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What can Marcel Brands expect at ambitious Everton?

Confirmation of Marcel Brands's switch from PSV Eindhoven to Everton, where he is expected to take up the director of football role, is expected to come any day now.

With that in mind, Chris Meijer of Dutch magazine Voetbalzone has been taking a look at what lies ahead for a man who has earned a stellar reputation in the Eredivisie for his savvy recruitment and who has been hand-picked by Farhad Moshiri to lead the next phase of rebuilding at Goodison Park.

The following are translated excerpts from the article:

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“In England they know for sure: Marcel Brands will start work at Everton in the foreseeable future. PSV's current technical manager is to become [the Liverpool club's] new director of football and to reinforce the towering ambitions of the Toffees. But what will Brands find when he decides to embark on the adventure in England? In any case, it's a club where there is work to be done.”

Meijer describes the background to Farhad Moshiri's takeover of the Blues, his financial backing, the proposed new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock and his stated ambitions for Everton on the pitch.

Under the title “Administrative changing of the guard”, Meijer lays out the current challenges at Goodison Park that Brands will be walking into when, as is predicted, he takes up his new position at Finch Farm.

"There is a disturbed relationship between the team and the fans", wrote the Guardian recently. [Steve] Walsh, the current director of football is held responsible for this. Of the players who have come to Everton under his stewardship, the majority have either not yet succeeded or completely failed. For this reason, Brands will have to take on the [his] responsibilities at Goodison Park, while Walsh will [move to] managing director or leave. 

Robert Elstone, currently working as [chief execuitve], is to leave after thirteen years and return to rugby, where he will become director of the Super League. Only when the administrative change of the guard is completed will a decision [be made] about the future of Allardyce. The first task that Brands expects when he gets to work in England is to make a decision about the manager. 

Among others [under consideration are] Laurent Blanc, Arsène Wenger, Paulo Fonseca. Brands will also have to bring back the balance in Everton's selection. With Cenk Tosun in January at least a striker has been added, but on the other hand Wayne Rooney is currently associated with a transfer to the United States. Furthermore, Allardyce recently said that first players have to leave before purchases can be made. 

"There are already a large number of players at this club and it is a challenge to sell some. There are currently 14 players let and we still have a selection of 38 ... You can not continue to get players without selling someone", Allardyce [told the national media]. "Expectations are only increasing and everyone thinks that Everton should [challenge for] the European places. So we only have to look at top players on the transfer market. Even if only one or two come, that can make a huge difference next season. "

It is up to Brands to bring in such players and there is money in any case, due to the presence of Moshiri. Although this may also be a disadvantage, because other clubs know that Everton have the necessary budget. It is one of the reasons why [so much was] spent last summer. Brands, however, will have to do something different at Everton than at PSV, as Michael Ball wrote in his column in the Liverpool Echo. 

"We want players who have arrived at Everton, who are directly there. That is why his work will be different here than at PSV, also because the club craves success and prizes. Brands will also want to win prizes and have to wonder: why should I leave PSV, where prizes are won and Champions League is played? It takes time and money to reach the top. 

“Hopefully Brands is aware of this and he brings players with the right mentality and quality to improve Everton considerably, "concluded the former player of Everton and PSV. 

The arrival of the new stadium, for which Everton has already purchased the land, could however influence the available (transfer) budget in the coming years.

For Brands, at least there [will be] an interesting challenge at Everton. "At the moment there is little progress with the new stadium, the fans are disillusioned according to many the [this is the] worst [Everton] team of the century," concluded The Guardian. So Everton can do much better with Brands as a director of football. 

The Times announced this week that [Brands's] transition to Everton has already been completed, even though the Toffees had not yet registered their interest again with Eindhoven until recently. It seems that Everton will wait until the end of the season to announce his arrival. 

Brands' first transfer targets at Everton have been mentioned over the past few weeks: Hirving Lozano and Hakim Ziyech. In conversation with The Independent, Brands admitted that Everton's interest has been there for a while:

”It is difficult to say goodbye to the people at PSV. But there has been contact with Everton since 2016. I have said 'no' to beautiful clubs in Germany and at the moment I am still at the best club in the Netherlands. "

» Read the full article at Voetbalzone

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