Everton announce new football leadership structure

You would think with all these, supposedly best at whatever they do, we would have bought a couple of signings in by now.

Do we have enough first team players for a match day squad?

Keane won't sign, Calvert-Lewin won't sign, Gueye won't sign, Branthwaite looking at a new contract, players already left…

Maybe some of the so-called board room recruits could be given player contracts, just in case dithering Davey doesn't get a move on and actually sign somebody.

But I suppose thing's are looking up, with more matchday trains and buses, what can go wrong?

The academy has been in need of an overhaul for some time, more youngsters should be pressing for first-team places. From here, it depends on results and putting quality onto the pitch at first team and junior levels.

We're not going to buy £60M plus players, we need to identify emerging talent.

"The academy has been in need of an overhaul for some time, more youngsters should be pressing for first team places."

The academy should be scrapped, it's not fit for purpose. Not one player from the academy is good enough for the first team; if they were, we would have them as first-team regulars by now.

Moyes had better get a move on, or once again we will be looking in the bargain basement bin for cast-offs, and free transfers to just increase the squad – not improve it.

It's not even 1 July and some people just moan moan moan and fucking moan. Do people not get tired of moaning and complaining? Your poor wives... We won't sign players until after 1st July so stop going on.

The academy should be scrapped!!! What a load of nonsense. Do people not remember Anthony Gordon!! Without his sale, the club would have had an even bigger PSR breach and been relegated.

Thick as mince, some people on here.

Slag the club off and people can't get players' names right who have been here 8 years.

The Athletic (aka New York Times) has good ear to the ground in Paddy Boland.

Paddy writes up what he knows in a very erudite article in The Athletic.

Keen eyes and ears at ToffeeWeb Towers spot a good story and try to summarize the meaty bits for our small gaggle of ardent Everton watchers.

The Echo, never slow off the bench, reads ToffeeWeb and realizes they should really be on top of the new flat white structure.

The Team at ToffeeWeb, scouring the wires for news, see an important story published in the local press, and we're all over it! No flies on us!!!

Did I miss anything?

I firmly believe my calling on TW is to bitch, and moan and complain. If it gets people to do what I'm doing, which is moaning and bitching, then I've achieved my goal, which is to turn people like you, into a moaning bitching poster.😁

You've now labelled fellow Evertonians as "clueless idiots" and "thick as mince" in one week for having an opinion.

We are better than that.

You need to meet some of us pre-match.

Wonder how much these four jobs will cost?

Excuse my cynicism but this all seems very complicated (?) and... um... un-Moyes-like.

"..the club's football strategy and analytics operations and player trading activity and negotiations"

And...

"..covering the medical, operations, facilities and player care departments, as well as the academy functions.”

Or...

"..I believe step-changes our analytics capability and will deliver us a long-term competitive advantage,”

Really?

Why, will other clubs not be doing all this?

Sorry but I find it very difficult to get worked up about signings who aren't players.

Wonder who'll be next...

Russell Upsome-Grubb – Squad dietician.

Duane Pipe – Assistant youth development officer.

Chris P Baykon – Assistant to the assistant youth development officer.

Tom Orro – Youth Development Officer.

Juan Kerr – Development liaison officer.

Sawyer Ringpeece III – Head of US Recruitment.

Bjorn Toby Wilde – Scandinavian Recruitment Director.

Etc... blah.

I am sure Moyes will manage with quality people around him. In any case, he's only here for another 2 seasons. Hopefully successful club infrastructure is around for a lot longer than that.

Let's give it a chance. It won't deliver success immediately to a club currently ranked as 17th out of 20 by Transfermarkt - with a squad of only ~10 players without question marks hanging over them.

But it has a much higher chance of success than doing nothing with the operational side of the club (which has been really shit for a long time).

(Okay, Danny point taken.)

But Eugene isn't happy?!! Would people prefer it if we carried on in the old way? Run by mates of the chairman or people who might do a half-decent job given the chance?!

We all know there will be no signings until the new PSR year. That's 1 July. Before then, they're getting serious football people with great CVs in to important positions so we're run like an actual professional club.

But the cynicism and moaning just keeps coming. Not one of these fellers has done anything yet and they're already getting slagged off?

The academy isn't fit for purpose. Well let's get the feller from Man Utds academy. The team that has fielded an academy player in every game they've played for about 30 years!!! No? Okay, bad idea. Fair play.

This. FFS.

"The academy isn't fit for purpose. Well let's get the feller from Man Utds academy. The team that has fielded an academy player in every game they've played for about 30 years!!!"

Surely you agree then the fact that we have had to get that fella from Man Utd's academy in means our academy isn't fit for purpose!

All seems the recruitment policy is ignoring the player side and creating jobs that are possibly not really needed.

Oh for the old days when the manager coaches and owner sat down and talked about what (players) would be brought in to improve the team, not how many more seats are needed in the boardroom.

Re mince, Chilli con carne cannae be beaten.

Ryan seems to be in the unique position of winning Mastermind every day and therefore feeling able to call other people idiots and thick as mince.

Ryan, in a free world, everybody has a right to an opinion – whether you agree with it or not.

If you have a counter-argument, put it up… but do not call fellow blues thick as mince or idiots because, believe you me, they are far from that.

My perspective is not a moan but a concern in that we need 6 to 10 players to achieve a reasonable competitive squad, and it will probably take 4 or 5 days per acquisition to land them, so we don't have much time left unless we have already agreed deals — which I very much doubt.

How does one mince? Get on the cat walk.

You then say it will probably take 4 or 5 days per acquisition to land them and that we don't have much time left to sign them.

Are you suggesting that we can only sign one at a time and that we are unable to multi-task on transfers?

Fabianski… do we have a Number 2 or 3?

You get today's comedy gem!!! 😁😁😁😁😁

Who did the hard yards behind the scenes was irrelevant for Moshiri.

I'm content that TFG seem to be taking a more holistic approach.

Nowt wrong with the general idea (far from it) but effectively it's just a corporate marketing slogan. I am totally not buying it.

There's always the danger of too many cooks in the kitchen.

I knew that word would irksome... (see what I did there!)

Are you merely not buying the term in general or the suggestion that this is TFG's approach?

No I don't agree that the academy wasn't fit for purpose because we've bought a newer supposedly better man in. We should look to improve in every department at all times.

Alex Ferguson would get rid of players in their prime if he thought he could bring in someone better. This clubs last thirty years have been built on settling. So we're improving.

As others have said. Anthony Gordon was an academy product. The likes of Ishe Samuels-Smith, Tim Cannon and Ellis Simms combined with the Gordon sale and a few others (Isaac Price?) made us I think the most profitable academy in the country over a 5-year period.

The academy's job isn't just to get players for the first team. It's also to develop and sell on players.

Last year three academy products made their first team debuts. Let's see where they end up.

Of course it could be better (hence the new appointment…) but hardly not fit for purpose.

Yeah, I dare say that The Friedkin Group sit around the table using the word "holistic" but that wouldn't amount to very much, IMO.

The idea of things being taken as an integrated whole is a good one, very much so, but at this point, the word has lost any real meaning, descending into mere marketing spiel.

Even with the new regime everything seems as slow as the reaction on the Titanic.

Don’t get me wrong I love the improvement in talent in the boardroom and management steering the ship for the future but in the here and now we need players in for preseason not just the start of the season and despite the media linking us with every reject going there does not seem to be any imminent incoming.

Some of the ‘new regime’ have literally been in place for ONE DAY and are being accused of being slow.

Don’t get me wrong if we don’t have new signings by August 1st I’ll be pushing the panic button.

But getting things right behind the scenes is surely the first thing on the agenda of any serious business or you end up with three Number 10s, a string of sacked managers, repeated relegation battles and points deductions.

I have absolutely no clue if the word "holistic" was ever uttered at a TFG meeting.

I'm still not clear if it's the term you're not impressed with or the the suggestion that this is the approach adopted by our new owners?

Football business however, is far removed from what I grew up in regarding accountable businesses.

In football business we now have job descriptions that are foreign to me - see the job titles in the lead piece, and accountability is mysterious in a good season (or so I'm told, none of us lot would know, would we?).

In the business world I knew, you had workers, foremen/office supervisors, a manager, a board and an owner - all answerable to everyone above them with the owner punishing laxity below.

In modern football the workers are the players, but to whom are they accountable? And the myriad new jobs? Who are they accountable to? The manager or the owner? If it's the owner, the role of manager is massively diminished in every employee's mind isn't it?

And given that the majority of players are truly as thick as mince, therefore employing avaricious, conniving agents to screw the max for them and themselves regardless of the success of the club, just when will it be when us lot can be allowed to openly comment on the viability or not of our newly appointed off-field squad?

How this new structure all gels remains to be seen, but as you have said the evolution of the sport has moved on, we are into a more business/ profit / economy driven model, so long as this delivers a strong sporting club then it's OK with me, let's see where we go. We've been crying out for change, heres hoping our prayers are now being positively answered.

I'm not sure when all these new appointments will get to bed-in together.

I can't see it being too quick, so you are right to be concerned on that basis.

"And given that the majority of players are truly as thick as mince,"

I think the players have moved on a lot... some fans not so much.

Lord, this sort of virtue-signalling tripe just makes me want to hurl. I mean surely we aren't putting the women's team on some sort of equal footing, but this sort of stuff is just par for the course now.

The Guardian headline today under transfer news has Ktiigawa heading to Everton. Who?! I thought, clicking on the article. And of course it's as you'd expect.

This much heralded new system, well it'll look great if we start winning… But if we don't? Well, that's four people we've got to sack rather than one. And are all these new signings either from Leeds or Manchester? What the Fuck?

I watch cricket, both codes of rugby, golf and whatever other sport but football players in my opinion are distinguishable by rarely looking the questioner or the camera in the eye when they speak or are spoken to, rarely putting forward any kind of cogent explanation for victory or defeat, or looking even vaguely interested.

Okay, there are a few exceptions, but football history is full of words from numbskull professionals.

But that's merely my opinion. I respect your right to yours.

Only after they've done the housework... would they be allowed to fondle a ball.

Kinnear is going to get on the wrong side of the fanbase in pretty short order.

We've given this no-mark who's spent 10 years in the Championship with Leeds carte blanche to remodel the whole club. And he's bringing in his Yorkie mates by the truckload, all the while striking bum notes in everything he says.

It's far better than the shite we had previously.

I feel your pain, but Si is right. It looks like Groundhog Day every transfer window. We are not Man City or Chelsea, so have to be very aware of PSR constraints, hence business will tend to be delayed until the start of the next financial year, ie, July.

You're right: there don't seem to be any feasible incomings at the moment, just hundreds of clickbait rumours in the press and social media. What worries me, as you say, we need players in for the pre-season, not on the last day of the window.

Have the new team been in place long enough to deliver this? Not in my world, unless an awful lot of work has been going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.

Has Moyes already got a hit list prepared? He didn't do too bad with Cahill, Pienaar, Fellaini and Neville to name but a few.

The Club has traditionally played its cards close to its chest with regards to transfer activity, so we can only live in hope!
Squeaky bum time again!

For reasons I can't fathom... you have tied your mast to the "Kinnear will fail" ship.

Perhaps he will… but I'll at least give him and the new "flat structure" a smidgeon of time to prove themselves.

I am not hindering his succeeding, I'm just putting out there my early impressions… and they ain't good.

No-one's ringing endorsement nor criticism makes any difference either way.

I'm just curious as to why you are so full on "Kinnear out" before we've even kicked a ball under his tenure.

There's a number of things which concern me. His specialism is maximisation of matchday revenue following a ground move; he's spent a long time doing not very much with Leeds; he's making big decisions on how the club moves forward, when I was hoping he was going to just let Moyes have a free hand.

More than all that, I don't like the way he talks. His first interview, 'We want to make Evertonians proud' — What does that even mean, it's a slippery statement if ever there was one.

In my gut, I just get a bad vibe, with his Gareth Southgate style genuflections to the ladies, he's very 2025. He knows what he's got to say to get on. I'd rather he was just good at his job.

'Our two managers'. It's actually a subtle put down to Moyes, who is the most important appointment at the club. Can you imagine the Chief Exec at Man Utd talking about 'our two managers' when Sir Alex was there?

22 of them wasn't it? Hopefully all flattened by our new structure.

We have to give Kinnear a chance to get his coat off.

I know what you mean though. I'm watching closely and I'm getting a little uneasy too.

I believe use of the word "holistic" is more or less required for making movies.

However, getting back to us, the Everton women's team were a successful team a few years back, winning trophies but have clearly fallen away. The current owners are obviously keen on getting the women's team back on track and are investing accordingly and readying Goodison Park for the new season. Any success that any team at any level associated with Everton enjoys is going to reflect positively on the club as a whole and that can only be good in the long-term.

The club as a whole has often been accused of being mis-managed from top to bottom and now that it looks like a firmer structure is being put in place, surely that's a good thing.

Although I obviously don't know Angus Kinnear or the rest of the management team, I am confident they'll be able to multi-task.

Increasing commercial revenue, including match day, will enable the club to spend more on players under PSR.

Focusing on the male and female teams will broaden the fan base, and therefore also increase revenue.

Still too raw and pumped up on adrenalin to sometimes be coherent in thought and words. We've seen it over the years; Kevin Keegan's famous "I will love it" interview is a good example.

I appreciate it's part of the modern game and the clubs make most of their revenue through the TV contracts, so are obliged. But give them time to cool off in my opinion.

Kevin @54, I watched his interview. I suppose it's down to interpretation, but I thought he conducted himself well and said the right things. Yes, he spoke about the need to generate more revenue. We know that and have done for years. But he also suggests that a lot of that revenue will be re-invested in the playing squad and academy.

The club is already doing that. Yesterday, they announced the Premium Experience. Halfway line seats, some right behind the dugout, with access to several restaurants in the West Stand. Prices range between about £450 - £650, depending on the opposition.

I know this is another point that is opinion based, but I wouldn't want Moyes given a free reign. For me, the days of the autocratic, absolute power of the manager has long passed. Moyes will influence and be part of the transfer committee, who will be in place to support the manager.

I don't know how it will work, that's down to the CEO, as ultimately, he is responsible and accountable to TFG.

I'm with Colin @56. We have to wait and see. Words are fine, but actions speak louder. Let's see what they do. We can't judge them until they've started.

I was a little bit underwhelmed but not disappointed with Kinnear's first words myself but let's see what he can deliver.

Mike #57,

Thank you... darling. I'm fully on board... "Nil Satis Nisi Absolutely Fabulous"

If this is true, then at least someone is doing their job?

The academy is as much use as an anal diaphragm.
Re Anthony Gordon. He was a RNS academy product, who was released and we took him in.

We had no structure under the dead one, then Moshiri for 3 decades… how we moaned. Then TFG arrive. Put in place a structure… how we moaned.

TFG are already approaching the fucking shambles professionally. The window hasn't been open more than a few days. Now we have people in place, let's see what they can do.

Bear in mind that they have been left with around 15 players short of a squad. And let's face it, most of the remains aren't great. So this would take an Einstein / Hawkins genius of footballing know how to solve.

Never in the football field of no players conflict…

- professionalising / modernising the running of the club
- generating additional revenues
- improving the academy

Everything I have seen so far is with this in mind. We don't know whether it will all work but it all needed to be done. As I said on another thread, Everton football club will not be successful again without these things being done and done well.

I think a lot of the naysayers would have been a lot happier if we'd have signed Delap and, say, Grealish. That would have pretended we were keeping up with the RS Joneses as they sign Wirtz and Frimpong.

Well the signings on the pitch will come. We have signed Alcaraz and made a genuine attempt to sign Delap. It seems like money is there (how much we don't know) and by the end of the summer window we'll have a squad of 18 or so core players with a few extras to bump up the numbers.

There are signings being done by other clubs - but really not that many still (most by far are clubs taking up loan options like we did on Alcaraz) and there is a long way to go.

And this is really just the start of a 3- to 5-year project, after the club was run into the ground by Moshiri.

Of course this is the wrong approach and destined to fail…. But so was the last one and so will be the next one.

A genuine question. Of the players that have left who would the neigh-sayers have kept?

Or would you have let them go and bought in better options (albeit after 1 July).

Because there's not a single one I'd have kept. And I don't care about ‘needing bodies' or ‘numbers' that kind of thinking had nearly killed the club. Keeping garbage on the bench so we have numbers. Well garbage on the bench is also garbage on the pitch so it's an expensive mistake.

Let them go. Replace with better or younger or both. Judge on the first day of the season. Let's have a little positivity.

I'm not a neigh-sayer, but in response, I can't think of a player that has left that I would have kept. Maybe Virginia as we now need a backup goalkeeper.

We do need numbers, but not players for the sake of it. For several seasons, we've survived with a core of 14 players. Once the injuries and suspensions kick in, we have been scratching the surface.

I agree with your last sentence, although I assume you mean judge by the squad we have on first day of the season? Christ, we lost the first two matches in 1984-85. I know what you mean though Si.

It'll take time though and we must be patient.

'I'm not sure when all these new appointments will get to bed-in together.'

Bed-in?? This is not the Luvvy duvvy days! There is not a single Baxendale among them – thank god!!

Helen Baxendale was absolutely exceptional!

However, listening and reading about the people behind the scenes that TFG have brought in sounds pretty impressive.

Obviously improvements need to be made to the playing staff; however, building the blocks which we need to ensure steady progression is a massive advantage.

If you look at the successful improvements in recent years they are autocratic owners who don't give a fig about PSR such as Chelsea and Nottm Forest who have both spent like it's Christmas.

Whether that is short-term remains to be seen and the positive thing about TFG is that if something is not working they are quick to act.

My main concern is we will be spending too little too late and not make the gap up sufficiently to join the big earners.

Somebody said the window has only just opened. That is not true, this is the second opening of the window and although there have been a lot of media nonsense and propaganda about who were interested in nothing appears to be on the horizon.

Someone else mentioned July 1st but there is nothing to prevent us signing contracts now to take effect on July 1st.

My concern is that we need so many additions especially in key positions that we have to manage the integration into the squad hopefully in preseason.

Maybe we've got irons in the fire left right and centre but the press aren't party to it…

Alan Myers seems to think there's a lot going on behind the curtain.

Sick of hearing the club lambasted for not signing players they were potentially never in for or interested in because an AI clickbait site said we were interested in player A or B.

Dithering Dave getting roasted for not completing a process he would never be part of for a player the club where never interested in again and again. 😂

I won't bet my mortgage on it like….

But we never know!!

My concern is the new structure means so many fingers in the pie, it is bound to slow the process down (which is no bad thing for the future) and we need at least 4 additional players for preseason and up to 10 or more for the start of the season.

However, she was not the first Baxendale that came to mind - you are far wider read than moi.

Dithering Dave and these useless new appointments stealing a living signing a Dutch international with loads of Premier League experience on low wages. They should hang their heads.

We are probably in the market for every single position on the pitch, so we may have inquired about many players, doesn't mean they are signing.

Thelwell may have got the deals over the line in recent years, some obviously good, some not so good, but he wasn't the one scouting them, and we probably couldn't afford many of the targets we had,.

Hopefully we now have a list of potential targets that we've been tracking for a while when we didn't have the funds and we now can be more certain of them targets being right for us.