Everton have announced the appointment of Marcel Brands as the club’s new Director of Football.
After weeks of speculation, Brands, formerly PSV’s Technical Director, has replaced Steve Walsh in the role and will now spearhead the clubs moves in the transfer window.
In a club statement, Brands said: “It is a privilege to be joining Everton as Director of Football and I am incredibly excited to take on this challenge.”
“The fantastic passion of the fans for their club, the magnificent history of the club over the years and the ambition and purpose we have as people tasked with driving the club forward all mean that we need to be competing for honours against the Premier League elite,” Brands added.
He added: “It is no straightforward challenge but this must be our motivation each and every day.”
Walsh, who joined the club for Leicester City after being credited for being a big part of the Foxes Premier League title, has drawn criticism for the clubs moves - and also lack of moves - in the transfer window.
Top-down reshuffle
The appointment of Brands adds another layer to Everton’s managerial shuffle with the departure of Sam Allardyce and the reshuffle at the club’s director level.
Everton announced the departure of Allardyce on Wednesday morning after the manager met with the club’s majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.
Robert Elstone, formerly the club’s Chief Executive, has departed for the Rugby Super League and has been replaced in the role by Everton in the Community’s Executive Chair Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale.
Alexander Ryazantsev, the only director so far brought to the club by Moshiri, has taken up a newly formed Chief Finance and Commercial Officer role whilst Dr Keith Harris has become Club’s Deputy Chairman in the place of Jon Woods.
Harris, who was once the director of Wembley National Stadium project, will spearhead the club’s new stadium project at Bramley-Moore Dock.