Angus Kinnear talks recruitment structure ahead of ‘unprecedented summer’ for Everton

Angus Kinnear is expected to have a busy summer after taking over as the chief executive officer at Everton this week. Kinnear believes that the Blues will also face an ‘unprecedented’ restructuring ahead of next season.

The 47-year-old arrived early from Leeds United after the Yorkshire-based club confirmed their promotion to the Premier League. Kinnear will oversee a major squad overhaul as Everton could lose up to 15 first-team players either due to the expiry of contracts or the conclusion of loan spells.

The Blues will also move to a new 52,888-seater state-of-the-art stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock next season and the new chief executive is clear that football will continue to be the “priority” for Everton.

"The first priority is always going to be football," he told Everton TV. "We will always be football first.

"Ultimately, my job and the job of everyone at Everton is to make Evertonians proud. I know they're proud to belong to the club and I want to find reasons to make them proud. That starts with what we do on the pitch, so football will always be the number one priority and I think David has done a wonderful job since he came in, stabilising things and moving the team on.

"There's a huge restructure to be done in terms of the squad. I think it's pretty unprecedented at Premier League level. But David and I see that as an opportunity to take the team on to the next level and fundamentally have a team that is moving up the table.”

A new recruitment structure will also be implemented at the club going forward. Kevin Thelwell, who had served as the Director of Football for the last 3 years, has joined Rangers in Scotland while head of recruitment Dan Purdy is also leaving the club. Head coach David Moyes is also expected to play a key role in the Toffees’ transfer activities.

"I think there's been a move in recent years to a single Director of Football model and that can be challenging," he said on the changes to the recruitment model.

"We're going to move to a broader, flatter structure, where we have experts in data and analytics, in football operations, in recruitment and talent ID, and then in player trading. Some of those people have already come on board, and there are going to be some more announcements over the next couple of weeks. I've been delighted by the quality of individuals that we've been able to attract.

"I think when Everton fans see it, they're going to be really reassured that we've got, I think, a world-class football operations team in place who'll be there to support David, who we think is a world-class manager."

Kinnear was also quick to identify the “potential” at Everton and explained his ambitions for the club.

“I see the potential in everything that Everton is and everything that it can be. I want to be aggressive in our ambitions. I think there’s lots of case studies that we’ve seen recently of teams that I would see as smaller than Everton,” he continued.

“Perhaps Nottingham Forest making a run in Europe, Crystal Palace getting to an FA Cup Final. They’re all things that should be in our ambitions for the medium term.

“Longer term, I think we can look beyond that. I think there’s no reason why Everton can’t challenge it at the top table of European football. We have to be pragmatic. We have to be balanced. We have to be sensible in our decisions.

“We have to work in a structure where we’re not worried about relegation, where we’re not concerned by regulatory issues, which have pinned the club back. We need to create a firm foundation that we can build on.”

 

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