Everton Close in on PSV Technical Director As Replacement for Maligned Steve Walsh

Everton are reportedly set to announce Marcel Brands as the club's new Director of Football at the end of this season.

Sky Sports has claimed that the PSV Eindhoven hotshot will take up his new position at Goodison Park once the Dutch heavyweights have been named as Eredivisie champions.

PSV are thought to have a replacement lined up and will discuss Brands' potential departure at a board meeting on Wednesday, paving the way for him to head to the Premier League.

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His arrival will almost certainly lead to the departure of current technical director Steve Walsh, who has drawn criticism from Everton fans for his lacklustre dealings in the transfer market over the past two seasons.

Brands is renowned for helping make PSV a force in their homeland again with his acquisitions, and it is his acumen in this area that has piqued the interest of Toffees majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.

Moshiri has been left a tad unimpressed with the work conducted by Walsh since his appointment from Leicester City in August 2016, with Idrissa Gana Gueye and Jordan Pickford the only big plus points from an outlay of over £200m during that time.

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The likes of Sandro Ramirez, Davy Klaassen, Nikola Vlasic and Michael Keane have failed to light up L4 since their arrivals and Walsh's reputation - which had seen him brought to Merseyside due to the successes of N'Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy - has taken a hit since.

Brands had worked wonders for five seasons at AZ Alkmaar before his appointment at PSV in 2010, and helped the relatively small Dutch club win a league title back in 2009 due to his transfer business.

PSV are seven points clear in the Eredivisie with five matches of the 2017/18 campaign left to play, and could lift the trophy against rivals Ajax on 15th April.

If they do so, it would allow Brands to take up his position at Goodison within the next month and get his feet under the table ahead of another rebuilding job with the Blues in the summer.