Steve Walsh - no longer our Director of Football

[Neiler]

Should we blame Walsh for selling Lukaku?

Its a very all or nothing approach mate, not ultimately but i think he would have had an input, ultimately the decision making for me lies with the board. I don think a "football person" would have recommended selling Lukaku without wanting or recommending a replacement in first.

What do you think?

 

[Neiler]

Not sure if the transfer failings were down to Walsh or Koeman or both because I don't know what goes on behind closed doors. I'm also not really sure what Walsh does day to day in his DoF role, whether its negotiating deals or scouting. I think there has been a clash of now and buying for the future with no signs of working together. Do we think Koeman was employed to make us compete quickly for top 4 whilst Unsworth develops his coaching and Walsh brings in the future stars for Unsworth? Looking at it now I can't see why we employed Koeman. We should have went for a long term manager willing to work alongside the youth set up. Complete clash of expectations between them all.

In terms of transfers I'd guess that Schneiderlin, Klassen, Gylfi, Williams and to a point Rooney are Koeman signings and Giroud being a Koeman target, that's a significant amount of money spent there and all for the 'now'. For all we know Walsh could have given Koeman a long list of young potential forwards but Koeman wanted quick success so ignored them for a Giroud or Costa because he was in a hurry. The signings I think that are down to Walsh and Unsworth working together are Lookman, Gueye, Mathis, Adeniran, DCL, Pickford, Foulds, Gibson, Markelo, Donkor etc. Some of them are already showing a lot of potential and could be brilliant in the future so we probably won't see the benefits until 2 or 3 seasons. I don't think we should sack Walsh at all but just adjust his role because I think he has a great eye for young players and will work well with Unsworth if he gets the job.

I dont get the "tranfer failings" mate, to be honest i think the players we have signed will all go on to have excellent careers at Everton except Klassen. I agree in the sense our failing are not who we signed but who we didnt.

 

[Chestnut]

Its a very all or nothing approach mate, not ultimately but i think he would have had an input, ultimately the decision making for me lies with the board. I don think a "football person" would have recommended selling Lukaku without wanting or recommending a replacement in first.

What do you think?

My own personal opinion regards Walsh is difficult to describe, because during the chaos that's been the last transfer window and the season so far, I still don't know who has been responsible for which purchases. I only piped up as I seen the mention of him having made us millions, I enquired further to help me try and formulate an opinion on the man and his work here thus far, but I'm afraid I remain unconvinced.

 

[Paulie]

I dont get the "tranfer failings" mate, to be honest i think the players we have signed will all go on to have excellent careers at Everton except Klassen. I agree in the sense our failing are not who we signed but who we didnt.

Sorry when I said failings I meant in terms of signing the incorrect players and not the individuals themselves.

 

[Neiler]

Sorry when I said failings I meant in terms of signing the incorrect players and not the individuals themselves.

Sorry mate i was being a Ted with semantics to make a point no offence intended!!

 

[Paulie]

Sorry mate i was being a Ted with semantics to make a point no offence intended!!

It was madness that nobody took a step back at the tine and asked why are we signing Rooney, Klassen and Gylfi when they all occupy the same position and spending about £70/80m in the process.

 

[tim cahill]

TBH mate I still think he’ll come good if played properly

Whether he does or not we have too many midfielders as it is. At the moment he’s the worst of them.

 

[Neiler]

My own personal opinion regards Walsh is difficult to describe, because during the chaos that's been the last transfer window and the season so far, I still don't know who has been responsible for which purchases. I only piped up as I seen the mention of him having made us millions, I enquired further to help me try and formulate an opinion on the man and his work here thus far, but I'm afraid I remain unconvinced.

I dont think we have purchased purely the only regrettable transfer for me has Klassen mate. When you actually analyse our squad in terms of incoming and outgoings you couldn't disagree with much, well certainly i dont, i suppose if you look at the squad that finished Martinez last summer to the one now, there is no comparison to the quality. We have signed well and sold deadwood well.

The blot on the copy book in Lukaku, it was madness to sell him, it was utter stupidity to sell him without a replacement, i would go so far to say its the worst Everton decision i have seen in decades, probably since Kings Dock or scraping the academy.

Personally i blame the board there is no way they weren't deeply inbeded in this given it was a 100mill transfer and sanctioning a deal of that scale would have nothing to do with "football people". he disappointing thing is despite the bluster of a new era, we became an easy mark agai. We sold our best player to a rival, we didnt need to, yes he wanted out, but look at Liverpool with Couthino and Arsenal with Sanchez. A decision was made at Everton to be bottom feeders here. The decision to let him go with out a new player in idiocy, its just that simple and again that is the board on the timing. Im not sure if its arrogance or stupidity or they were caught up up in the euphoria of the joy of having resources like many on here were, but they have conspired to wreck Evertons season and put us in peril.

Koeman and Walsh are the smokescreen and easy scapegoats, blaming them is fools gold, ultimately the board have wrecked this season and put us at risk, that is where the true fault lies.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Unless the catastrophic recruitment was Koeman’s.

Well Walsh is the man officially tasked with sorting out the transfers.Of course im sure Koeman would have the final say.I guess we'll find out in due course, if the transfer blunders were all coming from Koemans end.The next two transfer windows will tell us a lot about Steve Walsh.

 

[tim cahill]

Well Walsh is the man officially tasked with sorting out the transfers.Of course im sure Koeman would have the final say.I guess we'll find out in due course, if the transfer blunders were all coming from Koemans end.The next two transfer windows will tell us a lot about Steve Walsh.

I don’t think there’s been too many blunders to be honest. There was a lot that needed doing and I think we’ve got decent players in but we definitely have weak areas.

 

[Carlito]

I doubt it would ever happen, but I'd love to hear Walsh explain the thinking behind having no backup options when it came to finding a striker.

It didn't even have to be a marquee signing. Plenty of them went for what constitutes a nominal fee these days, and could have done a job in the short-term.

 

[ianefc]

I doubt it would ever happen, but I'd love to hear Walsh explain the thinking behind having no backup options when it came to finding a striker.

It didn't even have to be a marquee signing. Plenty of them went for what constitutes a nominal fee these days, and could have done a job in the short-term.

According to the Echo. There was a genuine belief that we could get Giroud AND Costa. Who knows? But, in his defence, there was apparently "a list" that we went down and got to the point where those left were not better than what we had.

 

[catcherintherye]

I doubt it would ever happen, but I'd love to hear Walsh explain the thinking behind having no backup options when it came to finding a striker.

It didn't even have to be a marquee signing. Plenty of them went for what constitutes a nominal fee these days, and could have done a job in the short-term.

That was what Belfodil was though wasn't it? And Koeman flatly refused.

I think the guy was between a rock and a hard place. Common wanting an experienced PL striker, and a board above him incapable of closing deals of such a magnitude, possibly with the funds being put in place to sign one dependant upon other sales.

I have to be frank though, I am not sure the guy is a natural DOF. I think I'd like to see someone brought in above him to handle transfers, Elstone to be punted and allow Walsh to be head of recruitment which he seems happiest with. Get someone like Zorc from Dortmund and ideally a big name CEO to look after the business side of things. Send Elstone on his way.

 

[Carlito]

That was what Belfodil was though wasn't it? And Koeman flatly refused.

I think the guy was between a rock and a hard place. Common wanting an experienced PL striker, and a board above him incapable of closing deals of such a magnitude, possibly with the funds being put in place to sign one dependant upon other sales.

I have to be frank though, I am not sure the guy is a natural DOF. I think I'd like to see someone brought in above him to handle transfers, Elstone to be punted and allow Walsh to be head of recruitment which he seems happiest with. Get someone like Zorc from Dortmund and ideally a big name CEO to look after the business side of things. Send Elstone on his way.

Belfodil was a weird one, but I don't think it excuses the summer list amounting to the two players that @ianefc mentions above.

It does seem as though Walsh is basically an over-promoted scout. Not sure he has any experience of shaping a club's playing style through recruitment, which I thought was the purpose of the DoF role.

The Costa story was just insulting to the fans' intelligence. They should have been in for Bacca, whose loan fee was 2.5m euros, with an option to buy at 15m next summer. Now it's another season wasted.

 

[Toffeelover]

The axe fell on Koeman, interesting that Walsh was not a victim of the axe where as Koeman's support people have apparently joined him. It appears to me that Walsh is regarded more faithfully by the higher ups than we appreciate so a lot of the finger pointing over transfer targets seems unwarranted.