2020/21 Marcel Brands

[davek]

It is all a bit of a mess at the minute but not all his fault.
I thought this was the transfer window where he came to the fore and would make us real competitors at the top end of the table.
I think this is his 6th transfer window and the squad should really be taking shape now under his guidance but im not seeing it.

He's up against it in respect of the owner, who wont cede control; and the club culture...which wont sit well with another layer of bureacracy between player and manager.

He isn't a strong enough character for the job....if that job / role even makes sense here.

 

[blueblue]

He's up against it in respect of the owner, who wont cede control; and the club culture...which wont sit well with another layer of bureacracy between player and manager.

He isn't a strong enough character for the job....if that job / role even makes sense here.

To be honest Dave none of us know the real relationship between Moshiri/Usmanov/Kenwright/Benitez and Brands.

 

[davek]

I suspect the goal is to get to BM with PL status in tact. We’re all just going to be managed. If this summer is anything to by, it’s about shepherding that process via your Andres Townsend and be lightening rod in a way, but the worm is turning, all the “Marcel” usernames on here are being abandoned, he can’t hide behind managers anymore, the honey moon period is over and his work is being more and more appraised. More and more supporters are picking up on the red flags, lack of effective use of resources, player selection, squad building and managing a budget. Before we look at selling players. If you were to score those competencies out of 10 for him they wouldn’t be high.

How the hell did have a celebratory documentary made about him, sheep!

I think the road runs out for Brands well before any BMD opening.

He has been tolerated by fans so far because the cash has been splashed. We are in a different era now. Fans will be pointing at him if we're going into the bargain bins for players AND we end up struggling on the pitch.

I think he's now reliant on Benitez plaiting sawdust here to keep his job. The supporters wont tolerate Brands for much longer.

 

[davek]

To be honest Dave none of us know the real relationship between Moshiri/Usmanov/Kenwright/Benitez and Brands.

He is defo not in charge of football matters here. Moshiri is on all major decisions.

 

[Nymzee]

It's very easy to disagree.

Look at the squad we had when he come in and compare it to now.

"He's overseen a catastrophe"

He come in during a catastrophe - Everton, managed by Sam Allardyce with this team. Always needed time to clear out this mess. He had to remove a 1/4 of the squad - wait until contracts finished for the likes of Schneiderlin, Garbutt, Stekelenburg ,Sandro Ramirez, Yannick Bolasie, Cenk Tosun, Theo Walcott, Oumar Niasse, Cuco Martina, Muhamed Besic, Shani Tarashaj . This team was a starting 11 in the Prem a couple of months before Brands come in;

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It's coming up to crunch time when we have to start seeing an improvement competitively on the pitch though, our league positions have gone backwards since he's come in - but let's not make out that Brands is the reason we've struggled. Walsh and Koeman crippled this club.

Most of FFP burden is from before Brands.

Our strongest XI is infinitely better than it was back then but results are, arguably worse, so maybe we need to start pointing more fingers at failing coaching of said players.

 

[Martin Alvito]

Events don't always affect the conclusion though.

All we know if Real Madrid came calling and he ditched us but which Everton manager in our history would have turned down the Real Madrid job? If he'd taken a sideways or backwards step then sure, you could put more weight into apparent clashes with a Director of Football or the break in, but he left for one of the biggest - and arguably easiest - jobs in world football. If what what we have been told about his lack of coaching with us perhaps this job was just too difficult for him in the end.

Real Madrid is the hardest job in world football. It's a snakepit. The media, the socios, the locker room...it ages managers in dog years. Zidane is young as managers go and has said "No mas" twice now.

It's also probably the easiest place to lift silverware. That's because they have been predominant financially for some time.

Your story is this: Ancelotti is a rat. He came in here, lied his keister off to the board about seeing the job through, and scarpered with the hot young ex when she got interested again. It implicitly assumes that Ancelotti is just like most managers are presumed to be: social climbers that will take a step up on the ladder in a heartbeat if it is offered.

The story I'm telling is this: Ancelotti could very easily have been true, but circumstances such as the finances and safety concerns caused him to decide that the situation was untenable.

We're telling a story about things we have no direct knowledge about either way. We infer from data. Your position is that your story is the correct one by way of Occam's Razor. I'm arguing that your story makes some assumptions about Ancelotti's character that may not be warranted.

The answer is unknowable, as Ancelotti may well have reasons to lie about his true motivations. What's interesting about the stories is what they say about the club, and its relationship with the markets for players and managers.

 

[ArtetaMoney]

Where did you get this from?

Of course it isn't good enough but recruitment is also difficult! My point is that you're suggesting (and I've seen others doing the same) that Brands hasn't signed a right back in his time at the club implying that he's oblivious to the problem or incompetent and it just isn't true. Him signing Sidibe is clear evidence.

Him signing Sidibe on loan is clear evidence that he isn’t good at his job. Sidibe was below average.

Coleman was not good enough to play all the time, on the day Brands took over the role. 7 windows later and he’s going to be starting the first Premier League game of the season.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

Him signing Sidibe on loan is clear evidence that he isn’t good at his job. Sidibe was below average.

Coleman was not good enough to play all the time, on the day Brands took over the role. 7 windows later and he’s going to be starting the first Premier League game of the season.

The motivation was Kenny would go out for loan, and come back in and push Coleman to start. Sidibe was always just a loan to cover a spell for Kenny's development.

That's what Kenny said anyway. And Silva, and Ancelotti.

I think perhaps they overestimated Kenny.

 

[Nymzee]

Real Madrid is the hardest job in world football. It's a snakepit. The media, the socios, the locker room...it ages managers in dog years. Zidane is young as managers go and has said "No mas" twice now.

It's also probably the easiest place to lift silverware. That's because they have been predominant financially for some time.

Your story is this: Ancelotti is a rat. He came in here, lied his keister off to the board about seeing the job through, and scarpered with the hot young ex when she got interested again. It implicitly assumes that Ancelotti is just like most managers are presumed to be: social climbers that will take a step up on the ladder in a heartbeat if it is offered.

The story I'm telling is this: Ancelotti could very easily have been true, but circumstances such as the finances and safety concerns caused him to decide that the situation was untenable.

We're telling a story about things we have no direct knowledge about either way. We infer from data. Your position is that your story is the correct one by way of Occam's Razor. I'm arguing that your story makes some assumptions about Ancelotti's character that may not be warranted.

The answer is unknowable, as Ancelotti may well have reasons to lie about his true motivations. What's interesting about the stories is what they say about the club, and its relationship with the markets for players and managers.

No, my story is he was Everton manager, a bigger, better, easy job came up and he took it. That's really all there is to it.

 

[LocalNative]

It's very easy to disagree.

Look at the squad we had when he come in and compare it to now.

"He's overseen a catastrophe"

He come in during a catastrophe - Everton, managed by Sam Allardyce with this team. Always needed time to clear out this mess. He had to remove a 1/4 of the squad - wait until contracts finished for the likes of Schneiderlin, Garbutt, Stekelenburg ,Sandro Ramirez, Yannick Bolasie, Cenk Tosun, Theo Walcott, Oumar Niasse, Cuco Martina, Muhamed Besic, Shani Tarashaj . This team was a starting 11 in the Prem a couple of months before Brands come in;

View attachment 135357


It's coming up to crunch time when we have to start seeing an improvement competitively on the pitch though, our league positions have gone backwards since he's come in - but let's not make out that Brands is the reason we've struggled. Walsh and Koeman crippled this club.

Most of FFP burden is from before Brands.

That lineup makes me feel sick. Kenny and Martina as wing-backs...

 

[ArtetaMoney]

The motivation was Kenny would go out for loan, and come back in and push Coleman to start. Sidibe was always just a loan to cover a spell for Kenny's development.

That's what Kenny said anyway. And Silva, and Ancelotti.

I think perhaps they overestimated Kenny.

Hmmm, I am not convinced. It was pretty obvious that Kenny was never going to be good enough, they would have sold him if Schalke would have put an offer in.

There's also been 3 windows since then, yet Coleman is still first choice.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

Hmmm, I am not convinced. It was pretty obvious that Kenny was never going to be good enough, they would have sold him if Schalke would have put an offer in.

There's also been 3 windows since then, yet Coleman is still first choice.

Other priorities needed addressing first.

Our midfield. There's threads on here asking what position we need to strengthen and universally people said midfield.

The point on Sidibe, was that he was never signed as someone to improve that position. He was cover, while we gave Kenny the opportunity elsewhere.

If we had the capacity to do so, we'd have brought a decent full back in but since Brands come in, right back was never a priority until recently.

 

[BigDuncTributeBand]

It’s very hard not to agree with this mate, year 4, we’ve disimproved via a lot of money as the crow flies we are getting worse. Can’t buy to improve us, can’t sell, no resale on his own signings. It’s really bad. Any honeymoon he had in terms of mitigation is gone. Deeper in the hole we go.

Agree. I get he took over from a crappy situation but he’s in his fourth season now. The squad is a state, still unbalanced. People seem to think it’s only Steve Walsh who spent money. Brands spent a fair wedge as well without any real sign of improvement.

We’ve been chronically slow in midfield for a long time. He inherited that, fair enough but three years on we still have one of the slowest, least mobile midfields in the prem. We’ve got far too many players who all do the same thing, Davies, Gomes, Allan, Gbamin, Delph. Slightly further forward we’ve got James and Siggi, both incredibly one paced.

We’ve been crying out for a right winger for how long? Keeps signing players who prefer to come in off the left when we already have Richie to play there I.e. Bernard, Iwobi, Gray.

It’s all so scattergun, you can’t discern a strategy. He’s not done well in the three years he’s been here, even with the mitigation of what he inherited, I don’t see how anyone can defend where we are now going into his fourth year.

 

[Bob Elstone]

I’ve seen enough, he’s not good enough.

 

[Bluestar]

You’re missing my point.

We needed a striker after we sent Kean to PSG, at the time we were linked with King. We were in a great position come Christmas but we’re desperately short of players, especially attacking ones.

Then Marcel spent all of January sorting a deal out for someone we were linked with months before. By the end of Jan we’d plummeted down the league and the player he signed was deemed not good enough by the manager. That’s poor from Brands and potentially cost us the best chance we’ve had of finishing high up the table, in years.

I think Kean either went because of FFP loss issues or because Carlo didn’t want him. We were certainly struggling with wages at the time and brought in four players.

I do not tgink he had a choice either way.