Kia Joorabchian has refuted claims he has undue influence at Everton.
Joorabchian’s links to the Goodison Park club remain under scrutiny due to his association with majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.
The Iranian has reportedly sparked the Blues’ interest in signing Vitor Pereira to succeed Rafael Benitez ahead of Frank Lampard’s appointment.
But Joorabchian hit back at allegations about the extent of his involvement on Thursday by detailing the players’ recommendations in an interview with TalkSport.
He said: “I have made three transfers of my players during Farhad’s tenure at Everton.
“Those three were Richarlison from Watford, who I think was very successful. There was a free transfer of Bernard from Shakhtar Donetsk who I don’t think was a complete disaster and he did very well.
“We had Carlo Ancelotti, who is the only manager they have received a recommendation. We always do the same with every Premier League club.
“When someone needs a manager, we always introduce our client. We always introduce clients and then we were involved in the Anwar El Ghazi loan which was part of the Lucas Digne transfer and financial fair play.
“That didn’t work [because] there was a change of manager and when the new manager came in, it wasn’t in the new manager’s plans.
“We do a lot more work in the Premier League. We have a player in almost every club in the Premier League, championships and all over Europe.”
However, Joorabchain admitted that the controversial recommendation of Pereira to Everton, which sparked opposition from fans, had come from him.
“I recommended Vitor Periera,” he confirmed.
“They went with Frank Lampard, it was very much a board decision.
“It was mentioned on Sky that Bill Kenwright and Denise Baxter (sic) had nothing to do with it, Jamie [Carragher] he mentioned this
“People who say things like that haven’t done their homework and are misinformed, that’s unfair.
“Farhad did not have a single vote, he created a board. Denise Baxter (sic) was very involved, she was involved in the recruitment of the sporting director there, Kevin Thelwell. She led that.
“He (Thelwell) is not one of my clients. He worked at Wolves recently. He was working in MLS and I had nothing to do with it.
“I met him once and, of course, as we do, we offered him many, many players and he turned them all down.
“All the signings of the summer, [James] Tarkowski, [Conor] Coady, [Neal] Good luck, Dwight [McNeil] and the list goes on.
“All the loans and all the signings they made were made exclusively by them and the board and we had no involvement.
“We talk to all the owners. I talk to a lot of owners, but the point is, what’s our job? Our job is to present what we have as a customer list and say this is what we have.
“Everton haven’t followed any of our advice or moves. They haven’t followed our advice so we can’t be that influential.”
The 51-year-old also revealed some of the high-profile players his agency had previously suggested to Everton, but saw them go to waste.
“In the past, we offered them Bruno Guimaraes for £16m when he left Athletic Paranaense,” added Joorabchian.
“They didn’t like it and went to look for Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Guimaraes went to Lyon.
“Diego Carlos, when he left Nantes, we offered him [to Everton] at £11m before going to Sevilla, and is now at Aston Villa.
“We offered them Eder Militao when he left [first club Sao Paulo in Brazil, before he joined Porto – now he’s staring at Real Madrid].”
Source: Kia Joorabchian refutes Everton influence claims – Click Liverpool
