On January 24th, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported Everton were keen on PSV technical director Marcel Brands.
The Toffees were ‘charmed’ by the Dutchman and he was one of two candidates being considered at Goodison Park.
Whilst Steve Walsh is already in the role at Everton, De Telegraaf stated he’d been working more like a chief scout, and Brands would be an option for the wider role.
The same Dutch newspaper had been critical of Walsh during and after Ronald Koeman’s Everton spell, and the idea of him being replaced or pushed aside by compatriot was of course attractive.
Most curiously, the Brands to Everton claims were almost identical to Brands to Chelsea claims which De Telegraaf had pushed the previous month. They were so similar, it was odd.
Both clubs had two candidates, of which Brands was one, and both the stories were highlighted on the first page of De Telegraaf’s sport section before having the same size columns on the same inner page, which many of the same insinuations and claims.
At the time we pointed out it would be interesting to see if the Dutch claims continued, because it looked like PR on behalf of Brands and a move to England.
The claims stopped in the Netherlands, both for Everton and Chelsea, but on Tuesday the Liverpool Echo report: ‘Walsh’s role is believed to be under threat with exploratory talks having taken place between the Blues and PSV Eindhoven’s Sporting Director Marcel Brands.’
There’s no Dutch slant, but if there’s any truth in Brands replacing Walsh then it’ll become a big Netherlands story, because it’s obviously something many in the country would like to see.
