Everton transfer chief Nick Hammond with the Hill Dickinson Stadium in the background.
Credit: Manh Tung - Breaking Media
Danny Wright
Sat 15 November 2025 8:10, UK
Marcel Brands definitely divided opinion among Everton fans during his time as Farhad Moshiri’s director of football between 2018 and 2021.
While he oversaw some good signings while in power, such as Richarlison, Lucas Digne, Abdoulaye Doucoure and James Rodriguez, there were also some absolute stinkers.
Moise Kean, Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Cenk Tosun were among those who failed at Everton – and they really failed.
Brands also played a hand in managerial appointments, but it always felt as though he was swimming against the tide caused by Moshiri.
The Dutchman, who’s now PSV’s CEO, hired Marco Silva in 2018, but Moshiri started to sideline Everton’s former director of football when he brought in the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez.
Everton Farhad Moshiri
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Nick Hammond is now Everton’s main man in transfer market
After Kevin Thelwell left Everton for Rangers in the summer, former West Brom and Celtic recruitment chief Nick Hammond was welcomed at the Hill Dickinson Stadium to oversee player trading.
While the jury is still out on some summer signings like Thierno Barry, Hammond was in a position of power on Merseyside when Everton signed the likes of Jack Grealish and Kieran Dewsbury-Hall.
Like any person in a recruitment role – whether that be Brands, Thelwell or Hammond – there are plenty of hits and misses.
Tyler Dibling in action for Everton, alongside a table of Everton's permanent summer signing.
Credit: Imago
Unfortunately, Hammond may have already been dealt the same blow that Brands endured during the latter stages of his time as Everton’s transfer chief.
Everton look likely to miss out on Joshua Zirkzee
As did Brands before him, Hammond looks like he’s going to fail to sign January transfer target Joshua Zirkzee from Manchester United.
Roma have reportedly made an approach to sign Zirzkee ahead of Everton, meaning that’s one forward crossed off of Hammond’s shortlist for the winter transfer window.
In January 2021, Brands admitted Everton won’t be signing any more new players shortly after Fabrizio Romano reported that the Blues were in talks to sign Zirkzee on loan from Bayern Munich.
Joshua Zirkzee stats graphic
Zirkzee stats in all competitions last season.
Zirzkee ended up joining Parma on loan in that transfer window, before joining Bologna permanently in 2022.
Two years later, he joined Manchester United for £36.5million and in his debut season, he struggled to pull up any trees, as seen in the above stats by Sofascore.
This term, Ruben Amorim has played the 24-year-old Netherlands striker just five times in all competitions, totally a paltry 90 minutes of playing time.
He needs to leave Old Trafford.
But, as it did almost five years ago, it doesn’t look like he’ll be joining Everton on loan.
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