Sean Dyche was not the only departure from the club this week. His two assistants, Steve Stone and Ian Woan, have also left the club along with goalkeeper coach Billy Mercer and sports scientist Mark Howard.
The fact only five people have actually left the club highlights the tiny team Sean Dyche chose to use at Everton, a throwback to football decades ago. It is safe to say his appointments were ineffective. Billy Mercer replaced much-loved goalkeeper coach Alan Kelly, while Stone and Woan proved unable to to improve a woeful attacking set up.
David Moyes will need to replace key members of staff with Leighton Baines expected to move back to his role in the under 18s. As a deal for the former Everton manager begins to look more and more likely, it seems he will have to recruit a backroom team and work with existing appointments under Kevin Thelwell to create a cohesive football department at Everton.
But what will the new-look Everton look like under David Moyes mark II?
Billy McKinley, the former Scottish international, is the most likely to take up the assistant manager role. He was Moyes’ second in command at Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham, with a brief spell as Stoke assistant manager in between the latter two.
Moyes has praised McKinley for his eye for detail. At West Ham, McKinley said: “I’m keen to learn, keen to get involved in everything and have always tried to be logical with my work and methodical in how I analyse and approach things, even if it might not look like it at times because I’m a bit more light-hearted than some people.
“I try to find solutions to what we’re going to come up against, whether that be players or teams and what they do, and I like to be detailed in what I am looking for, working out the whys and what is required.”
McKinley is likely to be joined by former Everton assistant and player Alan Irvine, who was Technical Advisor at West Ham and a third of Moyes’ trusted coaching team with McKinley and Stuart Pearce.
According to the West Ham website: “The management team meet twice every day to discuss training, coaching, treatment, scouting and anything else that needs to be done, with Moyes deciding which of McKinlay, Irvine or Pearce are best suited to each individual role.
“While the manager is most definitely in charge, there is also democracy in the coaches’ room, with each encouraged to share their expertise and opinions when they see fit.”
Irvine typically then takes a seat in the stands during games, communicating with McKinley on the bench to tweak tactics and analyse performances. McKinley is seen as the smiling face of the coaching team and the man who is more relaxed with players. He will be Moyes’ eyes and ears in the dressing room.
Of Moyes’ other West Ham coaches, it is unlikely John Heitinga will follow him to Everton having already taken up a coaching role at Liverpool. Likewise Kevin Nolan is now Northampton Town boss but if the ex-player route is something Moyes wishes to pursue it could mean a role for Seamus Coleman.
Henry Newman, 34, could be an interesting addition to the backroom staff. Previously an opposition scout at West Ham and the county’s youngest academy director at Barnet, he is a graduate of London School of Economics and often talks of ‘marginal gains’ in football coaching and is something of a data guru for Moyes to lean on when planning for matches.
Talking about his role in Moyes’ team, he says: “I might look at the data and discover something unexpected that I hadn’t spotted watching games. This could be about where they concede their highest value chances, or who has most influence in their attacking build (just two examples). Then, I’ll watch a game and look at those things more closely. Ultimately, there is a vast array of information available to us now as coaches. So much of it is just noise that the skill comes in trying to condense this information into what is most relevant to us, now. Once this is identified, it becomes a two-way process: using your eyes and using the data to try to reach the best possible outcome.”
Newman left West Ham along with Moyes, Irvine and McKinley, and would be somebody on Moyes’ radar for the Everton team.
Rob Newman, the Head of Recruitment, was sacked by West Ham in the summer and despite previously working for Manchester City, his record at the club was patchy. It is unlikely he will follow Moyes to Everton with current Director of Football Kevin Thelwell heading up a revamped recruitment team at Everton.
Jamie Osman, Head of Performance Analysis at West Ham in Moyes’ time, is at Ipswich Town and with Everton advertising for new analysis experts it seems that aspect will remain under Kevin Thelwell’s control.
The final additions would be fitness coaches and a goalkeeping coach. While Alan Kelly could be tempted back to the club – he was well liked by Jordan Pickford – Moyes has previously worked with Chris Wood at Everton and other clubs. Currently in the Scotland set up, he could be convinced to return to Everton.
In terms of fitness and sports science Nick Davies left West Ham with Moyes but now heads up Sports Science at Spurs after a part time role as Head of Performance at the Welsh FA. It remains to be seen if a new sports science expert is brought in or if Everton will go with Kevin Thelwell’s team. Charlie Reeves currently heads up the department and Everton are undergoing a major recruitment drive reporting in to the data expert.
It seems Moyes will have to work with the Director of Football to create a cohesive team. Despite high profile falling out with West Ham’s Tim Steidten in which the latter was banned from the dressing room, Moyes has previously said he his happy working with a Director of Football as he did at Socieded.