Everton DoF says his Dad is ‘beating me up’ if things are going wrong at Goodison Park, ‘he’s my biggest critic’
Kevin Thelwell says his Dad is his “harshest critic” and is “regularly beating me up” when things are not going well at Everton.
The Toffees’ director of football was speaking on the VSI Sporting Director’s Podcast – who posted a clip of his episode on Twitter on Thursday (30 November) – and spoke about his Dad being an Everton fan.
The Everton hierarchy has been getting plenty of stick from the stands in recent years and seemingly Thelwell is not devoid of criticism from his own family either.
“It was an interesting one because he was very pleased we were coming back obviously, so a bit closer to home. But obviously, he was very, very proud,” he said,
“He’s been an Evertonian all of his life. I’ve grown up with all those stories of him being in the Gwladys End since he was five or six years of age going to games being carried on his Dad’s shoulders and watching the game from that spot.
“And so the chance for me to be director of football at his club and to hopefully be able to make a difference – and he tells me when I don’t make a difference, he tells me by the way – was something that I couldn’t turn down and something that he was very, very proud for me to do.
“I don’t know if he’s necessarily a translator of information from the stands. Yeah, he’s beating me up if it’s not going right, yeah regular. But in the right way.
“I’m very lucky as we probably all think we are, I’ve got the best Dad in the world. because he’s taught me the difference between right and wrong, and I’m very lucky that I think he’s instilled in me a lot of working-class values, which I’m very proud of. You know, honesty, hard work, respect, humility, all of those things quite rightly.
“He’s my harshest critic as I’ve mentioned earlier, but also my biggest supporter and so he’s somebody to go to when the dog’s had enough and he’s starting to turn off. He knows it as well as anybody because it’s his club as well.”
Keeping him in check
It is actually a pretty heartwarming clip from Thelwell, who delved into the family ties at Everton and it is probably reassuring from a fan’s perspective that he has someone so close to home keeping him in check!
For Thelwell, it has been a tough tenure as director of football, with his hands tied a lot by the club’s battle to comply with financial fair play rules and work within tight budgetary contraints.
Of course, it was ruled last month that Everton had indeed flouted rules on profit and sustainability and were docked 10 points for doing so, something the club has since appealed against and will hope to lessen or indeed overturn.
In the meantime, the focus for Thelwell, manager Sean Dyche, and supporters – including Thelwell’s father – is to see the team put as many wins on the board as possible and to get moving in the right direction again after a tumultuous couple of years.
In other Everton news, the club are set to avoid a legal battle after rival clubs back down from their threat.