Kevin Thelwell has explained the role Everton’s Academy will play in the club’s recruitment process and why it is important a pipeline to the first-team exists.
Thelwell, who was named as Everton’s new football chief last Friday, made the move to Merseyside from New York Red Bulls, where he had been in place since February 2020.
The 48-year-old was previously sporting director at Wolves, where he had also taken up a role as a head of football development and recruitment.
However, prior to his positions in senior football, Thelwell had been head of youth at Preston North End - and Academy manager at both Derby County and Wolves.
And speaking in his first interview since he joined the club, Thelwell explained why it is important young players are given a first-team chance.
READ MORE: Jarrad Branthwaite makes admission about Everton future after Chelsea frustration
READ MORE: Jonjoe Kenny outlines how he's reshaping his game after Everton masterclass
He said: “ Everton Football Club has always had a fantastic tradition of developing young players and I’ve been on the receiving end of that many a year at Wolves and Preston, where I have seen some of the fantastic players that have grown through the Academy.
“Of course what everybody wants, they want that pipeline to be strong and to continue for as long as possible for lots of reasons. We are seeing some very good examples of that at the moment with Anthony Gordon currently being in the first-team in particular.
“So the Academy has to be a very important part of what we do moving forwards. I regard myself as being young at heart, and what I mean by that is my background is in youth development.
“We have always worked hard and I have always worked to give young players opportunities where we can because young players can surprise you.
“And unless you give them that opportunity then you never know what might happen. So it has to be about performance today, we have to build a team that is ready to succeed at this moment.
“But if we want to sustain that success then it really has to be developing a pipeline of young players who can come in and support that performance. So it is a big part of what we are going to do.”
Before he continued: “Number one is being very clear about what the vision is. So what can sometimes get lost in certain situations is people lose some direction about what they are trying to achieve.
“So I think first thing first is about us being very clear about what to try and achieve as a football club.
“And then for all the heads of department to understand how they play their part in it. And then of course it is about doing two or three things down. Supporting David Unsworth and their coaching teams down there to do two or three things.
“They are obviously working very hard on high level of contact with the players, high level of feedback and high level support to give the players the tools to do the job effectively. But all that can be rendered useless if you don’t create opportunity.
“And so what we need to try and maintain, as has always been the case here, is this opportunity for young players to gain experience to train with the first-team and for the first-team coaching staff to get to know the players and build those relationships so the young players are better for it.
“So making sure those pathways are going to be open is going to be vital.”
Everton's new director of football comes into the role replacing Marcel Brands, who left the club last year having been on Merseyside for just over three years.
Brands joined the club just before the arrival of Marco Silva back in 2018, replacing the sacked Steve Walsh.
It is believed that just under £500m has been spent on new faces by Walsh and Brands, with some struggling more than others to have an impact at Goodison Park.
Many Everton supporters believe that a squad overhaul is needed in the summer after years of struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League table.
But Thelwell believes it is important that the club's recruitment team look at what they already have amongst their ranks before splashing the cash in the transfer market.
“Yeah very much so. We have talked a little bit already about identity and how important it is, we should harness that,” he told evertontv.
“I know the Academy team with David has been working very, very hard on a coaching philosophy and very, very hard on that identity to make sure all the age groups understand what it means to play for Everton and how we want to play the game.
“So, with that being the case, working closely with David, John Ebbrell and all the guys down at the Academy is going to be very important.
“Me getting to know not only the first-team players, but the players right the way through the pathway, I think is a very, very important of the job because when you start to talk about recruitment the first thing anyone should do in this role is to start to look internally.
“What have we got in the building? Because those players understand Everton and part of Everton, so we must look internally first before we even start to look at the marketplace.
“So that is going to be an important part of the job and I am very much looking forward to working with those guys.”
