Kevin Thelwell set to become Rangers sporting director

Wish him well, did a tremendous job with two hands tied behind his back, having to deal with a chairman he seldom saw, no board, and trying to bring players in with no money upfront. I'd like to thank him for signing O'Brien, who has been superb, because it was clear to see, Dyche never wanted him.

I see Vardy is available, cheap squad player and can still play a bit.

There's always been mixed feelings about how Thelwell fared at Everton - which seems to come down to whether you acknowledge (or not) that we invested less than every single other Premier League club (and the top end of the Championship) in his time with us.

Whatever perspective you take, it means the new recruitment team (including Moyes) has a tough audience to please now.

It seems that they will have meaningfully more money then Thelwell to spend. That's good.

But probably not more than the immediate competition of Wolves, Palace, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Fulham and Forest. That's less good.

We also have to replace (or renew) the likes of:

Doucoure (32 appearances)
Gueye (35 appearances)
Keane (15 appearances)
DCL (21 appearances)
Young (30 appearances)
Broja (7 appearances)
Lindstrom (29 appearances)
Harrison (32 appearances)
Alcaraz (11 appearances)
Mangala (21 appearances)

On a tight budget (i.e. anything less than the now very modest net spend of £50m) it is going to be hard to start next season with a squad (on paper) that is as good as the 2024/25 squad.

As well as the first team squad, Thelwell was also sorting out academy recruitment with Clarke and Graham looking most promising.

It seems that we've already signed 16 year old John Dodds from Hearts for the academy next season. I'll be interested to see whether we can improve on that too - since to provide a better pipeline of talent for the first team we need to bringing in a much higher volume of 14 to 17 year olds.

Good luck to him- did what he could with the resources and both hands tied.

Robert, I am deeply concerned with the condition of our first team squad.
We have (at present) 25 players.
(3 goalkeepers)
5 loans.
Not one of those have justified becoming a permenant signing. Maybe Alcaraz for another season on loan at best.
That leaves us with a squad of 19.
DCL and Keane look like certain leavers.
No objection there. Both are poor in different ways. Thats 17.
Young likely to be released ? 16.
Doucoure and Gueye seem to be accepting 1 year extensions 16.
Coleman to retire. 15.
I will talk about the rest of the squad in a moment.
But simple maths means we need 10 players to make a full squad before we even look at our 'cash assets' (players we can actually sell) to fulfill / not breach PSR (It will be in a new format from next season).
10 players !!!
Even with all the money in the world, due to regulations, we would not be allowed to fill that number of vacancies.
We cant count on our academy. We have no one of quality there
So lets look at what we have left.
Unbalanced is the kindest word I can come up with.
Beto, Chermiti, Patterson and Tim have all failed to impress, during game time. They don't feature unless they are the last resort for Moyes and his predecessor Dyche.
Garner, Mykolenko and McNeil are probably squad players at best, but we are miles away from that luxury.
That we have to re-sign the abject Doucoure shows what a poor state of affairs we are in. Gueye will probably be in the last year of his career.
That leaves us with a small contingent of Premier League class players. Pickford, Tarks, O'Brien, Illy and Branthwaite.
Should and I stress, "should"the club decide to sell Branthwaite to raise money for desperately needed numbers, it is extremely doubtful we would get the actual cash we want for him. There is only one club sniffing. They wont pay what we want and are very near (if not actually over) psr threshold. If, and its a massive if, we got the money in for him, that translates to 3 players, possibly 4 (Illy standard) if we can find them, which we frequently prove, we cant.
So in conclusion, in reality, Everton FC are in an extremely weak and vulnerable position. Devoid of quality in at least 6 positions, especially up front and on the wings. The 5 loans we are allowed must be filled. They have to be used much better. They are now a vital tool to bring in temporary quality we need, whilst slowly rebuilding the numbers we have been left low on.

Id expect 5 perm signings and 5 or so loans.

Id expect more plsyers to be signed into the u21s on top, and potentially loaned out.

Martin, here's a scenario that might resemble where we end up.

We sign a couple of frees - say, Davies of Spurs and Coufal of West Ham. This shores up the defence a bit and covers a few positions.

We re-sign Gueye and Virginia of those on frees.

We re-enter the loan market and take on Broja, Lavia and Couto from Chelsea and City.

We buy Doak, Alcaraz and Nuamah for about £50m or so.

We end up with a squad of about 18 to 20 players or so. It is not brilliant but it has a decent balance about it with some players of quality with room to grow. It also has much, much more pace and quality on the flanks. This enables us to play better football.

So okay, we won't have a great striker or a vanity signing to get excited about - but we will have improved things and should be heading in the right direction as a club.

Robert.
NO !!!NO BROJA😂
The bare bones (which is all we are) of the matter is our woeful record in the transfer market. Signings, loans and academy.
With the likes of dcl, keane going and others retire / release, that gives us wages for frees. But we need to restrict length of contracts.
And only sign proven players.
But we need quality in the loan market. Broja isn't that and he looks it. He ain't for us. Charley hasnt lit the world on fire either but he may have something more to give. Thats if he isn't snaffled by another club which the serious rumour squad are circulating.
Im not arsed about vanity or stellar signings. With over a half century of bitter disappointment under my belt, its something Everton are incapable of.
Many blues get excited by transfer time.
I balk and dread the embarrassment and humiliation it causes. Whilst the rns pluck out quality from the top shelf, we plunge the depths of the sewage system.
I might petition parliament to issue emergency legislation that prevents anyone at the club choosing our next load of duffers

Someone will take Vardy on a free and he'll do a decent job - why not us. He's the old head we need up front. Andy Gray was said to be too old and he didn't do too bad for us, did he ?

For full back I'd take Walker - Peters. He can play both full back positions. He's a freebie too.

I'd like to thank Kevin Thelwell, for the job he has done, under the most ridiculous of situations, caused by the hierarchy in the club.

We have wasted money Martin esp 2016 to 2021. But we’ve also never (including in that period) spent a great deal either compared with consistently successful clubs.

It’s also easier to appear good at recruitment if you can spend your way past your mistakes.

The RS have not really been disadvantaged by £85m on Nunez.

And maybe others are finding it tough too.

Brenford and Brighton have spent £37m and £50m on Evanilson and Rutter- despite being held up as excellent at recruitment. These two seem unlikely to outperform £22m Beto (although Evanilson is a much better footballer).

In fact, if Everton had spent £230m as Brighton did this year, I think fans would consider it a crime to finish outside the Champions League spots.

I accept there are all sorts of problems with Broja - but that will be true of every striker we can realistically afford and attract.

Personally I think he might merit another loan - and it seems Moyes must be considering that, hence playing him. Better to judge once Broja is properly fit and playing in something other than a patched up side. It took Cunha time before he looked worthy of the £50m Wolves paid for him.

Whoever we sign is also likely to take a bit of time too.

In Thelwell's time at Everton, players' wages reduced by 14% and Everton were the only team in the Premier League to make a profit on transfers. The Premier League monitoring had a big impact on this, when they effectively took budgetary control of Everton during the height of PSR, when they effectively sanctioned all transfers.

The players that were brought in were of a reasonable standard, but Dyche and Thelwell had their difficulties, meaning that some did not play. The Academy continued to be ravaged by loans and sell-offs. The forgotten loanees we did not hear about the same.

Thelwell did build up a staff structure that did not stand up to the TFG 100-day review, which meant he was gone and a different structure imposed.

Good Luck to him in his new appointment.