Kevin Thelwell has had to duck and weave through a period of carnage at Everton. His three years as director of football have seen him work through relegation battles, points deductions and boardroom and ownership crises.

After joining with plans to lead an overhaul of Finch Farm, his work quickly descended into firefighting as the financial consequences of the spending that preceded him combined with former owner Farhad Moshiri’s efforts to find an escape route from the club. That made cost-cutting a dominant theme of his role.

With it now looking as though he will leave Everton when his contract expires in the summer, there is little doubt he will depart having helped to steer the club through turmoil. Everton will almost certainly still be a Premier League club despite the strife of recent years and the club’s finances will be healthier after he oversaw a reduction in the wage bill and attempted to build a capable Premier League squad with a net spend that was around £120m lower than the closest top flight ever-present during his stint at the club.

READ MORE: Everton favourites clear as almost every supporter wants deals done for two players

READ MORE: I can never get enough of current Everton hero - he is world class

There have been good and bad decisions within a transfer strategy defined, latterly, by the constraints of the problems faced by the club. These are the incomings on his watch, and how they have fared to date.

The summer of 2022

Thelwell’s first transfer window now feels like the last of an age of innocence for the club. While the damage that led to the first points deduction had already been done, the spending of this summer enhanced the case for the second deduction - though at the time no-one knew what was coming because it would be almost 18 months before the prosecutions would reveal their findings.

This was a window in which some of the more notable successes were landed, even if it took time for them to materialise. It was also the window with the biggest failures.

Thelwell’s first signing was the free agent James Tarkowski, a player who has since regularly captained Everton and is on a current run of 103 consecutive league starts for the club. That fitness record was a crucial feature of his appeal, with him arriving after a season in which the likes of Ben Godfrey, Seamus Coleman and Yerry Mina had been plagued by setbacks. Tarkowski has been key to the defensive resilience that many of Everton’s best moments have been built on and has also helped Everton provide a threat from set pieces, the back post ball to the centre back being the most effective route to goal for much of Sean Dyche’s tenure.

Like Tarkowski, another former Burnley man, Dwight McNeil, has also proved to be an influential player. There were initially questions over his arrival after a year with a Burnley side that was relegated and during which he provided no goals or assists. After a slow start it took the reunion with Dyche to kickstart his Blues career and standout displays such as his hat-trick at Brighton and Hove Albion had given way to more consistent performances before the knee injury that has ruled him out since early December. His dead ball ability is of huge importance to the Blues.

James Garner is another player who has taken time to settle at Everton after his arrival from Manchester United. Two back injuries have stunted his development but he became a consistent performer once Dyche provided him with his first Premier League start at Crystal Palace. Garner’s versatility has seen him sacrificed for the team and one of his most important displays came as a right wing back in the final day survival-clinching win over Bournemouth. His first games under Moyes have seen him produce a series of mature showings and his through ball to Beto for his second in the win over Leicester City is a highlight of this season.

One of the biggest successes of this window was the move that saw Idrissa Gueye return to Everton from Paris Saint Germain. His experience has been crucial and he has been a player who has played a big role in attracting others - such as Arnaut Danjuma and Iliman Ndiaye - to the club. Gueye is performing to a high level in an injury hit team and a new ECHO poll revealed nine in 10 Blues supporters want him to extend his stay beyond the summer.

Another success - albeit a more complex one - was Amadou Onana. Thelwell’s biggest signing, the Belgian international was symbolic of the transfer strategy he wanted to pursue before being held back by Everton’s struggles. Thelwell envisaged plucking talent from around the world that could grow with Everton’s ambition before being sold for a profit. Onana produced some moments of genius, including in his dominant display against Arsenal in Dyche’s first game in charge. Such moments were too fleeting for Dyche, who often looked elsewhere in the biggest games, but his £50m sale to Aston Villa in the summer still saw Everton achieve a healthy profit.

This summer saw the arrival of Conor Coady on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers and the centre back was a big factor in the feel-good spirit that held sway at Finch Farm with him, Tarkowski and Lampard all key figures. But he fell out of favour under Dyche until returning for the make-or-break match with Bournemouth.

For all the positives listed above, this summer also saw Thelwell’s biggest error. The signing of Neal Maupay was intended to complement Dominic Calvert-Lewin. But once Calvert-Lewin suffered another major injury issue on the eve of the season, Everton were left with a player who was incompatible with the squad around him. Just one goal - a winner against West Ham United - was the return from a player who could not take his chances at Everton, spent most of last year on loan at Brentford and then left in acrimonious fashion for Marseille last summer on a deal that will soon become permanent. There was also the loan signing of left Ruben Vinagre, a player who neither Lampard nor Dyche placed any faith in.

The summer of 2023

By this point, Everton’s financial situation was beginning to become clear. While the club had not yet gone through its first prosecution under Profit and Sustainability Regulations, it had been charged and that, combined with the chaotic failed takeover attempts that dogged Moshiri’s final years, cast a shadow over transfer business.

Everton had survived relegation on the final week of the two previous seasons and Thelwell was tasked with complementing a squad on a budget. This, therefore, was a difficult summer, but one that ultimately reinforced a squad that not only survived the drop, but which would have surged into midtable without the deductions that followed.

A curious window, it remains impossible to assess the deal to spend some of what Everton did have on young striker Youssef Chermiti. While he has shown flashes of promise, he was deemed too far off the first team until the final stages of last season and then started pre-season with a bang only to suffer a serious foot injury that ruled him out until December. Another injury then followed and he returned to the first team bench for the draw with Brentford on Wednesday. Given Everton’s frontline struggles persisted after this window, it still feels a deal that may have been a luxury Everton could ill-afford, though that could change over time.

That has certainly been the case with Beto, signed from Udinese with the ambition he would relieve the goalscoring pressure on Calvert-Lewin. Highlights last year, including his stunning goal against Newcastle United, were false dawns and he looked set to leave the club this January and be held against Thelwell as another failure. Yet an injury crisis has thrust him into his first consistent run of games and all of a sudden his star is rising. Beto has always been determined to do well at Everton and is now taking his chance - five goals under Moyes, including one against Liverpool - have salvaged his Blues career and he is now a player whose signing is beginning to take on a different complexion.

This summer also saw the arrival on loan of Arnaut Danjuma and Jack Harrison. Danjuma struggled to get a chance under Dyche, though responsibility for his failure to make an impression is perhaps at Dyche’s doorstep, not Thelwell’s. There was a sense his arrival was a positive piece of business for a recruitment team that landed a player with impressive potential that he was not given a chance to fulfill.

Harrison, meanwhile, became a mainstay of the first team and his first season at Everton was a positive one. The signing of free agent Ashley Young also brought experience and cover to the dressing room, something that has been invaluable to an injury plagued backline. Young was one of Everton’s best performers in the first half of this season.

The summer of 2024 - and Carlos Alcaraz

Another window in which Everton had to be savvy, there was confidence the Blues started this season with a stronger squad than the one that would have finished 12th last year without the deductions. Because of that, the miserable first half of the campaign was a source of additional frustration as Dyche struggled to make the most of the resources available to him.

Iliman Ndiaye, the summer signing from Marseille, quickly became a fan favourite and his reputation only continued to grow when Moyes provided him with more freedom upon his arrival.

Orel Mangala, a deadline day arrival on loan from Lyon, also provided a boost to the first team and quickly helped to make the core of the side more solid after a chaotic start to the season. His season ended at Brighton and Hove Albion, but his signing should go down as a positive one. Asmir Begovic also returned to add his experience to the goalkeeper's department in another move that made sense.

Beyond that, the summer looked to be one of questionable activity as Dyche sidelined several of the additions. Centre back Jake O’Brien did not start a league game under the former boss, while Napoli loanee Jesper Lindstrom and Harrison, who returned on loan from Leeds, were both unable to provide any threat down the right. All three have since been rejuvenated by the arrival of Moyes. O’Brien is now a regular feature in the defence and he scored the equaliser at Brentford. He has formed a healthy partnership with Lindstrom on the right after Moyes changed formation to unlock the best of both and, while Lindstrom is still yet to record a goal or assist, he is growing in confidence. Harrison, too, is starting to show more signs of what he is capable of.

Tim Iroegbunam has shown promise either side of a nasty injury and was a signing that came as part of Thelwell’s biggest achievement of the summer - a series of deals that enabled Everton to comply with spending rules for the first time in three years. Questions remain over Armando Broja, the injury plagued striker who arrived on loan from Chelsea. While Everton did not have to pay towards his wages until he returned to action, which happened in December, the difficulty in cutting his stay short when he suffered another serious setback weeks later was problematic for a squad short on options and money. But Beto’s form has reduced scrutiny on the call to keep hold of Broja while that has been tempered by the arrival of the Carlos Alcaraz, who may well be Thelwell’s last signing.

The 22-year-old arrived on loan from Flamengo late in the January transfer window and looks to have been an inspired purchase, already winning supporters over with his determination and skill. His match-winning display against Crystal Palace is one of several reasons why many Everton supporters hope the club will trigger its option to make the move a permanent one which, for a fee of around £12m, could well end up looking like a masterstroke by Thelwell.