Season › 2024-25 › News Manchester City’s James Smith returns to Everton to take over recruitment role Anjishnu Roy 13/06/2025 44comments | Jump to last James Smith, director of scouting and recruitment at City Football Group, is set to leave his current role and return to Everton, according to The Athletic. Smith had previously worked with David Moyes during the Scottish manager’s first spell at the club. He was the head of technical scouting at Goodison Park from 2002 to 2013 and followed Moyes to Manchester United. The two continue to share a strong bond and his return is in line with the administrative shakeup led by new chief executive Angus Kinnear following the Friedkin Group takeover. “There is a healthy relationship between the Premier League sides and talks over Smith’s return to Merseyside have been amicable,” said the report. “Smith has been placed on gardening leave by City, who are also restructuring their set-up under new director of football Hugo Viana.” Smith is essentially going to replace Everton’s former head of recruitment Dan Purdy, who will be joining Rangers along with the club’s former director of football Kevin Thelwell. “A reunion of Moyes and Smith will be seen by many as a coup for Everton, with the former highly-regarded in the game after his work at the two Manchester clubs,” the report added. Under the Friedkin Group, Everton’s player recruitment team also involves Nick Hammond as transfer specialist, who will lead trading and negotiating, while Chris Howarth is the head of strategy. Smith is expected to report directly to Kinnear, who began his work last month following his arrival from Leeds United. The Blues are also looking to appoint a new head of football operations and are seeking the help of executive search firm Nolan Partners to achieve this target. Reader Comments (44) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer () Ryan Holroyd 1 Posted 12/06/2025 at 16:40:11 Man City director of scouting & recruitment James Smith to leave club + expected to join Everton. On gardening leave before reuniting with David Moyes - key hire for EFC As per David Ornstein. Sam Hoare 2 Posted 12/06/2025 at 17:50:53 Ryan, James Smith from Man City would seem to be an exciting hire. Paul Kossoff 3 Posted 12/06/2025 at 20:38:46 Yes, according to reports, James Smith, the Director of Scouting and Recruitment at Manchester City, is set to rejoin Everton and work under David Moyes. This is a key move for Everton, as Smith has a strong history of working with Moyes, having previously worked with him at both Everton and Manchester United. Mike Gaynes 4 Posted 12/06/2025 at 21:05:04 Impressive move by Friedkin to get James Smith. Phillip Warrington 5 Posted 13/06/2025 at 09:39:41 Wow! Please let this be true! Barrie Taylor 6 Posted 13/06/2025 at 09:59:34 It would be nice to see some recruitment of players shortly! Dan Nulty 7 Posted 13/06/2025 at 10:13:36 Certainly putting an experienced set-up behind Moyes with good track records on recruitment. Hopefully a promising and good sign we are getting our house in order. Mike Hayes 8 Posted 13/06/2025 at 10:54:21 Wonder if he's got his eye on a few Man City players that could come to us via loans or contract? 🤔 Andrew Ellams 9 Posted 13/06/2025 at 11:05:15 Mike, I'll bet he's got a good idea who they are most keen to ship out and what we would need to do to get them. Andy McGuffog 10 Posted 13/06/2025 at 11:19:04 "Rumored new addition to Everton recruitment board is a massive get." Headline on News Now/Prince Rupert's Tower. Dennis Stevens 11 Posted 13/06/2025 at 11:42:22 I'm surprised they've given him a seat back at Goodison Park. Sam Hoare 12 Posted 13/06/2025 at 12:37:37 He would be a good appointment, it looks, if true. Very experienced and has a good relationship with Moyes. We could definitely do worse than take some of the Man City talents not quite destined to make the cut but hopefully we'll be recruiting further from home too — where the real bargains are. Ryan Holroyd 13 Posted 13/06/2025 at 12:45:38 It's true. David Ornstein is one of the best in the business. Rob Dolby 14 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:00:27 Let's hope James Smith is as good as shopping in Lidl and Aldi as he has been for Man City shopping at Harrods.I thought Thelwell did a fantastic job under the circumstances but that's yesterday's news, now let's get behind the new guy. Tommy Carter 15 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:15:31 I'm not massively enamoured with this. He went to Man Utd and to probably one of the top 3 most powerful clubs of all time and couldn't recruit anybody except sniffing around for Baines, Coleman and Fellaini. Presumably in his time at Everton, he was partly responsible for the pursuit of Scott Parker ahead of Mikel Arteta in 2005 also. Apart from John Stones and Kevin Mirallas, I'm not sure we signed a decent player after 2009. And even Mirallas wasn't that good. Danny O'Neill 16 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:20:56 If this happens, I'll judge him on what he does for Everton this time around.I'm sure that, during his time with the Manchester clubs, he has a widespread scouting network outside of the North-West. Brendan McLaughlin 17 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:25:48 An old ally of Moyes...This appointment doesn't seem to chime with the narrative of giving Moyes less input to transfers. Ryan Holroyd 18 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:26:52 Tommy isn't happy. What a surprise. Tony Abrahams 19 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:27:40 I think less than 5% of people in football get picked for their talent alone, Tommy, so I've been waiting for the first negative post, mate!I honestly think most scouting jobs are just all about networking nowadays, but I might be wrong and some of them might have some really special talents? Tommy Carter 20 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:28:05 @Ryan, I'll be happy when the club is successful and wins a trophy. Danny O'Neill 21 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:31:10 Brendan,I would revert back to what I've previously said. Moyes will have influence and probably the last say.Still an if, but if this happens, it will be part of the wider recruitment team.Moyes says what he wants. Hammond dictates what is feasible from a business perspective. Scouting team goes out and finds options. Moyes says yes or no. Unless over-ridden.That's how I see it in my simple head anyway. Ian Bennett 22 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:46:27 Tommy, it's because he had fuck-all money after 2009. Those later years, he was losing his better players, and signing bargain bucket. Sold Pienaar, sold Saha, sold Rodwell, sold Cahill, sold Arteta. Good players out; Drenthe, Big Dennis, McFadden, Kennedy in. Apart from selling Lescott and signing players with that cash, the club was done after 2009. The club credit card was maxed out, media funding and Finch Farm in place.He was after decent players at Man Utd: Bale, Fabregas etc. David Gill had gone at the same as Ferguson, so they floundered around when it needed restocking of an old team that had admittedly just won the league.He gets a poor press from some. He should have gone after Arteta was sold from under him. He was a better manager than the piss ant support he received from uncle Bill. Ryan Holroyd 23 Posted 13/06/2025 at 13:50:50 Fairs Tommy,But can you be a bit more upbeat and take circumstances into consideration. Eric Myles 24 Posted 13/06/2025 at 14:37:29 Brendan #17, I've only read that narrative on TW from posters that don't like Moyes. Ryan Holroyd 25 Posted 13/06/2025 at 15:00:27 Because, Eric, Man City hire shit people apparently!!! Raymond Fox 26 Posted 13/06/2025 at 15:54:03 We are employing lots of indians. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when they make a final decision on who to actually sign. Danny O'Neill 27 Posted 13/06/2025 at 16:10:35 I wouldn't say don't like Moyes, Eric. Sceptical maybe, myself included, but he's surprised and won a lot over. Again myself included. He will be judged properly on next season. That's when we'll see what he's got – providing he gets the right backing and gets us competing where we should be. If he does, then fine by me. If he doesn't, there are no excuses. Robert Tressell 28 Posted 13/06/2025 at 19:05:59 A lot of the recruitment done by Man City is youth player trading between ages 14 and 18. We've lost two of our most promising academy players, Lawrence and Lienou, to Man City in the past couple of years – and a lot of the players on their books were pinched from other Premier League academies.There are lots of players in their academy getting regular England youth international recognition – age 16 upwards – but who probably won't ever really get in the Man City first team. They are being bred for eventual sale to generate funds – benefitting from favourable accounting / PSR treatment.Whilst it would be good to see some of them join Everton (Callum Doyle is a fairly obvious understudy to or replacement for Branthwaite), we also need to really take this up a notch in our academy too. So hopefully Smith is focussed on that. Ryan Holroyd 29 Posted 13/06/2025 at 19:19:36 It's very hard to compete with Man City in the youth recruitment. They hoover up anyone good. Craig Scott 30 Posted 13/06/2025 at 20:29:51 Let's hope this appointment is a sign that TFG are endeavouring to get our recruitment house in order. The scouting network of younger talent is key. Not sure how this guy together with Moyes have fared in that department in the past. But let's just see under a different administration. Have both of the Manchester clubs benefited from Everton's previous supply of recruitment talent? Tommy Carter 31 Posted 13/06/2025 at 22:11:39 @22 Ian. I have reflected on your point. And you provide balance. Yes, we had to sell our best players. Most clubs do. £22M for Lescott was turned into £22M for Heitinga, Distin and Bilyaletdinov. And whilst Heitinga and Distin were solid and decent players, we certainly didn't reinvest and move forward. As for Smith and his influence at Man City. Again, like at Man Utd, he's had a powerful club to do business with and their recruitment of players in the last 3/4 years has not been good at all. They've taken a team dominating domestic football and turned it into a steady contender. In fact, they got 1 less point in the Premier League than Bobby Brown Shoes got in his first season at Everton. The last time our club looked like a club on the way up and when recruitment was effective. Jerome Shields 32 Posted 14/06/2025 at 03:45:10 Brendan #17,Thinking the same. A compromise on the Leeds duo. Out of work at Man City. Grant Rorrison 33 Posted 14/06/2025 at 07:39:44 Tommy 31. We couldn't realistically go any further forward in 2009. We were the 5th best side in the country and the four teams above us were among the best in Europe. Chelsea and Man Utd had contested the Champions League final 12 months earlier. For all of the good recruitment in 2013, we finished 5th again. Failing to crack the Top 4, and then fell off a cliff entirely the following two seasons. Ian Bennett 34 Posted 14/06/2025 at 07:45:14 I read somewhere that his net spend from 2009 to 2012 was minus £21.8M, perhaps more with undisclosed outgoings.This reversed the £27.4M spent over the previous period, to a net spend of £5.6M over 11 years.Another period of poor financial management, which unsurprisingly impacted on the pitch. Robert Tressell 35 Posted 14/06/2025 at 08:00:39 Grant at 33, you are spot on. And the difference in the level of resources with those above us was huge. Eric Myles 36 Posted 14/06/2025 at 10:20:48 Danny #27, I see a lot of backhanded compliments, eg, "he's surprised." Why? You didn't expect him to do well?And a lot of comments hoping Moyes will only be here short term.And then there's those who are just waiting for him to fail so they can say "I told you so". Danny O'Neill 37 Posted 14/06/2025 at 10:40:35 I don't think so, Eric @36.Yes, I was sceptical when we announced Moyes was coming back. But, I gave it a chance. I even did that once I got over the trauma of Benitez being appointed.It has worked out so far and I hope he continues to do so. If he succeeds, we succeed. So yes, he gets my compliments, but they aren't backhanded. They are genuine.I don't think Moyes will be here for the long-term and I certainly don't wish him to fail, because that means we are once again picking up the pieces and starting again.We will move on at some point. He's not going to be here for another 11 years. Let's just hope he wins us a trophy and get's us into Europe. He's Everton manager, so he's got my backing.You can always tell by the supporters in the stands, home and away. He's been re-accepted. Now he has to continue the momentum.There will be no "I told you so" from me. Not my style. Annika Herbert 38 Posted 14/06/2025 at 11:15:04 Eric @ 36, also did not want Moyes back but have been very pleasantly surprised at how quickly he was able to change our fortunes for the better.As Danny said, while he is our manager, he gets my full backing. Do I have doubts about his ability to take us where we would eventually like to be? Absolutely.What I don't want is a return to the "plucky little Everton" days, the "punching above our weight" days. He has more than earned a full season to show us what he can achieve. But, if it's anything like his previous, trophyless stint, then we will know for sure he isn't our long-term man. Eric Myles 39 Posted 14/06/2025 at 15:35:16 Danny, you are one of the most even handed posters on this forum, and you're not one of the I told you so's I was thinking of but still the phrase "damned with faint praise" comes to mind.Annita if you were surprised Moyes did well then you must have expected him to fail?I expected him to do do well, so I'm not surprised at all that he acheived what he did. Ryan Holroyd 40 Posted 14/06/2025 at 15:50:09 Theres hardly any ‘long term managers in the premier league Half are a year or less in their tenure Danny O'Neill 41 Posted 14/06/2025 at 17:19:02 I knew what you meant Eric. Moyes has won over even the most sceptical of the support base. He turned us around when we were staring at the unthinkable.Now the hard work starts and we push on. This is now his, and our opportunity.This audience, be it at the grounds, watching on the tele or commenting on the internet are demanding to the extreme, and rightfully so. He knows that.Ryan @40, without looking at stats, I would say the average life span of a top flight manager is about 2 seasons. Some through choice, others through clubs making decisions to move on. Annika Herbert 42 Posted 14/06/2025 at 20:21:42 Eric @ 39, then you are wrong because I never expected Moyes to fail. I fully expected him to improve the situation. But such a huge improvement.But neither do I think he will prove to be any better than he was during his last stint with Everton.Yes, we were riding high in the league compared to now. But the fact remains he never won a trophy at Everton and his record against the so-called top 6 was dreadful.If you are happy to accept that, then fair play. I, personally, want better than a consistently good league position. Derek Taylor 43 Posted 14/06/2025 at 21:11:27 We'll soon have more football transfer staff than players! Scouts, negotiators, technical experts, consultants and old mates from years ago.I want them all to be subservient to Moyes, so that when and if it goes tits up, we know who to blame!Would never have happened in Uncle Bill's time, now would it? Eric Myles 44 Posted 15/06/2025 at 13:47:03 Annika #42, "But neither do I think he will prove to be any better than he was during his last stint with Everton."There you go again, expecting failure. Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. How to get rid of these ads and support TW © ToffeeWeb