KEVIN THELWELL EXCLUSIVE: Building something to believe in at Everton

In this exclusive interview with Training Ground Guru, Everton Director of Football Kevin Thelwell tells Simon Austin about his first 18 months at the club: the challenges, the new strategy, the hiring of Sean Dyche as manager and much much more.
00:00: Welcome. Team going in the right direction.
01:03: Sporting Director role explained.
01:41: Why did Everton choose you?
03:23: Are your KPIs different to those of Marcel Brands? Huge spending to balancing the books.
06:05: Ambitions now. "Everyone wants to get Everton back to where we believe it belongs". Previously an inverse relationship between spending and improving team performance.
08:15: How did you put together the strategy? Staff working groups.
10:35: Four strategic pillars: who we are; how we play; how we support; staff development.
11:57: Learnings from previous role as Head of Sport at New York Red Bulls. "The clearer you are, the better you are and the easier it is."
13:44: Style of play. "They want to see this dogs of war piece but they also want to see this school of science bit they had in the 60s and 70s."
19:49: Is Sean Dyche the right person to develop this style? "If you look at Sean at Burnley, Sean at Everton, he has already evolved. The data tells us that, the naked eye tells us that." xG difference as the most important metric in identifying longer-term form of the team.
24:00: Style of play running through the teams, from seniors to Academy.
25:12: Was balance right between winning trophies at Academy level and developing players? Importance of loans. Example of Jarrad Branthwaite.
32:55: Recruitment - collaboration between Director of Football and manager.
36:30: Influence of the Data Insights department. Charlie Reeves. Dyche engaged. Review of team's progress using data every six to eight weeks.
40:44: Wider club challenges. Potential of 12-point deduction/ uncertainty over ownership.
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[@stevewright8204]

I am a cockney blue & been watching Everton since 60/61 season,I have watched them home & away since twenty years ago,although I did see us at Palace on my recent visit to London,now living in the Bahamas & still love this club as much as ever.This is the first time I have seen a DOF talk & explain their role and am impressed,well done Kevin 👍🧢🇧🇸

[@jeztaylor6308]

Only half way through this interview and I'm impressed. I hope Kevin and Sean keep on doing what they're doing, I've been going to Everton since '78 aged 7 and seen a lot of football - good and bad, like lots of us . The demise for me under this new era was the Koeman days, garbage football ever since but you still go, but it's hard. The football is a day out for lots of us but the 90 minutes we had to suffer for the past few years was unbearable.....it just got in the way of a good day out. Last season wasn't great as we could all agree, but recently this season (the exception the first few games) we can see a change, this team is starting to look like a team .....not just 10 outfield players trying to suss out what to do. But the best part of it is, the excitement of watching your team is coming back, and the belief....keep it going Kevin and Sean. UTFT

[@onwardstotruth5810]

Really good to hear from Kevin talk about the vision and the strategy to get us back to where we should be. Proper DoF 💙

[@MrEvertonian20]

Kev came across really well here, the type of gent you'd want to work for. Pleased to have him with us. Onwards and upwards. Cheers!

[@JohnL2504]

Nice to see someone have a genuine connection to our club. And not just there for a pay day 💙

[@nathanl5128]

Nice to actually hear from our DOF. Kevin seems like a balanced and competent guy

[@txbill2512]

This was a really well done interview with no fluff. Kevin seems to be the right man for the job and a big one at that. I hope a lot of Evertonians get to watch this.

[@TheInsideVideo]

Finally get to hear from him, great!

[@AC-26560]

Very clear to see what was holding back communication at the club.

[@jeztaylor6308]

**ps just finished watching. Bang on Kevin, early days but hopefully we're moving in the right direction.....looking that way at the mo. Tough month ahead but we'll cope.

[@eamanlochain1484]

About time someone spoke honestly about our club. More off it please..

[@AC-26560]

its long overdue. why do you think that was?. What has happened recently?

[@gjh997]

Excellent interview I thought. Very good questions and answers. Interviewer asked what Everton fans would ask.

[@paulwhite6157]

Great interview! Kevin comes across as a safe pair of hands. UTFT 💙 .

[@Cahill68-bc6tv]

Impressed with the way he came across, i know only words but at least weve had some communication. Been a blue since the 4-4 Liverpool game in 91 and boy has it been hard, the best period for me was between 06-09 when consistently Moyes had us punching with a good little team. I hope that slowly but surely we can get to at least that again and who knows we might break that ceiling and be where we belong. i just want us to survive this year with that dark ffp cloud over us and move into that new stadium as a premier league club. i look at that 11 and if we stay lucky from injuries i honestly think the only weakness is right back as Mykolenko has miracously turned into a solid reliable player, Branthwate has avoided us the disaster of Keane and Godfrey, Garner and Doucoure have been revelations since Dyche came in and touch wood DCL has stayed fit. Please dont let me fall out of love with this 11.

[@ramblingimbecile2295]

Patterson has had a couple of injuries, some quite nasty. It'll take a young player time to rebuild his confidence. It also doesn't help younger players when the club is in total disarray but now that we seem to have settled down I would expect in the second half of the season that Patterson starts finding himself in the 1st eleven more often

[@ramblingimbecile2295]

Kevin is right. Everton players have to fit in with the Everton identity. Dogs of War and School of Science. Your defenders especially need to have the Dogs of War mentality and I just don't see that in players like Keane and Godfrey.

[@JD-uq8iy]

All the best on you Kev

[@hunsler1006]

Could it be, someone at Everton mentioning long term plans?!

[@DannyOConnor1991]

Came across really well, and is no doubt learning on the job in tough circumstances. But I still want to know who authorised the signing of Maupay for £15m, who clearly didn't fit Everton's style. But also spending big money on Beto. Who fits Everton in terms of being big, fast, strong, good work ethic, etc. However, from the look of him so far, we've overpaid by at least £10m (if not more). Hopefully he comes good and proves me wrong, but so far the record for signing forwards is pretty bleak. In other areas we've signed very well. And no doubt we're struggling to get dead wood out the door like many other teams. I also worry with the sale of Tom Cannon and the like. As we got hardly any money for him, yet spent more on Chermiti. Now in the long run, maybe Chermiti will be the better player. But I much prefer to give local lads the chance to make it. Obviously he's not the finished article, and whether he comes good at Leicester remains to be seen (especially after picking up a bad injury). But I'd have loved him to become Everton's version of Robbie Fowler or something like that. But even if he only became a decent PL standard. I'd rather have a local lad like that in the squad, than someone who potentially doesn't care. And end of the day, they watched him every day in training. So hopefully they've made the right decision over my ignorant hopes and dreams of producing top local talent.

[@plynch8787]

COYB ❤

[@slamdunkd12345]

Kevin’s sound

[@tamkissbrown8779]

Why the edit at 4.29 when Mr Thelwell was about to mention the banned words at Everton F.C. 12 . POINTS PENALTY

[@traininggroundguru4916]

Promise nothing has been cut out. That’s just an edit from one camera angle to another

[@jonathanj2666]

​@@traininggroundguru4916 Huh. the podcast episode is 46.37 long whilst this is 44.43. Is the podcast intro and outro really two minutes in total?

[@traininggroundguru4916]

@@jonathanj2666 yes

[@bennyg76]

Dock us 12 points and we will still stay up! Meanwhile, Man City will be given no punishment and have won the league while FFP have investigated them. I am not saying Citeh are guilty or not but we don't know what is really what. Objectively the pandemic was devastating and let's reset the EPL since lockdowns as that was unfathomable. For teams with multiple directors and coaches over a few years is the biggest part of Moshiri and the board's problem which has been altered by Thelwell so let's just play ball now. Teams should be monitored daily/weekly/monthly/yearly and looking over years of uncertain actions. Less bureaucracy, more goals!

[@BobTheBlue]

Why has Kev not been in front of us Evertonians before? His dad is a blue so he know’s what we want… did Kenwright block him?

[@Northwestlocalbusiness]

Moshiri probably since he brought in Benitez

[@BobTheBlue]

@@Northwestlocalbusiness it’s properly odd though, don’t you think?

[@jamiecrottyEFC]

He’s had the most communication of any director so far, he’s wrote a couple of letters in the programmes already this season and done interviews. This interview is obviously approved by the club too

[@BobTheBlue]

@@jamiecrottyEFC no lad, thats nowhere near good enough… as fans we have been massively shortchanged in our director of football. Thelwell doesn’t like the camera, that’s ok but his job means he needs to explain to us, the fans what’s going on. And he hasn’t done that

[@jamiecrottyEFC]

@@BobTheBlue I disagree, he published a long-term plan less than a week ago on the Everton website. He's been much better communication wise than Brands and Walsh who were radio silent for their tenures.

[@DeeSee77]

Good Red, Kev. Would have liked to see him in at Liverpool overseeing the Academy first then see from there. Shame to see him taking fearful abuse from those potless Mutants despite keeping a low profile and clearly talking sense but he’s being paid very well apparently and couldn’t turn it down, family first and all that.

[@Magicalfluidprocess]

I’m 4 mins in , thelwell is very vague

[@dwferox]

I don't expect a lot from youtube comments, but come on lol

[@Magicalfluidprocess]

@@dwferox when I wrote the comment he had been talking for 4 minutes and had not said anything , trained in the art of rhetoric, everything he says allows you to provide your own specific details , colouring his terms with what you want to hear , it’s meretricious cliched platitudes , Is that any better ? Feel free to compose an articulate response, suited to your criteria

[@traininggroundguru4916]

@@Magicalfluidprocess it's 44 minutes long though!

[@dwferox]

"I'm 4 minutes into this movie and there's barely been any plot."

[@Magicalfluidprocess]

@@dwferox not bad that 😂👍

[@bowjana8128]

Paid for doing nothing

[@terrymax2208]

How as this channel got this interview ? Kevin comes across well

[@traininggroundguru4916]

We've been covering the Sporting Director role for many years. You can find more of our interviews here - with likes of Dan Ashworth/ Stuart Webber/ Phil Giles trainingground.guru/podcasts

[@ramblingimbecile2295]

The comments about xG are interesting. We are starting to see the early results as an anomaly where performances did not match the underlying statistics. Contrast that with Spurs whose results were exceeding their xG stats and now they are falling away from the top of the table. West Ham are another team whose early results were in contrast to their underlying statistics. xG is a useful tool when it is used over a more appropriate period of time. It's no different to any other statistic. Having a tiny data set to collect stats from is not good science but as you get past 10 games you start to see that those statistic bare fruit.