Everton have announced several changes to how the club will be run under The Friedkin Group, with Angus Kinnear arriving as CEO from Leeds and Kevin Thelwell leaving as director of football when his contract expires this summer.
Everton’s new owners intend to end the director of football model and transition to a wider “sporting leadership team”. Thelwell has been director of football since 2022 and helped steer the club through a turbulent period under Farhad Moshiri, including two points deductions and serious financial constraints, but will leave at the end of the season.
“I am extremely proud of what we have achieved in the most challenging of circumstances over the past three years and believe I’ll leave the club in a much stronger position than when I joined in 2022,” Thelwell said.
Senior appointments to the new sporting leadership team will be announced in due course. Everton have been without a permanent chief executive since Denise Barrett-Baxendale departed amid fan protests in June 2023. Colin Chong has acted as interim CEO since then and is to remain with the club overseeing the new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock, the regeneration of its surrounding area and the future of Goodison Park.
TFG’s search for a new CEO has ended with the appointment of Kinnear, who has been in the role at Leeds since 2017. The 47-year-old, who has also worked for Arsenal and West Ham, will start work with Everton on 1 June. A club statement said: “Planning for the summer transfer window is already under way, led by the sporting department and David Moyes.”
Everton have also announced the departure of their long-serving chief commercial and communications officer, Richard Kenyon.
Meanwhile, Moyes has confirmed he wants Séamus Coleman to stay at Everton next season in some capacity, and potentially lead the team out for its first game at the club’s new stadium.
Coleman is out of contract at the end of the season and has been restricted to only four appearances this term by various injuries. But the 36-year-old remains a big influence behind the scenes, helping Leighton Baines take the team against Peterboroughin the FA Cup following the sacking of Sean Dyche, and Moyes believes he can still make a valuable contribution.
“You don’t keep people just for the sake of keeping them but if we had our way we would try and keep Séamus around definitely,” said the Everton manager, who signed Coleman for £60,000 from Sligo Rovers 16 years ago. “We have to see what he wants and we have not made a decision on what we are going to do. Séamus might be a great person to have around as an extra who, if he wasn’t playing all the games, might be able to play in the under-21s.
“There are a lot of teams who have gone with that sort of thing. He could also maybe be a coach with the younger boys if that is what he chooses to do. For me, Séamus picking up the injuries is the problem. We have had too many injuries and I don’t want us to have an emergency ward here. I think the clubs in bigger trouble tend to have too many injuries.”
Moyes, however, agreed it would be fitting for Everton’s last captain at Goodison Park to be the club’s first at Bramley-Moore dock next season. “Absolutely, and sometimes you have to do the right thing,” he said. “Séamus might be required to do that job and he might still be one of the best at it. I don’t think age in football is quite as important as it was years ago.”
