Vaughan returns as Everton's new loans manager

Good luck in your new role.

As they say, "Have a day off, mate".

Because you know the score, Lyndon? The last man that I can think of who had the job was Joe Royle. Well, I remember him getting the job but never heard much of how he did once he got the job.

I liked James Vaughan as a player, he never had much luck with the injuries he got because of his whole-hearted endeavour with every team he played for. So I wish him well at Everton and in his new career, he deserves to get on.

A job for a former player when he's fully qualified, why not? I remember him coming on and scoring a penalty against Man Utd in the FA Cup semi-final shoot out.

Agree with Paul, he would have been a class act, but injuries ruined his career at such a young age, and he kept coming back for more.

Joe Royle did it under Martinez but I haven't heard of it since. Vaughan by all accounts did well at Tranmere, which is obviously local, and he is a former Blue.

So, with his credentials plus his link to the club, he seems a good choice to me, as opposed to say Jose Baxter who one minute was an overage Under-23 player then he was coaching them.

My other initial thought was that James traded being a big fish ("Sports Director") at a smaller pond to become a "smaller" fish at a bigger pond on paper. But being a babysitter, 24 & 7, for all our players on loan (imagine him dealing with Jarrad's stuff from Holland) isn't a small role at all.

Thank you, Lyndon, for pointing out the post-playing part of James's CV that I was absolutely not aware of: studying for a Master's on being a Sports Director + being an agent before (wasn't for long before his role at Tranmere, was it?). It definitely helps cementing his qualifications and suitability for the role.

Most important fit, IMHO, was James's own experience as a player. He must have had thoughts (and even nightmares) about some of the locales where he could have had a better time and prevented some of his crazy injuries (quality of the training facilities and the grounds certainly are part of the equation).

Fingers crossed that he will help prevent our young guns from having those déjà vu moments.

I'm afraid the estimable Lyndon may just have given him another elastoplast.

We're going nowhere, as ever, with that shyster in or near the boardroom.

Just who else was in the race to sign James Vaughan for this weird-sounding role?

He is a good acquisition to the club and has great potential.

Personally, I trust Thelwell's judgement on his hiring decisions.

No thread, no day is untouched by the neurotic concern about Kenwright. I think we get general the message. One I don't disagree with but one which I don't need to repeat ad nauseum.

Sorry, I've said this before. Am I repeating myself too much?

Okay, on this occasion, I'll bow to your and Lyndon's knowledge on this albeit mine was a more general summary.

Martin Dobson was appointed professional development coordinator in 2018 which was looking after loaned players. Don't know what's happened to him.

Lyndon is spot on. Every top club has a loans manager, Including Liverpool and Man City. The RS one was appointed last year after working for years at the club. The City one is a former player. Neither one is as qualified as Vaughan.
A little research will tell you how this appointment came about. It's rather ironic to see Kenwright given the credit for it.

Vaughan has done more than his peers by going out and getting the relevant qualifications. Can we not set aside bitter ignorance and congratulate him?

Welcome back, Jimmy

What kind of interest rate will he be charging?

Does it include placing players in future, deciding which ones might require it and how many might that be at most? Or only watching and reporting on loaned-out players progress both on and off the field after the fact and is it just juniors or would a deal say like Kean be considered done and dusted. Almost sounds like running a scattered continental style 'B' team.

In all honesty, I don't know how many staff DoF Thelwell has, their responsibilities and the chain of command but I would imagine that it must be split into, at least, a couple or three divisions.

To me that is an entirely logical way to develop players for our first team.

To play for a top half Premier League team you need to be more or less international class immediately. That's too much to expect of someone straight from the u21s unless they are exceptional Rooney, Foden, Saka etc level.

The problem is that they stagnate in the u21s (and block the progress of others coming through) or sit on the bench barring an injury crisis.

To get the games they need, at a challenging standard, they need a loan.

In previous years we've had players on loan who were never going to play first team football. It was a way to get mediocre 22 / 23 year olds off our books.

This year we have Branthwaite, Dobbin, Simms, Virginia and Warrington on loan (I think I've forgotten one other) all of whom look capable of being part of the first team squad.

Looks like a good approach to me, and probably sensible to have someone in place to monitor their progress - and help make sure they're on track for the first team.

He's tried better himself after playing football and by the looks of it in getting a Masters degreee and proved himself worthy of a chance at our club.

Like many, I think Kenwright has done massive damage to our club; but I also think that our owner has realised, belatedly that it is better to have our Manager and DoF, do the recruitment both on and off the field. So well done to KevinThelwell for spotting Vaughny and bring him to our club.

I think he'll do well for us and wish him all the very best for his future...and ours!

James was my great big hope, and he really suffered some unfortunate injuries - the most horrific one was (I think) John Terry rupturing a major artery in James' ankle.

Given the number of promising youngsters we seem to have coming through, I like that the club are focusing on the players on loan (I assume that Loans Manager means only outgoing loans, not incoming?). I would love to see the day when we have one of our players on loan to a fellow PL club - and I don't mean players like Walcott, whom we loaned to Southampton only to get his wages off the book. I mean developing players like Broja, Gallagher, etc that Chelsea loaned out - even Lukaku to us.

The nearest we have is Branthwaite - playing at a very high standard (although not yet getting many games).

Think striker, Robert… Broadhead, or Nkounkou.

It was Onyango I was thinking of. Nice if I'm proved wrong but not expecting Broadhead to ever make our first team. Nkounkou possibly.