2020/21 Marcel Brands

[Mathieubleucoyb]

Brands signs:
Godfrey +1
Iwobi -1
King -1
Kean +1 good business but doesn't want to play for us
Gbamin -1
Delph -1
Doucoure +1

Total: -1 too much time show him the door
Thief wage stealing vultures

Iwobi + Kean is enough for me really


Let's be real without Ancelotti James and Allan wouldn't have signed

 

[Deco]

Brands signs:
Godfrey +1
Iwobi -1
King -1
Kean +1 good business but doesn't want to play for us
Gbamin -1
Delph -1
Doucoure +1

Total: -1 too much time show him the door
Thief wage stealing vultures

Iwobi + Kean is enough for me really


Let's be real without Ancelotti James and Allan wouldn't have signed

You’ve given King a -1 when he’s played less than 90 minutes in total for us.

In that time he’s won us a point against United and had a goal marginally disallowed?

 

[Mathieubleucoyb]

You’ve given King a -1 when he’s played less than 90 minutes in total for us.

In that time he’s won us a point against United and had a goal marginally disallowed?

Sure he's decent but not what we need.
He's a mid table player and he doesn't have pace.. Callum Wilson is better than him. At least hes not on a long term contract though

 

[TheSecondComing]

Another “BIG SUMMER LADS” ahead.

 

[Zatara]

Yes but usually the titles mean something within the company. If brands’ title was vice president that would be relevant, but it’s not, it’s director. As I said, I’ve never come across a company where a director reports to another director. The only way it makes sense is if they’ve given unsworth’s role a title it doesn’t deserve, which would be a bit embarrassing to be honest.

And both things, at least on the surface seem to reflect an inability to take big decisions for fear of upsetting people.

I mean if it's a paper title it's almost worse to me. If hes that insecure that bothers him, we shouldn't really want people like that working for us (obviously worth noting the "if" is important here).

I'm similar with you really. You here drip drip things, and I tend to ignore them, but then you start adding them up and you then wonder. Brands not signing a contract till late on, Unsworth having his own budget, players being kept on for years too long, Kenwright/DBB apparently liking Unsworth and growing wary of Brands, Unsworth getting a new and contradictory title, Moshiri essentially absent from the day to day running of the club etc.

I mean none of it is good. Neither, frankly is having a director of academy coaching being the same fella who manages the 23s. I would have thought they were 2 different jobs.

My own gut feeling is, after 2.5 years Brands has said he wants to run the academy, which is well within his remit. People have felt Unsworth would get in a huff, and rather than deal with the issue and advise Unsworth his job is to develop lads from 17-21 for the first team, weve tried to placate him.

I'm not even a massive Unsworth critic. On the whole I find a lot of the criticism of him is simplistic and comes from a utopian view of how football should work (mainly based around loaning all young players and discarding anyone senior). I think I hes a good coach and improves players. But I do find the whole episode a bit odd. It's not his role to kick off if the DOF wants to make changes within the academy.

I mean hes done ok in the role, but by no means enough to throw his weight around.

I think the title 'director' is misleading in itself without context.

Brands is a 'director' and sits on the board. Perhaps look at him as a 'Managing Director'.

Then we have directors in other parts of the club/company.

Underneath Brands you then have effectively two directors, one being Ancelotti and the other Unsworth.

You can say one is more senior than the other but both directors report to the managing director, Brands.

However, what director title do you give Ancelotti? It sounds daft to call a manager / coach a director...while Academy director just shows he runs the academy.

At the end of the day theyre really two blokes who report to Brands and in football, titles are a bit weird anyway...

'Fabian Delph' : Player ???

 

[Lanolin]

I think the title 'director' is misleading in itself without context.

Brands is a 'director' and sits on the board. Perhaps look at him as a 'Managing Director'.

Then we have directors in other parts of the club/company.

Underneath Brands you then have effectively two directors, one being Ancelotti and the other Unsworth.

You can say one is more senior than the other but both directors report to the managing director, Brands.

However, what director title do you give Ancelotti? It sounds daft to call a manager / coach a director...while Academy director just shows he runs the academy.

At the end of the day theyre really two blokes who report to Brands and in football, titles are a bit weird anyway...

'Fabian Delph' : Player ???

I don’t think you’re understanding the point. Forget the idea of titles in a wider context, we all know they’re weird, but that doesn’t mean they’re not relevant. The point is that unsworth was ‘promoted’ to a job with the title of academy director. The definition of director is ‘in charge of a department’. What we’re saying is that if unsworth isn’t ‘in charge’ of the academy then he shouldn’t have been given a job with that title, it was completely unnecessary and raises a lot of questions as to why it would happen (a sop to part of the ‘Everton family’? An attempt to undermine brands? A genuine power struggle). If he is ‘in charge’ of the academy, then how can brands be choosing his own scouts and a style of play. The 2 things don’t add up.

 

[Zatara]

I don’t think you’re understanding the point. Forget the idea of titles in a wider context, we all know they’re weird, but that doesn’t mean they’re not relevant. The point is that unsworth was ‘promoted’ to a job with the title of academy director. The definition of director is ‘in charge of a department’. What we’re saying is that if unsworth isn’t ‘in charge’ of the academy then he shouldn’t have been given a job with that title, it was completely unnecessary and raises a lot of questions as to why it would happen (a sop to part of the ‘Everton family’? An attempt to undermine brands? A genuine power struggle). If he is ‘in charge’ of the academy, then how can brands be choosing his own scouts and a style of play. The 2 things don’t add up.

I see what you mean.

Surely though its just like promoting someone to director title (in name) who still reports to the MD and the MD is the one who has the decision making power while the director runs the day to day

 

[Lanolin]

I see what you mean.

Surely though its just like promoting someone to director title (in name) who still reports to the MD and the MD is the one who has the decision making power while the director runs the day to day

Possibly yeah, that’s basically what I’m saying though. If he’s only a director in name, just don’t give him the name. It’s pointless, small time, confusing etc. Imagine going for an interview elsewhere and having that conversation. ‘So you’re academy director at Everton?’ ‘Yes’ ‘You’re responsible for the running of the whole thing?’ ‘Correct’ ‘You choose all the staff, develop the style of play etc’ ‘Oh god no’. It’s just weird.

 

[BlueToff]

I don’t think you’re understanding the point. Forget the idea of titles in a wider context, we all know they’re weird, but that doesn’t mean they’re not relevant. The point is that unsworth was ‘promoted’ to a job with the title of academy director. The definition of director is ‘in charge of a department’. What we’re saying is that if unsworth isn’t ‘in charge’ of the academy then he shouldn’t have been given a job with that title, it was completely unnecessary and raises a lot of questions as to why it would happen (a sop to part of the ‘Everton family’? An attempt to undermine brands? A genuine power struggle). If he is ‘in charge’ of the academy, then how can brands be choosing his own scouts and a style of play. The 2 things don’t add up.

Bill and the CEO have played too much of a part in this. and in this regard, I do feel for Brands. It's actually the one area of the club / his job that I will, from what I'm led to believe, admit that Brands has had his hands tied behind his back to an extent.

That being said, based on his tendency of signing players who would probably be a great fit in a less demanding league, whether he'd ensure the academy produces the right types of players remains to be seen.

One thing's for certain though - Unsworth has, to a large extent, not actually achieved the end goal of the academy. That being said, indecision or poor decisions at the top - including from Brands - have also played their part; i.e. loaning players out too late, or to the wrong clubs, or not selling on earlier (Kenny, potentially an example).

Dortmund/Bayern's academy model is pretty much what every club in Europe should aspire to be

They categorise as follows

a) players that are good enough for the league
b) players that are good enough for their squad
c) players that are good enough for their first team/regular/star

From each batch of academy players (IIRC they view that as being 2-3 'year groups') they aim to have 1-2 regular first-teamers (the current example from the last batch would be Kimmich, who is obviously a ludicrous player. Alaba and Muller are the examples from the years the late 2000s/early 2010s). Then they'll have their squad players, then the rest will be players who are good enough to play elsewhere in the Bundesliga.

That's how you make money from an academy, and also build a successful, sustainable system. Obviously Bayern and Dortmund are different to us in terms of pull in their respective country, but the principle should be the same. United used to be very similar, with the likes of Gibson, Bardsley etc, and now we even see it with Keane.

 

[miami]

Note to marcel:

FAST. definition:
Someone or something that moves with greater speed than a slug or a sloth.

MOBILE. Definition:
Someone or something than can turn and accelerate quickly (particularly on grass with white lines drawn on it).

SKILLFUL. Definition:
Someone or something that can comfortably manipulate a ball and, with imagination, even ensure it reaches a team-mate or the back of an opponent's net.

BACKPASS. Definition:
Something which should come only as a last resort, but when completed with unfettered regularity by cowardly entities, drains the life and soul of other interested parties who will inevitably succumb to disillusionment and kick holes in their television screens.


Just thought I'd try and update marcel's english, as he doesn't seem to have quite got his head around what the above words mean.

 

[Carlito]

Obviously, he can't be blamed for what happened before his arrival, but I never would have believed some of the names that we regularly see on the team sheet after three years under such a highly-touted DoF.

Also hard to believe that the next summer transfer window will be the sixth since Moshiri's takeover.

 

[Bullens Rd]

I think he's been an unmitigated disaster personally. Definitely no better than the nightmare that was Steve Walsh, he's basically just continued the same way and thrown massive money at crap players. Of course if you spend enough you'll get a few hits, and he's done well on Doucouré and Godfrey, hardly miracle work though getting players in from the league below us.

 

[Efcjake]

If we finish higher than 8th then hes improved us. If we don't then he hasnt as thats where we ended up under Allardyce and Walsh.

 

[allen]

If we finish higher than 8th then hes improved us. If we don't then he hasnt as thats where we ended up under Allardyce and Walsh.

Except that assumes performance in a vacuum. It’s possible for us to have improved and our league position not because other teams have improved, too. This season is incredibly competitive, at least from 2nd in the league down.

 

[Sphincter Sports]

If we finish higher than 8th then hes improved us. If we don't then he hasnt as thats where we ended up under Allardyce and Walsh.

But you also have to take into account that Carlo is one of the best managers ever, so i don't think he has improved us much, we need a fresh approach to our transfer business, he is just not doing it.