The Key Steps

As the article states it is going to take 4 to 5 years to move Everton into a top 4 club. To be honest from the names being mentioned to replace Allardyce I don't see massive changes in Everton's position, in fact I will not be surprised that the relegation candidates for next season being Huddersfield, Watford and Everton.

Traditionally, before successful squads were bought of the summer shelf, the home grown or purchased and nurtured option was the method. Things really have changed.The mentality is totally different. Bigger price tags whet the appetite more than sixty grand for a world class full back!

Even the Finch Farm model has adopted the bu in youngsters, sometimes at significantly high prices, not all work (Henen?).

The bottom line is if you're good enough you're old enough. Rooney, an exceptional talent acknowledged, was pulling up trees at 16. Garbutt is no 24 and is slipping out of contention, as is Galloway.

The youth system is one of the aspects of the club I am most satisfied with in that it produces quality players who even if they don't make it with Everton, they do manage to have careers in the game. What needs to be appreciated is just because a player has come through the ranks, unless he is BETTER than players in the same position who are available to the Club via another route then he has no automatic right or even a favorable bias to sealing his position in the team.

Having said that, seeing the home grown likes of Kenny, Baningime, Dowell doing well is very satisfying. I would love tho see Dowell having a good season next year, and id (bought in) talented Calvert Lewin can add goals to his game he could be a real winner.

Witness the events at the Philharmonic just two week's ago when the evening turned out to the 'cosy' affair we all knew it was going to be with Bill proclaiming ALL the player's signed last summer would still be there next season, why? Why on earth would an ambitious chairman make such an ill founded statement, to make us feel better?

Even worse when he thanked 'Sam' for 'helping us'.

Then the cringeworthy award to the father of the unfortunate child who died lately, why did Bill even think of a stunt like that?

He and his cohorts are so out of touch with the groundswell of opinion amongst fans it is really frightening.

Sadly, we have not only stopped making real progress this season, we have actually gone backwards. I hope to god when the CEO goes in the next month or so Moshiri isn't swayed by Kenwright's wish to keep the appointment in the Everton family, and appoint the deputy CEO Denise Baxendale to the position.

If that happens, it will prove once and for all that Kenwright is still pulling the strings at Goodison. We need a 21st century visionary to drive the club forward, or I fear once more, we will become the charity with a football club attached to it, and yet more EITC sponsored events at Goodison.

I for one, am prepared to remain patient (Spurs style) as long as we can see REAL evidence both on and off the pitch that the club is moving forward and making progress.

Koeman got it badly wrong last summer and we can't get it so spectacularly wrong again it's as simply as that.

Last summer I'd have had a shortlist of signing that included making absolute certain I got a least three from..

Arnautovic ( powerful running carries the ball, causes havoc and scores goals)

Shaqiri ( the one shining light in a terrible Stoke team, specialist deadball user, powerful, creative for goal source and scores too)

Maguire ( How many more Keane cargo tanker turns can we realistically accept)

Vardy ( Once Lukaku left this should have been first port of call simple as)

Bertrand or Shaw ( Baines needs replacing as soon as possible let's be brutally honest, great servant and man but he's on his way down not up and no it's not acceptable to just stick Martina or Kenny there as stop gap and pretend they are great left backs , they are not!!)

Key is for Kenwright to go

How were spurs lucky in bringing in Pochettino? Surely that was a very astute appointment?

1. Change of board responsibilities and CEO (I have high hopes for Denise Barrett-Baxendale);
2. Appointment of Director of Football;
3. Departure of old DoF and Manager;
4. Next step will be the hiring of the new Manager;
5. Once the new Manager is in, we can look at the playing staff.

I don't think our squad is that bad. These are all players that have performed well at some point in the past (in particular – Keane, Klaassen, Bolasie, Schneiderlin) – I don't think they can all regain their form but I am hopeful that some will be able to shine again – they're all young enough. And even playing poorly, we finished 8th.

The managerial appointment is key. Our structure won't allow for a Ferguson or Shankly type to control things from top to bottom – and I think those days are gone because the players have much more power now and transfer dealings are much more complex - it's just too much for a manager to handle.

Also managers don't stay as long as they used to because the financial stakes are so much higher (in the old days when gate revenue was a much higher proportion of revenue, relegation was nothing like as dramatic as now because gate revenue would hold up reasonably well – whereas now the TV money falls off sharply over a 3-year period).

So I like the DoF model – and now we actually have a proper DoF we'll be able to see how it works in practice. As was pointed out on here on day one, Walsh was really just a chief scout and never a DoF. There's a massive difference, and (independent) advice on the footballing side is what Moshiri was sadly lacking last summer in our very unbalanced recruiting spree. The Manager is not independent as his career may depend on having good players so naturally they tend to get as many as possible – but this is not in the best interests of the club.

We need everyone pulling in the same direction – DOF, Manager, players, board, fans.

This hasn't been the case since we started this model with the disastrous appointment of Steve Walsh. Here's hoping it works out better under Brands!