It became crystal clear early in Kevin Thelwell’s tenure as their director of football that Everton had a huge financial hole to fill.
As surprising as it feels now, the club’s primary focus when Thelwell was recruited from New York Red Bulls of MLS in February 2022 was on a return to playing in the European competitions. Despite an ongoing relegation battle, the somewhat misguided belief from key decision-makers at the time was that Everton were drastically underperforming on the pitch.
It proved to be something of a false prophecy. That same month, Russia decided to invade Ukraine and Everton’s main sources of revenue dried up almost overnight, leaving a sizeable amount of a costly new stadium project, now deemed to be worth in the region of £760million ($970m at the current exchange rate), to fund.
This is the harsh financial landscape that has coloured the entirety of Thelwell’s time at the club so far. With a takeover process still ongoing, it may well colour the immediate future, too.
To say the 50-year-old’s tenure to date has been eventful would be the understatement of the century. There have been two relegation battles, profit and sustainability rules (PSR) breaches, high-profile boardroom departures and key player sales out of necessity. Throw in a 10-point deduction — initially the heftiest sporting sanction in the history of the Premier League before it was cut to six points on appeal — and the prospect of further punishment for a PSR breach in the 2022-23 season and you come up with a different word to describe Thelwell’s two years: chaos.
Thelwell with Everton’s majority owner Farhad Moshiri in January 2023 (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
As unpalatable as it may sound for a fanbase who have seen success and yearn for its return the aim in these hugely challenging circumstances has been just to get by; to make ends meet financially while also preventing what would be a deeply damaging first relegation in over 70 years.
At the same time, Thelwell, who is effectively running the club’s footballing operation in the absence of a fully functioning board, is also having to put the building blocks in place for what he hopes will be a better future.
Without that points deduction, the main success story of his time so far would almost certainly have been supporting the successful evasion this season of a third straight relegation battle at men’s first-team level.
But with off-field issues creating a new reality there too, he would likely point instead to a sizeable number of small decisions, across all areas of the club, that will hopefully place Everton in a better position than where he found them.
The Athletic takes an in-depth look at Thelwell’s first two years at Goodison Park — the changes, big and small, made behind the scenes, and what needs to come next as he moves towards the final 12 months of his current contract.
Sean Dyche and the first team
The job of a director of football is to support and oversee the development of key areas, from recruitment to medical, sports science to the academy and women’s team — but, out of necessity, Thelwell has spent a substantial amount of time attempting to help turn around the men’s first team.
He inherited a squad with many players on bloated salaries, pushing the club’s wages-to-turnover ratio perilously high at around 90 per cent. The transfer model under owner Farhad Moshiri of spending big on sure-fire bets with limited resale value had been a failure, storing up problems for further down the line.
Part of Thelwell’s remit has been to reduce that wage bill and the amount of money being paid in agents’ fees, as well as protect the club in terms of player contracts. Deals for older players tend to be shorter, with long-term contracts largely reserved for those in younger age brackets. Most new ones given out now contain clauses leading to a mandatory reduction in salary if the club are relegated, while there is more emphasis on bonus-related pay than before.
The club estimate a drop of 10 to 20 per cent in playing salary costs since Thelwell’s arrival. The comparison has been made to neighbours Liverpool, whose recently published accounts for 2022-23 showed a wage bill of £373million. Everton believe theirs is four times lower and the gap is only growing.
Thelwell welcomes Dyche in January 2023 (Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)
There is a feeling internally that Everton have made progress on limited resources and that manager Sean Dyche, appointed in January 2023, is also doing a good job in difficult circumstances.
There is also an acceptance that Dyche’s predecessor, Frank Lampard, was given more time than necessary to turn a corner in terms of results on the pitch — in part because he was felt to be the right cultural fit for the club, but also because Everton had been keen to avoid the cycle of managerial churn that has punctuated Moshiri’s now-eight-year tenure.
That delay in changing manager almost proved disastrous, with Everton only avoiding their first relegation since 1951 on the final day of last season thanks to Abdoulaye Doucoure’s second-half winner at home against Bournemouth.
Dyche ticked several boxes. He was, crucially, a free agent having been fired by Burnley the previous April and would, therefore, come at minimal cost. His nine years at Burnley meant Dyche was used to handling small budgets and maximising resources at Premier League level, had a history of successfully navigating relegation battles and also had automatic promotion from the Championship in each of his two most recent seasons at that level on his CV, should the worst happen.
Thelwell keeps a document on managers and managerial trends and, before Dyche’s appointment, had mapped out the previous 10 years in the Premier League to pick out key data points for success. The idea was to see what marked out competitive teams and what the short and medium terms would look like in English football’s top flight. Work was also done to pinpoint Everton’s style, under Lampard and their other previous managers.
One key conclusion, which would be of little surprise to the fans, is that there had been no consistent thread to underpin it all. The club had lurched from one type of manager to another, with disastrous consequences.
Thelwell with Lampard and new signing Dwight McNeil in summer 2022 (Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)
Thelwell, whose father is an Evertonian, has spoken before about understanding the need for positive, front-foot play, particularly in home matches at Goodison Park.
He has described it as a blend of dogs of war and school of science, drawing on two different periods in the club’s history for inspiration. In simple terms, it is about aggressive play with and without the ball — ‘pass forward, run forward’ — something not too dissimilar to the model for the Red Bull multi-club stable he was part of during his two years in New York.
Data has been an increasingly important part of the process, both at first-team level and in recruitment. Everton’s performance insights team, led by Charlie Reeves, now play a central role in both areas.
Dyche and Thelwell will meet informally every week to discuss the coming weekend’s game, while there is also a more comprehensive debrief with coaching staff based on insights from Reeves’ department. Post-game reports are usually about 20 pages in length and help strip out some of the emotion from the match result, allowing key figures to focus on broader patterns and trends.
Reeves also produces an eight-game review for Dyche and Thelwell, looking at key underlying numbers that compare Everton to other Premier League teams.
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Most of those data points have provided comfort that, despite losing runs, Dyche’s side are indeed on the right track. Internal analysis, based on performances alone, has Everton somewhere between seventh and 12th in the 20-team table.
There is a belief they are creating enough chances to capitalise eventually, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Beto, Doucoure, Jack Harrison and Dwight McNeil all previously boasting decent scoring pedigree. The club’s financial predicament, which has led to the sales of Richarlison, Anthony Gordon and Alex Iwobi among others in recent windows, has also seen a talent drain in key areas.
Amadou Onana leaps to nod Everton level against Crystal Palace last month (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
Attacking set pieces have been a particular source of pride, with only leaders Arsenal (19) having scored more Premier League goals from those situations, not counting penalties, this season than Everton’s 15. The appointment of Alex Scanlon, a former performance analyst with the Football Association, is seen as one contributing factor to their dominance in this area.
Everton are winless in the league since beating Burnley 2-0 on December 16, though, so the need for an improvement in results is clear.
Dyche’s side may not deserve to be in a relegation fight based on the first half of their season, but Everton must again show they are capable of pulling clear of trouble on a run-in
Senior recruitment
Under Thelwell and head of recruitment Dan Purdy, Everton have moved away from the transfer strategy of the early Moshiri years.
The days of signing Andre Gomes and Allan for big sums are gone, with only small fees committed to new players if they are aged 27 and older. Instead, the bulk of a meagre budget has gone on younger targets, such as Amadou Onana and McNeil, boasting potential resale value. The idea is that any future profits made on signings like these can hopefully be reinvested back into the squad.
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Those moves for talented youngsters have been supplemented by the arrivals of experienced players. James Tarkowski joined as an out-of-contract free agent in the summer of 2022 from relegated Burnley at age 29, and a 31-year-old Idrissa Gueye rejoined the club after three seasons with Paris Saint-Germain for around €4million (£3.4m/$4.4m at current exchange rates) in that same window.
Everton believe their recruitment team, led by Purdy, are in very capable hands but that they have been held back by a lack of resources.
Tarkowski has been a free transfer success story (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Player identification has not been a concern. Everton have been first to the table for Brennan Johnson, Morgan Gibbs-White and Mohammed Kudus in Thelwell’s time at the club, but have not had the funds to get deals for them over the line.
Kudus’ £35million move to West Ham from Ajax last summer was particularly galling as Everton had tried to sign the Ghanaian midfielder on three occasions — in the summer of 2020, during his time at Danish club Nordsjaelland, when they were pipped by Ajax, and then in the summer of 2022 and winter of 2023, when Lampard was manager. The hope is that any ensuing funds following a takeover would permit Purdy and his colleagues a greater chance to show what they can do.
In the meantime, a streamlined recruitment department has undergone several changes.
Phil Boardman is finally in situ as a senior European scout, having served his lengthy notice period before leaving EFL club Portsmouth. Boardman worked with Thelwell previously at Wolverhampton Wanderers, comes from an analysis background, and is someone Everton believe adds value to the group.
Full-time scouts have been deployed in Argentina and Brazil to capitalise on the talent in South America, while there is also a growing focus on smaller markets such as Scandinavia, given the success of Brentford and others in this area.
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Data has been put in the foreground of the identification phase, while there are new set criteria for each position during the scouting process. Thelwell and Purdy place an emphasis on players they feel can deal with the pressure that comes with wearing the Everton shirt, particularly in games at Goodison, and also value physical prowess, endurance and running power. Midfielders in Dyche’s system, for example, often rack up between 11-12km (around seven miles) per game.
Not all recent signings have been successful.
There is an acceptance, for example, that Neal Maupay’s summer 2022 move from Brighton has not worked out. While the forward has subsequently shown his value on loan back at former side Brentford this season, he was not deemed to be a great fit for Everton. Maupay was signed to play as a foil to Calvert-Lewin but was forced into a lone striker role due to his would-be striker partner’s injury problems last season.
The jury is still out on others, including Beto, although there is a feeling the Portuguese striker signed from Italy’s Udinese last August will show his value once he properly acclimatises.
Everton view the additions of promising players including James Garner, Jarrad Branthwaite, Youssef Chermiti and Onana as a way they can develop a competitive advantage — buy at comparatively low prices, so they can eventually become mainstays in the team or be sold for a substantial profit. In the absence of the funds needed to sign a top striker, the aim with Chermiti, 19, is to develop him into one.
Chermiti, who had been tracked for several years before being signed from Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon last summer, is seen as one for the future. He was a loan target for clubs across the continent in the recent winter transfer window but was not allowed to exit because of Everton’s first-team injuries. The belief is that he will need first-team minutes next season, whether for Everton or elsewhere, to help fulfil his considerable talent.
Everton hope to have succession plans mapped out in advance of any high-profile outgoing transfers, with Thelwell having previously pointed to the way Brighton handled midfielder Moises Caicedo’s sale to Chelsea last summer as an example of good practice. Limited funds so far have almost exclusively had to go towards keeping the first team as competitive as possible.
Certain other deals have not been possible due to financial constraints, significantly limiting the pool of players available. It is not the only area in which a shortage of money is biting.
Academy and emerging talent focus
Dyche raised eyebrows in some quarters last week when he said nobody in the Everton academy ranks is primed to step in and help his first team in the short term. Yet, internally, staff had long since drawn a similar conclusion.
Development football is about much more than just results, but Everton Under-21s are 21st out of 26 in Premier League 2, with Leighton Baines’ under-18s ninth out of 13 in the northern section of their league. Paul Tait’s second-string have at least fared well in the Premier League International Cup, where they have beaten Monaco, Athletic Bilbao and Benfica this season on their way to next month’s semi-finals, even if their progression was aided by fringe first-teamers such as Chermiti and Lewis Dobbin dropping down to play for them in certain games.
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But, as at first-team level, there is a sense in the academy that a lack of significant investment has come back to bite.
An academy transfer ban, which ran from 2018 to 2020 and came as a result of an investigation into tapping up, left Everton unable to add sufficiently to their youth ranks while, in more recent times, key names including Ishe Samuels-Smith had to be sold (in his case, to Chelsea this summer) to balance the books.
Such unpalatable choices have had to be made at all levels as Thelwell and others have looked to keep the club on an even keel, but that has meant the future has been compromised to meet the needs of the present.
Thelwell is aware Everton’s best chance of plugging the shortfall is by investing in the ‘emerging talent’ market — typically encompassing the ages of 16 to 21 — with Dan Rice joining from Southampton last summer to lead the search in that particular area. It is expected to become a priority market for the club as they look to unearth the next Branthwaite, signed from Carlisle United as a 17-year-old, but that too requires additional finance.
In the absence of money, Everton’s emerging talent and academy recruitment teams have looked at the free-agent market.
Omari Benjamin, soon to be released by Arsenal, was recently on trial with the under-21s but other clubs are expected to compete with Everton for his signature.
Malik Mothersille, then of Chelsea, was also on trial with Tait’s side early this season but instead joined League One club Peterborough United. Ghanaian winger Kingsford Boakye, a free agent after being released by AC Milan, joined in January after a successful trial but Everton have not moved forward with a deal for another teenage trialist, central defender Brandan Craig of MLS side Philadelphia Union.
Braiden Graham, the highly regarded Northern Ireland youth international, has agreed to join from Linfield this summer and has already been over to the club’s Finch Farm training ground several times to help the 16-year-old adapt before his move.
Everton’s youth setup was perhaps the most obvious area in which Thelwell’s influence could be seen from an early point in his tenure. Gareth Prosser was soon appointed as head of academy, Carl Darlington joined from the Welsh FA as head of coaching and former Everton forward James Vaughan got the new role of loan pathways manager.
Darlington is heavily involved in implementing Thelwell’s ‘game model’ for Everton, which was designed after consultation with coaches and staff at all levels, including the first team. The aim for all Everton sides, from the Premier League men to the academy kids (as well as the women’s sides), is eventually to have them play in a similar way, to make moving up the ranks simpler. Progress there is said to be positive but the work remains ongoing.
The game model is largely principles-based — coaches do have the flexibility to play different systems and use certain elements that suit their players — with the goal that key traits of Everton teams become easily identifiable. Despite the disappointing on-pitch results mentioned above, long-time Everton full-back and former England international Baines has impressed internally and is held in high regard.
Following the departure of Joel Waldron this year, Vaughan will now also assume the role of head of academy recruitment, with the club keen to take strides in this area. He will continue in his job as loan pathways manager and has also supported Rice in the emerging talent market at times. Another appointment in the loan pathways area is expected.
Vaughan is credited with helping ensure Branthwaite’s successful transition to first-team level after a loan to Dutch top-flight club PSV Eindhoven last season and adding value to Tom Cannon and Ellis Simms before their sales this summer for combined fees of more than £10million. The shame is that not all of that benefit has been seen by Dyche’s senior side.
Given the constraints at all levels, it is hard for Everton to take big, bold steps forward anywhere.
Instead, it is hoped the sizeable number of smaller changes made will leave them better placed to capitalise should the cloud of financial uncertainty clear anytime soon.
St Pete
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