We will prove Everton doubters wrong, says 777 sporting director

The man who is set to take ultimate responsibility for Everton’s football department has insisted that prospective new owners 777 Partners can prove their critics wrong and has given his backing to manager Sean Dyche and sporting director Kevin Thelwell.

Johannes Spors, 777’s global sporting director, has given a rare interview to Telegraph Sport as the group wait for Premier League approval for their Everton takeover.

Spors has already held talks with Thelwell, who will remain in charge of the club’s day-to-day football operation, and Dyche, and attended Everton’s victories over Newcastle United and Chelsea.

He has been hugely impressed by the pair and outlined why he believes Everton can benefit from becoming “the missing link” in the 777 group, which already includes Genoa, Standard Liege, Hertha Berlin, Red Star in Paris and Vasco da Gama, as well as minority stakes in Sevilla and Melbourne Victory.

During an hour’s video call from Saudi Arabia, where he has been a guest of Fifa ahead of the Club World Cup and on business for 777, Spors claimed:

• All of 777’s clubs are better off since their involvement

• His track record of recruiting and developing talent speaks for itself

• Jarrad Branthwaite is the perfect example of why loans are so vital

• Everton will be at the front of the queue for 777’s top talent

Fresh from a two-day conference of all of the sporting directors in the 777 group in Berlin, which was sandwiched between his trip to Everton and journey to Saudi, Spors described how the group’s model works with him at the top of the football operation.

“The local sporting directors report to me,” said Spors. “They are fully in charge on the ground, but on the important decisions, we are involved. I’m not taking the decisions on every small contract, not every academy player or physiotherapy decision. But the main ones, hiring a player, selling a player, head coaches decisions, sporting director decisions. Those are the ones we want to be on board.

“I’m in contact with all of the clubs every day. In Europe, I see the clubs really often. I would see two clubs a week and then the next week I would see another two clubs – I try to combine it like that. It depends a bit on where’s the pressure, where’s the fire to fight or where is the situation to solve.

“It’s really important that I’m often at the clubs, together with our director of data and analytics Mladen Sormaz and Marcel Klos. I need to be there. I see training, I speak with the directors and I also speak to the coach and other people. I need to feel how this club lives. I need to anticipate what is coming and for this I am travelling and I need to be in contact with the guys. I also have one-on-one calls with every sporting director every week.”

Spors started his career as an analyst at Hoffenheim in Germany, working with Ralf Rangnick and followed the former Manchester United interim manager into RB Leipzig, taking charge of recruitment when the German club were still in the second division. His first sporting director job came at Vitesse Arnhem, where he worked closely with Chelsea and took a young Armando Broja on loan, before he moved to Genoa and started his relationship with 777.

The Everton takeover has prompted close scrutiny of the 777 business, but Spors claimed each club in the group has benefitted from their ownership and outlined how he believes Everton can expect to profit.

“We want the clubs to be the best versions of themselves,” said Spors. “We have the challenge that every club that joined the group was having, in recent history, a development going in the wrong direction. We have to turn around all the clubs’ development and all of them are now in a better situation.

“So we made the teams younger, we made every team cheaper in terms of the wage bill, but we increased the value of the squad. This is what we did in Red Bull, it’s what I did at Arnhem with Broja and Lois Openda, who is now at Leipzig. This is what I do everywhere.

“If you see the players we signed for Genoa – we have Albert Gudmundsson, he was a very cheap player and he is now the sensation of Serie A. Morten Frendrup [who has been linked with Liverpool] was a very low signing from Denmark, who now has the best statistics in all of Serie A for many aspects. We have a lot of examples of young players making a development to become much better and more valuable.

“We want to identify the players early and use the development because, honestly, that’s also what I believe is so important for the success of a team, that you have a group that wants to develop and are fighting to get better – like the young players at Everton as well, they are on the same line.”

Spors has experience of working at clubs where there has been early scepticism of new ownership models and said: “When I was at Hoffenheim, we got a lot of attacks because it was the first time in Germany that an owner was investing into a club, which for a German club was really unique. Then Red Bull was the second version of that.

“Of course, I’m now with 777 and I see new clubs in the group and sometimes supporters are not happy with that in the very beginning. But we see the reaction is very fast, very positive in all the countries we are in because we really respect the history and the tradition of every club. We don’t rebrand or anything and the expertise is very visible because we turned these clubs round very fast and made them a much more successful version of themselves.”

‘Everton will be the missing link’

It seems Everton will be at the front of the queue if a player at one of the other 777 clubs demonstrates that he is ready to play in the Premier League or at a higher level.

“Everton will be the missing link in the group and can be the club that gets the players when Liege or Berlin, for example, make them ready,” said Spors. “This is something they can really participate in.

“We would not say to Liege or Berlin, you are now feeding Everton. Absolutely not, that would not be correct. But if there is a logical step and somebody is really good in Belgium and there are clubs the size of Everton interested, then, of course, we would do everything we can that this player makes an internal group transfer, over an external move.”

Everton’s impressive young centre-back Branthwaite, who has spent time on loan at Blackburn Rovers and PSV Eindhoven, is another example of how the club could use the group to send out their young players to get experience.

“They get first-hand insight into what happens in all of our clubs, where our talent is developing especially,” said Spors. “We not only connect the sporting directors, we connect the youth academies, we connect the scouting, we connect the women’s football. So there are other parts where they can get exclusive knowledge.

“Developing players, we can offer every level of football. Playing in the Premier League is hard as a young player. So in the future, we can help them to give playing time to young players. At the age of 17-18, you just have to play, you have to get minutes. That’s honestly one secret behind Red Bull. They let them play very young in the first team and if players need playing time on a lower level they have FC Liefering, Red Bull Salzburg’s second team. A lot of the players that made a great development like [Dayot] Upamecano, Dominik Szoboszlai or Patson Daka, they started in the beginning in that environment and this is something we can offer as well.

“Everton can already see the benefit of this with Branthwaite. He’s a fantastic player. It’s the combination of his technique, his speed and the way he uses his body, in combination with the mentality and in combination with experience at that age, which he got from going on loan. These are the pillars that are super decisive for a great career and he brings everything. He keeps on pushing, but for where he is in his career, he’s really excellent.”

Spors has already taken a hands-on approach to Everton. He was at the victories over Bournemouth, Newcastle and Chelsea, and has been speaking regularly to Thelwell, who will report to him if and when the 777 takeover is confirmed.

“In recent months, I have been to Everton very often and I love the stadium and the supporters, and the environment,” said Spors. “I really like what Kevin Thelwell is doing, the way he structured the football organisation. The way he worked with the squad I think is going in an excellent way, together with the decision on Sean Dyche.

Asked if he has met Dyche yet, Spors replied: “Yes, I have. He’s brilliant. The whole Finch Farm training ground is great, the people I’ve met are great and to meet Sean Dyche was good. I met him in a longer meeting some time ago and around the games. It’s not only myself, but also Mladen [Sormaz] and some other guys. Sean is doing a really good job, it’s fantastic.

“He said after the Chelsea game: ‘This is why I do this job - to help players and see players developing.’ Even some weeks ago when he explained what he sees in the players and what he thinks will be possible, this is so visible on the pitch. This is what you want. You want the club to punch above their weight in games and to maximise the outcome from the possibilities you have, and this is currently what you have.”