https://elpivoteftbl.wordpress.com/2018/04/15/the-marcel-brands-files/
The Marcel Brands Files
There is a lot of speculation around the British press at the moment that PSV Eindhoven Technical Director Marcel Brands will be leaving to take the same role at flailing Everton. Here I look at Brands history with both PSV and previous club AZ Alkmaar, to see what he will bring to Everton and what to expect.
What’s a Technical Director?….
The role of a Technical Director is to manage and oversee all player and coaching development within the club. In addition, the Technical Director makes sure that all coaches are following a vision, as well as implementing the club philosophy and playing style across the entire club, no matter the age group. It also encompasses recruitment and implementing a scouting system to identify the right players that fit with the clubs playing style and needs going forward.
Youth Development…..
One of the key features from Brands time at both PSV and AZ is developing good young players and giving them a chance in the first team. Due to the Dutch league being way behind other top leagues in Europe, in terms of money, Dutch clubs put a premium on developing their youth players to both boost their first team squad and also potentially to sell on for profit which is the life blood of most clubs in Holland. As Technical Director Brands oversees the development and coaching at the club, this means he imprints how he wants players to be developed and in what style he wants them to get used to playing so they can transition seamlessly into the first team picture.
Jurgen Locadia, Memphis Depay, Jetro Williams and Jeroen Zoet have all come through PSV’s academy gone into the first team and developed into international players. In Locadia and Depay’s case they were sold for nearly a combined £50 million.
This is one of Brands key tasks at Everton, for too long the styles played at different levels have been completely different and there isn’t one vision that the club is currently developing players under o a identifiable style. Everton have a record of producing a lot of good young players that development seems to stall when they either reach the first team or in the u23’s. The transition will be made much easier if the players are being developed to play a certain way in a few different systems right through the age groups so that when they hit the first team they already know how to fit in and what is expected of them.
Domestic Player Bias……
It’s in the transfer market is where Brands has really built his reputation and it’s domestically were most of his best buys have come from. Dries Mertens, Moussa Dembele, Giorginio Wijnaldum, Davy Propper, Luciano Narsingh, Erik Pieters, Kevin Strootman and Ragnar Klavan where all bought for moderate fees and in all cases developed into international players of some repute. Mertens, Dembele and Strootman have gone on to become some of Europe’s finest players and were spotted by Brands playing for lesser Dutch sides.
As well as showing Brands superb eye for talent it also shows that he has identified inefficiencies within the transfer market he can exploit. Dutch teams rely on player sales to stay solvent but unlike in England where the prices are exaggerated, you can sign talented young players for fraction of the price.
This is probably the most difficult thing to apply to Everton due to the nature of English clubs overpricing their young talent to such an extent that Norwich supposedly want £25 million for James Maddison, who is a wonderful talent but never played above Championship level. However the right talent spotter can exploit the fact that teams like Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal and Manchester City don’t generally give their best youth players the fast track to the first team. German teams have seen this inefficiency which is why Jadon Sancho England’s brightest under 18 talent now plays for Borussia Dortmund. If Everton can identify these talents and offer them a fast track to first team then they could have the pick of England’s best 17-19 year olds wanting to play for them.
The Americas…….
Another feature of Brands time as Technical Director is his identifying of Central American and South American talents to bring over to Holland who have flourished. This is another market that has it inefficiencies which can be exploited in that many teams in the Americas rely on player development and players sales to bring money in whether that from Europe or bigger South American countries. The key is being able to spot players that can deal with the rigours of European football and being able to adapt.
Brands has brought Sergio Romero, Santiago Arias, Hector Moreno, Hirving Lozano, Gaston Periero and Maximiliano Romero into European football. Romero, Lozano and Periero are some of the brightest young talents in world football. Romero, Arias and Moreno have all developed into International players.
Everton do not appear currently to have much of a presence in Central and South America when it comes to scouting. There have been a handful of South American players who have played for the club but none you would identify as hidden gems or astute buys. Everton don’t have a bottomless pit of money like City or United and don’t create the revenues Liverpool or Arsenal do to compete financially in the market with them so they must find a way to exploit the market and find good players for smaller fees who they can develop and get the best out of.
Transfer Policy…..
At both PSV and AZ Alkmaar, Brands has worked under a restrictive budget but still manages to improve the team year in year out with astute buys and also selling some of those buys on for profit. Brands seems to prefer players who are between 18 years old and 25 years old who can go straight into the first team picture and develop to become better players. Brands doesn’t restrict himself though if he feels that there is a player who can improve the side at the right price he has bought older players before like his signings of Hector Moreno and Andres Guadardo for PSV which were outside his usual preferences for younger players.
Both PSV and AZ Alkmaar made vast sums from developing players Brands brought to the club at a young age and selling them on for a profit or even selling youngsters brought through the clubs youth academies for big fees. Memphis Depay was sold for £25 Million, Jurgen Locadia was sold for £14 Million, Kevin Strootman was signed for £3.5 million and sold for £15 million, Dries Mertens was signed for £5 million and was sold for £11 million, Giorginio Wijnaldum was signed for £5 million and sold for £18 million and Davy Propper signed for £4 million and sold for £12 million are just some of the examples of how Brands has identified talent then developed them at the club and then sold them for profit.
To compete in the Premier League you need either a rich owner or to be able to create massive revenues that allows you to buy the best in transfer market. Liverpool and Tottenham as well as being good commercially have also revamped there squads via players sales. Buying younger players developing them and selling them on at inflated fees (see Coutinho and Walker) allows them to reinvest in the squad year after year without breaking the bank. Everton benefited from this with Lukaku and Stones sales. However under Steve Walsh we started to sign older players in their prime for inflated fees which isn’t sustainable for a club like us, Moshiri may be rich but he can’t continue to spend £200 million without significant funds coming back into club. Brands transfer strategy can keep us being competitive and balance the books through player sales.
The Marcel Brands Files
There is a lot of speculation around the British press at the moment that PSV Eindhoven Technical Director Marcel Brands will be leaving to take the same role at flailing Everton. Here I look at Brands history with both PSV and previous club AZ Alkmaar, to see what he will bring to Everton and what to expect.
What’s a Technical Director?….
The role of a Technical Director is to manage and oversee all player and coaching development within the club. In addition, the Technical Director makes sure that all coaches are following a vision, as well as implementing the club philosophy and playing style across the entire club, no matter the age group. It also encompasses recruitment and implementing a scouting system to identify the right players that fit with the clubs playing style and needs going forward.
Youth Development…..
One of the key features from Brands time at both PSV and AZ is developing good young players and giving them a chance in the first team. Due to the Dutch league being way behind other top leagues in Europe, in terms of money, Dutch clubs put a premium on developing their youth players to both boost their first team squad and also potentially to sell on for profit which is the life blood of most clubs in Holland. As Technical Director Brands oversees the development and coaching at the club, this means he imprints how he wants players to be developed and in what style he wants them to get used to playing so they can transition seamlessly into the first team picture.
Jurgen Locadia, Memphis Depay, Jetro Williams and Jeroen Zoet have all come through PSV’s academy gone into the first team and developed into international players. In Locadia and Depay’s case they were sold for nearly a combined £50 million.
This is one of Brands key tasks at Everton, for too long the styles played at different levels have been completely different and there isn’t one vision that the club is currently developing players under o a identifiable style. Everton have a record of producing a lot of good young players that development seems to stall when they either reach the first team or in the u23’s. The transition will be made much easier if the players are being developed to play a certain way in a few different systems right through the age groups so that when they hit the first team they already know how to fit in and what is expected of them.
Domestic Player Bias……
It’s in the transfer market is where Brands has really built his reputation and it’s domestically were most of his best buys have come from. Dries Mertens, Moussa Dembele, Giorginio Wijnaldum, Davy Propper, Luciano Narsingh, Erik Pieters, Kevin Strootman and Ragnar Klavan where all bought for moderate fees and in all cases developed into international players of some repute. Mertens, Dembele and Strootman have gone on to become some of Europe’s finest players and were spotted by Brands playing for lesser Dutch sides.
As well as showing Brands superb eye for talent it also shows that he has identified inefficiencies within the transfer market he can exploit. Dutch teams rely on player sales to stay solvent but unlike in England where the prices are exaggerated, you can sign talented young players for fraction of the price.
This is probably the most difficult thing to apply to Everton due to the nature of English clubs overpricing their young talent to such an extent that Norwich supposedly want £25 million for James Maddison, who is a wonderful talent but never played above Championship level. However the right talent spotter can exploit the fact that teams like Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal and Manchester City don’t generally give their best youth players the fast track to the first team. German teams have seen this inefficiency which is why Jadon Sancho England’s brightest under 18 talent now plays for Borussia Dortmund. If Everton can identify these talents and offer them a fast track to first team then they could have the pick of England’s best 17-19 year olds wanting to play for them.
The Americas…….
Another feature of Brands time as Technical Director is his identifying of Central American and South American talents to bring over to Holland who have flourished. This is another market that has it inefficiencies which can be exploited in that many teams in the Americas rely on player development and players sales to bring money in whether that from Europe or bigger South American countries. The key is being able to spot players that can deal with the rigours of European football and being able to adapt.
Brands has brought Sergio Romero, Santiago Arias, Hector Moreno, Hirving Lozano, Gaston Periero and Maximiliano Romero into European football. Romero, Lozano and Periero are some of the brightest young talents in world football. Romero, Arias and Moreno have all developed into International players.
Everton do not appear currently to have much of a presence in Central and South America when it comes to scouting. There have been a handful of South American players who have played for the club but none you would identify as hidden gems or astute buys. Everton don’t have a bottomless pit of money like City or United and don’t create the revenues Liverpool or Arsenal do to compete financially in the market with them so they must find a way to exploit the market and find good players for smaller fees who they can develop and get the best out of.
Transfer Policy…..
At both PSV and AZ Alkmaar, Brands has worked under a restrictive budget but still manages to improve the team year in year out with astute buys and also selling some of those buys on for profit. Brands seems to prefer players who are between 18 years old and 25 years old who can go straight into the first team picture and develop to become better players. Brands doesn’t restrict himself though if he feels that there is a player who can improve the side at the right price he has bought older players before like his signings of Hector Moreno and Andres Guadardo for PSV which were outside his usual preferences for younger players.
Both PSV and AZ Alkmaar made vast sums from developing players Brands brought to the club at a young age and selling them on for a profit or even selling youngsters brought through the clubs youth academies for big fees. Memphis Depay was sold for £25 Million, Jurgen Locadia was sold for £14 Million, Kevin Strootman was signed for £3.5 million and sold for £15 million, Dries Mertens was signed for £5 million and was sold for £11 million, Giorginio Wijnaldum was signed for £5 million and sold for £18 million and Davy Propper signed for £4 million and sold for £12 million are just some of the examples of how Brands has identified talent then developed them at the club and then sold them for profit.
To compete in the Premier League you need either a rich owner or to be able to create massive revenues that allows you to buy the best in transfer market. Liverpool and Tottenham as well as being good commercially have also revamped there squads via players sales. Buying younger players developing them and selling them on at inflated fees (see Coutinho and Walker) allows them to reinvest in the squad year after year without breaking the bank. Everton benefited from this with Lukaku and Stones sales. However under Steve Walsh we started to sign older players in their prime for inflated fees which isn’t sustainable for a club like us, Moshiri may be rich but he can’t continue to spend £200 million without significant funds coming back into club. Brands transfer strategy can keep us being competitive and balance the books through player sales.
