Frank Lampard has given his take on Kevin Thelwell being appointed as Everton’s new director of football.
The 48-year-old, who was announced on Friday evening, makes the move to Merseyside from New York Red Bulls, where he has been in place since February 2020.
Thelwell was previously sporting director at Wolves, where he had also previously worked as a head of football development and recruitment.
Everton's new director of football comes into the role replacing Marcel Brands, who left the club last year having been on Merseyside for over three years.
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And Lampard is looking forward to working with Thelwell, and he has revealed he has already held talks with the Blues’ new football chief.
“We've just had lunch before I’m on here, we've spoken over the last few days,” Lampard replied when asked about the appointment.
“I don't know Kevin fantastically well, but everyone who knows him in football holds him in very high regard.
“I have found that in the early conversations and I know we work will very closely and I am very open, and I just want to be very better personally, as a club, as a team, anyway we can get better.
“Having a like minded person like in Kevin and his expertise in his role, alongside mine, can hopefully improve us, and that is the aim.”
While speaking ahead of his side’s FA Cup clash with Boreham Wood on Thursday, Lampard also revealed what he was told by PGMOL managing director Mike Riley.
The former Premier League referee has this week spoken to Lampard and Everton chairman Bill Kenwright following last week’s controversial VAR call against Manchester City.
Everton looked like they’d get the chance to score what would have been a deserved equaliser when City player Rodri handled the ball in his own area.
The Spaniard appeared to clearly control the ball with his arm – below the so-called ‘t-shirt’ line which the Premier League uses for supposed clarity for handball decisions.
But the incident was not spotted by referee Paul Tierney, and even though the decision went to VAR at Stockley Park, Chris Kavanagh decided not to award a penalty.
That prompted Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale to make a formal complaint to both Richard Masters at the Premier League and Chief Football Officer Tony Scholes on Monday morning.
And following the complaint, Lampard received an apology from Riley over the mistake of not awarding his side a penalty.
“There's not much more to say now because you can't change anything,” Lampard said when asked about the apology.
"I don't want to be a manager banging on about it weeks after the event. We hope going forward those ones won't go against us.”
Before he continued: "It was explained to me as an absolute mistake. It hasn't been broken down to me. I don't want to hold all referees to account on it. Mistakes can happen and this one was very clear."
