Jonathan Williams: Everton's unseen problem-solver

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘secretary’?

Filing, photocopying and printing, perhaps? In football, the Club Secretary is actually one of the most important people in the organisation.

As Head of Football Operations, Williams looks after the first-team fixture list in conjunction with the Premier League and club stakeholders; leads on matchday operations; disseminates the international call-ups that come in for the players; and manages the club’s anti-doping whereabouts system.

It’s little surprise that this is a “365-day-a-year job”, as he puts it. While other staff and players might get a break during the close season, things ramp up even more for Williams and his assistant, Sean Farrington.

“When the season finishes it doesn’t finish for us, because we’re planning pre-season, dealing with player re-engagements, tying players down to new deals and helping those who leave have the best opportunity to find new clubs,” he explains.

“Once last season finished, we began to focus on our pre-season training camp in Ireland. That included things like chartering the aircraft, booking the training pitches and accommodation, getting all the travel and logistics sorted, making sure all the kit and equipment at the facility was of a certain specification, and sourcing opposition.

“Then there was finding team activities and things to do when the players and staff had some down time.”

Williams and Farrington are currently the only members of Everton's administration and operations team, making it one of the smallest in the Premier League.

The only time the role of Club Secretary does tend to get wider attention is when something goes wrong with a transfer, as we saw at Blackburn Rovers in January.

“There is a lot of pressure because if a transfer doesn’t go through, there are always fingers pointed at the Club Secretary in terms of why the paperwork wasn’t completed and registered,” Williams admits.

“Different clubs have different structures but, ultimately, the onus rests on the Club Secretary to make sure the paperwork is lodged and submitted in a timely manner and prior to the transfer window deadlines.”

To illustrate this, Williams tells a story about his role in Everton signing Arsenal midfielder Alex Iwobi on Transfer Deadline Day in August 2019. The deal was worth £28m plus add-ons.

“The deadline was five o’clock but we were granted an additional two hours to complete the transfer with a deal sheet,” Williams remembers.

“I got the paperwork in at seven o’clock on the dot. I had the manager, Marco Silva, the Director of Football, Marcel Brands, one of the recruitment staff, Gretar Steinsson, and my boss, David Harrison, all sat in the room watching me trying to get the paperwork over the line.

“It was a high-pressure situation as I was trying to get documents uploaded into certain areas of the Premier League system. The relief when I got the acknowledgement from the Premier League that it had gone through in time - everything just sapped out of me.

“So I know from experience how much pressure you’re under in that situation, especially when you’re handling deals worth millions of pounds. Everything you do is under the spotlight.”

Williams first joined the club in 2004 as Academy Co-Ordinator and in 2011 he became assistant to the popular Harrison.

“I learnt a lot from Dave over the years - his honesty, his communication, the way he was able to deal with people from different backgrounds and different departments within the club," Williams says.

“He worked here for nearly 30 years and whenever a player was signed, it was Dave who would be there with the contract and pen - ‘contract Dave’ as he became known amongst the club’s fanbase.”

Nevertheless, staff working in admin and operations can be the ‘unseen’ part of a football club, which is why Williams is so pleased that a League Administrators Association is now up and running.

“It’s been set up to offer help and support to people in our roles because we get put under a lot of stress and pressure, particularly when it comes to registrations and transfers," he explains. "The Club Secretary can often be the go-to person at the club and the problem-solver.

"The Association is there to provide us with advice and a range of professional and personal support services such as education and healthcare. David Barnard (Director of Football Operations and Club Secretary at Chelsea) has been instrumental in creating this group."

Williams is also thankful to have the Teamworks communications and scheduling app, Hub, to help ease his workload. Everton started using Teamworks in 2022 and Williams says it has been invaluable,

“We get a lot of value from the platform,” Williams says. “Jack Nayler, our Head of Sports Science, and his team put individually-tailored sessions in there and get feedback from players about elements of what they’re doing.

“Teamworks Hub has reduced the noise and duplication across various WhatsApp groups,” he explains. “There can be issues when WhatsApp goes down and then you can’t communicate.

“There can also be issues around security, which the Premier League have flagged up.

“With Teamworks Hub, you have to create profiles and go through security permissions to get into the app so it’s a lot more secure.”

On Wednesday, Williams will be hosting a Webinar with Teamworks titled ‘Achieving operational efficiency at Everton.’

“In the webinar, I will be drawing specifically on the use of Teamworks Hub during pre-season,” Williams explains. “Within our roles, it’s one of the busiest times of the year so there will be a focus on the trip element of Teamworks Hub, the training camp we’ve just been on (to Ireland) and how we used Teamworks Hub among the playing squad and staff.

“I hope the webinar will lead to people who use Teamworks contacting each other and sharing feedback on how they use the app, which could positively impact what we all do.

“I don’t think any two clubs use the app in exactly the same way because you tailor it to your own environment and requirements. For instance, Sports Science teams, analysts and medical staff are all feeding information into the app so I hope as many different disciplines as possible will be able to attend.”