Rangers confirm Kevin Thelwell as new Sporting Director

[L72 140]

 

https://www.rangers.co.uk/Article/rangers-announce-kevin-thelwell-as-sporting-director/4onrrn3nIVDxToSg7zDF7l

 

Joins in the Summer.

[CammyF 9,339]

It's official - appointment confirmed 

 

https://www.rangers.co.uk/Article/rangers-announce-kevin-thelwell-as-sporting-director/4onrrn3nIVDxToSg7zDF7l

 

[Bluedell 6,079]

Very good news. Certainly a good appointment on paper. 

[Uilleam 6,384]

I wonder if KT js already on the 'phone to Connor Coady. 

He might be 32, but I think he could handle the SPL.

 

(You heard it here first )

[Rousseau 11,659]

A snippet of an Athletic article from February:

 

A director of football does far more than just manage transfers, even if some fans still mistake them for heads of recruitment.

 

Thelwell oversees the medical and sports science departments, the academy and women’s teams and data/analytics.

 

Three years in, his fingerprints are evident across all of them.

 

Jack Nayler, formerly of Chelsea and Real Madrid, was appointed head of sports science in September 2022.

 

Gareth Prosser, Thelwell’s former colleague at Wolverhampton Wanderers, became academy director and Carl Darlington, previously of the Welsh FA, joined as head of coaching. Former player James Vaughan initially returned in the new role of loan pathways manager and now also heads up academy recruitment.

 

There have been promotions for the highly-rated Dan Purdy, now head of recruitment, Charlie Reeves (head of insights) and Matty Hawkes (head of first-team analysis).

 

Data has been moved to the start of the recruitment process, while Reeves produces game reports to be presented to managers and coaching staff.

 

Under Thelwell and Vaughan, Everton’s loan strategy has been revamped, with the focus shifting from winning youth matches to player development.

 

Loans are used for different purposes — to give players the necessary exposure to secure a deal elsewhere and help Everton recoup some money, or to help a potential future first-team player like Harrison Armstrong, who moved to Derby County last week, take the final leap into the senior set-up. Deals contain penalty clauses if a certain threshold of games is not reached.

 

Everton sold Tom Cannon and Ellis Simms for a combined £15m in the summer of 2023 after successful loans in the Championship. Also factoring in the departures of Ishe Samuels-Smith to Chelsea and Gordon to Newcastle, they have made around £70m from academy graduates in Thelwell’s time at the club.

 

They would not have wanted to lose all of those players, but PSR and the financial situation dictated that they had to make difficult decisions.

 

After consultation with staff across all levels, Thelwell, Prosser and Darlington have produced a ‘game model’ to be implemented by every Everton side, with the aim of improving the pathway to the first team.

 

There is a feeling strides have been taken, but an acceptance stocks will need to be replenished at academy level too if Everton are to compete again. It is a familiar picture across the board.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6134154/2025/02/14/kevin-thelwell-everton-future-transfers/

[Sutton_blows_goats 6,125]

Premiership and MLS clubs can pay big wages.

 

Is this guy taking a pay cut to come here? Will we get value from whatever we are paying him? There is a risk that, perhaps while the sporting director role works for wealthy clubs, or continental clubs who have utilised this model for several decades and worked out the kinks, it may not work for us. We have tried it with Allen, Wilson and to a degree Koppen. I am still to see the value it creates.

 

I get there will be an argument about structure, visions, club philosophy etc. In fact we have heard it for several years now. We have never managed to get it started. Youth system synergy with formations and systems, farming out players on loan, game models, player trading models. All these things remain a pipe dream, we look on across the globe at other clubs, some far smaller, in envy at their capabilities in these areas.

 

I remain unconvinced that this is necessary to punch down on small fish we need to contend with most weeks.

Edited 3 hours ago by Sutton_blows_goats