New management set to wield the axe on 10 players at Goodison
The first job for Everton’s new- look management team will be to trim at least 10 players from the 38-man squad they inherited.
Boss Marco Silva and technical director Marcel Brands aim to start next season with fewer than 30 players – including new signings and youngsters promoted from the academy.
Wayne Rooney appears to be on his way to America and it could also mean the end for a whole raft of players.
Ashley Williams, Leighton Baines, Davy Klaassen and Ramiro Funes Mori, as well as loaned-out players like Sandro Ramirez, Kevin Mirallas and Mo Besic may all be playing their football elsewhere next season.
Brands is also promising a much more targeted approach to signings after the club bought several players for the No.10 position last summer.
“Thirty- eight is too many players,” Brands confirms.
“I only can say that in the future I will be very careful when we make new signings.
“It must be a signing that makes us better, not one where we already have two players in that position or a young player from our academy coming through.
“We will take decisions on what player fits into our plans and we have to be honest with every player, if they have prospects here or if they haven’t.
“I think 25 or 26 players is the right number and then maybe up to 30 with a few young players.”
The former PSV technical director comes from the Dutch culture of promoting youngsters and will find he has an ally in Silva.
The former Watford boss insists: “For me the most important thing is not age. I have good examples of that in my career as a coach.
“And I can tell you that I have the courage to take the decisions. For me it’s about the quality.
“My demands of a young player and an experienced player is the same.
“If there is a competition between them for the same position I will take what I feel is the best decision for us as a team and the one that deserves to play will play.”
Silva is the latest Everton manager to be charged with pushing the club from their usual “best of the rest” status and into the top six.
“I can tell you that everything is possible but not if you don’t have the capacity to prove it in every match,” he says.
“A few years ago it happened here with Roberto Martinez, the fifth position. It proves it’s not impossible.
“It’s not good for us to look at seventh position and to want to be the best of the others.
“We must be competitive against every club in the Premier League.
“But we need to go step- by- step. We need to prepare our squad well and we need to take the right decisions.
“The club needs some stability in the coach’s position and in the squad. Stability is something I also try to find for my own career – a project with ambition.
“It is important for me to be here for the new stadium.
“The club is changing important things and I would like to prove I deserve to stay here.”
Traditional British managers often have issues with the role of football director but Brands has no doubts that his relationship with Silva will work.
“You will not see me on the pitch or interfering in the starting eleven because that’s the job of the coach,” he says. “I will look more to build the structure behind the scenes, not just for one year but for five, six or 10.
“In a lot of countries it’s a normal relationship. England is one of the countries where there is still a lot of resistance to the football director.
“I think it’s a logical step because the manager can’t do everything. Marco is a young coach and the new generation is more used to working with a football director.”