly appallingly. This lasted until the introduction of Moshiri, when a DoF was introduced, yet Kenwright's interference was still heavily influential and detrimental to the interest of the club.

The role of Director of Football at Everton has no Job Description Questionnaire, or defined responsibility and is open and used at the whim of the owner or board (from an article by The Esk).

The previous two DoFs have been nothing other than failures, woeful and leading to an astounding waste of hundreds of millions of pounds.

The erosion of the club's standards on the field and within its academy is clear for all to see.

Kevin Thelwell.

Some of my points have been raised by others.

Players sold and the debate about funds brought in and net spend.

Due to PSR, Everton had to cut costs. Players reaching the natural end of the contracts (agreed pre-Thelwell) arguably the easiest way to save money. Telling a player we could not afford to re-sign them due to the aforementioned.

Academy players. Well again, none being Thelwell related. Those you name who were released were simply not good enough. Nor are those whom we sold and got money for. Of which most professional clubs of a high standard utilise. academies for. Assisting by developing then part funding purchases of 1st teamers.

Everton's academy has not been remarkable. For the amount of youngsters it has, it is extremely disappointing. Last season being one of the worst for some time across all ages. The lack of potential is alarming.

Thelwell is the head of the academy.

Everton are renowned for holding on to young players who are not at the standard required. (The Esk article).

We have no youngsters vying for a starting place in a team that is a relegation regular. That sums up how poor we are down to grass roots.

Re Branthwaite. Man Utd set their own bar with Maguire. Branthwaite is way better. Their derisory offers were an attack on our stellar star. Using their reputation to bully and cajole. Dyche, Chong and Moshiri would never sanction that joke of an approach. Thelwell was not responsible for retaining him.

Lack of decent scouts and scouting ability is and has always been an Everton weakness.

In his acquisitions, one would have to say under Thelwell, arguably, they are worse or he is.

1) The manager openly states that they are not fit for or of Premier League standard.

2) Players acquired do not fit Dyche's style of management.

3) Have led us to the bottom of the Premier League for the second season running.

We have no outstanding players under Thelwell. Ndiaye has potential.

He has failed to address the clear weaknesses in the side, since his arrival.

Both full-back positions. Wingers. Pace everywhere. Ball player. Goalscorers. Beto and Maupay are his claim to fame as strikers to take the load off misfiring Calvert-Llewin.

Finances. All clubs are cutting back under PSR. He has done nothing radical nor extraordinary than what everybody else is doing.

I will end my response here.

Thelwell has not done a good job. He has done his basic job, poorly. The academy is weak. And relegation is on again.

Didn't his judgement stop Everton signing King or did he come to the club knowing he would't have full control over signing players?

Good, bad or indifferent, he came to the club for the excellent wages on offer and it looks like he had the lovely option of moving out if certain clubs were interested in him.

Carlo was no mug and, like other managers who came for the money, knew who he was dealing with, an owner who put his faith in a man who he thought knew about football.

He knows different now and is all the poorer for it… unless Usmanov is copping for that huge sum.

Lowest net spend in the last 5 years, a wage bill that has thankfully started to be reduced, and that's before you consider PSR, which lead to two points deductions.

Everton are still a Premier League club because of the fans, the manager and the DOF, imo, and I agree that Thelwell has made mistakes with Maupay and Beto.

It takes me back to the night I asked Walter Smith why he had just taken Kevin Campbell, who I rated, and Scott Gemill, who I never rated, on loan, and his very blunt answer was “Son – I had to fucking do something!”

I don't understand how some Evertonians have a blind spot regarding Ancelotti, despite all he has won and having got a rag tail of a squad to the top of the league on Boxing Day, they still tell us what a good job Dyche is doing.

To answer Dave about coming for money, can you name a manager who didn't come for money? I think it irks some that he went back to Real Madrid, but I can't think of any manager or player who turned down the chance to play for the greatest club side in the World.

Seeing he would have no budget to spend, and we know that because his successor was given £1.5M, why wouldnt he go back to Real Madrid?

Moshiri had let people like Koeman and Silva spend all his money. And when he finally got a worldclass manager, there was no money left.

I also think the robbery at his house with his daughter inside may have influenced his decision to go back to Real Madrid, and who in the same circumstances wouldn't have done the same.

A couple of years ago Thelwell took over an academy which had been criticised for many years for not producing players who could go into the first team and stay there. I feel there is a degree of naivety in believing that in such a short space of time, Thelwell should have turned it around and we would now be persuading the better kids (with much better options) to join us.

Besides, even if we had any academy players coming through now, they would have been here before Thelwell and he wouldn't get the credit anyway.

Koeman was a terrible manager, and partly because I don't think he was that interested in managing Everton, but more likely he got an offer he couldn't refuse, with an example being when he said on the eve of the season, that he wasn't sure if Klaassen had the physical attributes for the Premier League.

Of course most managers come for the money, unless they are young and ambitious and fancy making a name for themselves but and it's a big but, can you name me a manager of any ability who had it in his contract that he could leave the club if another came calling for him without any compensation being paid to that club.

As for praising a manager for getting a club to the top of the league on Boxing Day but then finishing well below with the same players at the end of that same season, you get nothing for being top of the league on Boxing Day.

Also, he allowed one of his players on very high wages to dictate to him when he was fit to play and also let him fly home before the season was over, with him, presumingly getting paid as well.

Mind you, he wasn't paying the wages, seems he was a manager and had the power of a certain Godfather!

Tony, if I remember, Koeman took some convincing to come to Everton, although I'm sure there was an "incentive" thrown his way.

A shame, because as a youngster, I liked him as a player watching the Netherlands. Bullet-like shot on him and took no prisoners.

Derek 11, do you have a source for that speculation? I would be more inclined to believe it if presented.

Matt, well done. What Thelwell has achieved is a quick turnaround of our transfer reputation. Everton was no doubt seen as a desperate sucker and fully played for one.

While every piece of business has not worked out, overall we have reloaded some talent that both makes sense for the immediate job at hand and, more importantly, positioned us for some future necessary deals to raise funds. This is a difficult task given the talented and well funded competition Thelwell faces.

I do hope to see more contributions from you. This one is deservedly well received.

I'd also like to dispel a pretty persistent myth about Beto.

He is NOT a big money signing. He cost €25M which, by today's exchange rate, is £21M.

And, as Sam says, this was inflated by the fact we paid nothing in year one.

And whilst £21M is expensive for us, this is peanuts for the Premier League. Here's a list of strikers who Beto is cheaper than (in descending order of expensiveness...)

- Wesley Moraes (Villa 2019)
- Danny Ings (Saints 2019)
- Rhian Brewster(Sheff Utd 2020)
- Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester 2017)
- Danny Ings (Villa 2021)
- Eddie Nketiah (Palace 2024)
- Rodrigo (Leeds 2020)
- Chris Wood (Newcastle 2021)
- Patson Daka (Leicester 2021)
- Benteke (Palace 2016)
- Igo Thiago (Brentford 2024)

We're getting into the €35M (+) category from here...

- Evanilson (Bournemouth 2024)
- Raul Jiminez (Wolves 2019)
- Gianluca Scammaca (West Ham 2022)
- Michy Batshuayi (Chelsea 2016)
- Fabio Silva (Wolves 2020)
- Rutter (Leeds 2022)
- Rutter (Brighton 2024)

We're now hitting the €50M mark...

- Haller (West Ham 2019)
- Cunha (Wolves 2023)
- Solanke (Spurs 2024)

The reason we bought Beto is that we had to buy an experienced striker because no-one knew whether Calvert-Lewin was able to play more than 5 games last season. As you can see from the above, the market for experienced strikers is vastly overpriced. It is much better to buy a young striker for lower cost and develop them over time. We didn't have that luxury.

So we bought him, not because he was expected to be good, but because we could afford him for £0 initial outlay. As it happens, he is not terrible, but he's just not very good either.

DCL had a somewhat good run a few seasons back but injuries have affected his progress since then and I am not sure he will ever be as effective again.

Much can be said the same as Doucoure and Beto although they cannot blame injuries..

However, if you have a tight midfield and a competent back three or four you can still be a tough team to beat. This scenario is one that Everton have not yet achieved.

Branthwaite may help tighten the defence especially on set pieces.

Most teams still find it far too easy to find space against Everton as we do not have a speedy or tight marking midfield unit.

Robert #45, excellent analysis of the Beto buy. I happen to believe he'd have been a decent starter for us if Dom had been sold or permanently crocked. He's something of a misfit now because he needs the ball played to him on the ground rather than in the air.

Dupont #4, "convenor and sole chartered member" my left nut. There are a number of older signatures on your charter, mine among them as one who researched Thelwell's work in MLS when his name was first floated for our DoF job. And I've been an increasingly enthusiastic endorser since shortly after he landed.

I get the feeling that Thelwell and Colin Chong are de facto running the club at this point amidst the management and financial vacuums at the top, but they should be able to get back to their usual duties with the arrivals of Friedkin and whoever he chooses as CEO (Souloukou?).

Again, not saying he’s the second coming of Monchi (who had a stinker at Roma, so isn’t infallible) or some sort of revolutionary and transformative figure. Just that his mistakes can be explained and he’s generally acted like a steady sensible man with a plan.

I’d take issue with those saying the lowering of the wage bill was accidental/incidental. We ‘could’ and have in the past replaced those players/contracts with bigger ones. Cutting it by 2/5ths is purposeful and planned.

Maybe the bar is incredibly low, maybe competence is the least we should expect from our great club, but we haven’t seen it in such a long time that I think it’s worthy of remark when someone reaches that mark.

Cutting the wage bill at a time when players are looking for more money than ever before has been no small achievement. You should pop in more often.

Robert

Thank you for setting the record straight about Beto. We will eventually recoup a fair amount of what we paid for Maupay and with Chertmiti looking promising...

I do think, if the takeover happens, then we do need to keep Thelwell and Dyche. We still need to build with careful structured well-planned buys and I feel Dyche and Thelwell won't piss the money down the drain like some fancy new manager would.

The biggest crime in Moshiri's tenure is that the charlatan and bull-shitter Marcel Brands was allowed to throw Marco Silva under the bus. I still think Marco Silva is one of the best managers in the Premier League. He's more than proved it at Fulham.

They clearly weren't on the same page with that one, were they?

Both Thelwell and Dyche have operated on such unsteady ground, with shifting sands a-plenty, it will be interesting to see how they steer us upwards, if given the chance by the new owner. May that be the case.

Personally I don't think it is possible when recruiting staff to make the right choice every time (bitter experience speaking there) but you do your best as I'm sure Thelwell has done throughout, so I'm not, as some have, going to complain or criticise where it has gone wrong,

He has done a good job and I hope that TFG recognise that and leave well alone there. If a new contract is needed, I hope he gets one so they can see first-hand the work that he does for the Club.

I think we need to see how he and the rest of the current off-field staff do with stable ownership and improved money to spend.

Thanks for the article, by the way!

There is also the massive problem that, whatever the DoF does, it is the head coach who has to train and select the players. To judge the DoF while we have Dyche as head coach is perhaps unfair.

All I can say is that, for what we have spent, the incoming players seem to have been reasonable and he has done well in reducing the deadwood.