• At least eight need to be moved on, director of football adds • ‘Now there are 38 players and a lot are not young any more’

Everton’s new director of football, Marcel Brands, has said Farhad Moshiri will not bankroll another lavish spending spree this summer and the first-team squad and wage bill must be reduced.

Moshiri, Everton’s major shareholder, has given Brands a wide-ranging and powerful remit having tried to hire the former PSV Eindhoven technical director for more than a year. The 56-year-old held a day-long meeting with Marco Silva and spoke to several former players of the Portuguese coach before Silva’s appointment as manager was finalised by the Everton board. Brands will be instrumental in Everton’s transfer business, too, but admits the immediate aim is to streamline a squad that has become bloated under a succession of short-lived managers.

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Everton spent £150m last summer plus a further £40m on players in January for a desperately poor return. Asked whether Moshiri would make similar funds available this summer, Brands replied: “No. First of all we need to offload players to raise money [to spend], and also salary-wise. But it’s not only a money thing. Of course money is important but also, for a coach, it is not workable to start with 38 players in your squad. We have to look for a squad Marco can work with and I think there always has to be space for young players to come to the first team.

“That has to be, let’s say, 25-30 players. Now there are 38 and a lot are not young any more. They are players who have arrived. We have to be honest when we take the decision with these players. Do they have prospects here at Everton? Some of the conversations will not be nice but I think Marco must start with a squad that everyone is eager to play for and has prospects to play.”

Wayne Rooney, Morgan Schneiderlin and Davy Klaassen, a £23.6m signing from Ajax last summer, are among the players who can leave to trim the wage bill. Brands, however, admits it will be difficult to offload some players because of the inflated salaries in the Premier League.

He explained: “In England a lot of clubs, fans and media say you have to make new signings all the time. But you have to be careful because, if you make a new signing, with the salaries in England, and the player is not successful, then what do you do? In most countries players cannot make the wages they get in the Premier League, so a lot of players who don’t play here cannot play anywhere, because the salaries are not comparable.

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“I always say when you buy 10 players eight or nine have to do well. Of course they are not machines, you cannot turn on a button and they do it. Hopefully I will succeed in offloading the right players. They are good players, so I hope there will be interest for a few of our players.”

Brands received offers from several Premier League clubs having helped AZ Alkmaar to the Eredivisie title under Louis van Gaal in 2009 and PSV to three league championships in the past four seasons. The parallels between Everton and the position he discovered at PSV, Brands said, swayed his decision to relocate to Merseyside.

“I think there must be a big challenge,” he added. “When I came to PSV the club had not been successful for a few years, there was an old team and it was a big challenge for me after coming from AZ Alkmaar. I feel the same here because it is a fantastic club with fantastic fans and a great history. When Everton came to me they came with some other Premier League clubs and from the first contact I had a good feeling. After the first contact I didn’t say yes because I had given my word to PSV but later they came back.”