The Bigger Problem Isn't the Bargain Bucket

I think the “Bargain Bucket CEO” argument is entertaining, but it perhaps lets the real issue off the hook.

Angus Kinnear's salary, the KFC story and comparisons with other chief executives are not, in themselves, particularly relevant to Everton's footballing problems. The real question is much more fundamental:

Who was responsible for the football strategy that produced this squad?

That is where I think the transfer window needs to be examined. For me, this window did not suddenly go wrong in the final few days. The warning signs were already there last summer, when Everton's recruitment appeared to move away from young players with potential towards experienced professionals, largely to accommodate David Moyes.

The problem was that Moyes then largely failed to utilise the young players already at the club. That created a contradiction which this summer was supposed to resolve.

The intention appeared to be to recruit younger players with potential while also putting pressure on Moyes to make better use of the talent already available to him. Instead, we have ended the window with what looks like a seriously imbalanced squad.

We have an oversupply of midfielders, a lack of young attacking talent and an ageing defence. That is not simply a CEO problem. It is a football-operation problem.

And this is where I find the current situation particularly concerning. Everton have reorganised their recruitment structure, yet the end result looks remarkably similar to what we have seen before. One has to ask what that recruitment department has actually been doing and whether the internal cultural battle at the club has hindered the process.

The interviews and press conferences during the window suggested that there was not always a common understanding between the different parts of the football operation about what the squad required.

That matters far more to me than whether Kinnear earns £562,000 or £1.5 million.

The central issue is that the manager, recruitment department and executive structure need to be working towards the same footballing model.At present, I'm not convinced they are.

There is also a tactical problem.

Moyes has a preferred way of playing, but the squad does not appear to contain all the player profiles necessary to make that system work effectively. At the same time, Moyes has never struck me as a manager particularly strong in developing young players, yet Everton's situation increasingly requires exactly that.

So we have young players who need development, a manager who has not demonstrated that this is his greatest strength, and a recruitment strategy that has not supplied enough young attacking talent.

That is the contradiction. And now the consequences have to be managed on the pitch.

Jake O'Brien needs meaningful opportunities in central defence.

Somewhere within this squad, somebody may have to emerge as a central forward. Perhaps a midfielder can make that transition. Perhaps a free agent will have to be found.

But these should not be the desperate solutions of a club that has just completed a carefully planned recruitment process.

They are the consequences of a recruitment process that appears not to have produced the squad it set out to create.

So I don't particularly blame Kinnear for everything that is wrong at Everton. Equally, I don't think he can hide behind the argument that he is merely the messenger.

As CEO, he is part of the leadership structure. If he takes responsibility when things go well, he must also accept responsibility when things go badly. But accountability should extend across the whole football operation — ownership, executive leadership, recruitment and the manager.

That is why I think concentrating on Kinnear's salary misses the bigger picture.

The problem isn't whether Everton have a Bargain Bucket CEO. The problem is that the club appears to have no clear, shared footballing plan — and no convincing evidence that anyone is accountable for delivering one.

Last summer was the warning. This summer was supposed to be the correction.

Instead, the transfer window has exposed a deeper failure: Everton still seem unable to agree on what kind of squad they are trying to build, how that squad should play or who is responsible when the plan falls apart.

That is the conclusion TFG need to confront.

Kinnear's pay packet is only a distraction from the more serious question: who is actually setting Everton's footballing direction, and why has that strategy produced a squad with so many obvious contradictions?