Angus Kinnear has officially started as Everton CEO as the Friedkin Group continue to transform Everton from top to bottom.
With a huge number of appointments and gaps to fill, we take a look at the current state of play and the new faces set to form a new structure behind the scenes at Everton.
The Friedkin Group formed a company called Roundhouse Capital Holdings to purchase Everton but neither of the Friedkins are actually named as directors. While Dan and Ryan are owners of the club, the two named directors of Roundhouse are Executive Chairman Marcus Watts and Ana Moreira-Dunkel.
Moreira-Dunkel, who formerly worked at JP Morgan, the bank who gave Everton a loan on significantly improved terms, may not be around long. She has been rumoured to be close to a role as Chief Financial Officer at Roma.
The Everton board also has a non-executive director in Eric Williamson, President and General Manager of Gulf States Toyota.
The board of the club, of which Dan Friedkin is chairman, has also added US billionaire Christopher Sarofim, part owner of the Houston Texans NFL side, and former NBA player Jason Kidd. Both have been added to add sporting and commercial experience at board level.
Colin Chong, the former interim CEO under Farhad Moshiri, remains at the club in charge of the new stadium and surrounding area. The club is considering buying Nelson Dock next to Bramley Moore and Chong is also recruiting for a finance expert for the new stadium.
The playing side
Kevin Thelwell’s departure means Everton will completely overhaul how they run the playing side of the club. He departs alongside Head of Academy Gareth Prosser, Head of Academy Recruitment and Loans James Vaughan, and Head of Recruitment Dan Purdy.
Former Leeds CEO Angus Kinnear is at the top of the pile when it comes to club operations. He has joined Everton this week and will sit at the top of the structure under which current manager David Moyes will work.
Kinnear will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the club and oversee distinct departments within the club – the sporting department, marketing department and other areas.
The sporting department will have several senior members of staff tasked with helping David Moyes secure results on the pitch. The first of those is Leeds recruitment consultant Nick Hammond, who will act as an advisor to Kinnear.
Hammonds role will be to join a ‘committee’ when it comes to transfers but his main focus will be player contracts and negotiations. He will be less concerned with scouting and more focused on the deals themselves, helping to get targets over the line and negotiating player contracts.
Everton will also recruit a replacement for Head of Recruitment Dan Purdy, whose role will be a purely scouting one. This role will be all about talent ID and getting players in front of David Moyes for assessment.
A final role will focus on data and analytics and could be current Head of Performance Insights, Charlie Reeves. Everton have recruited for first team data engineer roles and Youth Football Data Analysts and the ‘head role’ will be a key role to support both the scouting departments and David Moyes’ match day teams.
Together the recruitment role, data and analytics role and Hammond will be there to support Moyes’ transfer plans and ensure consistency for future managers. The final say on transfers will likely fall to Moyes while all departments will be managed and maintained by Kinnear at the top. It is ultimately his role to ensure everybody is working towards a common goal.
To keep all this ticking over Everton are seeking a new Head of Football Operations to manage the admin and day-to-day aspects of running a football club. It covers everything from match day travel to ensuring Everton meet Premier League regulations.
Former Head of Football Operations ‘Contract Dave Harrison’ has just been made redundant from his role at Manchester United and would be a perfect fit given how respected he is at the club.
The coaching staff
David Moyes has already hired Billy McKinley and Alan Irvine as assistants. He likes to have a small team of senior coaches to discuss ideas, tactics, training and transfer targets. This will be his inner circle and it seems Leighton Baines has now been promoted permanently to first team training.
Everton will also have a set pieces coach. Charlie Adam has had the role until the summer but could be offered an extension if Moyes is impressed with his work.
There is still a need for a new goalkeeper coach after Billy Mercer’s departure but Head of Academy Goalkeeping David Lucas is working with the first team at the moment.
Scouting
A new Head of Recruitment will lead the scouting operation. It will be interesting to see if they keep a number of scouts employed by Kevin Thelwell including two targeting Argentina and Brazil, plus scouts installed in Scandinavia, Belgium, France, Italy, and across other European locations.
Head of Scouting Operations Lee Sargeson remains at the club at the time of writing and manages the European scouts, who include former Portsmouth Head of Recruitment Phil Boardman as senior scout in Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, and Ole Nielsen as Scandinavian scout.
The Academy
Everton’s u21s are managed by Paul Tait. Despite employing Peter Cavanagh in January on a contract until the summer the club are now advertising for an u21s assistant coach.
The u18s are managed by Keith Southern, who replaced Leighton Baines when the latter stepped up to first team duty. He may need a new assistant. At u16 level, Jose Baxter is current manager.
The club has been recruiting for academy goalkeeping coaches, analysts and scouts over the course of the last 12 months and that is likely to continue.
Everton have also advertised for two key roles at academy level. The first is a new Head of Academy to replace the outgoing Gareth Prosser, while the second is a coach dedicated to helping u21 players progress to first team football. That role could replace James Vaughan and oversee loan and individual training plans for younger players.
Other areas
Richard Kenyon’s disastrous time as head of commercial and PR at Everton is now over. After overseeing years of PR blunders such as ‘Headlock-gate’, he has stepped down from his role.
It means a new commercial head, probably reporting to Angus Kinnear, is needed. A PR leader would also be a useful addition to Everton to run the marketing and communications functions at the club.
Aaron Duckmanton was recently appointed as Chief Marketing & Digital Officer and Simon Hunter as Chief Stadium Commercial Officer in new roles to seemingly spread Kenyon’s responsibilities across multiple titles.
On the commercial side, Everton are recruiting for senior roles aimed at dealing with stadium sponsorship and corporate opportunities including a Head of Partnership Servicing.