Kevin Thelwell delivers fascinating insight on Everton role as incoming Rangers sporting director reveals all his secrets
As he gets ready to depart Everton this summer, the 51-year-old has become the front-runner for the Ibrox position.
Rangers are on the verge of appointing Everton chief Kevin Thelwell as their new sporting director.
And the experienced Englishman could play a key role in overhauling the football department and identifying a new manager.
After three years as manager, Thelwell is set to depart Goodison Park at the end of the current campaign, and the Gers have been made aware of his availability.
The 51-year-old has previously worked in high-profile roles at Wolves and New York Red Bulls.
And Ibrox CEO Patrick Stewart has identified Thelwell as the man he wants to lead a major restructuring of the club this summer, with American tycoon Andrew Cavenagh close to completing a takeover.
Since joining the Toffees in March 2022, Thelwell helped the Merseyside club survive a turbulent period during which they were docked points for breaching PSR and put up for sale by owner Farhad Moshiri.
Thelwell will leave the team having made substantial gains in the transfer market and contributed significantly to keeping the team in the Premier League as they embark on a new chapter with The Friedkin Group.
During his November 2023 appearance on the Training Ground Guru podcast, Thelwell provided an intriguing insight into: He checks a lot of boxes that Rangers are looking for.
- His day-to-day role as a sporting director and his KPIs at Goodison Park
- How he has balanced the books at Everton
- The four strategic pillars: who we are; how we play; how we support; staff development.
- Breeding academy prospects into the first-team squad
- The recruitment process and collaborating with the manager
The importance of data and why he bolstered the department
Describing his role as sporting director
Well, probably the easiest way to do it is just to describe how it works at Everton. You’ve got Sean, who’s the manage and is responsible for the preparation of the team, the performance of the team and then fundamentally, the results.
Then you’ve got me as the director of football, who is responsible for all of the support operations that sit around Sean, and for me to make sure they’re as strong as they possibly can be to give Sean and the team the very best chance to succeed.
That’s generally how I describe it: it’s a responsibility for the strategic function across all of the parts of the football plan.
KPIs as Everton’s sporting director
The remit is mostly about doing a variety of various things, in my opinion. First and foremost, we need to establish a strategic plan that will help us accomplish our goals in the medium to long term,
build on the Academy’s past achievements, and look for ways to get young players into the first squad to support the first team, among other things.
However, there are also some extremely brief sections. We’ve been going through a really tough time in my 18 months, and a huge part of my job has been helping the manager keep us in the league.
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