Episode 1 - Evaluating the squad / Pre Season

And so i begin this story

My aim of taking Everton to the top of the World Club Rankings immediately seems a lot further away than i thought.

However, as any Evertonian will tell you, Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

let's remember that.

Taking charge I am greeted by Farhad Moshiri who tells me he expects a top half finish, and decent cup runs getting to quarter finals in both the FA and Carabao cups

these seem more than achieveable with what players we have, and with only £4 million in the transfer fund with not much spare for wages, we will have to clear some space in the already bloated squad and recoup some money before we can sign anyone who will truly improve the first team.

first things first i wanted to appoint my own assistant manager to put a stamp on my reign.

i wanted to get someone with top level and international experience, someone i could rely on to keep morale high.

I opted for Marco Van Basten

With more experience than 99% in the world of football he seems a great choice, and i could only imagine the excitement in Goodison park if this was to happen in real life, so im happy to tie him down for a 4 year contract.

The next move was to look to the future and hire a head of youth development to run and oversee Finch Farm

Bernhard Peters

This guy looks like the real deal

I had to fight off Bayern for his signature but it seems the project at goodison (plus the 7.5k a week) was too good to turn down

if he can't bring players through the system with the facilities we have, no-one can.

Next i needed to assess the Squad and see what the plan was for transfers,

The keeping department is the one i have least concerns for

We have a world class number 1 in Jordan Pickford

Stekelenburg will be a solid back-up for season 1 and Virginia should hopefully go out on loan and come back a worthy number 2 to Pickford for the forseeable future.

At the back we have a solid first four in Coleman, Mina Keane and Digne

Kenny is good enough as back up to Coleman for now, and Baines has probably 1 good season left in him

Zouma on loan will provide some depth at centre half, but i'd like 1 more ideally as ill be looking to loan out Holgate who i don't think will cut it just yet and Jagielka ill be looking to sell as he is in the last year of his contract and taking up 50k per week.

Moving forward this is where the squad starts to get unbalanced.

in our more defensive midfield roles we have Gueye who is first choice, and currently on loan Andre Gomes who will start alongside him in the 4-2-3-1 that i prefer to play with

Davies will offer backup to Gomes and Mccarthy, if he can stay fit once back from injury, will be backup to Gueye.

Schneiderlin doesn't come near being worth the 100k a week he is on, so will be going on the transfer list.

Into the attacking 2 midfield positions we have 2 clear first choices

Richarlison will start on the left wing, and Sigurdsson will start in the number 10 role.

Walcott will start on the right but Lookman will be stiff competition, Bernard having the ability to play across all 3 positions will offer backup to all these slots, 

my main concern though is the number 10 role

with Bernard being mainly a winger, it's Dowell who will be backup here and although he's a talent for sure, i don't think he's got enough right now to play in our team.

If Sigurdsson get's injured, we'd be in trouble

Cenk Tosun and Calvert Lewin will start up front, it's a position i'd like to strengthen but with only a few million in the bank, and teams asking way over the odds in the first transfer window, ill have to bide my time to find the right person for this position.

Other than Vlasic, all the players out on loan ill be looking to move on permanently as none really seem good enough going forward, Onyenkuru maybe, but his work permit worries me with Brexit fast approaching.

So with that in mind i moved to sell some players with not much intention of bringing anyone in just yet unless the right deal came up

With Marcel Brands being one of the best Director of Football's you can get, when he comes to you with a player, you listen

Brands first signing with me as manager was Karlan Grant from Charlton

he was signed and immediately loaned back for a season

One for the future.

With no real quality available in the number 10 position, or up front i moved on deadline day to bring in cover at centre half in the shape of Marcos Rojo

A free loan and only costing us a third of his 100k a week wages this seemed like a no brainer to me.

As you can see this window was more about getting rid of some deadwood, along with getting the right players out on loan to aid development.

Jagielka will spend the last season of his contract back on loan at Sheffield United

Oumar Niasse was loaned to Trabzonspor who are paying us 1.8 million for the 1 year loan with an option to buy

Schneiderlin was sold to Leicester city for 14.75Million rising to 18.5 on bonuses, this was a good sale for the club.


Now pre-season was done, we had some good friendlies and now move onto the season

Manchester United away up first, it wont be easy but this will take time.

Thanks for reading and i look forward to hearing comments, and hopefully see you next episode