Brands: Marco is a coach who can make the players better

Everton have been burned not so long ago when we had a Director of Football and Manager who had different ideas about what kind of players they wanted at the club, resulting in a hodge-podge transfer window strategy where you end up with four #10s in the squad all vying for a starting position.

Luckily, since Marcel Brands and Marco Silva have been appointed to their respective positions, the pair have been in lockstep about where the club is now, and where they want to lead Everton to in the future.

In an exclusive interview with evertontv that was published on the club website today, the Dutchman talks extensively about his working relationship with Silva and more. We covered his comments on all of Everton’s transfer activity earlier. Excerpts from the interview are transcribed below, click here and sign up to watch this and more videos.

On Everton’s summer transfer window overall -

“Mainly yes. I look a little bit differently at everything than the fans. We had twenty players go out and seven new in.

“My goal for the long term is to bring this club to a situation, like the top clubs, where you do two-three deals, two-three new players, maybe two-three players out, that should give the club much more stability.

“But the situation is like it is, and I am very happy with the players who came in. It was a very busy and exciting summer right until the last day, but I am happy with how we finished.”

On the importance of having a clear and detailed transfer strategy -

“Marco and me we started of course months ago with the plans and with the scouting department.

“I think we were pretty close to what we wanted to achieve, the only one we didn’t was one of our goals was to get a central defender, especially Kurt Zouma, but because of the ban at Chelsea that was a difficult one.

“We made a decision not to renew Phil Jagielka to give Mason Holgate more persepctive for his future because he’s very talented. We also have a very young boy Lewis Gibson who had a very good preseason, and we need him to step up more than he has already, but he’s a player with a future at Everton.”

On bringing in the right players and financial responsibility -

“If we spend money then we have to do it the right way. If you go lower than a certain level then you should probably do nothing and go look at your own Academy. There’s some players knocking on the door, but they have a long way to go and we have to give them an idea that there is something possible here at Everton.

“Our owner is very ambitious, but you have to balance your numbers according to regulations and rules. You have to be careful, we have spent a lot of money in the past.”

Photo by Everton FC via Getty Images

On his relationship with Silva and their shared vision -

“We always try to bring in the players that we both can agree on. It’s not a good thing to bring players in that the manager’s not behind. We always discuss every player that we want, or that we can bring in.

“My pre-season as director of football starts directly after September 1 for the next season. It is not a thing we do in the last weeks or months. It is a plan and process which works through the whole year.

”Finally, we come to positions and names, then we go for it. We always have back-ups, if you can’t succeed in finding a particular player and position. We are always close on that.

“A manager always wants a little bit more, that is similar to all the managers. But I also have to manage the numbers around the players. I am very happy to work with Marco.

“The most important thing to me is Marco is a coach who can make the players better. He proved that last year.

”That is important for me as director of football, if we bring in younger players we have to give the manager time with those players. I am really confident he makes them better.”

This ‘new’ Everton has a level of transparency that we have never seen before; indeed, it’s quite rare for any English club to talk so openly about transfer activity, and as fans we absolutely love it!

The video and many more are available exclusively to official club members, click here and sign up now.