I want to make Everton 'elite' again - and there are four stages to the plan

The ambition at Everton is to return the club to football's "elite" according to Kevin Thelwell.

The club's director of football identified European football and challenges for silverware as among the long-term aims he is working towards - but stressed any progress has to be sustainable and built on solid foundations.

At this stage, Thelwell is attempting to put that firm base in place by addressing the issues that have led to consecutive relegation battles while operating within a wider context of financial constraints following years of excess spending that took Everton backward not forward under majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.

But he believes that, while genuine progress will take time, positive momentum is developing and that Sean Dyche is a manager who can evolve with the project as the initial goal moves from finding stability to climbing football's hierarchy.

In a detailed interview with the Training Ground Guru podcast, Thelwell provided insight into the work going on behind the scenes at Finch Farm and the Royal Liver Building. Thelwell was tasked with overhauling Everton's football operation when he was appointed just over 18 months ago. His work has unfolded against the backdrop of financial troubles and managerial uncertainty. Creating stability has not been easy in those circumstances but as Everton head into this winter still embroiled in off-the-pitch uncertainty, on-the-pitch there has been progress under Dyche.

While acknowledging these are tentative first steps, Thelwell hopes they are signals he has now got the club moving in the right direction. Setting out what he is working towards, he said: "I think everybody at Everton wants to get Everton back to where we all believe it belongs and the vision, for a big club like Everton, has to be how we get back amongst the elite, how do we start competing for trophies, how do we start getting back into Europe?

"Also, we have got this world class stadium on the horizon so we want to build a team that is befitting of that, so there is that to contend with at this very moment in time. That has to be the vision because we work at a very big football club where enough is never enough: 'If we finish 15th this year we need to finish 12th the next year and so on and so, everybody wants more'.

"That is not an issue for me, I think it is a privilege to work at a big club like Everton. It is not so much about saying we need to finish here one year and there the next, it is about saying how do we find solutions to these short and medium term problems that we have got and then, come on, how do we get back to where we really want to be and where people expect us to be?"

Thelwell's plan is centred on four "strategic pillars" - 'who we are', 'how we play', 'how we support' and 'staff development'. In his time at the club so far, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers and New York Red Bulls man has overseen major changes in the setup at Finch Farm with the intention of building a model that pushes the club forward. Creating a pathway to the first team from the academy is one ambition, as is helping departments such as the development system and the recruitment team to complement eachother rather than compete. But one of his most important initial jobs has been to help create an identity for the club to build its efforts around.

Thelwell explained: "What do Evertonians want from their teams? On any given weekend I think they want to see this Dogs of War piece, they want to see honesty, hard work, people playing for the football club, playing for the colours and giving absolutely everything and leaving it all out on the pitch. But they also want to see this School of Science bit, this bit they had in the 60s and 70s, they want to see good football, they want to see pass forwards, run forwards, they want to see attack, they want to see teams build the game in a particular way.

"So for me if you are inside this space, this Dogs of War/School of Science piece then I think it is understanding if you can find a way of playing the game that epitomises those two things then you have got a chance... for us we should be building on those two pillars and people should see that in all of our teams."

Such ambitions are not easy to work towards within the parameters Thelwell is operating in, and tough finances have dictated the approach to the transfer market, with pragmatism underpinning key decisions. Results on the pitch also have a major impact on his work, and led to the departure of Frank Lampard in January. While the managerial change disrupted Thelwell's efforts, the appointment of Dyche was made with a view to continuing the trajectory he was already working towards. Thelwell believes that, while Dyche was the best option to deal with what was then the top priority - Premier League survival - he is also the right man to make his strategy a reality.

Of Dyche's appointment, and what comes next, Thelwell said: "Number one, it was about our circumstance, so we wanted to stay in the Premier League and had to identify somebody who had experience of that, who could do that, but then also you are looking for somebody to come in and help you to build something. In reality Sean, becomes our football expert because he is the guy who has got one of the main teams who is leading from the front so from our perspective it was about saying 'OK, we need somebody who is going to help us right now', and Sean was perfect for that.

"But also, has Sean got the ability to help us in the future, medium and long term? In my opinion I think he has because he epitomises a lot of these working class values that Evertonians hold so dear, that we hold so dear, and also I think he has got the ability to evolve his game and evolve his philiosophy to help us to really get somewhere and as we sit here today I think he has done a really good job... in my opinion if you look at Sean at Burnley and Sean at Everton, he has already evolved, the data tells us that, the naked eye tells us that, and in my opinion we are headed in the right direction. Of course, there is more evolution to come, there always is, but I think he has done a really good job in very difficult circumstances."

*Listen to the full Kevin Thelwell interview with the Training Ground Guru podcast