DOZEN LOOK GOOD FOR BLUES FLOPS
Brands says up to 12 will go in Goodison clearout
MARCEL BRANDS has confirmed that Everton will try to offload up to 12 players this summer.
And Goodison’s new director of football has confirmed that they must sell before they buy, with the task of cutting out the dead wood set to be a long-term process.
Brands revealed his blueprint for Everton when he was unveiled alongside new boss Marco Silva this week – but he told fans not to expect yet more reckless spending or an instant fix for the club’s problems.
The Blues have a 38-man squad that needs to be reduced to a manageable 25-30 players.
And asked if owner Farhad Moshiri will pump more of his own money into transfers, after a disjointed and confused £150millionplus spend last summer, Brands said: “No. First of all, we need to offload players, to raise money to spend, and also salary-wise.”
And then, questioned if that meant Everton need to sell to buy, he added: “Yes, but it’s not only a money thing. Of course money is important, but for a coach it is not workable to start with 38 players in your squad.
“We have to look for a squad Marco can work with and there always has to be space for young players to come to the first team.”
The news will come as a shock to Everton fans who have long assumed that Moshiri would continue to plough millions into the club, after underwriting more than £100m of transfers since he bought a controlling interest.
But Brands will attempt to be ruthless in reducing the squad numbers, by trying to offload at least a dozen players.
He said: “There are 38 players and a lot of them are not young players any more.
“We have to be honest taking decisions with these players, do they have prospects here at Everton? Because, yeah, some of the conversations will not be nice, but it has to be honest.
“I will look beyond only a season and try and build a structure for more than one year. You have seen in the past that short-term relations with managers make it very difficult to achieve success.
“So I will try and build a structure for a long-term relationship. It will go step by step and it will not go every time as everyone wants, but finally we will achieve the goals we want.” The Dutchman even admitted he will not be able to dump 12 players this summer – because their Premier League wages make that sort of clearout impossible these days.
Brands said: “I know it’s hard to get rid of them because of the salaries in England – it’s so difficult if the player is not successful, then what do you do?
“Because in most countries they can not make the wages they get here in the Premier League. So a lot of players who don’t play at Everton can not play anywhere, because the salaries are not comparable.
“So that means even if you have money you have to be careful to spend that money.
“I always say when you buy 10 players eight or nine have to do well. You have to be careful, even with money.
“Hopefully, I will succeed to offload the right players. And of course they are good players so I hope there will be interest in a few of them.”