The Everton Board Thread

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Absolutely agree with that point about Silva , it’s the one time the board should have been strong and backed Brands who wanted to keep Silva.

I don't think anyone will ever care to do this, but I'd love to know really what our board meetings sound and look like. what did Brands experience that made him leave with no achievements and total frustration. Very interesting article from last year:
 

I don't think anyone will ever care to do this, but I'd love to know really what our board meetings sound and look like. what did Brands experience that made him leave with no achievements and total frustration. Very interesting article from last year:
Very revealing indeed, especially the confirmation that Ancelotti left because of lack of support as many of us suspected. The article makes for very unpleasant reading if you are Moshiri or on the board, and is evidence that the management of the club is a complete shambles. A few relevant lines rea highlighted in bold:

Marcel Brands has spoken about the difficulties he faced fulfilling his role as a director of football at Everton Football Club, which he held during a time of disarray at Goodison Park between May 2018 and December 2021. Brands was one of many members of the sporting side of the club—including managers, coaches and technical staff—to leave in recent times amid what has been a haphazard, ineffective and expensive approach to recruiting players and back room staff. Though the Dutchman was in this director of football role, for much of his time at the club there was a sense that he was unable to carry out this task freely, and unable to actually “direct football” as the job title would suggest. In an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Saturday, Brands confirmed as much.

“It was a wonderful experience at a wonderful club,” Brands said about his time at Everton. “I worked with some fantastic people. The supporters and also the history of the club were great, but it is very difficult to leave a mark on such a club. That had to do with the structure. “In the end, you don’t have the satisfaction you want. There is so much possible at the club if you do it right, but you don’t get the time to build something.”

Brands is now in a similar role as a general manager back in his home country with former club PSV Eindhoven. It’s one which is supposed to offer stability at a club even if there are changes in managers, coaching staff or players. The director of football aims to recruit players to suit a certain style, and coaches who can get the best out of them. This then means that if a high-profile player is sold or a manager leaves for another team, as was the case with Carlo Ancelotti’s departure from Everton to Real Madrid, there is at least some kind of continuity and a plan to replace departing personnel.

But that was never the case at Everton who have appointed six managers in the past seven years with little to no continuity. This has led to a rebuild every time a new manager was hired, usually with owner intervention, spending money frivolously and without a long-term plan. “I was fighting to make a player contract of 50,000 a week 45,000 a week because that fit better in the wage structure and matched the quality of the player,” Brands added. “And then the owner called, saying that he had been sitting with another player and that he could come for 175,000 a week. Then you say: ‘What’s that going to do in the dressing room? He earns three times as much as the others.’ That kind of thing makes it difficult. You also see the difference with clubs where the structure is good. Liverpool [for example] has really grown. They have become really stable under Jürgen Klopp. You don’t see any crazy transfers anymore.”

Speaking about the Premier League in general, where there are some huge clubs in terms of their global brand but many who still go about their transfer business in an unorganised way, Brands sounded almost baffled at the way things are done. “The Premier League is so fantastically well organised and is such a powerful brand, but there is still so much room for improvement in the way the money is handled,” he said. “To give an example: every time a trainer is fired, the whole team has to leave. That way, you don’t build anything up. That is a waste of money. “I tried until my last breath to keep coach Marco Silva in the saddle because I was convinced he is a top trainer,” added Brands. “Then after three defeats, measures are taken. “I had to talk like a mad man to keep Ancelotti in the saddle, but in the end, he left for Real Madrid because he felt the support of the owners was not there.”

Everton will hope they have learned from these errors, but with current owner Farhad Moshiri at the helm there might always be the possibility of unnecessary and detrimental interference Brands speaks of. Brands also mentioned to ESPN last week that “the owners are very involved, which makes them easy to influence. That makes it very difficult sometimes. I think more English clubs suffer from that.” Moshiri has put lots of money into the club, but it has not been spent wisely, leading to Everton’s current situation where they were on the verge of breaking Financial Fair Play rules while also on the verge of relegation. This combination is a sign of a badly run club if ever there was one.
 
Kenwright wants you to give up. Thats why the board started the smear campaign against the supporters. Who benefits if we go down. Not us the supporters. Not the club coz any sign of investment will vanish and we would have to sell players weakening us even further. Not moshiri coz he needs premier league money for the new ground. You know who will benefit dont you. Bill kenwright. If it comes between him being chairman and Everton staying up he will take relegation. You know this. You have seen the lengths this fella will go to stay chairman. We all need to ask ourselves a question and its personal to every Evertonian. Nobody is judging anyone. Are you going to let kenwright win? Personally i think this is the best chance for the supporters to reclaim the club and set it back on a course not to accept mediocrity not to be plucky little Everton and everything else that has been covered over the pages on this forum today that you want the club to become again. All that you want wont happen with kenwright remaining. Keep your heads blues. Vent when you need to but dont lose sight of the what we can achieve by staying up. We can rid the club of this parasite once and for all.
UTFT.
 
Kenwright wants you to give up. Thats why the board started the smear campaign against the supporters. Who benefits if we go down. Not us the supporters. Not the club coz any sign of investment will vanish and we would have to sell players weakening us even further. Not moshiri coz he needs premier league money for the new ground. You know who will benefit dont you. Bill kenwright. If it comes between him being chairman and Everton staying up he will take relegation. You know this. You have seen the lengths this fella will go to stay chairman. We all need to ask ourselves a question and its personal to every Evertonian. Nobody is judging anyone. Are you going to let kenwright win? Personally i think this is the best chance for the supporters to reclaim the club and set it back on a course not to accept mediocrity not to be plucky little Everton and everything else that has been covered over the pages on this forum today that you want the club to become again. All that you want wont happen with kenwright remaining. Keep your heads blues. Vent when you need to but dont lose sight of the what we can achieve by staying up. We can rid the club of this parasite once and for all.
UTFT.
If Everton get relegated, Kenwright wont come anywhere near the club ever again.
 

If Everton get relegated, Kenwright wont come anywhere near the club ever again.
I agree he wont come to Goodison or the new ground but i can well see him staying on as chairman in his london hideaway. The smear campaign backfired big time. He never saw it coming. We already have him out of Goodison. Out of the club is the objective now. We might only get one chance. Keep up with the marches and shout for everything inside Goodison. Its all we can do.
 
Very revealing indeed, especially the confirmation that Ancelotti left because of lack of support as many of us suspected. The article makes for very unpleasant reading if you are Moshiri or on the board, and is evidence that the management of the club is a complete shambles. A few relevant lines rea highlighted in bold:

Marcel Brands has spoken about the difficulties he faced fulfilling his role as a director of football at Everton Football Club, which he held during a time of disarray at Goodison Park between May 2018 and December 2021. Brands was one of many members of the sporting side of the club—including managers, coaches and technical staff—to leave in recent times amid what has been a haphazard, ineffective and expensive approach to recruiting players and back room staff. Though the Dutchman was in this director of football role, for much of his time at the club there was a sense that he was unable to carry out this task freely, and unable to actually “direct football” as the job title would suggest. In an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Saturday, Brands confirmed as much.

“It was a wonderful experience at a wonderful club,” Brands said about his time at Everton. “I worked with some fantastic people. The supporters and also the history of the club were great, but it is very difficult to leave a mark on such a club. That had to do with the structure. “In the end, you don’t have the satisfaction you want. There is so much possible at the club if you do it right, but you don’t get the time to build something.”

Brands is now in a similar role as a general manager back in his home country with former club PSV Eindhoven. It’s one which is supposed to offer stability at a club even if there are changes in managers, coaching staff or players. The director of football aims to recruit players to suit a certain style, and coaches who can get the best out of them. This then means that if a high-profile player is sold or a manager leaves for another team, as was the case with Carlo Ancelotti’s departure from Everton to Real Madrid, there is at least some kind of continuity and a plan to replace departing personnel.

But that was never the case at Everton who have appointed six managers in the past seven years with little to no continuity. This has led to a rebuild every time a new manager was hired, usually with owner intervention, spending money frivolously and without a long-term plan. “I was fighting to make a player contract of 50,000 a week 45,000 a week because that fit better in the wage structure and matched the quality of the player,” Brands added. “And then the owner called, saying that he had been sitting with another player and that he could come for 175,000 a week. Then you say: ‘What’s that going to do in the dressing room? He earns three times as much as the others.’ That kind of thing makes it difficult. You also see the difference with clubs where the structure is good. Liverpool [for example] has really grown. They have become really stable under Jürgen Klopp. You don’t see any crazy transfers anymore.”

Speaking about the Premier League in general, where there are some huge clubs in terms of their global brand but many who still go about their transfer business in an unorganised way, Brands sounded almost baffled at the way things are done. “The Premier League is so fantastically well organised and is such a powerful brand, but there is still so much room for improvement in the way the money is handled,” he said. “To give an example: every time a trainer is fired, the whole team has to leave. That way, you don’t build anything up. That is a waste of money. “I tried until my last breath to keep coach Marco Silva in the saddle because I was convinced he is a top trainer,” added Brands. “Then after three defeats, measures are taken. “I had to talk like a mad man to keep Ancelotti in the saddle, but in the end, he left for Real Madrid because he felt the support of the owners was not there.”

Everton will hope they have learned from these errors, but with current owner Farhad Moshiri at the helm there might always be the possibility of unnecessary and detrimental interference Brands speaks of. Brands also mentioned to ESPN last week that “the owners are very involved, which makes them easy to influence. That makes it very difficult sometimes. I think more English clubs suffer from that.” Moshiri has put lots of money into the club, but it has not been spent wisely, leading to Everton’s current situation where they were on the verge of breaking Financial Fair Play rules while also on the verge of relegation. This combination is a sign of a badly run club if ever there was one.

It is very revealing, and I was surprised to find it and that I didn't even know about this until now
- I looked him up at PSV and he's actually Chief Executive it seems. imagine if he was promoted to DBB's role, and she could have taken over something more in line with her experience (or left if it doesn't match any more)
- the type of magazine and article suggests its not speculation or gossip, but seems very believable
- The assumption that Brands was a skilled person not able to do his job seems correct
- Silva could have been given more time. I think Gbamin, Mina, Digne, Gomes were actually good signings, very strong, but we got really really unlucky with their injuries. Could Brands have done something in the medical department long term if given a chance?
- I know ultimately whatever Ancelotti said if Real Madrid came for him he would probably have gone anyway, but it's interesting that he might have stayed with more support. If you have Ancelotti, you back him all the way, no?I remember one interview where he said he'd love to take Everton to the new stadium and he's waiting for a contract, and I didn't take it seriously at the time. Had Brands been allowed to communicate support and a vision, and put it into action with money, we might have got 2-3 years out of Ancelotti.

Very clear about the haphazard nature of our club - the whole point of the DoF is to maintain consistent transfer, strategy and managerial policy. We got lucky with Brands, and we wasted 3 years with him in the role.
 
It is very revealing, and I was surprised to find it and that I didn't even know about this until now
- I looked him up at PSV and he's actually Chief Executive it seems. imagine if he was promoted to DBB's role, and she could have taken over something more in line with her experience (or left if it doesn't match any more)
- the type of magazine and article suggests its not speculation or gossip, but seems very believable
- The assumption that Brands was a skilled person not able to do his job seems correct
- Silva could have been given more time. I think Gbamin, Mina, Digne, Gomes were actually good signings, very strong, but we got really really unlucky with their injuries. Could Brands have done something in the medical department long term if given a chance?
- I know ultimately whatever Ancelotti said if Real Madrid came for him he would probably have gone anyway, but it's interesting that he might have stayed with more support. If you have Ancelotti, you back him all the way, no?I remember one interview where he said he'd love to take Everton to the new stadium and he's waiting for a contract, and I didn't take it seriously at the time. Had Brands been allowed to communicate support and a vision, and put it into action with money, we might have got 2-3 years out of Ancelotti.

Very clear about the haphazard nature of our club - the whole point of the DoF is to maintain consistent transfer, strategy and managerial policy. We got lucky with Brands, and we wasted 3 years with him in the role.
I firmly believe that Ancelotti came to realise that he had been sold a pup by Moshiri half way through the 20/21 season, as evidenced by the poor January transfer window. That Real Madrid came calling at the end of that season was either a happy coincidence from his POV, or he had put it out there himself via his agent that he wanted out. Real shame, because as you say, we could have gotten 2 or 3 more years out of him.
 

It is very revealing, and I was surprised to find it and that I didn't even know about this until now
- I looked him up at PSV and he's actually Chief Executive it seems. imagine if he was promoted to DBB's role, and she could have taken over something more in line with her experience (or left if it doesn't match any more)
- the type of magazine and article suggests its not speculation or gossip, but seems very believable
- The assumption that Brands was a skilled person not able to do his job seems correct
- Silva could have been given more time. I think Gbamin, Mina, Digne, Gomes were actually good signings, very strong, but we got really really unlucky with their injuries. Could Brands have done something in the medical department long term if given a chance?
- I know ultimately whatever Ancelotti said if Real Madrid came for him he would probably have gone anyway, but it's interesting that he might have stayed with more support. If you have Ancelotti, you back him all the way, no?I remember one interview where he said he'd love to take Everton to the new stadium and he's waiting for a contract, and I didn't take it seriously at the time. Had Brands been allowed to communicate support and a vision, and put it into action with money, we might have got 2-3 years out of Ancelotti.

Very clear about the haphazard nature of our club - the whole point of the DoF is to maintain consistent transfer, strategy and managerial policy. We got lucky with Brands, and we wasted 3 years with him in the role.

How can you "back" Ancelotti when the club is breaching Premier League P&S rules due to losing '00s of millions of £ due to the incompetence of Bill Kenwright and Denise Barrett-Baxendale not raising revenues enough and allowing ridiculous over spending?

The club in summer of 2021 when Benitez arrived Everton were in a terrible state and under Premier League scrutiny. To the point Everton were prohibited from making transfers without advanced Premier League permission. Why they could only sign Gray and Townsend for combined £1.7 m.

The club board and communications team deliberately misled the fans and the shareholders about what a difficult position the club were in

The club were losing money hugely. Had transfer restrictions on them

Yet the Chief Executive Officer thought it appropriate to accept them and use the club website to publicise it 👇 all with Kenwright's blessing.

It's beyond belief. Makes me want to swear.

Because when people see that 👇 and are being told not to "criticise" and criticism is ridiculed on social media you can see precisely what has been and is wrong with the club


As Melanie Prentice has said in the last 24 hours "support the team" (like we don't?!?). Is just the latest put down of criterism from inside the club. Shows their mindset. Just the latest "be careful what you wish for"

People should be free to criticise. Otherwise youre not acknowledging realities. There is alot to criticise in terms of the people supposedly running Everton Football Club. Stemming from Bill Kenwright

There's an unhealthy culture at the club that Kenwright has created that needs destroying. A culture that does not like or accept criticism. Because they don't like the truth
 
Very revealing indeed, especially the confirmation that Ancelotti left because of lack of support as many of us suspected. The article makes for very unpleasant reading if you are Moshiri or on the board, and is evidence that the management of the club is a complete shambles. A few relevant lines rea highlighted in bold:

Marcel Brands has spoken about the difficulties he faced fulfilling his role as a director of football at Everton Football Club, which he held during a time of disarray at Goodison Park between May 2018 and December 2021. Brands was one of many members of the sporting side of the club—including managers, coaches and technical staff—to leave in recent times amid what has been a haphazard, ineffective and expensive approach to recruiting players and back room staff. Though the Dutchman was in this director of football role, for much of his time at the club there was a sense that he was unable to carry out this task freely, and unable to actually “direct football” as the job title would suggest. In an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Saturday, Brands confirmed as much.

“It was a wonderful experience at a wonderful club,” Brands said about his time at Everton. “I worked with some fantastic people. The supporters and also the history of the club were great, but it is very difficult to leave a mark on such a club. That had to do with the structure. “In the end, you don’t have the satisfaction you want. There is so much possible at the club if you do it right, but you don’t get the time to build something.”

Brands is now in a similar role as a general manager back in his home country with former club PSV Eindhoven. It’s one which is supposed to offer stability at a club even if there are changes in managers, coaching staff or players. The director of football aims to recruit players to suit a certain style, and coaches who can get the best out of them. This then means that if a high-profile player is sold or a manager leaves for another team, as was the case with Carlo Ancelotti’s departure from Everton to Real Madrid, there is at least some kind of continuity and a plan to replace departing personnel.

But that was never the case at Everton who have appointed six managers in the past seven years with little to no continuity. This has led to a rebuild every time a new manager was hired, usually with owner intervention, spending money frivolously and without a long-term plan. “I was fighting to make a player contract of 50,000 a week 45,000 a week because that fit better in the wage structure and matched the quality of the player,” Brands added. “And then the owner called, saying that he had been sitting with another player and that he could come for 175,000 a week. Then you say: ‘What’s that going to do in the dressing room? He earns three times as much as the others.’ That kind of thing makes it difficult. You also see the difference with clubs where the structure is good. Liverpool [for example] has really grown. They have become really stable under Jürgen Klopp. You don’t see any crazy transfers anymore.”

Speaking about the Premier League in general, where there are some huge clubs in terms of their global brand but many who still go about their transfer business in an unorganised way, Brands sounded almost baffled at the way things are done. “The Premier League is so fantastically well organised and is such a powerful brand, but there is still so much room for improvement in the way the money is handled,” he said. “To give an example: every time a trainer is fired, the whole team has to leave. That way, you don’t build anything up. That is a waste of money. “I tried until my last breath to keep coach Marco Silva in the saddle because I was convinced he is a top trainer,” added Brands. “Then after three defeats, measures are taken. “I had to talk like a mad man to keep Ancelotti in the saddle, but in the end, he left for Real Madrid because he felt the support of the owners was not there.”

Everton will hope they have learned from these errors, but with current owner Farhad Moshiri at the helm there might always be the possibility of unnecessary and detrimental interference Brands speaks of. Brands also mentioned to ESPN last week that “the owners are very involved, which makes them easy to influence. That makes it very difficult sometimes. I think more English clubs suffer from that.” Moshiri has put lots of money into the club, but it has not been spent wisely, leading to Everton’s current situation where they were on the verge of breaking Financial Fair Play rules while also on the verge of relegation. This combination is a sign of a badly run club if ever there was one.
Very worrying read. We need a complete clear out at board and owner level.
 
Kenwright wants you to give up. Thats why the board started the smear campaign against the supporters. Who benefits if we go down. Not us the supporters. Not the club coz any sign of investment will vanish and we would have to sell players weakening us even further. Not moshiri coz he needs premier league money for the new ground. You know who will benefit dont you. Bill kenwright. If it comes between him being chairman and Everton staying up he will take relegation. You know this. You have seen the lengths this fella will go to stay chairman. We all need to ask ourselves a question and its personal to every Evertonian. Nobody is judging anyone. Are you going to let kenwright win? Personally i think this is the best chance for the supporters to reclaim the club and set it back on a course not to accept mediocrity not to be plucky little Everton and everything else that has been covered over the pages on this forum today that you want the club to become again. All that you want wont happen with kenwright remaining. Keep your heads blues. Vent when you need to but dont lose sight of the what we can achieve by staying up. We can rid the club of this parasite once and for all.
UTFT.

Great post mate.
 
How can you "back" Ancelotti when the club is breaching Premier League P&S rules due to losing '00s of millions of £ due to the incompetence of Bill Kenwright and Denise Barrett-Baxendale not raising revenues enough and allowing ridiculous over spending?

The club in summer of 2021 when Benitez arrived Everton were in a terrible state and under Premier League scrutiny. To the point Everton were prohibited from making transfers without advanced Premier League permission. Why they could only sign Gray and Townsend for combined £1.7 m.

The club board and communications team deliberately misled the fans and the shareholders about what a difficult position the club were in

The club were losing money hugely. Had transfer restrictions on them

Yet the Chief Executive Officer thought it appropriate to accept them and use the club website to publicise it 👇 all with Kenwright's blessing.

It's beyond belief. Makes me want to swear.

Because when people see that 👇 and are being told not to "criticise" and criticism is ridiculed on social media you can see precisely what has been and is wrong with the club


As Melanie Prentice has said in the last 24 hours "support the team" (like we don't?!?). Is just the latest put down of criterism from inside the club. Shows their mindset. Just the latest "be careful what you wish for"

People should be free to criticise. Otherwise youre not acknowledging realities. There is alot to criticise in terms of the people supposedly running Everton Football Club. Stemming from Bill Kenwright

There's an unhealthy culture at the club that Kenwright has created that needs destroying. A culture that does not like or accept criticism. Because they don't like the truth

Well you can't back Ancelotti with no money, but he didn't know, and obviously we didn't know, that we were running out of money at that time. I thought that Allan and Doucoure were pragmatic signings, and James was too good to be true, and so we didn't realise how bad it was. Ancelotti could have attracted 2-3 other star players on his say -so.

The narrative that the fans are to blame for managers leaving - for everything actually - is mind boggling. the unhealthy culture you refer to I think extends right down to the players, because I can well imagine that in Finch Farm there is a slightly relaxed acceptance of mediocrity, with well paid jobs but no real push for success. People must be working hard, but not at the level of quality and expertise that we need - that's on the board's recruitment.

The other part of the board's culture is this over-spending and lack of raising revenue that you mention. It is ridiculous - and referenced somewhere in that article with Brands - that a Premier League with a basic level of considerable income, is able to fall foul of FFP rules AND be in the relegation zone.

And, one of the positives I used to attribute to Kenwright was that Everton don't hire & fire managers quickly, but give them time. If he's so influential and so much a leader for us, how did he allow Moshiri to burn through managers. I used to be so proud of our stability and accepted our mediocrity when we were top 10 but still a club that was a legitimate stepping stone. I think both Kenwright and Moyes got lucky in hindsight, and Moyes stayed and Kenwright kept him because it was comfortable and everything was lucky. Now I can imagine that we had no other options.
Even the lousy months under Roberto Martinez could have been managed with some positive interference by the board - leadership might have meant a revamp of coaching staff and 2-3 tough defenders and midfielders.

From the Koeman appointment, and the summer of 2017 onwards, we suddenly changed, and nobody on the board was able to create or maintain a positive, professional culture that fit our finances.
 

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