Former Everton director of football Marcel Brands has once again detailed the struggles that he endured during his time at the club.
Brands spent a little over three years at Goodison Park from 2018-21, before he left the club last December. He has since gone on to take a role at Dutch club PSV Eindhoven.
Earlier this week, Brands gave an interview where he described the difficulties he faced at Everton. He spoke about the 4-1 Merseyside derby defeat before Christmas, when he was confronted by an angry fan in the Main Stand who asked whether he had recruited those on the pitch, to which he gave the cryptic reply: “Is it only the players?”
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Now Brands has once again spoken about the challenges he faced at Everton. Brands particularly looks at working with three separate managers - Marco Silva, Ronald Koeman and Carlo Ancelotti - and the decisions to let those respective bosses leave the club.
“I tried until my last breath to keep coach Marco Silva in the saddle because I was convinced he is a top trainer,” Brands told De Telegraaf via Sport Witness. “Then one looks very simple. And then after three defeats, measures are taken.
“I had to talk like a mad man to keep Ancelotti in the saddle, but in the end, he left for Real Madrid because he felt the support of the owners was not there. What are you talking about then?
“Ronald Koeman has noticed it too. You cannot say that Koeman, Silva and Ancelotti are the wrong trainers. It is just very difficult to get a grip on the club if success does not come immediately.
“And it sometimes goes the other way too. We played a great game under Carlo Ancelotti at Tottenham Hotspur, and then he just got a new Rolls Royce.
“The Premier League is so fantastically well organised and is such a powerful brand, but there is still so much room for improvement in the way the money is handled.
“To give an example: every time a trainer is fired, the whole team has to leave. That way, you don’t build anything up. That is a waste of money.”
Brands went on to talk about what it was like dealing with new player signings and contract renewals at Everton. The former Blues chief has explained why decisions made by owner Farhad Moshiri made things “difficult” for him in negotiations.
“I was fighting to make a player contract of 50,000 a week 45,000 a week because that fitted better in the wage structure and matched the qualities of the player,” Brands said.
“And then the owner called, saying that he had been sitting with another player and that he could come for 175,000 a week. Then you say: ‘What’s that going to do in the dressing room? He earns three times as much as the others’.
“That kind of thing makes it difficult. You also see the difference with clubs where the structure is good. Liverpool has really grown.
“They have become really stable under Jürgen Klopp. You don’t see any crazy transfers anymore.”
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