Everton have announced the appointments of four new additions to the football leadership board, most of whom have been rumored to be brought on over the last few weeks.
Today, the club indicated that Nick Cox (Technical Director), James Smith (Director of Scouting and Recruitment), Chris Howarth (football strategy and analytics head), and Nick Hammond (player trading activity) will join CEO Angus Kinnear, men's manager David Moyes, and women's manager Brian Sørensen on the board that will drive football decisions for the club moving forward.
As has been previously noted, Cox is joining from Manchester United, where he ran the club's academy since 2019, while Smith comes from a position at Manchester City, having led the recruitment for the Sky Blues for the last two seasons. He'll officially make the switch to Everton in September.
As for Howarth, he comes from a company called Insight Sport, where he's worked as a consultant for many Premier League sides during his tenure, a company that Everton owners, The Friedkin Group, purchased this summer. This will allow the club to get deeper into the analytics of football.
Finally, Hammond was with Kinnear at Leeds United, where he worked as a transfer consultant, a job he also held at Newcastle United during his career. He was also a Director of Football at Reading for 13 years, along with three years at West Brom as Technical Director, and also spent time at Celtic as their Head of Football Operations. Hammond will bring a unique blend of experience to Everton's board.
This is exciting news for Everton, as they make the move to Hill Dickinson Stadium and hope to use the funds provided by the new ownership group to push themselves back into the list of contending sides in the Premier League.