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Liverpool Echo

Sport

Joe Thomas

Kevin Thelwell's Everton transfer plan clear after four signings, two targets and one blocked sale

Everton Kevin lwell Football James Vaughan Paul Tait Finch Farm Leighton Baines Lewis Warrington

Kevin Thelwell highlighted identity, recruitment and development as the cornerstones of his Everton project and, almost seven months on, he is sticking to his plan.

Since his appointment in February, the director of football has overseen a Finch Farm revolution that has led to an influx of talent, ideas and respected minds. They have included a range of figures from the world of football, including former colleagues from his time at Wolverhampton Wanderers. He has also given new opportunities to familiar faces, promoting Paul Tait and Leighton Baines and bringing James Vaughan back to the club.

Throughout the changes, the vision set out by Thelwell after he moved from the US to Merseyside has remained consistent. And as his appointments have offered an insight into their own views, the values underpinning that strategy have been clear: Thelwell does not just want to oversee short-term progress. He wants to build for Everton's future.

The first indication Thelwell offered of the type of director of football Everton had appointed immediately set him out from recent predecessors. While he accepted recruitment was key to his role, and that part of his job was to give Frank Lampard "the best opportunity to win games and make Everton successful", he set himself the target of creating sustainable success. That means, where possible, looking for solutions internally before hunting for potentially expensive answers in the transfer market. He explained: "I've always worked on two pipelines. Performance - what we do today to really ensure what everybody sees is as strong as it possibly can be on the pitch; but also preparing for tomorrow and a pathway for young players. I think any top football club is built on that sort of foundation."

Half a year, a brush with a relegation that would have been catastrophic, and a transfer window later, Thelwell's latest move has been to appoint Vaughan as the club's loans pathway manager. Having come through the club's academy, the 34-year-old has Everton in his DNA. The striker also knows the football pyramid from his own playing career. It is difficult to pinpoint someone who could be better suited to the role of guiding Everton's starlets through their first experiences of senior football - just like he did with young midfielder Lewis Warrington as he oversaw the teenager's loan spell at his former club Tranmere Rovers last season.

Vaughan had multiple conversations with Thelwell before taking the role and, in his first interview since being appointed, it is clear they share same vision. He said: "The biggest thing is I’ll be able to understand them [players going out on loan], because I’ll have felt it. The loans I had were crucial. It’s about knowing what we want from each player individually and trying to plot the best path for them to get into the first team here. We need to understand the player and then marry that up with the right club. Hopefully, I can bring my knowledge of the lower leagues and make sure the loans are the right ones for each player. We want to build trust with the players, so they trust us with the plan, and we can help guide them. I want to get as many lads as possible playing first-team football for Everton or having a successful career elsewhere."

Gareth Prosser was appointed as Everton's academy director earlier in the summer. Academy manager at Wolves while Thelwell was sporting director, the two know each other well and clearly share the same goal - to produce first team players through the club's own development avenues. Prosser said: “The aim for us is to create better people and more players for the first team. We want to identify the areas where we can evolve and improve, so we can create that best-in-class programme for staff and players. Everton has a terrific history of developing talent and to have alignment from top to bottom across the club will be very important.

“It will ensure people are on the same page and means the message to the players and the staff is a consistent one. That will hopefully make them feel more settled and able to give their best through training and coming to work. We want to further improve the pathway of players within the club to the first team and, if not at Everton, then at another club or into another career outside of football. We’ve got a huge responsibility to develop the people first, as well as the players."

Key to ensuring players can progress through the ranks at Finch Farm is creating a consistent style of play so those moving up to train with more senior squads know their role. The appointment of Kevin Nicholson as coach educator is key to that. Part of his role is to identify a style and philosophy to run through the academy setup.

Paul Tait, who was promoted to lead the Under-21s and has overseen an impressive start to the season, has offered insight into an emerging philosophy that is being nurtured by him and Leighton Baines, recently given the job of head coach of the club's Under-18s. Tait explained: "We have to show our Everton identity without the ball – to hunt in packs, press when we can, to be dynamic and physical. And, if we can’t press, we need to make sure we’re in a good solid shape. With the ball, we want the boys to express themselves and show what they can bring to the table. We want to try to play through the thirds and to play attacking football. We don’t just want to have possession for the sake of it. We want to have the ball as much as possible, but it’s got to have an end product. It’s got to have a meaning."

That principle runs through the changes being made at Finch Farm. From the addition of new personalities to the promotion of familiar ones to the restructure of the academy model, it appears every change made by Thelwell has meaning. After years of excess in the transfer window served to fund little other than a relegation near-miss, Thelwell appears intent on building for the future in a manner that puts the emphasis on producing stars of the future.

He has acknowledged the importance of developing first team players from within: “Everton has a fantastic tradition of developing its own players. It is so important because they understand the fabric of the club. Providing opportunities for young players to progress into the first team is part of the identity of Everton. When recruiting, the first thing to do is look internally. Those players understand what it means to play for Everton and often deliver a far stronger output.”

While it will take time before his changes can be judged, there is also a consistency in approach in the transfer market - where he has again looked to both youth and personality. While Conor Coady and James Tarkowski are both 29, they offer an immediate improvement to the squad and have already emerged as two potential challengers for the captain's armband amid Jordan Pickford's absence due to his thigh injury. But in James Garner and Amadou Onana - who Thelwell hailed as one of the most sought after prospects in Europe - he has signed off deals for exciting prospects who have both captained sides during their rises through football's youth set up.

The club also resisted big money approaches for the figurehead of its youth programme - Anthony Gordon. And in Ajax's Mohammed Kudus and Shakhtar Donetsk's Mykhaylo Mudryk, Everton fought for, but missed out on, further exciting talent this summer. The performances of both in the Champions League since the window closed has highlighted that, whether it be at Finch Farm or across Europe, Everton appear committed to identifying talent and doing what the club can to harness it.

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