BBC journalist slams Everton chief Marcel Brands in Rafa Benitez defence
The bulk of the blame for the state of the Everton squad should be squared directly at the door of Marcel Brands, according to Phil McNulty.
BBC Sport’s chief football writer has hit out at the Dutchman’s tenure thus far after arriving as Everton’s director of football in 2018.
The Blues enjoyed an unbeaten five-game start to Rafa Benitez’s reign at Goodison Park, but recent injuries and results have caused concern about the lack of quality options in key areas.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, and Jordan Pickford have missed the last couple of games, and the Blues have been punished as a result, losing 3-0 to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday before exiting the League Cup to QPR on Tuesday.
Writing via his personal Twitter profile, McNulty has turned his attentions to Brands in the blame game.
He said: “Instead of putting Everton’s new manager Rafa Benitez, who has spent just £1.7million, under scrutiny, focus should be on director of football Marcel Brands, who has presided over a ridiculously expensive, flawed transfer policy & Academy not producing enough first-team quality.”
Time running out?
In fairness to Brands, it seems his hands have been fairly tied recently.
Everton were under FFP constraints in the summer transfer window, meaning their options in the market were limited.
However, that’s largely due to the previous failings of Brands, who has failed to weave his magic on Merseyside the same way he did in Eindhoven, for Eredivisie giants PSV.
There have been a number of expensive signings made by Brands that have failed big time, including Moise Kean and Alex Iwobi.
Benitez is a manager that likes to assume a lot of control over transfers, so it will be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out over the coming months.
One would think that Brands will be battling for his job if his next few moves prove to be flawed.
In other Everton news, Simon Jordan has claimed the Blues are ‘another Derby’ and will need Farhad Moshiri to bail them out.
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