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Everton Youth Teams Thread

Remember , you have to compare like for like I.e the Kenny of last year. If I gave Kenny 8 for his performances at this u17 tournament last year , then I would give Yates a 7. Kenny was particularly good in the air last year for his height and defensively. Yates's performance going forward against the Netherlands was better than anything Kenny produced last year, though he did get forward quite a bit as is the Everton way now. Shame Yates didn't reproduce this against Ireland.
While I'm doing comparisons, Ledson last year was far better than any other DM in this year's England team.
Occasionally I hit the wrong button and go to the start of this thread, it's a sobering reminder of just how difficult it is to progress to a PL place for U21s let alone U17s. So meanwhile I'll just enjoy the performances of our young Evertonians and hope this doesn't become the highlight of their career, as sadly it will be for some of the squad.
 

LinekersLegs said:
Wonder if Alan Irvine will come back.
Click to expand...

I have absolutely no inside info and no nothing of Devine but it was a strange appointment and is part of the doubts I have about whether Roberto is more talk than action.

He always talks about how important youth is and how he wants XYZ happening but we have had a very high turnover of academy staff since he joined and all the appointments have been internal. He hasn't actively gone out and found who he wants that shares his vision. Now there might be a good reason for this and he might not want to disrupt the very successful work they are doing but his management of it seemed very passive.
 
Well the people who have left the club academy set up have been " promoted" to try their chances in management - Weir, Irvine, Stubbs and lately Brabbin. It's hardly Martinez 's fault they left, arguably a victim of our own success and the desire of relatively still young guys to test their skills in management. The words that regularly come out is that he shows more attention to the Academy set up than Moyes did , but difficult to quantify, certainly the opposite has never once been mentioned. Building a successful Academy takes time and Kevin Sheedy must take a lot of credit for recent u18 performances , Martinez could easily have wrecked the set up by changing things too drastically , bringing in his own people etc. He obviously feels he has people at the Academy who share his vision, and whether you like his style or not you can see that it's now the same style throughout the club and that style and coaching they receive serves them very well at their age-related International level games. Martinez is " the buck stops here" guy and while I have some qualms about some of actions and decisions but to criticise him for being "passive" at Academy level seems odd to me.
 
Timak said:
I have absolutely no inside info and no nothing of Devine but it was a strange appointment and is part of the doubts I have about whether Roberto is more talk than action.

He always talks about how important youth is and how he wants XYZ happening but we have had a very high turnover of academy staff since he joined and all the appointments have been internal. He hasn't actively gone out and found who he wants that shares his vision. Now there might be a good reason for this and he might not want to disrupt the very successful work they are doing but his management of it seemed very passive.
Click to expand...
Tbh mate don't really understand your concern - surely if the academy continues to do well, as you highlighted above, it doesn't matter whether the staff are internally promoted or not? If it isn't broke why fix it?

Personally like the fact we have maintained continuity despite the staff turnover along with introducing new ideas from other appointments like Joe Royle.
 
blueloon said:
Well the people who have left the club academy set up have been " promoted" to try their chances in management - Weir, Irvine, Stubbs and lately Brabbin. It's hardly Martinez 's fault they left, arguably a victim of our own success and the desire of relatively still young guys to test their skills in management. The words that regularly come out is that he shows more attention to the Academy set up than Moyes did , but difficult to quantify, certainly the opposite has never once been mentioned. Building a successful Academy takes time and Kevin Sheedy must take a lot of credit for recent u18 performances , Martinez could easily have wrecked the set up by changing things too drastically , bringing in his own people etc. He obviously feels he has people at the Academy who share his vision, and whether you like his style or not you can see that it's now the same style throughout the club and that style and coaching they receive serves them very well at their age-related International level games. Martinez is " the buck stops here" guy and while I have some qualms about some of actions and decisions but to criticise him for being "passive" at Academy level seems odd to me.
Click to expand...

some good points mate. I like this post 87%
 

Timak said:
I have absolutely no inside info and no nothing of Devine but it was a strange appointment and is part of the doubts I have about whether Roberto is more talk than action.

He always talks about how important youth is and how he wants XYZ happening but we have had a very high turnover of academy staff since he joined and all the appointments have been internal. He hasn't actively gone out and found who he wants that shares his vision. Now there might be a good reason for this and he might not want to disrupt the very successful work they are doing but his management of it seemed very passive.
Click to expand...

To be fair mate I think it shows what a good set up Moyes had got in place. It was my general understanding he had got an excellent scouting system in place as well as a brilliant infrastructure, perhaps what the drawback has been is that he himself was still a bit wary of giving players the chance (particularly towards the end).

I think Martinez has shown in all areas of his management he doesn't believe in radical or quick change. For the most part this is a positive thing, but does have it's drawbacks. In his first season he didn't offload lots of players and slowly tinkered with the playing squad. I think his attitude with the youth teams has been similar.

He could have done a Benitez and fazed out the strong network we had built up for his own counterparts. I think Martinez recognised he had a good system in place though, but he needed to address what to do with players from age 18-21 better (hence why we've seen Royle brought in).

He could have made radical change, like Benitez. But I do think it leads to a loss of connection with the local community when you rely on a lot of foreign coaches and sizeable numbers of foreign players. I think Martinez gets that.

So I wouldn't be too worried about the lack of changes. I would have been more worried had he started making radical changes to a system that was clearly paying dividends. In His first two seasons in charge we look set to win the under 18's league, perhaps showing we have the best academy in the country. I think he's shown a humility in allowing that academy to continue, while slowly changing things when opportunities have arisen.
 

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