Everton’s Recruitment — Shrewd and Structured or Same Old, Same Old?

My hunch is the modest fee we got for Simms has disappeared into day to day running costs. I think any shelling out of hard cash will require a sale of someone we can make a profit on. Gray is the obvious option there but that seems to be in limbo. My guess is this is why we can't part with money for e.g. Gnonto, even if it made sense to spend what little we have on anything other than a fit striker.

The MSP cash injection appears to have gone cold also and I assume, if Paul the Esk is accurate, we are paying eye watering interest on the emergency loans.

None of this is Dyche's fault (or Thelwell's in truth) His role in life will be to polish the turd as best he can. At least he has a reasonable track record in so doing.

Two weeks left. With 4 solid choices in and most of the deadwood cleared there isn't much time left. Slam Thelwell while you still can

17) Burnley: £-63.85m
23/24: -£77.1m
22/23: £28.43m (1st in Championship)
21/22: £-7.61m (18th)
20/21: £1.03m (17th)
19/20: £-8.8m (10th)

18) Everton: £-41.24m
23/24: £20.3m
22/23: £21.7m (17th)
21/22: £5.56m (16th)
20/21: £-59.75m (10th)
19/20: £-28.38m (12th)

PL net spend five years

Of course it's mostly the wages that Everton have paid out on very long contracts that has really hit the club very hard, plus the fact we haven't really made much of a profit on many of the players we purchased for good money. Which makes it harder to understand how our net spend is so low. Did we really blow everything in that first 12 to 18 months of Moshiri's ownership, probably the answer is yes.

The new ground is certainly costing the club a lot more than money, as Thelwell and Dyche try to make something out of practically nothing - time for an Andy Gray or a Peter Reid type to arrive from nowhere, because we're not buying quality players for quite a long time to come, unless we get very lucky.

For as long as I can remember the club has signed too many players with one eye on appeasing fans with "names". How far beyond their sell by date didn't figure

Look at this crew from the Moshiri era - terrifying!!

Ashley Williams
Bolasie
Schneiderlin
Klaassen
Rooney
Sigurdsson
Walcott

The one plus point about being destitute is there is no option other than immersion in the bargain booze bucket so fans wanting "names" goes out the window.

Whether it's viable for survival is another matter.

As a fan base our expectations are at an all time low. Patience ran out about 7 years into the Moyes reign.

At best we are a lower end prem team. We have had to endure mismanagement of the club since BK took over with a series of massive mistakes that all could have sunk us into oblivion.

We have gone from being big 5 to an after thought, an easy 3 points for nearly every team home and away. The derby is like a school yard bully picking on the weakling.

Ironically our billionaire Accountant owner has gotten us into trouble with our accounting methods!! Only Everton. Whilst more or less everyone else in the prem is outspending us, we cant spend a penny.

Dyche is the modern day Alardyce, he get players working hard and makes us hard to beat. He is doing a great job but how many other clubs would take him off our hands?

Thelwell is the latest dof. He is trying to balance the books whilst strengthening the team. His job is to scour the world's football leagues to find talent for our club. So far he has delivered ex wolves players that they don't want. Relegated players that clubs probably need to move on because of wage demands and the icing on the cake Maupay.

If I delivered at the same level in my job I would be disciplined or sacked for incompetence.

Over the years we have lost good scouting people to the likes of Chelsea and the much lauded mighty Brighton. How has that happened and have we learned from it, the answer is no.

To me Thelwell is protecting his own interests. Che Adams is now being linked, another lazy uninspiring signing. Our US fanbase know the mls and have suggested signings, some on here have gone into great depths looking at potential signings. I am sure Thelwell has his wish list but if Che Adams and Maupay are even on that list he isn't up to the job at Everton.

Quality counts in this league, the more we are diluting quality and replacing it with mediocrity the greater the odds on us being relegated.

I totally agree with every word in your post. When you think since Usmanov and Moshiri took over and ploughed in huge amounts of money, we are worse off than when we had no money.

When Moshiri decided that we needed to appoint a DoF, it was just someone else to go and buy players, and not restructure the club. When you add what Walsh, Brands and Thelwell brought in, there isn't one player who has been of any use. Silva brought in Richarlison, who was probably our best buy since Moshiri took over.

So how you can spend as much as we have and produce so little quality is unbelievable. Most of the players these DoFs brought in have left and most have brought in very little money in return.

We are struggling to produce our own, and it seems under Thelwell and Dyche they are more than happy to send our most promising youngsters on loan, rather than develop them ourselves at Finch Farm.

I know some lads will benefit from playing in the Championship rather than U21 football. Last season, both Dobbin and Cannon went on loan to Derby and Preston respectively; Dobbin scored 2 goals and Cannon scored 8, and it looks like we are prepared to let Cannon go on loan again.

Should Calvert-Lewin prove his fitness and we buy Evans, added to the purchase of Chemetti, Dobbin will find himself 4th choice at best. Surely.

Everyone else was £30M or thereabouts or less. Newcastle have been more clever. Reasonable team (as were we when Moshiri came in, although some may argue we were on the slide with Bobby Brown Shoes) and added one expensive quality signing per window/year.

We went for quantity over quality and so wasted our/his money on players which were either never going to be sold for more or just not good enough to change our standing.

I can't speak for Walsh but it did appear that Brands threw the towel in owing to interference from above in his area of responsibility, and I find myself asking what happens if the two positions involved, DoF & Manager or Coach, can't agree on a prospective transfer, is it taken upstairs?

I still don't have much of a read on Thelwell. Oddly, given what a rotten season it turned out to be, I think our summer recruitment last year was pretty good. Obviously Maupay was a massive whiff - and if we'd gotten that one right, we probably wouldn't have been in a relegation scrap on the last day of the season - but aside from him (and Vinagre being a total waste of time), I think Tarkowski, McNeil, Onana and Garner were all very good signings, while Gueye and Coady were sensible short-term moves. I've liked this summer's business as well... even if there's a lot more work to be done to get the squad onto more comfortable ground.

I remember years ago one of the players telling me the great sir John would come in after the game with brown envelopes for all the players and would engage with them.

He told me the players felt so good that someone senior was interested. Now we have an owner out of the country proudly boasting that he doesn't want to spend more than 5% of his time on the club and a parasite in London that is frightened to come to the city and support the club he so profoundly professes to love so we rely on a manager and his staff to motivate a sub standard squad.

David @6,

I agreed with you that Moshiri & Liar Bill cannot stop themselves from compromising the hard work of Dyche & Thelwell. But the two good men so far have shown a grit and resiliency that have long disappeared at our club since Moyes left (not that I'm a Moyes fan, but proper credit needs to be given). Don't you think that they are enough to warrant our support and optimism? =)

Rob @8, with NSNO in mind, you are absolutely right in venting your frustrations (and you did it eloquently!).

Alan@11, in American sports, it is the General Managers or Presidents, reporting to Club Ownership directly, hiring the Head Coaches (who report to the GMs or Presidents and not Club Ownership), which is a model Liverpool, Spurs, PSG and a few others are trying to implement.

When the GMs &/or Presidents were fired, the Head Coaches would immediately become lame ducks for the new regimes to fire as soon as the first occasion when the teams struggle. Reciprocally, a lot of Head Coaches lost their jobs when they vented about the disagreement with the GMs on player acquisitions, team management, and lack of support from Ownership (à la Pochettino with the Spurs).

Thelwell & Dyche appear to be on equal footing and to have forged a good working relationship so far; long may it continue because it is not easy to maintain the harmony between these two positions in any professional sports teams.

Bill @12, Thelwell's Modus Operandi is to juggle a few balls simultaneously while trying to buy time to move into the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock without getting relegated:

1) Getting deadwood off the books (There's light in the tunnel on this as the Un-holy Trinity that is the collective £350k per week salaries of Alli, Gomes & Gbamin are expiring in next June!)

2) Re-stock the first team with economical, serviceable and hardworking Premier League players that can keep the team in the division, fit with Dyche's style and stand up against our at-times outlandish expectations from the stands. (Trust me, I did come across Evertonians who still think we are entitled to recruit Champions League-calibre players!)

3) Revamp the Academy and the pathway to first team that have been laid in ruins by Rhino. There were numerous reports previously on Rhino's autonomy from U23 level down to the Academy level that were given to him by none other than Liar Bill:

* He managed the salary budgets of the youngsters and a lot of them were given salaries that not even Championship Clubs can take it up completely on loans (which should be the aim of any loans, where the loaning clubs taking up the full salary of the players).

* Not only did it not help with the club's wage bills, but also it affected the club's effort of selling those youngsters to Football League clubs. (If I were one of those youngsters, I wouldn't want to take a pay cut to leave that big fat salary and the comfort of Finch Farm, even with no first team football in sight.)

* Promotion up and down the aged groups, a different playing style for the U21 & U18 teams that were different from the first team, and the "win at all cost" approach, ie, only giving playing time to those whom he trust and a lot of youngsters were rotting on the bench (which is the complete opposite of the correct development approach that Baines and Tait are now adopting under Thelwell's watch).

When Brands found out all of the above upon arrival, he tried to take back the power from Rhino several times and his attempts were compromised by Liar Bill as expected. Brands certainly was not perfect at his reins, but this was why he could not begin implementing the successful and self-viable academy model he helped built at PSV.

It doesn't matter who you recruit or fail to recruit, if you pack your team with defensive players (three holding midfielders) and your only creative player is out of position, you can't really complain about not scoring.

Dyche must be the only person in the world who thinks Keane should be in the team, the only one who thinks Doucoure is a ‘Number 10', and the only one who hasn't realised that Iwobi is completely ineffective on the left.

He sold Simms and picks Maupay, something really weird is going on with Gray, and how the hell does anyone think Che Adams will be the answer?

He needs to start picking attacking line-ups, younger, more energetic players and making positive substitutions if the game isn't going our way.

I hate all the managerial changes we've had in the last few years, it's embarrassing, but Dyche seems to be so far out of his depth, picking the wrong players and putting several out of position, that I genuinely advocate sacking him if we don't beat Wolves this week.

Michael Keane had a hand in 4 of their goals - FOUR. And was asleep for others that weren't converted. In some of the goals, he's just stood watching, whilst others run around him.

If this guy is your pilot, he's flying the plane into the hillside.

And yet he's still been picked. In fact he's been picked 175 times. In fact, someone paid £30M for him. In fact, someone renewed his contract. Stop picking someone who is going to cost you a defeat every week he plays!!!

Even a loan for Weghorst would have been better than what has happened.

Actually, chucking Ellis Simms in and saying ‘have a go lad, we're desperate' would have been better than what has happened.

Although we could have Haaland up front and if our ‘creative' positions are filled by Garner, Doucoure and Iwobi-on-the-left I don't think we'd have much chance.

I wouldn't go as far as advocating for his sacking if we don't win on Saturday but he is definitely not doing himself any favours. I agree with all the points you made.

Another thing he should do is bring Mykolenko back in to replace Young at fullback, Mykolenko is a better defender, hands down. I thought Young was abysmal on Sunday.

Regarding Docoure in the Number 10 position, besides scoring the winner against Bournemouth, I'm struggling to see what he brings to that position. His goals are extremely rare, he consistently misplaces passes,he's definitely not my idea of a number 10. he doesn't look after the ball particularly well either.

He's not the only player though, and I'm with you on Ché Adams: besides huff and puff, I can't see what he will add to the team. It certainly won't be goals as his 25 in 127 Premier League appearances proves.

We have no clue what goes on behind the scenes, what money we have to spend, who has been approached, and said no etc.

It's like Gray he could have found out through his agent that the Saudi club would pay him 3 times more than he was getting here, who wouldn't be interested?

There again I might be way off I'm guessing, the clubs like a black hole we don't get to know what goes on with most things.

We and him are saddled with a squad of moderate players with maybe the exception of a couple of them.

No manager is perfect they all make mistakes, but in the end it's down to the players to perform the way the manager dictates.

We need quality and have very little money. A perfect storm. The longterm future of the club are in targets like Gnonto, Ekitike, Chermiti etc. Hudson Odoi is in that age bracket too.

The poor recruitment is the Che Adams link. He has no resale value, doesn't really improve us in the area we need and we will still need to buy a striker next window. The issue is that becomes harder and harder with every short term stop gap player. Maupay and Adams come to about 30mil if Adams signs. That's money that could've gotten us a striker with huge potential at the right age or atleast one that guarantees 10-15.

It's a fine balance of trying to buy for right here right now and planning for the future. The more stop gaps we buy the harder it is to offload them and then we can't afford to buy the actual targets we need next window so we buy another stop gap. If we didn't buy Maupay we could have afforded say a Beto this summer but now we can only afford Che Adams.

The players for the right here right now need to be the right deals for the right players. Harisson is a good example. Guaranteed ten goal involvements from midfield and managed to get him on loan. Improves us with no cost and if we feel we can do better don't have to sign him. Same with Danjuma. 3 million for a season and if he scores more than Gray it's an upgrade and we save money if Gray is sold. These deals free up money for next year to get our targets. So i'd say these are smart business. Ashley young on a free gives us cover for a year on low wages with no transfer fee. Smart move no cost.

Chermiti only needs to become a 5-10 goal premier league player and with his age we make money in the future. As much as everyone hate the Moise Kean signing he made us money in the end.

Whilst I think he's poor Weghurst on loan would've been smarter than Che Adams. I doubt there'd be much difference in goals to be honest and the loan allows us to save money to buy quality.

Obviously it's easy to say this when i'm not making the deals but now Calvert Lewin and Iwobi are injured again we need a right here right now player. I'd even say make an overpayment for one. My big fear is that whilst I don't believe we'll get a points deduction I do see one of the outcomes being a transfer ban. Then we are royally screwed because I don't think we have enough.

So one week roughly to go in the window the obvious one I think is Gnonto. He'll improve and can make us more money in the future. On the verge of the Italy team and after a year getting used to the league could see his numbers sky rocket.

Striker wise Ekitike is the future, Beto/Dia would be the here and now. Mama Balde I don't know enough about to comment on in all honesty. I don't think we'll get any and argue that Che Adams is the only bad deal simply because whilst he could improve on Maupay he's at an age where he won't improve and he value will only go down from here. We'll lose money for minimal gains.

Hudson Odoi could be a steal for 8 million. He's also been atrocious ever since an achilleas injury a few years back and has lost pace at a young age. It's a risk which is why Fulham have backed out. You've got to remember Bayern Munich bid 70mil for him only a few years ago.

Tanganga at cb is a risk i'd take. Young and steady and was exposed by a poor line at spurs last year. Replace Michael Keane with him and he'd do a job and like Branthwaite is expected to get better.

I also expect a big curveball to come as it normally does with Everton and I expect if we can shift a few of our unwanted players it'll allow us to go for a more expensive player. Whether it's too late or not is another question.

The good news is overall there's a good mix in terms of the plan. Buy for now and the future will sort our financial issues and steady the ship even if that means not progressing much. This should've been done two years ago when rafa was announced and our financial issues began. We'd finished one game away from Europe and attracting the young talent would've been easier and the desperate need for a striker wasn't as clear then and we wouldn't be getting taken to the cleaners by everyone for one.

The one thing I will say is I think that the club have worked hard to try bring players in and I still believe we'll bring in another two minimum after Adams. I don't see us improving massively and a lot depends on the outcome of this committee result. I said at the start of the window we'll live and die by our ability to score goals. If we get Gnonto alongside Danjuma and Harrison we'll score more from midfield for certain. We need another striker on top of Adams to improve upfront though. The midfield needs creativity but I never expected us to fix every issue with the limited funds. It was never going to happen and if we can secure the long term future of the wingers and upfront (hopefully in year Chermiti is ready for that) then next summer will all be about the defensive reinforcements and a creative attacking midfielder or a midfielder that can control the game i'd expect.

Overall huge way of saying who knows. I can see why we've gone for most of our targets atleast. We need to get this final stage right though and with another Dom Injury it only adds more pressure to that. Thelwell's and Dyche's future will depend on on if they can pull it off.

Dyche is what he is a relegation battling manager but nobody is coming into this club right now and making huge changes on the pitch. When we are a club moving upwards or at least stable then we can move for a project manager.

The other involves how we talk to one another as Blues. Coming in with a minimization of an offence is just a double dip not some contemplative consideration of the possibilities. The ‘oh they probably didn't know' and Karl's ‘sticks and stones' comments are intended to hurt where one offers heart to an appalling situation.

Don't get taken for a second ride and listen to them rationalize why they wrote it. Just fully know that they wrote it with their name attached.

If we don't get the Gray money and/or ship Maupay out, I doubt we'll even be buying Adams. At best a loan deal- but god knows who. I don't think Moshiri is willing to put another penny into the club, other than the stadium, which is his number 1,2 and 3 priority.

However to call for the sacking of Dyche is ridiculous. The guy kept us up despite having nothing to spend. He inherited a dysfunctional team with a shitshow upstairs and he somehow got us enough points to survive.

We should remember, despite pathetic media pronouncements of us getting relegated, that we lost to Villa – last season's most improved side. Many others will fall at Villa Park.

We played quite well against Fulham, made lots of chances.
Now we are short of our best-attacking assets in McNeil and Iwobi – not to mention Calvert-Lewin again. We also have Mykolenko and Coleman to return.

Start panicking if we are still bottom after 10 games, and just see who else we can bring in. There isn't a decent manager out there who would take the reins in the current chaos that is EFC, so be thankful that Dyche is still here and hasn't resigned.

We are not privy to what goes on at Finch Farm that results in team selection for a game, but I think Dyche's reluctance to drop certain individuals and give youth a chance is a problem.

Playing players who are reputed to be good at their position when they constantly fail does not make sense. We do have youth players who are promising in their positions but rarely are given the chance to replace a player who is not performing.

I understand the likes of Rooney were exceptional and can't be left out, and the Premier League have numerous young players who are given a chance to prove themselves, but Dyche seems reluctant to give them a chance to prove themselves.

I don't believe that firing him will solve the problem, but with the financial position we are in, I think he should use all players in a squad more efficiently.

Bringing in older players with experience who have played at the top level is okayy, but they usually had top experienced players alongside them when they started as youth players.

Thelwell's job is complete. The finances have added the risk that we are losing candidates over.

They usually go out on loan to Fleetwood or Burton never to be seen again and then when we do get a decent fee for a young centre forward who never had a decent run, we blow it on compensation for 3 God awful directors.

Davies was in and out but never solidified his place.

A lot depends on the players you have to pick from, the more talented players you have in your squad the more chance you are going to have to be winning games.

Man City won again by 1 goal, one of them usually pops up to rescue a result.

I think that the lack of game time for Cannon is scandalous, given that he did well in the Championship last season and Maupay is chosen ahead of him.

A “divide” at Everton has seen a move for Hugo Ekitike “blocked by other board members” after leaks from those in recruitment, according to FootballTransfers.

The outlet reported via their website on Tuesday 22 August that the French forward had been “offered” to clubs in the Premier League including the Toffees and West Ham by Paris Saint-Germain who want £27million for him.

But Everton reportedly won't be following through with a move for the 21-year-old afters news of an offer was “leaked” by part of the recruitment set up at Goodison Park, with others in the hierarchy having put a stop to the pursuit.

Is it any wonder we cant get transfers over the line when they have to be dealt with by blundering Bill who then "discusses it" with Kia Moshiri and they go back ward and forward.

Remember last year when Moshiri told us we would be getting a goalscorer in that window and then all we did was sell Gordon and collect the money from Moise Kean.

I don't think Dyche is the best manager we could have especially with some of his biased team selections but no manager in the world could get anywhere with this squad.

If Che Adams is the answer then playing in the championship is the question.

But he can't be worse than Keane I hear people cry. Well he might be unfortunately. Especially if introduced to a defence with awful protection from Gueye - and the rookie Right Back people are now starting to criticise for his performances.

There isn't a combination of the current available players that is going to see us putting a run of good results together.

They will just be slightly better than some of the dross we currently have.

I don't have faith in 3 of the back 4 players, any of the midfield and don't go there about our attackers.

If we were offered 16th place now I would take it, however that looks out of range with this squad.

We have come into this season weaker than the one we ended last season with.

I believe that Danjuma and Harrison could well be our best hope looking forward and they both disappear in June 24.

Let's see what comes in before the window shuts.. if its just Adams we will deserve what we get.

Aware that there would be serious investment coming Everton's way he begged for more time but was afforded none. The demands that the manager be sacked gained traction, 2 cup semi-finals and a 12thplace finish were no longer deemed acceptable for a club of Everton's stature.

I still recall our visit to the Emirates where we played an outstanding Arsenal team at their own game, on their own turf and played the beautiful game as it should. Arsenal went ahead against the run of play however; Deulofeu cut in from the right and smashed home the equaliser. Cue delirium in the away end.

The cries rang out ‘Everton are back' they roared. I'd not seen scenes like it since the halcyon days of the mid-eighties. The team left the field to a rapturous reception.

An away win at Old Trafford, the late winner scored by yet another bargain buy Bryan Oviedo, we really stuck it to Moyes and his big spending Mancs. The faithful rejoiced in the belief that the good times were back or so we thought.

Fast forward to today, countless Managers and DoF's and we're now a complete shambles on and off the field, with half a billion squandered on too many duds to mention. A player puts his body on the line and is booed by a section (all be it small) of his own fans. If only we could turn the clock back.