As RamZone reported yesterday — DCFC were all set to name Chris Evans as their “Technical Director”. The story ran to script, despite a change of title, when Evans was confirmed as “Head Of Football Operations”.
The Rams have appointed Evans under a different job title than the much touted 'Football' or 'Technical Director', but whatever the name, Evans role has been put in place to support both Chief Executive Sam Rush and Head Coach Steve McClaren.
Evans will be integral in the Rams scouting networks, recruiting players and dealing with their agents, basically the day to day running of the football department, so McClaren and his team can concentrate on the team itself.
Most importantly Evans will no doubt be something of a bridge between McClaren and Rush, which if working fluently, will help both areas of the club to get the results they require, without clashes of the kind that reportedly led to Nigel Clough leaving the club.
If Evans can be the oil in the clubs cogs, hopefully he will assist to take the running of the club to another level of professionalism.
Chris Evans is well known to McClaren and at 51 years of age is someone who brings a solid base of experience to DCFC having served as ‘Academy Manager’ at Wolves for 17 years before becoming Gary Megson’s, ‘Assistant Manager / Performance Director’ (I love all these job titles!) at Bolton Wanderers.
In October of 2009 Evans hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, when he was implicated in a row with former club Wolves, who alleged Evans had acted improperly over the transfer of teenage defender Mark Connolly. A report was sent to The Football Association and Premier League but it seems little more came of the matter.
When Megson was sacked from Bolton, Evans moved with him to Sheffield Wednesday as his ‘Assistant Manager’ before Megson was once again sacked earlier this season, leaving Evans looking for a new home. Despite other suitors, including Millwall reportedly being interested, DCFC chose Evans and Evans chose DCFC.
Speaking to the Official DCFC site, Steve McClaren spoke glowingly of Evans:
"I would like to welcome Chris to Derby County and I’m pleased we have been able to welcome someone of his quality and calibre into our football operations. Chris has a vast amount of experience in a variety of roles during the last 34 years in the game and he will be instrumental in the way the football department operates on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis.”
"The interview process threw up plenty of interesting and quality candidates but we were impressed with Chris from the word go and we’re pleased he’s decided to join us. Both myself and the rest of the staff are looking forward to working with him and developing a strong working relationship.”
"Chris's arrival is extremely important for the way we want to operate. It was imperative that we weren’t rushed into an appointment and we firmly believe we have the best man for the job.”
Also speaking to the Official Site — Sam Rush confirmed McClaren’s was involved throughout the selection process:
"It has been a very instructive period working with Steve and identifying the suitable candidate and the appropriate skill set for this role. I am very much looking forward to working with Chris in this key position at Derby County Football Club.”
"He brings a wealth of experience and contacts with him and we believe this appointment significantly strengthens our football operations group.”
The appointment of Chris Evans signals another chapter in a new dawn, seemingly warming both the club and fans to the job at hand.
With a lot of work ahead of DCFC to get to where they, and all of us, want to be, it is exciting to see the club striding forward with confident strides and announcing to the football community, that they seriously mean business.
Now we can but sit back and hope the new staff, initiatives and planning pay off both on and off the pitch.
Below are interviews with both Evans and McClaren - from DCFC's YouTube channel - on the new position and what we can expect the Rams new employee to bring to the club