Everton looking to appoint Nick Cox as new technical director

The owners are firmly putting their own stamp on the club.

The paragraph that caught my eye, was referring to Kinnear, wanting a broader, flatter structure, with experts in recruitment and player negotiations, which takes it away from Moyes' sole responsibility.

That's not a dig at the Manager. He can tell them what he wants and focus on the first team.

I think the crucial appointments for the Academy will be the new coaches, they are certainly needed and have done for a good few years.

- to provide first team players

- to provide additional revenue through player sales to buy first team players

Even when the academy players are excellent they are being traded because there is a big accounting win.

There is a lot of trading going on age 14 to 18 - and then bigger money deals age 18 to 22. Man Utd haven’t done this as successfully in recent years as City and the RS possibly - but still generated money from the likes of Kambwala, Hannibal, Pellestri, Carreras, Pereira etc and those mentioned by others.

Think they've been in the top 2 or 3 in the u18 league for the last 4 years or so which suggests their academy is churning out or finding decent players consistently though obviously they have far more resources than most. Not sure of budgets but maybe they might feel they should have been matching Chelsea or Man City, which i'm not sure they've achieved.

Villa has already paid a lot for him. If reports are to be believed, paying 75% of his significant wages. The deal also had an option to buy for £40M. I'm not sure if they took that up. I haven't seen anything.

Ryan, I'm not sure what you're getting at there. Other decent players or being sarcastic? Maybe explain, so I can understand.

James Garner, once fit, had a very good half a season alongside Gana.

Henderson is England's number 2 and won the FA Cup with Crystal Palace, although it's debatable that he should have still been on the pitch.

Maybe not as good now as Sir Alex's early days, but still produce.

Arsne Wenger wasn't too shabby at spotting young talent and West Ham back in the day were pretty good too.

Let's hope this restructuring can help us tap in to local and foreign talent. I'm not a believer of taking kids into academies too early, but we can at least identify them.

You will rarely, if ever get a Rooney, who by all accounts (urban myth), was ready for the mans game at 10 years old!!

For me, there’s never been a greater England player than Wayne Rooney. You don’t get players like him often.

I love the interview Kev Campbell gives about first meeting a young 14 year old WR

He has some strengths certainly - largely in buying good but not great players in what would now be the £20m to £40m range.

But how does his expertise compare with the professionalised set up at Brighton, for example, where they have already spent about £60m this summer on 4 under 21 players from Korea, Greece, the Championship and Italy?

It’s been reported by Paddy Borland that Moyes will get the final say on any transfers

And Moyes does still have his limits.

I'd be very surprised if he's managed to stay on top of what is now a global market (and the highly professionalised nature of operating in that market). And when he has a big budget, he just seems to spend it on the same quality of player he can typically find with a smaller budget.

I think these are things which mean he is not beyond question. And will definitely benefit from experienced professional support (in the same way Klopp did at the RS, when we was persuaded to go with advice from the then newly hired data analysts).

I think that is what Ryan is suggesting - that we're building a better team around recruitment (or at least trying to) to make the most of the budget we do have going forward - which will also extend to areas of recruitment Moyes probably shouldn't have any say in (i.e. 14 to 16 year olds who are unlikely to debut while he is manager - and any development players initially earmaked for loans).

I met Rooney when he was about 10 or 11years old.

He was at my nieces birthday party who was a good friend and still is with Waynes future wife. I suppose the word for him then was Brash and he didn't mind telling you how good he was.

Glad to see the fixtures out and can start planning my next visit back, looks like September when they have 2 home games.