Everton Youth Teams Thread

AaronTheBlue said:
Matthew Pennington has signed a new three-year deal to keep him at the Club until the summer of 2018.

The Warrington-born defender, who joined the academy aged 11, impressed on loan at Coventry City last season, making 25 appearances for the League One outfit, as well as securing the Sky Blues’ Young Player of the Year award.

Pennington also made two seperate loan spells for Tranmere Rovers in the 2013/14 season, where he scored two goals in 17 appearances.

The 20-year-old, who is equally comfortable at centre-back and right-back, says his temporary spells away from Goodison Park have aided his development.

“’I’m excited to have the opportunity to fulfil my ambition of playing in the first team,” he told evertontv. “It’s obviously a great achievement for myself and my family and I’m really happy to be signing for another three years here.

“I feel like I’ve had a couple of good seasons, with two loans and I feel that has improved me a lot. Every game has helped me because your always learning something new when you’re playing alongside experienced professionals.

“You pick things up in the games and they come thick and fast - it’s a big learning curve.

“Whether I go out on loan again or if I stay around here now, I’m looking to improve and impress.”

Pennington sustained an ankle injury in the closing stages of last season, but, after travelling with David Unsworth’s side to Austria last month, says he is now closing in on full fitness.

“I’m nearly fit now,” he added. “I should be training with the lads in another week. It is a bit frustrating at the moment, watching them train and not being involved but hopefully I’ll be getting stuck in there soon.

“I’ve no doubt I’ll get some pre-season action. Once I’m back in training it might be another two weeks before I’m playing games so I’ll be fit and ready to go for the start of the season.”
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Pennington won young player of the season at Coventry last year. He seems promising, and a 3 year deal suggests he's highly rated by the club.
 
MoutsGoat said:
This chap made an interesting point.

Conor Purcell ‏@Conor_Purcell 18h18 hours ago
@johnmerro1 @ToffeeTV1 Johns right, this has been executed perfectly with Liverpool ignoring youth through the Benitez/Houllier era.


I know its just lids talking on twitter, but it pricked my interest, so thought I would share.
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Sounds like us in the 90's when we ignored youth development and let Blues like Owen, McMannaman, Fowler, Carragher go to that lot, when they should have been putting on the shirt they always dreamed of playing for.
 
Quick he's world class next Messironaldoballpelemakalele throw him into the starting 11 and reject all bids of less than £80m he'll win us the league vault it






















He'll be sold to Blackburn in two years for an undisclosed fee
 


Lots of great skills on show but only a brief glimpse of gym work. It's something I've been pondering given the number of times " need for physical development " has been mentioned here e.g. Kenny, Kieran Dowell and in his recent interview Callum Conolly mentioned his physical development. I follow Welsh Rugby and when I see their U20 internationals even the skilfull backs have reasonably well developed physiques. I'm not talking about the bulk you see in rugby forwards , just impressive upper body strength in skilfull players which doesn't detract from their speed and agility. I know we are talking about different sports and different physical needs , but it strikes me that young players can have good upper body physical development without it impacting on the skills and speed necessary for football. Bottom line for me is that in this era of scientific development in sport we shouldn't be losing anybody in the 18 - 22 age group because they have not developed sufficient physicality.
 
bluebud said:
Mad skills from Antoneeee Robinson there (1:15), he's a full back as well, I was gonna say full backs aren't supposed to do things like that and then I remembered Seamus juggling down the wing at the Emirates.
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Goodison mate Goodsion, remember sitting there in absolute awe, and it was cazorla I think he done it past just stood and shurgged
 
blueloon said:
Lots of great skills on show but only a brief glimpse of gym work. It's something I've been pondering given the number of times " need for physical development " has been mentioned here e.g. Kenny, Kieran Dowell and in his recent interview Callum Conolly mentioned his physical development. I follow Welsh Rugby and when I see their U20 internationals even the skilfull backs have reasonably well developed physiques. I'm not talking about the bulk you see in rugby forwards , just impressive upper body strength in skilfull players which doesn't detract from their speed and agility. I know we are talking about different sports and different physical needs , but it strikes me that young players can have good upper body physical development without it impacting on the skills and speed necessary for football. Bottom line for me is that in this era of scientific development in sport we shouldn't be losing anybody in the 18 - 22 age group because they have not developed sufficient physicality.
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......I reckon today's youngsters work really hard on their strength, look at Barkley as an example. Care has to be taken, though, not to accelerate physical development when the body is still growing. I know a watch is kept on this, each lad will be different.
 

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