Kenwright: Director of Football search ongoing

I hope it's Moshiri and not Bill who's doing the searching otherwise this could go on for years. Bill, what's cross-fertilisation? I hope you're not thinking of cloning yourself.

'The beating heart at Everton'

Nice that.

Another lucrative contract on the way. Let's hope he doesn't forget to include the small print... performance based!

Is he searching 24/7? Sorry couldn't resist

"What I have picked up in the last four weeks is it is an important role and if done right it can add to a football club."

Oh Bill. I am not your biggest critic but surely you examined the role in detail before the last 4 weeks. I am sure he has but his chatty interview approach (the True Blue doing his best) does him no favours.

One thing though, the tone of this is a man no longer in charge and just a spokesperson now. But credit... he did get Moshiri.

I think with the "cross fertilisation" comment it's clear that a director of football means that Bill's position will be more and more of a figurehead rather than a decision maker....and he's realized that and , dare I say, accepted it.
Things in the future will be carried out in a much more professional and efficient way as sentiment is eased out of the decision making process.
Good news.

It sounds like Bill will be in the 'Bez / Flava Flave' role from now on. That will probably be for the best!

Yarmalenko.

We just signed a keeper, 18 year old from Oldham.

What about Joe Royle. Why not? A man who knows Everton. Played at the top level. Managed the club. Could he not advise Koeman just as well as any other names mentioned? IMO, I was never really convinced by the role of a DOF but if we must have one then Joe Royle would do for me. Call me an old traditionalist but Royle knows the club. IRIT. Forever Everton. (That's the title of Royle's co-written book). A dogs of war approach, only with more flair. That would work for me.

"[Ronald] says it like he is in a pragmatic way, and speaks common sense."

Wish you spoke common sense, Bill. Cloud Cuckoo Land that man. Chairman of a Premier League football club who doesn't really understand what a sporting director does... Jesus!

Said it before and I'll say it again: he runs Everton just as he runs his theatre company: shambolic, unprofessional, budget and clueless (yet despite all this seem to get by alright).

Thank god Moshiri is here.

Had me laughing there Duncan, I had visions of Kenwright shaking the marraccas in the background behind Moshiri! Ha ha!

Teddy shocking ain't it no wonder we've struggled all these years. Unbelievable, roll on the Moshiri years.

Please Bill, just stop talkin will ya?

I was hoping that the Moshiri deal would make him more of a SILENT partner....sadly this does not seem to be the case.

To me, it feels more and more the time for Kenwright to just step down fully from any and all duties at Everton; make sure his health is spot on, and come and enjoy the brand new Everton along with the rest of us, just as an Evertonian.

Sounds like another big salary to the payroll... I'm getting more concerned about the financial future of the club with all the free spending that has already happened and with what seems to be on the way.

John #15 - I'm getting less concerned about the financial future of the club with all the free spending that has already happened and with what seems to be on the way... ;-)

"I know my Everton, he knows the world game."

Translation: "Outside Goodison Park, I'm clueless about the game."

Why bring Yarmolenko into it? If this is a roundabout hint I can't see the new regime being overly happy given everything so far is under the radar.

I can't wait until he is phased out. My Everton? He literally means his Everton I bet as well.

Mike, when the next set of financial results covering this period 16/17 are released, and the club shows a big loss, which they will, I think everyone will be need to be concerned.

Mike. 16. Totally agree. John.19. I suspect Farhad Moshiri might just be aware of this and have factored it into his calculations. It might also well be that he has Alisher Usmanov, Metalloinvest and MegaFon behind him.

John Z, don't worry, be happy. Just for a bit anyway.

I read it that we're definitely not after Yarmolenko and Moshiri has good reasons why we're not based on insider knowledge. Not sure it makes sense otherwise.

John
WE showed a loss for almost every year of Kenwrights reign.

At least any future losses will be in the interests of making the club great again as opposed to large interest payments to non committed directors.

Speculate to accumulate is the mantra of any sensible businessman, if there isn't any possible way of making money in the long-run they wouldn't spend any. Bill ran us like a local corner-shop for most of his time at the helm, and that just isn't suitable for a major English Institution like Everton FC.

Besides which there is a hell of lot of money coming in from the TV deals and hopefully, the new people in charge will bring in better sponsorship and other commercial deals which will bring extra revenue. We still can't afford to make too many errors on the financial front, but under Bill we couldn't really make any errors at all, although Everton as a club did reasonably well given our financial restrictions.

We'll see what happens but there's not a word coming out of the club that I'm not enjoying at the moment.

Kenwright here sounds like a man who is very content with the man he's sold to and the role he will now have moving forward. Semi retirement?

Ryazantsev said some great things in only a few words. And the best word was "projects". A football club isn't a project, but most of the elements are. That tells me that things such as the stadium move will have a rigour and accountability that we probably haven't seen before. A defined start, process and end with someone charged with delivering.

We feel like an organisation rather than a community project right now. Hopefully we see the results right through the club.

Millionaire owner of a sleeping giant won't sell to just any vulture fund; takes a long time as many clubs are bought and asset stripped and then sold on again and finally,when we are totally fucked off. brings in a billionaire who could potentially put the club back where it belongs.

Yet; to many on here, he's the devil incarnate.

Sure he's fucked up; but he's got a lot right too which many on here don't recognise.

New guy Moshiri is apparently putting £100 million of his own money into a club he has recently been introduced to. Kenwright meanwhile has just become a very rich man with the shares he has sold and the ones he has retained being worth around £50M. Wouldn't you have thought he would also give some of that to the club. £10M, £5M,£1M. Evidently he doesn't love the club quite that much.

Behave Clive. Slate him out of frustration for what you and others perceive as failings; fair enough. But to suggest he isn't an Evertonian is ridiculous. Bill has his faults but he isn't the anti-Christ and he certainly cannot be accused of not being an Evertonian. As I've said on other posts, he stepped into the frame when no one else would touch us.

And how much are the rest of us gifting Everton, Clive? I've gained a bit on my home - do I need to offer it to the club to be considered an Evertonian?

I'm going to take a punt that Moshiri won't be making too many charitable donations either.

Devil incarnate? Anti-Christ? Over the top in your defence lads. After all the SUCCESS of the 'Kenwright Era' as it will come to be remembered, you just take on board he's made and will make an absolute killing from Everton.

History will remember Kenwright in a much lesser light than you worshippers ever will. Fact. Smarten up. I for one cannot wait to see the back of him. Bring on the future. Bye bye Bill.

The very least Kenwright could do to reclaim his so-called True-Blue reputation is personally pay off that shyster Martinez, and he'd still be millions to the good. Until then it's "What a Dickhead" as far as I'm concerned.

Being told to "smarten up" by someone entirely inventing a defence of Kenwright's performance throughout his ownership... smart.

I'm not defending Kenwright at all Ernie can you make yourself more clear please? I was being sarcastic?

No you're inventing a defence by others of his tenure, Dan. Then attacking a viewpoint that no-one had in the first place!

No-one on this thread has said that the Kenwright era has been a success. I just believe that for all the criticism he deservedly gets, he doesn't deserve it for not donating his money to the cause.

Beat me to it Ernie!!

No mention of the word success from anyone from what I've read. Stabilisation and steady (unspectacular) progress on the pitch is how I'll remember the "Kenwright Era", not one of success.

To think any Chairman or Board Director of any football club isn't going to make money....I'll stop there, aren't we forever being told its a business? Romanticism at its best to think anyone isn't going to make money out of a Premier League club.

Incidentally Dan, I worship family and nothing else, certainly not Bill Kenwright, but I'm balanced enough to see all sides of the debate.

Graeme Sharp; I once worshipped Graeme Sharp, but I was young and impressionable!!!

Don't turn this into a Kenwright debate. He's no super saviour nor no evil devil. Like the rest of us he's somewhere in between and capable of both good and stupid.
Back to the DoF question. Never been a fan and it seems most English managers find it undermining but with RK in the fold and his own ideas of how it works, I can see how it can be a support role to the manager. A sounding board, a chief scout, a negotiator, a buyer of players. Only problem I can see is Bill spitting his dummy out, but as we now know Billy has to stand in line and bow to the real power at Everton.

There are some very interesting passages in Carlo Ancelotti's book Quiet leadership – winning hearts, minds and matches.
Everton are mentioned, and it seems like Roberto Martinez had absolute power when it came to transfers. Ancelotti seems to be an advocate of the sporting director role, stating that both dealing with transfers and making the team click simply is too much for one man:

"..such full responsibility (both being the manager and have total responsibility for recruitment – my note) is too much for any one person. At Manchester United van Gaal was given carte blanche, the same at Everton with Roberto Martinez. But I believe such situations will not last because there's so much relying on this one guy, and he can't do all of these things. For the club it doesn't make sense to allow only the manager to dictate recruitment because the manager will, statistically, be there less than two years on average. What then of all the players he has recruited? No, the club must have a policy and the manager must be part of implementing that policy."

I think this is a very strong point, and we have seen it at Everton with Martinez' recruitment of Robles, Alcaraz, McCarthy and Kone – probably the need to have "yes men" around to make his double task easier.
The parts that has made headline in Norway is of course from his time in Real Madrid, which he always knew would be short term (contrary to PSG, where he believed he was in for the long term, and the fact that he was not interested in the signing of the 16-year old Norwegian Martin Ødegaard, who he believed was a signing for a manager after his time:

"…players would arrive and depart who would not necessarily have been my choice, but it was my job to make the team work with whatever assets I was given (…) After all, that is why we are called managers. If the president decides, for a PR exercise, he needs the Norwegian boy (Martin Ødegaard – my note) to play three games with the first team, I will work out a way of doing that. If the president wants to sell midfielder Xabi Alonso, I must accept that too. Did I want to lose Alonso? No of course not, but my job is to make it work".

Ancelotti also has some words for Raiola and other parasites:

"Agents play a huge role in recruitment now. Thankfully, this is the domain of the general director, whose jobs requires him to have relationships with them. I try not to have any dealings with agents, and the clubs I have worked with have rarely asked me to get involved with them."

I think this is very interesting from Ancelotti, who still must be one of the best managers around, and I think it highlights how important it is that Everton find the right sporting director. Exciting times.

Good, interesting post, Arild.

Arild#37 - interesting extracts from book. Might read whole thing myself - thanks for drawing my attention to it.

Excellent post Arild!
I can imagine with Ancelotti that it works. He understood his role as one of implementation of the clubs philosophies and vision. Others I imagine feel they need to control how the club invests in assets to achieve those very same goals of success.

It was inferred in other posts abut the Southampton philosophy and that Koeman was becoming removed from the clubs greater ideals and tension was mounting. This would indicate he might be happier to be the man making the final decision.

At Everton its clear we are moving to the model that says the club decides its own vision and team playing philosophies, however they have also stated Koeman has final say. I believe that is right. A blended approach where the DoF and the Manager work together and recruit through consensus but with the clubs football vision as the end goal, not the managers.

I do wonder the reporting lines. Do they both report into the CEO or does the Manager report to the DoF?

Further to post #27, a couple of years before Moyes left, Kenwright stated he was considering mortgaging his house to provide Moyes with an extra ٥M to spend on players. It never happened of course.

He won't have to mortgage now. This is the person who sold off Finch Farm and mortgaged Goodison to the Prudential so we now rent it.

IMO, he owes EFC big time, and I personally don't regard him as a good Evertonian. Rather it is all about himself.

Clive (#41), how much do you think Kenwright's house is worth?? Do you seriously think he could raise ٥ million on it???

Eric,
No idea but that's what he said.

Clive, I can't be bothered googling it but I'm very confident that we don't rent Goodison. I believe it is used as security for a loan.