2020/21 Marcel Brands

[catcherintherye]

United have had managers who wanted players but Woodward couldn’t deliver them, all the way back to Moyes wanting Bale and Herrera. Ancelotti himself has said that Brands delivered the players he wanted. If they are working well together then why would we want to mess that up and road to a situation where Ancelotti isn’t getting the players he wants because our DOF can’t get them over the line, or he can’t work with the DOF as well as he is with Marcel.

I just don’t buy into this line of thinking ‘Richarlison was a Silva signing, James was an Ancelotti one, but Brands bought Delph’ ‘if Ancelotti is picking the players what does Brands do?’. No decent manager in football will accept a situation where they cannot pick their own players so this idea of Brands being somehow undermined because Ancelotti picked the players he wanted doesn’t sit with me, I can’t understand that line of thinking. A more logical reaction would be to say that Ancelotti had a pretty ambitious wish list when he arrived containing James Rodriguez and Allan, and Brands delivered on it.

I’ve posted before that I don’t see an either or situation here. Moyes was able to effectively fulfill both roles in his earlier days when scouting was him and Alan Irvine getting in a car to see a championship game. Now the game is far more global and I doubt Ancelotti has the time to be overseeing a global scouting network, a massive academy operation, players contracts and image rights, the financial side of complying with regulations, the actual negotiations of transfers. Ancelotti says who he wants, trains the first team, and probably gets involved in selling the vision to incoming transfers etc. Brands will be directing the operation on everything else so that Carlo can just focus on the first team.

If we get rid of the DOF all that football infrastructure will have to sit with someone else. Now do we want our world class manager taking time away from coaching the first team to deal with this stuff? Do we want to give some of it back to Bill? Maybe to Denise, we can distract her away from delivering the stadium and running the business of Everton. Or we could maybe leave it with the one person at Everton who is qualified to do it, has done it before, and negotiated James Rodriguez on a free. Maybe we just let him get on with it rather than come up with ever more creative ways of criticising him.

The solution might be that we get in a head scout who overseas all recruitment related issues and someone on the board takes the responsibility to close deals.

I'm not saying its what I would do. I just wonder if Brands is happy with seemingly having a smaller role? He doesn't seem to pick managers, run the academy and has a manager who dictates heavily who we sign. I just wonder if he wants that, or whether he would want a more hands on role at a Roma etc?

The noises aren't going away.

Personally I'd keep him. Another 1-2 year deal would be fine and we can look at it again. Football clubs succeed through stability, so you shouldn't go losing people because they do ok, but not amazingly. He's done ok for me so far.

 

[Lanolin]

I just don’t buy into this line of thinking ‘Richarlison was a Silva signing, James was an Ancelotti one, but Brands bought Delph’ ‘if Ancelotti is picking the players what does Brands do?’. No decent manager in football will accept a situation where they cannot pick their own players so this idea of Brands being somehow undermined because Ancelotti picked the players he wanted doesn’t sit with me, I can’t understand that line of thinking. A more logical reaction would be to say that Ancelotti had a pretty ambitious wish list when he arrived containing James Rodriguez and Allan, and Brands delivered on it.

I think the key with Allan and James is that they don't actually fit the model that Brands himself has talked about. Richarlison you can say yes Silva might have wanted him but Brands did too, because he fits the profile that Brands said we wanted. Those 2 don't though, so they do seem very much like 'Ancelotti signings' rather than 'players who Ancelotti rated and it just so happens that Brands did too'.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Who's he got rid of? Bolasie? No. Sigurdsson? No. Tosun? No. Niasse when his contract ran out. Walcott on loan and still paying half his wages. Sandro paid off. Basically he's got rid of Schneiderlin and Klaassen in 3 years. He couldn't sell gloves to eskimos nevermind ice.

Funes Mori 8.1 mill
Browning 4.14 mill
Klaasen 12.15 mill
Robles - free
Connor Grant - free
Wayne Rooney - free
Idrissa Gueye - 27 mill
Lookman - 16.2 mill
Vlasic - 14.13 mill
Onyekeru - 12.15 mill
McCarthy - 2.97 mill
Mirallas - Free
Jagielka - Free
Williams - Free
Galloway - Free
Schneiderlin - 2 mill
Kieran Dowell - 1.98 mill
Sandro - free
Luke Garbutt - free
Stek - free

That’s a lot of players he’s transferred out of the club as it also doesn’t include those who were out of contract (Baines, Niasse, Martina etc.). The ones in bold are the ones we got a higher fee than what we bought them for.

It would be good if we could have got fees for some of the others but Brands can’t control the market for rubbish players that other managers brought in. Regardless of the transfer fees, that’s an awful lot of dross out of the door, an awful lot of wasted wages out of the door.

I’m sure he’d have a far easier time selling some of the signings since he’s been at the club. I’d wager that Richarlison, Digne, Bernard, Lossl, Nkonkou, Branthwaite, James, Moise Kean could all be sold for more than we bought them for and turn quite a profit.

 

[Lanolin]

Funes Mori 8.1 mill
Browning 4.14 mill
Klaasen 12.15 mill
Robles - free
Connor Grant - free
Wayne Rooney - free
Idrissa Gueye - 27 mill
Lookman - 16.2 mill
Vlasic - 14.13 mill
Onyekeru - 12.15 mill
McCarthy - 2.97 mill
Mirallas - Free
Jagielka - Free
Williams - Free
Galloway - Free
Schneiderlin - 2 mill
Kieran Dowell - 1.98 mill
Sandro - free
Luke Garbutt - free
Stek - free

That’s a lot of players he’s transferred out of the club as it also doesn’t include those who were out of contract (Baines, Niasse, Martina etc.). The ones in bold are the ones we got a higher fee than what we bought them for.

It would be good if we could have got fees for some of the others but Brands can’t control the market for rubbish players that other managers brought in. Regardless of the transfer fees, that’s an awful lot of dross out of the door, an awful lot of wasted wages out of the door.

I’m sure he’d have a far easier time selling some of the signings since he’s been at the club. I’d wager that Richarlison, Digne, Bernard, Lossl, Nkonkou, Branthwaite, James, Moise Kean could all be sold for more than we bought them for and turn quite a profit.

But I was replying to a post about him doing a brilliant job getting rid of all the players we'd overpaid for. Not many, if any, of the players you've listed fit into that category? Selling McCarthy for £2m and bringing in Delph for £8m actually looks like awful business, Gana was our best player, Vlasic should have been kept in my opinion, Onyekuru was a good sale, Lookman wanted out but it was nice to turn a profit. The rest are frees. So I don't really think that counters what I was getting at.

 

[Del-boy]

Looks like he’s probably going to leave. Isn’t he a board member now as well though?
The issue I think is he gives you more than just signing players.
He has a good reputation in European football circles. This enhances our reputation when doing deals for players/clubs.

 

[Saint Domingo]

But I was replying to a post about him doing a brilliant job getting rid of all the players we'd overpaid for. Not many, if any, of the players you've listed fit into that category? Selling McCarthy for £2m and bringing in Delph for £8m actually looks like awful business, Gana was our best player, Vlasic should have been kept in my opinion, Onyekuru was a good sale, Lookman wanted out but it was nice to turn a profit. The rest are frees. So I don't really think that counters what I was getting at.

The bit you responded to was about him getting rid of expensive mistakes. Whether it’s in transfer fees or wages, it’s hard to argue that most of those players bar a few were expensive mistakes who didn’t contribute much positive to Everton. Whether we shifted them for a fee or not, they’re now out the door.

Everyone will have different opinions on the players he has brought in, and that’s a different question.

My opinion is though that he has turned over an awful lot of players including an awful lot of outgoing transfers. Would have been nice if we could have got fees for more of them but I’d rather them out the door and wages off the book than us keeping hold of them for a slightly higher fee.

Is there a player we’ve sold that we should have got significantly more for? I can’t see one.

Is there a player we have on the books that we want to sell and would expect a decent fee for that Brands hasn’t got yet? Difficult to know. I think we would have had a decent fee for Tosun if it wasn’t for his knee injury. Bolasie maybe we could have got a few mill for. Besic? Perhaps. Everyone else is currently being used by Ancelotti.

 

[mccole]

Who's he got rid of? Bolasie? No. Sigurdsson? No. Tosun? No. Niasse when his contract ran out. Walcott on loan and still paying half his wages. Sandro paid off. Basically he's got rid of Schneiderlin and Klaassen in 3 years. He couldn't sell gloves to eskimos nevermind ice.

Klaassen - £23m
Lookman - £16m
Vlasic - £14m
Onyekuru - £12m
Funes Mori - £8m

ALL impressive considering how kack they are plus got rid of Rooney (£80k p/w) plus reduced the wages via loans.

It's not Football Manager or FIFA, he has tried to move on players like Bolasie who cancelled his own loan at Villa without telling the club, Tosun who until his injury was earmarked for a £20m move to Palace and Sigurdsson is still in Carlo's plans so why would he sell him?

You are in a dream land if you think moving and selling players is easy and if you can't see that he has done well in easing the financial burden left by Koeman/Fat Sam and Walsh then you are not seeing the picture.

 

[Nymzee]

I won't be losing any sleep over this.

I'm not convinced 3 years on.

But you have to look forwards also. What direction do we go from the summer if he leaves? Another DoF? A different way of running the club? Next year is massive for us.

 

[nsno-chris]

What’s on the pitch today is the short sighted, wrong way of looking at it. He’s here to ensure the long term footballing future is in place, that the club is self sufficient and producing high calibre youth players

 

[Lanolin]

The bit you responded to was about him getting rid of expensive mistakes. Whether it’s in transfer fees or wages, it’s hard to argue that most of those players bar a few were expensive mistakes who didn’t contribute much positive to Everton. Whether we shifted them for a fee or not, they’re now out the door.

Everyone will have different opinions on the players he has brought in, and that’s a different question.

My opinion is though that he has turned over an awful lot of players including an awful lot of outgoing transfers. Would have been nice if we could have got fees for more of them but I’d rather them out the door and wages off the book than us keeping hold of them for a slightly higher fee.

Is there a player we’ve sold that we should have got significantly more for? I can’t see one.

Is there a player we have on the books that we want to sell and would expect a decent fee for that Brands hasn’t got yet? Difficult to know. I think we would have had a decent fee for Tosun if it wasn’t for his knee injury. Bolasie maybe we could have got a few mill for. Besic? Perhaps. Everyone else is currently being used by Ancelo

No, the bit I responded to said he had 'worked wonders' in getting rid of unwanted players. If you call letting players contracts run down 'working wonders' then all power to you mate, but i'm not going to give him massive credit for not extending Niasse's contract. Again, he simply hasn't got rid of many players who we would have seen as a millstone. I'm not saying he should have, i'm just saying he hasn't worked wonders, because he hasn't. It's pretty simple really.

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

What’s on the pitch today is the short sighted, wrong way of looking at it. He’s here to ensure the long term footballing future is in place, that the club is self sufficient and producing high calibre youth players

He needs to hurry up and start then.

 

[Saint Domingo]

No, the bit I responded to said he had 'worked wonders' in getting rid of unwanted players. If you call letting players contracts run down 'working wonders' then all power to you mate, but i'm not going to give him massive credit for not extending Niasse's contract. Again, he simply hasn't got rid of many players who we would have seen as a millstone. I'm not saying he should have, i'm just saying he hasn't worked wonders, because he hasn't. It's pretty simple really.

We seem to be bouncing around here between talking about players contracts running down and players he’s sold. I’m of the opinion he has done well to shift out an awful lot of players out of Everton who weren’t contributing to the club. If you disagree that’s fine.

 

[Lanolin]

Klaassen - £23m
Lookman - £16m
Vlasic - £14m
Onyekuru - £12m
Funes Mori - £8m

ALL impressive considering how kack they are plus got rid of Rooney (£80k p/w) plus reduced the wages via loans.

It's not Football Manager or FIFA, he has tried to move on players like Bolasie who cancelled his own loan at Villa without telling the club, Tosun who until his injury was earmarked for a £20m move to Palace and Sigurdsson is still in Carlo's plans so why would he sell him?

You are in a dream land if you think moving and selling players is easy and if you can't see that he has done well in easing the financial burden left by Koeman/Fat Sam and Walsh then you are not seeing the picture.

Klaassen he got half that much, Vlasic he basically got back what we paid. I honestly don't think that was a good deal for a player who is now a key player for Croatia and doing very well in Russia but that's subjective I suppose. Onyekuru i've already said was a good deal, Funes Mori would be a good deal in theory but he was about as good as Mina and we paid £28m for him as a replacement, and same with Lookman/Iwobi so it's a no from me on those deals being evidence of him 'working wonders' too i'm afraid. But i'm glad you've shared your experience of being a PL DoF with a humble FIFA virgin like me anyway.

 

[Lanolin]

We seem to be bouncing around here between talking about players contracts running down and players he’s sold. I’m of the opinion he has done well to shift out an awful lot of players out of Everton who weren’t contributing to the club. If you disagree that’s fine.

You just listed a load of players who had left when their contracts ended? It's not really my fault if they don't back up your point the way you intended, I can only comment on the post as it is.

 

[nsno-chris]

He needs to hurry up and start then.

he’s got to clean up 15 years of have gash “ways of working” first