....watched Joe Williams aged 16 up against Anderson who was returning from injury for Manchester United and he was fantastic, not particularly from a quality perspective but he was such an effective competitor. He was a stand out for me but I know others didn’t particularly note him.
Williams was a little too brave/daft for his own good and suffered lengthy injuries. In the end he couldn’t make the leap into PL, but I could understand managers elsewhere keen on acquiring him.
i doubt the club set out to identify a certain type for a certain position, we’ve had our share of Academy first teamers in attack, midfield and defence in recent times. Often it’s cyclical and you just get a good crop (Osman, Hibbert, Jeffers, Dunne, Ball contingent) or a single diamond (Rooney).
Invariably we are initially fishing in the local area so the talent is limited & you don’t see kids playing footy on Merseyside like you used to. Buying young talent seems to be more of the way to go.
It's really difficult on a number of levels. I watched a fair bit of Joe's age group and there really wasn't a lot to choose between him, Davies, Ledson and Walshwho all played centrally in midfield. If you put a gun to my head I'd have said Ledson was the most likely to get early starts, but Walsh might be the best player (but take longer) but you could have made a case for any of them. But Davies was the one to make the step up and has kicked on very well.
I don't know if it's a mixture of good fortune, chance or ultimately how they develop when thrown into the mens game (or in all likelihood a combination of all of them).
Often Davies and Williams would play together for the 23's, and in honesty you wouldn't have said one was miles ahead of the other. Davies had a bit of a better build a big younger-where Joe was quite wiry and has taken him a it of time to fill out (Callum Connolly is another like that and may have a career at CB where I've seen him playing).
I think they all probably struggled a bit for theclub spending masses of money and having lots of different managers, and the younger lads are an easy loss. The one thing Brands has done is cut the squad, so at least there is a chance for younger players to catch the eye.
My own theory is a combination of 2 things probably made a big difference. The league is now the best in the world, and the most risk averse in the world as well. Very few break through before 21. In the 90's when we had a big cros through, the Italian league was very much the best, we were secondary. You sort of see leagues like Spain or Germany bringing lads through, but it's easier. The standards a re a bit lower.
I'd also say, we are in a much better situation. For a lot of years young lads got games at Everton as there were few other options. I remember when we sold Gary Speed, and Ball had to play because there wasn't realy anyone else (think Hincliffe went around that time too). At times we would have teams with him in, as well as Cadamateri & Dunne at the back, sometimes even Branch and/or Jeffers would play too when Ferguson was injured.
I think had we been in that mess you might have seen lads like Joe Williams get an opportunity and we would have seen if he could have coped, which you only really know if you get given the chance.
The club seem to produce midfield players very well. Over and above the 4 I've noted to you you have Baningime too, Onynago now with Isaac Price. We hope it's different for the next crop, but I do think it's really fine margins as to whether these lads make it. At that level it's a bit of a knife edge. For them they are all going to have really good careers and never have to work again, but for the club, I wonder how we transition players who are nearly good enough into ones who are? Maybe thats the paradox that can't be solved though and we can't get too greedy.
