Everton beef up scouting department

Director of Football at Everton Marcel Brands continues to work towards strengthening the club both on the pitch and behind the scenes. His latest move has been to appoint a new Chief European Scout, former Premier League player Gretar Steinsson, as reported by Training Ground Guru.

Currently the Fleetwood Town Sporting Director, the 46-time Iceland international right back played for two seasons under Brands at AZ Alkmar where he won the Eredivisie title with Louis Van Gaal, and then moved to Bolton Wanderers from 2008 to 2012.

The multilingual 36-year-old is considered one of the better young scouts in the business, and the Blues will look to Steinsson to continue to identify targets plying their trade in Europe.

Brands has already gotten off to a flying start in his first transfer window with Everton, with every one of his seven additions playing a part in the Everton youth and senior sides. The club are planning to make the announcement official tomorrow.

The Toffees scouting department came in for some bad press recently after the club suspended Martin Waldron, a long-time club scout and current head of Academy recruitment as Premier League scrutiny into the tapping up of a 15-year-old Cardiff City player a couple of years ago.