I was fully behind him that first year, and it was his best by far. If Mina wasn't made of cheese and Gomes not fallen apart that would have been our most successful window in the Moshiri era.
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smileychap
Player Valuation: £8m
This may create anger, but haven't we gone waay too far with MFs and entirely missed a CF?
Sold Rico and really thought Rondo (sloooow) and DCL (patchy) would suffice? This looks like a massive clanger to me.
Np's with the types of player coming in, but no CF and we'll be in a Christmas rush worse than my annual present panic buying.
Sold Rico and really thought Rondo (sloooow) and DCL (patchy) would suffice? This looks like a massive clanger to me.
Np's with the types of player coming in, but no CF and we'll be in a Christmas rush worse than my annual present panic buying.
You realise the window is open for 3 more weeks and we're linked with strikers daily?
smileychap
Player Valuation: £8m
How many games is that, plus settling in time?
USABlue
Player Valuation: £70m
Think they were always planning on going down to deadline day on a striker whether it's Broja or someone else. Was a bit of a gamble though I'm sure they weren't expecting DCL to get injured before a game even happened
Hellerad
j'accuse!
[Paid Content - Blacklisted]/349296...rton-mls-all-star/?source=user_shared_article
Adrian has some nice things to say about him and his family in a new interview in the Athletic. Seems I can’t share because it’s a pay site. I’ll c/p the relevant part.
“
Having interacted with Kevin Thelwell during his time with New York Red Bulls, what should Everton fans know about their director of football?
I know for a fact he’s incredibly well organized, and that all of his family are Evertonian. He’s incredibly well thought of in the arena where he works, and I think that obviously, they won’t want to go through what they went through last year.
Kevin knows they’ve got a big rebuilding job. Everton Football Club shouldn’t be where they are. I think we can say that there’s been some really poor recruitment over the years, because it’s not like you can accuse (Everton majority owner Farhad) Moshiri of not spending money. I think the recruitment has to be so much better than it’s been over the last five, six years. Some of the players have been in the wages, and the salaries they pay are enormous. I don’t think anybody would worry about it if they were in the top six or seven or eight, but to be in that bottom third of the table, it’s not a lot of return on their investment.”
AussieToffee11
Player Valuation: £8m
Kevin is doing a great job - not only in the transfer market, but clearly taking a whole of club, something Brands was either unwilling or unable to do.
While you naturally compare the incumbent with the replacement, I do think there is a clear advantage for Kev. From afar, it would appear that Moshiri has actually taken the advice and has butted out. Brands had to continually deal with being undercut or influenced by Moshiri's whims. Kevin looks like he has the clean air to make decisions, along with Frank and then get Kenwright to negotiate the deal.
Proper process may finally be happening at Finch Farm, and look at how pragmatic and stable it already feels.
Proof will be in the pudding and Moshiri can go AWOL at any time (which is his prerogative) but it is nice to see them all on the page at the moment.
While you naturally compare the incumbent with the replacement, I do think there is a clear advantage for Kev. From afar, it would appear that Moshiri has actually taken the advice and has butted out. Brands had to continually deal with being undercut or influenced by Moshiri's whims. Kevin looks like he has the clean air to make decisions, along with Frank and then get Kenwright to negotiate the deal.
Proper process may finally be happening at Finch Farm, and look at how pragmatic and stable it already feels.
Proof will be in the pudding and Moshiri can go AWOL at any time (which is his prerogative) but it is nice to see them all on the page at the moment.
smileychap
Player Valuation: £8m
DCL's fitness was patchy the whole of last season.
The validity of my my point will be our tally before the RS game.
It's a kind run, the kind of games away we ought to be winning. Full respect, all those sides there have done well climbing up from Championship status and solidifying in the Prem. I Iived in Brentford for years and watched them a lot through league 2, 1 and championship) and unsurprised by the Prem status. Superb mgt under Matthew Benham who's investment is nothing like our splurge under Mosh.
But playing nearly a month of the season without a decent striker in that period - or at best one who is settling in (and there's international breaks, injuries etc to come) is a MASSIVE oversight in a league where goals keeps you up, and a good start can help set the tone. I say that fully aware of our start last season!
We should have at least 7 points by the time we play pool. If we're drawing or losing those games and turn up with 3-4 points or less owing to lack of threat (which sides sniff out and then naturally play a more offensive game), then we've started the season with a massive transfer own goal - despite the quality of some of our other recruitment.
I think it is impossible to really compare the two. Brands was clearly hamstrung by Moshiri's meddling. It feels like Moshiri has genuinely took a step back and is letting people do their jobs. You also had Brands struggling to move on some of the mistakes of Walsh and Koeman. Thewell has benefitted to some extent from those contracts having finally come to an end.
That said, I think he also let Brands crack on at first. It is no surprise his best window was when he was working in tandem with a manger with whom he had a good relationship.
As far as I'm aware most of the meddling came down to three players in Brands time here Iwobi, James, and El Ghazi (which was after Brands).
Brands made plenty of his own mistakes which Thelwell has now inherited.
Brands just added to the problems we had under Walsh. Instead of buying overpriced British players and sticking them on big contracts he did it with foreign lads. He added Mina, Gomes, Delph, Allan, Doucoure, and G'Bamin who are all likely to leave for free after their overpriced contracts expire.
We honestly have no idea how much say Brands had in any of these deals.
Thankfully it now looks like KT has full control, along with Frank of course and he seems to be out there doing his own thing.
Which is great to see really.
Brands has since said in interviews it became difficult for him to implement a wage structure as Moshiri was offering large contracts out to players while he was negotiating with others. Agents talk and then the players would all ask for more money. However, worth remembering this is Brands also protecting his own reputation.
In terms of the signings you've listed:
Allan - Carlo's pick
Mina, Gomes - not sure anyone would argue with those signings at the time. Contracts probs similar to what they had at Barca. My criticism here would be that the club shouldn't have been swayed by fan opinion and not brought in Gomes on a perm.
Gbamin - highly rated player from Germany, absolutely nobody could have predicted the injuries which has basically killed of him career at this level.
Delph - brought in to support the transition in midfielder following Gueye departure. Had only missed 8 games the previous season through injury. Turned into a disaster (although played a pivotal roll the turn of form that kept us up last year.
Doucoure - hot and cold. Wouldn't say he has been a poor signing though?
I think what we all forget as fans is there are so many variables when signing players that its a very difficult role at any club. You could buy a player that is literally perfect on paper who bombs in the league, then flourishes elsewhere. Or like Gbamin, gets crocked for two years. The blame ultimately goes to the door of the DOF but not sure there is much he can do?
My biggest criticism of Brands is that he didn't look to take more control when Carlo left and instead was happy to stay that summer. He should have walked out then rather then halfway through the season.
I'd also add that I think judging a DOF on signings is actually pointless because of the number of elements that can impact a signings success. A better judgment would be on implementation of playing style, continuity in management selections and philosophies, academy structure and pipeline, + net spend. Thelwell is excelling in most of these
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