catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Some strange England selections last week for upcoming games. No Chris Long in U20s squad, and in u18 squad are only Liam Walsh and Callum Connolly , no Ledson, Kenny or Kieran Dowell who was in the squad recently. Maybe giving others a chance as Ledson and Kenny have been fixtures in the team the last two seasons. I'd have thought Long's goals for Brentford and our u21s would have kept him in a squad he was in earlier on.
It is a strange squad really. Dewnship was formerly involved with our academy (perhaps should have taken over the running of it) so I suspect he knows Dowell, Kenny and Ledson very well. Kenny has now turned 18, so there is a chance he is no longer eligible. Ledson will be 18 in 3 months so again there's ever chance they are looking to move on from those players and give younger players a chance.
Alternatively it could be down to burnout. Kenny has played almost every reserve fixture, and there has been some talk of Ledson needing a break. Likewise with Dowell he has been rested a few under 21's game so possible burnout. The FA will be in touch with academy's when selecting players.
Walsh has been quite overlooked by national squads. In and around the academy he is spoken of as the second most talented young player we have (behind Ledson but seem as very close). Connolly, Davies, Yates, Dowell, Kenny and Holland have all had international recognition to a greater degree than him. So it's interesting to see him selected. Connolly has been involved before so not much of a surprise.
What is fantastic for Everton, is that along with the 3 at the under 17's, we have 5 players around the under 18's level, showing 8 of our players have international recognition which is a very high number.
As for Long, I imagine the manager just doesn't fancy him. He went to the under 20's a couple of years ago as an 18 year old. He hasn't quite made the breakthrough a lot were hoping for. Lets see how he steps up this pre season.