Marcel Brands has explained why a “pitbull” talent spotter is now leading Everton's scouting operation in Europe.
And the Blues' director of football says Gretar Steinsson shares his belief that no transfer target should be seen as “impossible” to sign.
Brands appointed Steinsson as the club's new chief European scout earlier this month as part of a recruitment revamp which has seen chief scout Martyn Glover moved to chief UK scout.
The Dutchman has created a “leaders” group in the department who will meet on a weekly basis so Brands can keep on top of the players Everton are monitoring.
Everton are understood to have six scouts working under Steinsson, as well as one in South America and a number of domestic-based members of the team.
Steinsson is the newest member following his switch from Fleetwood Town where he was technical director and Brands says the pair are cut from the same cloth.
“He's like a pitbull, if he sees something and wants something he goes for it, which is a little bit like my character,” Brands said.
“I like to have those kind of people around me because I have done a lot of transfers in the past where people have said: 'That is impossible' and even now, the people didn't expect players from Barcelona.
“I wanted people around me who also believe in those kind of things. We will not always succeed but if you don't go for it then you will never succeed and Gretar is such a guy and he is a people's man, a team player and doesn't have an ego and wants to work with other people. He started two weeks ago and has already met three international scouts because he was travelling and I like that.”
Brands signed Steinsson, 36, for AZ Alkmaar when sporting director at the Eredivisie club and says the pair have remained in touch during the former defender's retirement from playing.
But Everton's transfer chief admits it was a chance meeting that got the wheels in motion on his appointment as the club's lead Euro scout.
“I was lucky that there were already a few good people here and I am always looking for good people, who want to work hard and who are ambitious,” Brands said.
“I knew Gretar as a player, I had him in my time at AZ and after his playing career he was very eager to learn things.
“He came to see me twice, once at AZ and once at PSV. He came up to learn some things about the job and I heard a lot of good stories about him here in England.
“I met him at a youth game here and we started talking. And so when I changed the (scouting) structure here I thought that the role could fit him.
“I spoke to the club (Fleetwood) and told them what was my idea and that I wanted to approach their sporting director.
“We had a good conversation, we brought him in and then I said to Denise to give me her thoughts and first impressions and she was also very positive.
“We moved on and finally we signed him for the job.
“He was eager to get started because I had thought he would start on January 1 but he said he wanted to start right away, so that is what I like.”
Brands chose to wait before making changes to the recruitment department he inherited from the axed Steve Walsh but following the close of the summer window, he has started to implement major alterations.
“I was used to working very closely with my scouting structure at PSV,” he explained.
“In Holland, it was a little easier because my scouts were around me and I would send them out to Europe.
“Here the scouts are local in Europe so it is more difficult to have them around me and me to get close to them.
“So I have created a leaders group within my scouting department and we have very frequent contact and I know what is happening in the field and with Martyn, Gretar and the analyst guys we have this group that I can meet every week so I get updated on everything.
“Not just the reports but also the background behind it, we are working more closely on what we want to see and why we want to see it.
“I have also made some changes to the structure in the UK scouting system and bring them in once a month which makes them closer to the department, not only watching games and aware of what is going to happen and why we are going to do something.
“That is why I changed the structure a little bit.”
But Brands says he does not want to surround himself with yes men and so is conscious that Everton have scouts with strong opinions of their own.
“I had six full-time scouts and one guy who was the chief scout for the youth Academy and I met them every week,” he added, about his time at PSV.
“I had a few young guys and a few former players such as Jan Vennegor of Hesselink and John de Jong and I always try to make a combination of people with different thoughts.
“For example, at PSV, I had Berry van Aerle, who was a defender, and Jan Vennegor was a striker and they always think about players differently and that is what I want because if I am only looking at players I really like then we won't win the games, because I like technical players.
“I like Sigurdsson and those type of players but you cannot win a game with 11 Sigurdssons so you need other opinions and other thoughts about how players are and how characters could fit with each other.
“And that is why I also tried to find combinations within the scouting department that fit together and will be a team.”
Brands has a transfer database on which thousands of players' details and reports are kept but, as he explains, facts and figures are only part of the decision-making process.
The director of football insists that the character and personality of a target have to be right for him to press ahead with a deal and he feels Everton signed a good mix of players in the summer – which has contributed to a happy changing room under Marco Silva.
“I try to watch as many games as possible and I am travelling a lot in the periods where that is possible,” he said.
“Sometimes I find a player and start following them, other times it is a player we have already been monitoring. If he is playing in a league you know and he has a history behind him, you don't need to go and watch him 10 times but if it's a player from South America we have to take a closer look and I will send scouts over to watch training and that sort of thing because you then get more of a feeling about the person behind the player.
“That is also an I important detail in recruitment because we can all find good players but it has to fit together and I am happy to now see there is a very good atmosphere in the Everton dressing room.
“They are good boys with a positive attitude and there are no strange things and that is so important for the structure of a team and that is why I always get very close to the manager to see if a player is fitting with the character of the manager because, in the end, we are all normal people and I say: 'You see what you want to see'.
“And so if I like you, I see your good things and if I don't like you I see your bad things and so that is very important in the awareness of players. How does the manager look at him? How are the scouts looking at him? And if he is in a specific position, can he play with the other guy? That is an important detail and most of time it is about names, names, names but they have to fit.”
Everton have a scout covering Spain and Portugal, two in France, one operating in Germany and the Balkans, one in Italy and another in Scandanavia, as well as a presence in South America.
“You try to focus more on the countries which are the most interesting,” Brands said.
“In the UK it is different than, for example, Holland because it is more difficult to get players in from other countries so you have to focus on that also.
“Last year, I took some information about a goalkeeper, he was already a very big talent, but in the end we could not get a work permit should we have approached him – and he is now at Real Madrid.
“That is also a thing you have to be aware of in England and makes your approach for some countries different.”
