Steve Walsh - with the benefit of hindsight

[SerenityNigh]

Might be worth mentioning that Walsh didn't sign the cheques.

That's a weird comment. His job was to pick the players going in and out, not sign checks. Are we now going to blame contract for the bloated payroll?

 

[Simon (brum)]

In posting about Onyekuru in another thread, I got to thinking that with 12 months behind us since we parted ways with Steve Walsh, I wonder if his success (or lack thereof) as Director of Football here is worth reconsidering.

We know, from what has been said since, that Walsh's job (unlike Brands') was solely focused around the recruitment of players. So to judge him, you'd focus solely on that. In Walsh's time here, we signed the following players... (taken from TransferLeague)

Season 17/18
Davy Klaassen	£23,600,000​
Jordan Pickford	£25,000,000​
Nathangelo Markelo	undisclosed​
Michael Keane	£25,000,000​
Sandro	£5,200,000​
Henry Onyekuru	£7,000,000​
Wayne Rooney	Free​
Josh Bowler	£1,500,000​
Lewis Gibson	£6,000,000​
Nikola Vlašić	£10,000,000​
Boris Mathis	Free​
Cuco Martina	Free​
Gylfi Sigurdsson	£45,000,000​
Dennis Adeniran	undisclosed​
Theo Walcott	£20,000,000​
Cenk Tosun	£27,000,000​
Season 16/17
Maarten Stekelenburg	£1,000,000​
Idrissa Gueye	£7,100,000​
Ashley Williams	£12,000,000​
Yannick Bolasie	£25,000,000​
Ademola Lookman	£7,500,000​
Morgan Schneiderlin	£24,000,000​

There are still some unmitigated disasters in that list. Klaassen (who we took a big hit on), Bolasie, Williams and Sandro all stand out. I'd also argue that Rooney, Walcott, Tosun and Schnederlin didn't give us value for money, although they weren't necessarily in the "disaster" category.

But, on the flip side, Idrissa Gueye was one of the best bits of business we have done in recent years. Keane and Pickford have proven to be worth the kind of money we spent on them. Sigurdsson, whilst overpriced, has proven to be a good addition. And then when you look at the younger prospects we invested in under Walsh - the likes of Lookman, Vlasic and Gibson, you start to see some real value.

I don't think you'll ever be able to argue that Walsh was a success, but I'm beginning to think he maybe wasn't quite the utter disaster I thought he was a year ago. In fact I think that Koeman was possibly the more destructive constituent part of the whole affair.

Anyway, that wasted a few minutes...

Klaassen, Tosun, Walcott, Snide, Sandro, Bolasie, Williams and Sandro means Walsh was a £136.6 million disaster.
Think about it £136 MILLION spent on that garbage. 10 years ago we could only dream about having that kind of kitty. But to waste it now and think that Walsh did a half decent job, with or without hindsight is a joke.
If I bought 20 players I'm sure one or 2 would be shrewd buys. Walsh and Koeman should be strung up!

 

[SerenityNigh]

Which would be fine if someone who watches Match of the Day and plays FIFA rated him, but Walsh was paid thousands to actually be competent at his job and actually buy these players.

Hmmm, has idea for consulting gig to pitch...

 

[orly]

Ashley Williams is one of the worst, if not the worst, player I have ever seen in an Everton shirt. And I've seen lots. Also ( grudge alert) I will never forgive him for not looking remotely concerned when Seamus got injured so badly in the WAles/Ireland match. I know they were on opposite sides thT DAY but they were teammates.

However I don't actually care if it was Walsh Koeman or Fat Sam who screwed our club so horribly. I put the blame mostly with Koeman who appears to be an arrogant bully. They did untold damage to Everton which I think ( fingers crossed) we might just be starting to recover from.

A lot of this is fair, but "untold damage" which has essentially been fixed in a year? It's hardly Sunderland or Bolton levels.

 

[The binman chronicles]

£25m on Yannick Bolasie

I mean it doesn't really matter how many times I read it that never really gets any better.

In a hundred years time when £25 million buys you a loaf of bread and a pint of milk it will still seem outrageous.

 

[TimHowardsBeardJuice]

10 goals for us? 3 of which were against West ham, 2 were pens (1 rebounded, 1 pen scored) and obviously the marvellous half way goal.

Is he really doing well in MLS though? He is doing okay, nothing like you'd expect a big name to do... I watched DC United play someone a couple of nights ago and he constantly gave the ball away with bad passing or awful ball control. Amount of times his legs clearly couldn't move as quick as his brain was wanting to. I saw the exact same player that played for us. What was it, 10 goals for us of which 4/5/6 pens including the rebounded one against WHU.

6 goals in 12 this season for DC which on paper is okay but when you break it down...

1 v columbus crew (free kick)
1 v Columbus Crew (penalty)
1 v Orlando (Crossed free kick that looped over the keeper and in)
3 v RSL ( RSL down to 9 men by 90mins, 1 was a pen, 1 was big gk/defender error and 1 was a tap in).

-

He's had the same issues as hes had with us in a slower, lesser quality league. Too slow on the ball, trying to do the right things but not having the legs to do so. We saw that over and over and over again last season. He was a poor signing for us. United fans saw that before we signed him and said so, just like we said about Lukaku's first touch not being good enough for a striker of United. He was finished when we signed him.

Now to be fair to Walsh, had Kenwright all over it along with part of the lukaku deal. I had no issue giving it a go, but also pleased we cut ties fairly quickly as well as he was a huge waste of money at 150k+ a week for 4/5 goals from open play.

Went to a NY Red Bulls- DCU game last year. Sat two rows behind the corner flag so got a close look. He was ok. Nothing special. A couple of clever balls but nothing that made me think he had once been among the world’s elite. Was interesting watching the Red Bulls CB do a number on him up close. Both very big boys. They were knocking him around and he really didn’t have a response- not big enough, not quick enough.

 

[APN_EFC]

His job should have been solely identifying young talent and recommending first team players we can get on the cheap like Gueye for us and Marhez for Leicester.

Giving him an open cheque book was sheer madness.

Yeah, in hindsight a senior scouting position for young talent and then other random Leicester type players would have been perfect.

 

[ijjysmith]

especially when the rumour is that we will take anything over £7m to get rid of him...ouch! seriously one of worst buys ever or certainly up there

I’d give someone £7m to take him.

 

[Simon Buttle]

I’d give someone £7m to take him.

me too, can't we just pay that to get rid of him

 

[ijjysmith]

me too, can't we just pay that to get rid of him

If we all chip in.

 

[Yarrgh]

In comparison to what came after it could have been fronted by Ian Gillan.

Deeply under rates comment.

 

[bring the ghost on]

Sandro, although he hasn't scored, doesn't look THAT bad at Sociedad.

But when you're a striker and you haven't scored a goal all season (in 23 appearances), it's pretty hard to casually put that aside in assessing whether he's been any good, isn't it?

 

[EvertonFury19]

I'd say Walsh 's record at best is mixed and at worst just malpractice.

We also have a tendency to overpay for talent.

 

[Cameron Manning]

Honestly, he's been very good for DC, especially last year when he took them from nowhere to the playoffs. HOWEVER, they had massive benefits on that run. Almost every match was at home, so there weren't a whole lot of 5 hour flights to games across the country and travel wasn't a big deal. Second, they had a good supporting cast and were terrible at CF, so he was a massive upgrade because of how poor they were in that particular role.

He's going to wear down this year no question, but his team isn't as good - they lost a couple important players and replaced them with downgrades.

What is the quality of the American League that Wayne plays in, is it as good as the First, Second or National league here, to be honest I loved Rooney when he was alive and playing for us first time round and for most of the time he was with United, I felt embarrassed, for him, playing for us last season, earned an awful lot of money, but didn’t do his reputation any good whatsoever.

 

[EvertonFury19]

What is the quality of the American League that Wayne plays in, is it as good as the First, Second or National league here, to be honest I loved Rooney when he was alive and playing for us first time round and for most of the time he was with United, I felt embarrassed, for him, playing for us last season, earned an awful lot of money, but didn’t do his reputation any good whatsoever.

On its best day, MLS is maybe up there with lower Championship quality - if I'm being generous. Probably more comparable to League One but better than say the Scottish league