Manchester City’s James Smith returns to Everton to take over recruitment role

On gardening leave before reuniting with David Moyes - key hire for EFC

As per David Ornstein.

James Smith from Man City would seem to be an exciting hire.

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.

Please let this be true!

Hopefully a promising and good sign we are getting our house in order.

Headline on News Now/Prince Rupert's Tower.

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.

David Ornstein is one of the best in the business.

I thought Thelwell did a fantastic job under the circumstances but that's yesterday's news, now let's get behind the new guy.

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.

I'm sure that, during his time with the Manchester clubs, he has a widespread scouting network outside of the North-West.

This appointment doesn't seem to chime with the narrative of giving Moyes less input to transfers.

What a surprise.

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?

I'll be happy when the club is successful and wins a trophy.

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.

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.

But can you be a bit more upbeat and take circumstances into consideration.

I've only read that narrative on TW from posters that don't like Moyes.

I'd like to be a fly on the wall when they make a final decision on who to actually sign.

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.

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.

They hoover up anyone good.

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?

22m for Lescott was turned into 22m for Heitinga, Distin and Bilyetdinov. And whilst Heitings snd Distin were solid and decent players, we certainly did t reinvest and move forward.

As for Smith and his influence at Man City. Again, like at 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 league than Bobby brown shoes got in his first season at everton. The last time club looked like a club on the way up and when recruitment was effective