The new Everton CEO has spoken in a full interview for the first time since his official start
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New Everton CEO Angus Kinnear speaks during his first full interview with the club
New Everton CEO Angus Kinnear speaks during his first full interview with the club
(Image: Everton TV)
New Everton chief executive Angus Kinnear has offered an insight into how the club's new recruitment structure will work. He believes David Moyes' squad is facing an "unprecedented" restructure this summer.
Kinnear's arrival from Leeds United was confirmed this week and he takes charge with a huge off-season to come.
Not only could Everton potentially lose 14 first-team squad members - through expiry of contract or end of loan agreements - the men's team are moving from Goodison Park to a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
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In his first interview since officially starting in his role on Monday, Kinnear was quizzed on what his priorities are with so much to sort.
"The first priority is always going to be football," he made clear to Everton TV. "We will always be football first.
"Ultimately my job and the job of everyone at Everton is to make Evertonians proud. I know they're proud to belong to the club and I want to find reasons to make them proud.
"That starts with what we do on the pitch, so football will always be the number one priority and I think David has done a wonderful job since he came in stabilising things and moving the team on.
"There's a huge restructure to be done in terms of the squad. I think it's pretty unprecedented at Premier League level.
"But David and I see that as an opportunity to take the team on to the next level and fundamentally have a team that is moving up the table."
Forging a squad capable of competing in the Premier League will obviously be a huge part of that, although Everton's recruitment setup has changed significantly in recent months.
Director of football Kevin Thelwell did not have his contract renewed after three years, while head of recruitment Dan Purdy will also move on.
That means Kinnear will need to implement a new structure, with manager Moyes expected to play a key role in the arrival of new players this summer.
"I think there's been a move in recent years to a single director of football model and that can be challenging," he said on the changes the recruitment model.
"We're going to move to a broader, flatter structure, where we have experts in data and analytics, in football operations, in recruitment and talent ID, and then in player trading.
"Some of those people have already come onboard and there are going to be some more announcements over the next couple of weeks. I've been delighted by the quality of individuals that we've been able to attract.
"I think when Everton fans see it, they're going to be really reassured that we've got, I think, a world-class football operations team in place who'll be there to support David, who we think is a world-class manager."