Report: Everton's New Director of Football Marcel Brands to Have Over €100m Summer Budget
Everton have already completed their first bit of summer business as Marcel Brands joins the club as their new director of football.
Brands had been the technical director for PSV Eidhoven before the Dutch club confirmed his move to Goodison Park. More details are beginning to emerge about Everton's plans with Brands going forward, while the man himself revealed the important role super agent Mino Raiola played in helping him move to the Toffees.
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf report that Brands will be handed a €100m war chest to use on transfers in his first summer at the club. They add that Everton will be willing to go over that amount if necessary, which demonstrates the backing that they are giving their new director.
"In my conversations with Marcel," said club owner Farhad Moshiri, "it has become clear to me that he shares our view that we should open the attack on the top teams in the Premier League. He is going to make us better and make sure that we get better players to do that."
Brands is set to earn €2m-a-year at his new post, which is double what he earned at PSV. Notably the Dutchman's wage will also be higher than Everton's previous director of football, Steve Walsh, who earned €1.2m-a-year.
Everton are making the push to become a top six club in the Premier League, and Brands is looking forward to the challenge and a much bigger transfer budget to work with. "The amounts used in England and also at Everton are totally different than in the Netherlands," he said.
"The market forces we know here are also there, but with much larger amounts.
"It does not mean that his work will be easier. The greater the amounts, the greater the responsibility that comes with it - sometimes it seems like big money makes a little lazy, but I do not think I'm lazy."
Brands also confirmed the role football super agent Mino Raiola played in making this move to Everton happen. Raiola is well known to the Premier League for representing the likes of Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but the agent is also a friend of Brands and has been working with him for many years.
"The first contact has come via Mino, but not for the rest. Mino is a good friend of mine. He has been that since my RKC [Waalwijk]time." This could be an important contact for Everton to have going forward in the transfer market.
