CEO charts ‘pragmatic’ path forward
In a message to supporters ahead of the new season, Everton's Chief Executive Officer, Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale welcomed new signings Ruben Vinagre and Dwight McNeil and, in addition to the sale of Richarlison, cited both as examples of the pragmatic approach now being taken by the club following its strategic review into the football side of the club's operations.
Vinagre followed free transfer James Tarkowski through the doors at Finch Farm when he signed on loan from Sporting yesterday and McNeil arrived today from Burnley in a deal that could ultimately be worth £20m but is structured in such a way that it entailed only a small fee up front.
That follows the a 2021 summer of enforced austerity during which the Blues spent just £1.7m and though January saw two players arrive for what could eventually be a combined £32m, those fees were offset by the £50m received for Richarlison when he joined Tottenham Hotspur at the start of the month.
More signings are expected before the transfer deadline in line with majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri's plea to supporters to judge the Board's performance this summer at the end of the window but any further deals are expected to be in a similar vein as the business done in the current close season.
“Our Director of Football Kevin Thelwell and manager Frank Lampard are working diligently with support from our Chairman to further strengthen the playing ranks of our men's squad,†Baxendale wrote, “operating within a clear financial structure and with appropriate pragmatism.
“And, in terms of pragmatism, whilst we were all sad to see Richarlison leave, we secured a good transfer fee in the context of the current market for a player who felt it was the right time to seek a new adventure.
“We understand the disappointment felt by so many Evertonians, but it is also important that — as our Majority Shareholder has made clear, and as the implementation of our strategic review serves to prove — we demonstrate the learnings from previous transfer windows have been heeded and we trade smartly to maintain a sustainable squad development model.
“Pragmatism, again, is a keyword. It was also a quality demonstrated throughout our strategic review of our football operations. There is now a clear alignment in our footballing strategy — and a defined structure and transfer policy in place to ensure we build on strong foundations.
“Those foundations include the recruitment of a host of talented new staff at Finch Farm as part of a more collegiate and collaborative operating structure, headed by Kevin.â€
Reader Comments (79)
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2 Posted 28/07/2022 at
It's the hope that kills you.
3 Posted 28/07/2022 at
I'm all for a more pragmatic approach. The deals we have done have been decent business on a shoestring. I'm hoping there is a spare 㿀-25M left from Richarlison's fee to get a midfield player that is a few notches better than what we have.
As for Denise, I find her a bit sidelined now we the DoF model. If Thelwell is orchestrating transfer policy with Frank, her input must just be as a messenger between them and Moshiri. I see this as her looking for a bit of glory, saying "Oh, I helped too!"
4 Posted 28/07/2022 at
I'd have thought this was a fundamental requirement and begs the question as to why it wasn't already in place.,"There is now a clear alignment in our footballing strategy — and a defined structure and transfer policy in place to ensure we build on strong foundations".
I'd have thought this was a fundamental requirement and begs the question as to why it wasn't already in place.,,,1,19:21:04,,92.15.215.154,ok,18355,07/28/2022 19:21:04,Bill47d@googlemail,reader,,,no,
1259822,42400,toffeeweb,28/07/2022,Christy Ring,beechfield28@eircom.net,"Martin #93,
To congratulate him for not wearing Rainbow colours, in my opinion, is totally wrong.
5 Posted 28/07/2022 at
Horse, bolted, door, stable, shut, after as you say. It's a great pity that the club's hierarchy didn't have a joined-up plan from day one of Moshiri's investment. Better late than never I suppose, but it very nearly cost Everton FC its place in the Premier League.
For that reason, any statement from those in charge is not worth the paper it is written on. Obviously these people aren't directly responsible for results on the pitch, but they do set the tone at the club, and if they aren't serious about success, the staff won't be either.
6 Posted 28/07/2022 at
7 Posted 28/07/2022 at
Yes, we fully understand the roles in which Lampard and Thelwell operate, no way we'd think you might be referring to the women's squad (the existence of which we are of course fully aware, as comprising part of the club).
8 Posted 28/07/2022 at
Tells you everything you need to know.
9 Posted 28/07/2022 at
10 Posted 28/07/2022 at
11 Posted 28/07/2022 at
Hardly.
We don't spread the net wide when it comes to recruitment. We could get a player of the quality of McNeill for half the price we paid by getting off our arses and looking beyond the premiership. But we don't.
We could get an average centre half like Tarkowski but 5 years younger for the same wages. But we don't.
We could find better LB cover than a highly dubious move for someone the DOF bumped into a couple of times in his last incarnation. But we don't.
We could address the glaring gaps in our formation that practically everyone on this site has alluded to by recruiting a CDM and backup striker. But we don't.
But hey. DBB and her puppet master can turn up at any home game without paying for a seat and then expect people to kiss their arses for just being there.
Pragmatic? No. I don't think so.
It's lazy, self-aggrandizing, mediocrity. I'm not listening any more.
12 Posted 28/07/2022 at
"Never again will we see protests against the senior management of the club, our chairman is working hard to cement in place, a fortified recruitment process whereby the final decisions are his and his alone. Respecting of course questions of responsibility, if and when they arise."
There you go, Bill, that should do it. Stable door locked indeed...
13 Posted 28/07/2022 at
We're shit at what we do but will endeavour to be less shit in the future.
14 Posted 28/07/2022 at
15 Posted 28/07/2022 at
That statement is chock full of bullshit. 'Our learnings'. And the weasel words about Everton 'not being for sale'. Which may be technically true, but you can bet anything you like he's still out there frantically seeing if anyone will take the club off his hands. It's all about the price.
16 Posted 28/07/2022 at
Before the strategic review, we were told that Denise was actively seeking alternative employment, but she must have changed her mind, when she realized that leaving a job with such strong foundations in place, would have been a ridiculously backward move.
17 Posted 28/07/2022 at
She will have great values but no business drive. Values before money, not a bad ethos, but not what we want.
18 Posted 28/07/2022 at
"we were told that Denise was actively seeking alternative employment"
Who, where, when?
19 Posted 28/07/2022 at
20 Posted 28/07/2022 at
"We've spent poorly over the past 6 years and we're trying to sort it these guys are the first steps - chin up"
21 Posted 28/07/2022 at
What could possibly go wrong?
22 Posted 28/07/2022 at
Really this statement is a attempt at joined up bullshit. She really does not have a Clue of the role of a Chief Executive and is effectively PA and PR for Brother Bill who suggested she put out a statement.
.
23 Posted 28/07/2022 at
Anyway, I'm glad our chairman is helping out...but hang on a minute, who was our Chairman when we allowed this fortune to be pissed up against the wall.
I can go to bed now, safe in the knowledge that our Professor CEO has discovered the word pragmatism, though I wonder if that's in the Chairman's dictionary. After this strategic review, our high-powered team have discovered pragmatism, now the money's gone. I think they should have gone to that secondary school in Spellow Lane and learnt how to Budget!
Still better late than never. Onward and Upward, Blues.
24 Posted 28/07/2022 at
"and PR for Brother Bill who suggested she put out a statement."
Still making stuff up and posting it as fact?
25 Posted 28/07/2022 at
26 Posted 28/07/2022 at
I loathe the first of them, have no love for the second of them, and doubt the judgement of the third of them. But for fucks sake. Any article etc about any of them, especially DBB and BK, and we get the same turgid shit that's repeated ad nauseam. Any thread that has nothing to do with any of them ends up with a diatribe against one or all of them.
I repeat, I hold no candle for any of them. I wish at least two of them were gone. But every thread, every day, every week, every year. People trying to outdo each other for how much they detest these people. Ad fucking nauseam.
WE HEAR YOU. WE HAVE HEARD YOU. No need for the fucking repetition. Please, for the sake of ToffeeWeb which has become one fecking bore. Say it once and then shut the fuck up.
I repeat, I hold no candle for any of them. So please - nobody come back and say I'm an apologist for any of them.
27 Posted 28/07/2022 at
28 Posted 28/07/2022 at
I am not feeling at all pragmatic as we face yet another season of stagnation whilst Moshiri has allowed you and your mentor to carry on as usual instead of sacking you both.
29 Posted 28/07/2022 at
If a pragmatic approach is the way forward then so be it but it was the boards total ineptitude that brought us to this point and I have no faith in her or her bosses whatsoever.
I wonder if they will be pragmatic with Frank Lampard when due to our serious lack of goals scored by the team that Everton are sat near the bottom of the EPL come Christmas !
30 Posted 28/07/2022 at
"I wonder if they will be pragmatic with Frank Lampard when due to our serious lack of goals scored by the team that Everton are sat near the bottom of the EPL come Christmas !"
I am sure they will be pragmatic.
31 Posted 28/07/2022 at
Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame of me.
A snobbish board with an appalling lack of business savviness and self-awareness couldn't even fool me once, how can they be trusted to deal with other sharks in the ocean?
32 Posted 29/07/2022 at
I pray and hope that the reality and gravity of the Everton FC, status is confirmed by the board.
Actions, should now be in place in the running of EFC, let's see what happens.
Only at Everton, it's Icarus, but perhaps Evertons board, have landed in a tug boat and have seen what lies on the Banks of the Mersey, and the future of EFC.
Grit, passion, pain, hard work, belief, dedication and the greatest football supporters in the UK, by a long way.
It's a true Biblical tale, with many translations.
Now for the road to the Promised Land, a lifetime in the wilderness, is surely enough punishment for all Evertonians.
UTFT!
Hope eternal.
“Whats Our Name.?â€
33 Posted 29/07/2022 at
34 Posted 29/07/2022 at
35 Posted 29/07/2022 at
Brendan, when Brands or Benitez was sacked, and at the time of the fan protest, around Goodison Pk, one of the statements that came out of the club, was that Braxendale, had actively been seeking alternative employment.
Smokescreens have been in operation at Everton, since the day the saviour saved our club. It's called survival mode, and has served him very well, but like Brent says, it sucks the life out of many of us, and although I'm guilty of adding to the boredom, my only alternative is apathy, and this is something I'm very close to obtaining, once again.
37 Posted 29/07/2022 at
She doesn't conduct or is held accountable as a Chief Executive.
Pragmatically she appears to conduct herself as a Personnel Assistant to Kenwright and as his PR.
Maybe that is all she is allowed or expected to do.
38 Posted 29/07/2022 at
My recollection was that it came from journalists "closely connected" to the club but I'm pretty sure nothing came directly from Everton.
I could be wrong.
39 Posted 29/07/2022 at
Agree with some of that. I believe that DBB isn't expected carry out the full role normally associated with a CEO within a football club. I think she was given the title in a bid to emphasise Everton's committment to EITC.
40 Posted 29/07/2022 at
Tony, I don't think you are. You state your view on her / them, which is absolutely fine, but you're not one of those who go on and on about it.
41 Posted 29/07/2022 at
This isn't good PR, for Kenwright, it just shows the lack of professionalism that seems to exist in the corridors of power, and although it's boring, isn't this what Everton have been allowed to become?
Our club would have been in a very bad place if it wasn't for the fans, who are the only real saviour, that Everton football club have got, although the club is still in a very bad position financially, because of this disastrous board.sorry Brent!
42 Posted 29/07/2022 at
The club was dying on it's feet during the last two months of the season just gone, did the boardroom offer any statements then?
We the fans, the lifeblood and only constant performers, took hold of the situation and gave the manager and players the oxygen that brought them out of the stupor it was in.
It looks like the club is being allowed to slip back into that stupor although there are signs that some part of the club is trying to get the revival going again.
We all know where the problem is and it can't be repeated too often even if it bores the life out of some fans, one who is absolutely as genuine as any of us, that's Brent @ (26).
43 Posted 29/07/2022 at
44 Posted 29/07/2022 at
45 Posted 29/07/2022 at
If it was just rumour stuff I would have dismissed it.
Tony keep up with the posts, I don't think Brent was directing that at you? I can't be sure.
I don't find it boring, if it's constructive it is on a thread that is there to encourage a response.
46 Posted 29/07/2022 at
47 Posted 29/07/2022 at
48 Posted 29/07/2022 at
Look at Brendan's post, it didn't come from the club, so it's not true is the man's opinion, (I know you haven't said that either BrendanðŸ‘) but to those of us who have got far greater memories, and also a much greater disdain, it was just another fucking smokescreen, considering the lady is still here, and even making positive statements about pragmatism.
49 Posted 29/07/2022 at
It all seems a bit staged and like a good politician, probably written for the deliverer by advisors.
It smacks of telling the masses what they think we want to hear.
Not that they would have been heard as we took control, but where were they in those agonising months towards the end of last season as everything I hold dear was disintegrating before my eyes?
Strategic review? More of the same with the same people who have failed but glossed over with a few supposedly meaningful statements.
I need my inhaler.
27/35
50 Posted 29/07/2022 at
"One of the statements that came out of the club was that Barrett-Baxendale had actively been seeking alternative employment."
As far as I can establish, this originated with The Bobble on Twitter, 5 December 2021.
Everton board member Denise Barrett-Baxendale is actively looking for alternative employment. Baxendale has been looking at other career options, with the boards blessing for a number of months and will now continue to do so 🔵
— The Bobble (@ElBobble) December 5, 2021
I know everything he/she/it says is believed 100% but, in my humble opinion, this did not come from the club.
As far as I can see, this has never been picked up by any established or reputable [*cough*] journalist and there's no indication whatsoever that it came from anyone in any position of responsibility at the club.
51 Posted 29/07/2022 at
52 Posted 29/07/2022 at
53 Posted 29/07/2022 at
54 Posted 29/07/2022 at
If you don't like it, don't read it! Touche!
55 Posted 29/07/2022 at
56 Posted 29/07/2022 at
57 Posted 29/07/2022 at
Get her on ebay with Gomes & Keane. "Job lot of slightly used, not very good EPL experience CEO and players. Would consider swap for Parking Cones. Immediate pick up required, and no returns".
58 Posted 29/07/2022 at
59 Posted 29/07/2022 at
Cracking post mateðŸ‘ðŸ»
60 Posted 29/07/2022 at
It seems you might be right Michael, giving credence to the rumours that El Bobble might be related to Bill Kenwright😂 but once you start reading about Denise then things become really positive, because she has even stated that Everton will be looking to win the league, once they move to Bramley-Moore! Come-on
61 Posted 29/07/2022 at
62 Posted 29/07/2022 at
63 Posted 29/07/2022 at
I have a thing about even numbers.
64 Posted 29/07/2022 at
65 Posted 29/07/2022 at
I agree with that opinion. Sometimes I feel that she never entirely left EITC and it maybe that was intented when she took up the appointment of Chief Executive of Everton, on a limited job description, a sort of side kick to Bill.
This could explain the blurring of line between Everton Club and EITC.
Bill our brother and good egg.
66 Posted 29/07/2022 at
Brian #64, again, you're not reading closely what I'm writing. My initial post isn't about doing nothing. It's about what's effective.
We (me too!!!) vent our spleen about Kenwright and DBB. But I don't believe that SOME posters repeating their loathing ad nauseam has any effect whatsoever. Proof of that is that spleens have been vented for years - and the outcome? Yes, they're still here!
And let me spell that one out - it doesn't mean stop stating your view - it just means you don't need to tell it to the converted so often. That's all.
67 Posted 29/07/2022 at
68 Posted 29/07/2022 at
And I said nothing about "just being a keyboard warrior"! You've introduced these to the issue.
And this - "if we don't question our clubs running what then."
I do question our club's running. Why imply I don't question the running of the club?
Read my post at #26, closley. Now tell me exactly what in that post you think you disagree with.
69 Posted 29/07/2022 at
70 Posted 29/07/2022 at
UTFT! And down with the Undynamic Duo!
71 Posted 29/07/2022 at
Personalyy, I despise Kenwright and what I believe he has done to our club, I don't rate Prof Baxenmdale as a CEO, except for the care in the copmmunity, maybe, and I think Mr Moshiri has been like a dfish on Mr Kenwrights hook.
If people disagree then fair enough, but to say, that they don't like those posts so please stop writing, then I think a debate is required about what is and what isn't acceptable on any thread onToffeeWeb.
The fact that some other poster doesn't like the comments mentioned, I think that poster has to grin and bare it. The only person I thinkhas everyone's (generally) agreement that a post is out of order, is Lyndon.
72 Posted 29/07/2022 at
73 Posted 29/07/2022 at
74 Posted 29/07/2022 at
I remember the Dobbo chant though.
75 Posted 29/07/2022 at
So HMS Pragmatic has now been launched and set sail under Admiral of the Blue, 'Barnacle' Kenwright, Commodore 'Wolf' Thelwell and Captain Lampard,
The Admiral who was involved in the near destruction of HMS Blue Hope is still the man offering guidance and support to our young Captain, who saved HMS Blue Hope from sinking, with the aid of its fanatical supporters.
Please Admiral Kenwright - RETIRE and take your Press Secretary with you NOW.
76 Posted 29/07/2022 at
77 Posted 29/07/2022 at
78 Posted 29/07/2022 at
79 Posted 29/07/2022 at
80 Posted 29/07/2022 at
The antonyms of pragmatic include unrealistic, irrational and half baked. It is pretty strange for a CEO to admit that an organisation they allegedly led was guilty of those characteristics while they were in charge. It's a bit late to say you have learned not to be irrational unrealistic and half baked in your activity.
And what is with the "Professor' title? That's not a real one surely, just an honorary title? Why would that be used in relation to (allegedly) running a football club? Sound like someone trying to layer more gravitas on themselves than they actually possess.
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1 Posted 28/07/2022 at