Good read that. Daniel Levy at Spurs has a reputation of being hard nosed & I've always liked & wanted that in our club. Before Brands i think we were a little soft in negotiations & paid top money & wages for average players because we had little skill in the people doing said negotiations.At PSV Eindhoven Marcel Brands is known as the “architect”.
And on Tuesday night, at Wembley in a Champions League group stage game, Everton'sdirector of football will watch the team that he built.
He hopes he is starting to lay similar foundations at Goodison.
Understandably, PSV have found it tough going in Group B they share with Barcelona, Roma and Spurs, picking up just one point from their opening three games but this is a side, constructed by Brands, that the Dutch club are proud of.
PSV have won three of the last four Eredivisie titles and sit top of this season's table ahead of Ajax but when Brands arrived, in 2010 from AZ Alkmaar, the club was in need of shaking up.
“He had a very big impact,” PSV's General Manager Toon Gerbrands said.
“In the beginning at PSV he had big problems with the money they had.
“The club had a budget based on the Champions League and qualifying from the group stages. For years we didn't qualify so it created big problems and we were not in a position to buy players so it was very difficult when he started at PSV.
“But what he did change was the scouting, he put more people in that department and people who used data because he wanted his own team.”
Gerbrands had previously worked with Brands at AZ for five years, winning an Eredivisie title in 2009, before the director of football moved to one of the country's biggest clubs.
In 2014, Gerbrands made the same switch and together, and with Phillip Cocu in the dugout, they provided the framework for PSV to win five trophies in four years.
At the core of their success was Brands and the way in which he revamped the club's recruitment department.
It soon became the envy of clubs throughout Europe as PSV shrewdly signed a mix of young, exciting players, some deemed unfashionable and many largely unheard of.
Brands also revitalised the club's Academy system and then sold players for huge profits, pocketing the club around £200m in sales during his eight years.
The fruits of his labour will be on the pitch at Wembley with all players either signed by him or brought through the Academy during his spell.
Even the summer's signings were ones teed up by Brands.
“Marcel is an expert in scouting and he looked for players between the age of 18-22,” Gerbrands told the ECHO.
“Those players would be with us for two or three years and learn an extra language, learn about nutrition, learn to play with different tactics and prepare them for the next stage in their career.
“Hirving Lozano, for example, will stay for two years at our club and develop and then the right people will be interested in him.”
“Marcel scouts in special markets and he knows all the players in those age groups, even at 16 or 17 years old,” he adds.
“He knows everything.
“If you ask him about players all over the world at those ages he will be able to say yes or no if they could play in England and in the club's system.”
Gerbrands suspects Brands would class Lozano, the rapid Mexican winger, and Gini Wijnaldum, who joined from a Dutch rival and would earn PSV a healthy profit when he moved to England, as his best signings for the club.
“I think he will say Gini Wijnaldum and Lozano,” he said.
“We got Wijnaldum from Feyenoord (in 2011) and Marcel was 100% convinced we needed this player to win the championship because in the beginning it was a little bit tough.
“Initially the coach played him in an outside position in attack but he wanted to play as a No10 but Marcel stuck with him and talked to him.
“He and Memphis Depay (an Academy product), were the two big players in our first championship in five years.”
Lozano joined PSV from Pachuca in the summer of 2017 after six months of groundwork from Brands, who had taken the club deeper into the South and Central American markets.
“The main difference to our scouting that Marcel made was with South American players,” Gerbrands explains.
“Players from Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil and also in Mexico. We have two Mexican players in our squad now and everybody in that country is now a fan of PSV because of the players we signed.
“Everybody wanted to sign Lozano but Marcel was successful in getting him because he always has a plan for the players.
“It was the personal interest.
“Marcel went to talk to him and his family two times and so then there was a relationship.
“He told Lozano that PSV would develop him and prepare him to make the step into Europe but it was that personal interest which meant the club signed him.
“He will stay with us for two years and then make the big step to a big club.”
Brands has started to make changes to Everton's scouting department in recent weeks and Gerbrands has revealed how the 56-year-old operated at PSV.
“Marcel had seven scouts at PSV and so he would receive six or seven reports on if a certain player could be a player for PSV,” he explains
“Then he would go and watch the player himself. He is a very hard worker and will never sign a player that he has not seen.”
Brands offered a glimpse of his transfer mettle this summer when he brought Yerry Mina to the club from Barcelona.
It was a deal that went right through to deadline day with the Blues' transfer chief at loggerheads with the Catalan giants, refusing to budge on his valuation of the Colombian defender.
Gerbrands says Brands has always driven a hard bargain.
“When negotiating, he will talk with his club beforehand and say what he thinks the player is worth in terms of money,” he said.
“If the price is £5m too much then he will always say no. He will not pay ever £2m than he decides the player is worth so he is a very tough negotiator. He will always stick to his point.”
Brands has long been a man in demand and Everton had tried to recruit him 12 months before they did.
And Gerbrands, invited to Goodison by Brands for the recent game with Crystal Palace, says PSV were disappointed to lose such an influential figure but were not going to stand in his way.
“We were also proud that he went to Everton,” he said.
“Everton had already asked about Marcel one year before. They did their best with a meeting to get him over there.
“We knew he had done a good job for eight years and so at his age, 56, it was a good chance now to be a technical director at the highest level in England. This was his chance.”
Everton also see Brands as their big chance.
I know that kinda guy, usually has a hot wife too, no one knows if she's real and then one day she turns up, jaws drop and everyone asks "how does he manage that"
At PSV Eindhoven Marcel Brands is known as the “architect”.
And on Tuesday night, at Wembley in a Champions League group stage game, Everton'sdirector of football will watch the team that he built.
He hopes he is starting to lay similar foundations at Goodison.
Understandably, PSV have found it tough going in Group B they share with Barcelona, Roma and Spurs, picking up just one point from their opening three games but this is a side, constructed by Brands, that the Dutch club are proud of.
PSV have won three of the last four Eredivisie titles and sit top of this season's table ahead of Ajax but when Brands arrived, in 2010 from AZ Alkmaar, the club was in need of shaking up.
“He had a very big impact,” PSV's General Manager Toon Gerbrands said.
“In the beginning at PSV he had big problems with the money they had.
“The club had a budget based on the Champions League and qualifying from the group stages. For years we didn't qualify so it created big problems and we were not in a position to buy players so it was very difficult when he started at PSV.
“But what he did change was the scouting, he put more people in that department and people who used data because he wanted his own team.”
Gerbrands had previously worked with Brands at AZ for five years, winning an Eredivisie title in 2009, before the director of football moved to one of the country's biggest clubs.
In 2014, Gerbrands made the same switch and together, and with Phillip Cocu in the dugout, they provided the framework for PSV to win five trophies in four years.
At the core of their success was Brands and the way in which he revamped the club's recruitment department.
It soon became the envy of clubs throughout Europe as PSV shrewdly signed a mix of young, exciting players, some deemed unfashionable and many largely unheard of.
Brands also revitalised the club's Academy system and then sold players for huge profits, pocketing the club around £200m in sales during his eight years.
The fruits of his labour will be on the pitch at Wembley with all players either signed by him or brought through the Academy during his spell.
Even the summer's signings were ones teed up by Brands.
“Marcel is an expert in scouting and he looked for players between the age of 18-22,” Gerbrands told the ECHO.
“Those players would be with us for two or three years and learn an extra language, learn about nutrition, learn to play with different tactics and prepare them for the next stage in their career.
“Hirving Lozano, for example, will stay for two years at our club and develop and then the right people will be interested in him.”
“Marcel scouts in special markets and he knows all the players in those age groups, even at 16 or 17 years old,” he adds.
“He knows everything.
“If you ask him about players all over the world at those ages he will be able to say yes or no if they could play in England and in the club's system.”
Gerbrands suspects Brands would class Lozano, the rapid Mexican winger, and Gini Wijnaldum, who joined from a Dutch rival and would earn PSV a healthy profit when he moved to England, as his best signings for the club.
“I think he will say Gini Wijnaldum and Lozano,” he said.
“We got Wijnaldum from Feyenoord (in 2011) and Marcel was 100% convinced we needed this player to win the championship because in the beginning it was a little bit tough.
“Initially the coach played him in an outside position in attack but he wanted to play as a No10 but Marcel stuck with him and talked to him.
“He and Memphis Depay (an Academy product), were the two big players in our first championship in five years.”
Lozano joined PSV from Pachuca in the summer of 2017 after six months of groundwork from Brands, who had taken the club deeper into the South and Central American markets.
“The main difference to our scouting that Marcel made was with South American players,” Gerbrands explains.
“Players from Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil and also in Mexico. We have two Mexican players in our squad now and everybody in that country is now a fan of PSV because of the players we signed.
“Everybody wanted to sign Lozano but Marcel was successful in getting him because he always has a plan for the players.
“It was the personal interest.
“Marcel went to talk to him and his family two times and so then there was a relationship.
“He told Lozano that PSV would develop him and prepare him to make the step into Europe but it was that personal interest which meant the club signed him.
“He will stay with us for two years and then make the big step to a big club.”
Brands has started to make changes to Everton's scouting department in recent weeks and Gerbrands has revealed how the 56-year-old operated at PSV.
“Marcel had seven scouts at PSV and so he would receive six or seven reports on if a certain player could be a player for PSV,” he explains
“Then he would go and watch the player himself. He is a very hard worker and will never sign a player that he has not seen.”
Brands offered a glimpse of his transfer mettle this summer when he brought Yerry Mina to the club from Barcelona.
It was a deal that went right through to deadline day with the Blues' transfer chief at loggerheads with the Catalan giants, refusing to budge on his valuation of the Colombian defender.
Gerbrands says Brands has always driven a hard bargain.
“When negotiating, he will talk with his club beforehand and say what he thinks the player is worth in terms of money,” he said.
“If the price is £5m too much then he will always say no. He will not pay ever £2m than he decides the player is worth so he is a very tough negotiator. He will always stick to his point.”
Brands has long been a man in demand and Everton had tried to recruit him 12 months before they did.
And Gerbrands, invited to Goodison by Brands for the recent game with Crystal Palace, says PSV were disappointed to lose such an influential figure but were not going to stand in his way.
“We were also proud that he went to Everton,” he said.
“Everton had already asked about Marcel one year before. They did their best with a meeting to get him over there.
“We knew he had done a good job for eight years and so at his age, 56, it was a good chance now to be a technical director at the highest level in England. This was his chance.”
Everton also see Brands as their big chance.
