Kevin Thelwell’s departure from Everton this summer marks the beginning of a significant reshuffle for the club. With the construction of the new stadium on the horizon, Everton faces a pivotal period of transition, requiring strong leadership both on and off the pitch. The club’s future will depend on securing a new director of football, as well as settling on the right managerial direction to ensure stability and progress. We spoke to Will Rooney for the latest on the Toffees.
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00:00Kevin Fairwell's departure from Everton this summer marks the beginning of a significant
00:08reshuffle, with the construction of the new stadium and Everton facing a pivotal period
00:14of transition requiring strong leadership both on and off the pitch. The club's future
00:20will depend on securing a new director of football as well as settling on the right
00:24managerial direction to ensure stability and progress. Coupled with the ongoing changes
00:30in ownership, this period presents both challenges and opportunities for Everton to reshape their
00:36identity and ambitions. I spoke to Will Rooney for the latest on the Toffees.
00:44So Will, looking at Everton and Kevin Fairwell, and obviously we've mentioned a few times
00:49his role in terms of the uncertainty of it because of this huge change, you know, ownership
00:55and the sort of reset that they're going to face in the summer with the contract situation
00:59as well and obviously David Moyes coming back, new stadium, so many things to look forward
01:05to as Everton go into this new season. In terms of Fairwell and his sort of situation
01:11obviously going to be heading out of the side, what will his sort of legacy be in terms of
01:17digging in and it's been quite a tough time, he's had quite a bit of hard work to do during
01:22his Everton spell and then moving forward, how do they sort of look to replace him?
01:28I think he'll always have the respect of Everton fans to be honest with you. When he arrived
01:35in February 2022, I doubt that he thought that the situation was going to be just as
01:42precarious as it was, but it really, really was difficult. He came in, replaced Marcel Brands
01:49and Everton fans were obviously up for a director of football whose primary focus was getting players
01:57through the door really and instead he's had to put out fires around the club in terms of the
02:03financial situation, help balance the books, cut the wage bill etc, player sales and he's ensured
02:14that Everton have remained a Premier League club in a real, real tough environment and he's ensured
02:19that Everton are going to the new stadium in the top flight and I think that has to be commended
02:24to be honest with you. He's always served with a lot of dignity, a lot of integrity. I think he'll
02:33be in terms of transfers, I think he'll be remembered more for his sales than his purchases
02:42and his signings because he's really broken some good deals. Richarlison for 60 million was a
02:49fantastic deal, especially how that's played out. I think Anthony Gordon for 45 million, look Anthony
02:55Gordon's become a really good player, but at the time I thought that was a fantastic deal for Everton
03:00for a player who's still relatively inexperienced. Players like Alex O'Rourke will be getting I think
03:0720 million for him with one year left on his contract. Damari Gray was sold for 11 million,
03:14albeit he was at the club already for football, came in for 1.5 so a significant profit on him.
03:19The money we made for a fringe player in Ben Godfrey last summer, there's been some really good
03:24sales, there's been some good signings as well. Illerman and Dyer have been excellent. We're
03:29seeing Jake O'Brien now in the team, he's really excelling. Beto the jury has been out for him for
03:36a long time, but maybe he just didn't have the right manager and he was signed for the wrong
03:42manager, but there have been some poor signings as well. I mean, Neil Moorpay will be one that a lot
03:48of people remember. Arnaud Dandume, was he ever going to fit into a Sean Dyche style of football?
03:55The same with Jesper Lindstrom, albeit he's playing football that he's playing now, but with Jesper
04:00Lindstrom, a Premier League player, is he up to the physicality? Thelwell has had some targets
04:07earmarked and David Moyes come in and has a look at them for us. I probably don't fancy them,
04:13so I think that's the model that they will go down. I don't know, there probably will be some
04:17sort of technical director coming in because Everton have got to make strides off the pitch
04:21as well. They've got to improve areas like the academy, they've got to catch up on clubs,
04:26they've had to sell a lot of the better players, infrastructure, things like that.
04:32So something will happen in that point, but as I say, Kevin Thelwell, I think he goes out
04:38with a lot of respect from Everton fans for the job that he's done.