Steve Walsh - with the benefit of hindsight

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toffeeblue9

Player Valuation: £35m
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...
 
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...

Good post this mate, I wrote something similar in the transfer thread the other day.

Wayne Rooney was our top scorer and best player in his season for us, so certainly worth the free transfer and wages.

Not sure we can count Gibson or Henry as good value quite yet.


Rightly or wrongly, Walsh will be forever associated with the horrors of Bolassie, Klassen, Walcott and Tosun - £100m of absolute rubbish
 
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...
A broken clock is right twice a day.

He was an unmitigated disaster.

For me, Sandro personifies this.
 
Good post this mate, I wrote something similar in the transfer thread the other day.

Wayne Rooney was our top scorer and best player in his season for us, so certainly worth the free transfer and wages.

Not sure we can count Gibson or Henry as good value quite yet.


Rightly or wrongly, Walsh will be forever associated with the horrors of Bolassie, Klassen, Walcott and Tosun - £100m of absolute rubbish

I think the Henry one was great value if I'm honest. If he never kicks a ball for us, we will still make a large profit on him. We can't really lose on that unless he gets a permit here and utterly stinks the gaff out
 

I think the Henry one was great value if I'm honest. If he never kicks a ball for us, we will still make a large profit on him. We can't really lose on that unless he gets a permit here and utterly stinks the gaff out

It's also worth bearing in mind how much profit Walsh realised in outgoing negotiations. Huge mark ups on Lukaku, Stones and others.
 
It's also worth bearing in mind how much profit Walsh realised in outgoing negotiations. Huge mark ups on Lukaku, Stones and others.
You can't really put that on Walsh. Those players thrived at Goodison and improved a lot. They were going to sell for big money with or without Walsh. In fact, I'd go as far as to say the Lukaku deal was a poor one. Liverpool got 150m for Coutinho. We got 90m and a washed up Rooney.
 

Gets dogs abuse on here. But Pickford. Sigs, gana Schneiderlin being big players this season. I'd take him back in a heartbeat.
 
You can't really put that on Walsh. Those players thrived at Goodison and improved a lot. They were going to sell for big money with or without Walsh. In fact, I'd go as far as to say the Lukaku deal was a poor one. Liverpool got 150m for Coutinho. We got 90m and a washed up Rooney.

Nah, you wouldn't get anywhere near that for Lukaku currently and Coutinho was an overpriced anomaly. And Walsh took the strategic decision - with Moshiri - to keep him for the extra season which added to his price.

Rooney clearly wasn't washed up. Top scorer and now doing well in the US.

I think people are beginning to see some of the work of Walsh in a better light, and to be fair, for any Director of Football their work can take years to fully bear fruit.
 

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