Steve Walsh - no longer our Director of Football

Moomin · January 9, 2017

mikeh72 said:
He oversees youth development too and acts as sort of a middle man between Unsworth and Koeman regarding recommending players for the first team. He has nothing to do with financial transactions.

He will be working with Dr Peter Vent at the academy and implementing a strategy for the future.

Sapie88 · January 9, 2017

Useless twot.

degsy · January 10, 2017

I think Walsh's job is more like identifying players by type, say a '2009 version of Baines' - then providing a list of 'graded' candidates, a bit like a consumer guide to...plucks an item out of the air - Phones; Budget phone, best buy, value for money, top of the range, editors choice.
Whilst identifying/avoiding the Samsung 7 types that are likely to blow up for one reason or another.

The sort of thing that we could've done with, in Baines/Howard/Jagielka etc. case 3yrs ago

Kev The Rat · January 10, 2017

Speaking to a Leicester fan yesterday and he agreed with me when I said that Walsh's problem at Everton might be that as a club we will expect to sign high profile proven internationals - which isn't really his bag at all. He did speak extremely highly of him but there could be a mismatch of his scouting strengths and what a club like Everton really needs in terms of player recruitment.

zzr45 · January 10, 2017

Fun fact - there will be a new scouting system in place that will still be being implemented. The way Walsh is asking for players to be assessed is completely different and will take time to bear fruit. Hence why he's been put on a long contract.

SimonB · January 10, 2017

zzr45 said:
Fun fact - there will be a new scouting system in place that will still be being implemented. The way Walsh is asking for players to be assessed is completely different and will take time to bear fruit. Hence why he's been put on a long contract.

He came from the same job at a premier league team though, granted he got us Gueye but surely he had other targets lined up, who would undoubtedly be an improvement on what we've got.

zzr45 · January 10, 2017

SimonB said:
He came from the same job at a premier league team though, granted he got us Gueye but surely he had other targets lined up, who would undoubtedly be an improvement on what we've got.

Would they have fit in our (envisioned) style, with what we needed and the priorities of the club? Lot more to signing players than meets the eye.

evertony · January 10, 2017

bullybeef said:
Heard that Steve is now in Benidorm on his jollies.

Scouting Sticky Vicky

Taff · January 10, 2017

Kev The Rat said:
Speaking to a Leicester fan yesterday and he agreed with me when I said that Walsh's problem at Everton might be that as a club we will expect to sign high profile proven internationals - which isn't really his bag at all. He did speak extremely highly of him but there could be a mismatch of his scouting strengths and what a club like Everton really needs in terms of player recruitment.

And this was (one of) Moyes' problem at Utd. They didn't require someone who was shrewd in acquiring and developing bargain players...and neither do we now.

CahillsCornerFlag · January 10, 2017

Sapie88 said:
I'd avada kedavra the useless quim.

Easily the nerdiest death threat I've ever heard.

Lookman will turn out to be some player and we'll soon be signing from the Walsh hymn sheet, Gana was only the beginning.

ToffeeTim · January 10, 2017

Above his pay grade

Saint Domingo · January 10, 2017

You can go back to Moyes Irvine and Jimmy Lumsden driving round championship clubs looking for bargains whilst laughing about Rodrigo pitching up at Finch Farm if you want? This guy will be judged on his signings, so far Gueye and Williams have been two of our best players this season. The next two windows will allow us to judge the impact he's making.

ImKoneKoneKoneKone · January 10, 2017

Efcjake said:
September, October, November, December.

He's had 4 months and identifying and signing players are really his only job duties as far as I can tell.

I am not expecting him to wave a magic wand and make things better but I was expecting him to bring some professionalism to this club in terms of how we go about transfers. Getting the signings in early was a part of that.

9 days into the month and only the one deal for a promising young lad from League One sorted.

If we do sign Schneiderlin and Depay then I would be wondering why we couldn't have got it done sooner.

He did sign DLC, Gana, Valencia, Bolasie and Williams and now hes sorted Lookman out. So thats 6 players essentially in a little amount of time to operate. Hell bring in another 2 or 3. Just because its 10 days in doesnt mean anything really, theyll come when they come. Theres alot of stuff to iron out between clubs and we dont want to be mugged off for money

BlueToff · January 10, 2017

Saint Domingo said:
You can go back to Moyes Irvine and Jimmy Lumsden driving round championship clubs looking for bargains whilst laughing about Rodrigo pitching up at Finch Farm if you want? This guy will be judged on his signings, so far Gueye and Williams have been two of our best players this season. The next two windows will allow us to judge the impact he's making.

Every signing made so far hasn't been just a 'Walsh signing' though.

Both Walsh and Koeman have clearly stated they work together to identify the targets. i.e. I'd imagine Koeman identified that he wanted another winger/inside forward to compliment our current batch (of tosh, like) and that led to Lookman being scouted and drafted in. One for the future who will likely be in and around the first team sooner rather than later.

Others, like Schneiderlin, are realistic targets who Koeman knows will improve us.

Saint Domingo · January 10, 2017

BlueToff said:
Every signing made so far hasn't been just a 'Walsh signing' though.

Both Walsh and Koeman have clearly stated they work together to identify the targets. i.e. I'd imagine Koeman identified that he wanted another winger/inside forward to compliment our current batch (of tosh, like) and that led to Lookman being scouted and drafted in. One for the future who will likely be in and around the first team sooner rather than later.

Others, like Schneiderlin, are realistic targets who Koeman knows will improve us.

Yeah agreed, we're looking for a long term increase in the quality of our recruitment. This is realistically his first full window though and already people are claiming he does nothing. Baffling.