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Everton Youth Teams Thread

Eggs said:
….has he been responsible for Academy recruitment? I thought he’d been mainly in charge of U23s & our problems lie much further back in the Academy process. I’m no Unsworth fan, but it masks the issue if the blame falls on him for the lack of talent coming through.
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The U23s is supposed to be the bridge between the academy and first team. Our young players are always talked up through the age groups until they reach the U23s, then their progress stalls. He’s been in his position for about 8 years now and this has been the case that entire time, this is why questions need to be asked of him as a coach.
 
MikeH72 said:
The U23s is supposed to be the bridge between the academy and first team. Our young players are always talked up through the age groups until they reach the U23s, then their progress stalls. He’s been in his position for about 8 years now and this has been the case that entire time, this is why questions need to be asked of him as a coach.
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….you can only work with what you have at U23 level. When was the last time we got to an FA Youth Cup Final at U18, indeed when was the last time we reached the latter stages of the FA Youth Cup? That’s the indication of talent coming through, not hearsay on fans forums.
 
MikeH72 said:
The U23s is supposed to be the bridge between the academy and first team. Our young players are always talked up through the age groups until they reach the U23s, then their progress stalls. He’s been in his position for about 8 years now and this has been the case that entire time, this is why questions need to be asked of him as a coach.
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Maybe check out the kids in the U18’s and below and not just listen to a few “talked up” comments on GOT. Might help you understand better.
 

It's not even the lack of reasonably dependable players coming through, it's the fact that we give some long contracts when they hit 24 and we already know they aren't good enough for the premiership.
They have until the age 23 to show they are good enough for the first team squad, if they aren't good enough by then they will never be good enough.
 
MikeH72 said:
Have we not had a promising U18’s player in 10 years mate?
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….they have to be very special to make the transition & the very special ones tend to be involved in the first team around 18. Barkley and Osman were a bit of an anomaly because both suffered serious injury at key stage in their development.

Osman, Hibbert, Jeffers, Dunne, Cadamarteri all involved in FA Youth Cup runs, even the very ordinary group Rooney was in got to the final.
 

Eggs said:
….the success we’ve had is in buying promising youngsters from elsewhere. Stones, Holgate, Lookman’s etc. Indeed, it’s largely reported it was Unsworth who went to the Board and recommended buying DCL for £1m.
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I thought Dowell, Ledson and Liam Walsh just to name a few were tipped to go far as academy players?
 
MikeH72 said:
I thought Dowell, Ledson and Liam Walsh just to name a few were tipped to go far as academy players?
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….being ‘tipped’ doesn’t mean a thing. Those three were not held back, Dowell had his opportunity but failed to grasp it. Walsh has dropped down, failed to cut it at Bristol, did really well at Coventry on loan from them and has struggled with fitness. Ledson looks a really good professional who is making a very decent living in the game.

We have lots of players supporting the lower leagues, very few of the ones who leave become a force in the top flight. Whilst not particularly supporting Unsworth, I’m not seeing any blockage at U23.
 
MikeH72 said:
My god.
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The problem you have, Mike, is you're sat at the end of the conveyor built waiting for the wrapped up present but not paying attention to what happens along the way. Simply thinking sacking Unsworth will give us PL level academy players is quite frankly insane as it is not the root cause of the problem. If we had a bunch of Ross Barkley's in the U18's who got to the U23's and never progress I'd agree, but we don't and we haven't.

People point to other PL teams like Saints and Norwich etc. playing youngsters but just because they're young doesn't mean they're very good. Saints gave debuts to Yan Valery and Will Smallbone when they were around 19 but do you think those two players, at 19, are players you'd want in our squad? Not at all. Teams lower in the table, without the expectatons around our club, can afford to play youngsters how are just okay. The complete anomalies that are Chelsea and City have so much more money and pull than we do in the academy. I mean even look across the park - how many PL talents have the RS brought through in the last 10 years?

Here is the U18 squad from 10 years ago. I'll skip through all the squads to now and tell you who I personally thought/think are PL level talents: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/everton-fc-u18/startseite/verein/6920?saison_id=2011

Ryan Ledson - Highly promising, we all thought he'd maybe come through, he left for minutes and is slowly working his way to a high level.
Keiran Dowell - Coaching didn't hold him back, he held himself back. Is now in the PL for Norwich.
Tom Davies - PL player
Liam Walsh - Same as Ledson with physicality holding him back too not coaching.
Antonee Robinson - Personally never really thought he was all that but has shown he's probably a bottom half PL left-back.
Antony Evans - Held himself back, never really pushed himself on.
Beni Baningime - Honestly thought he could have done a job for us; never let us down when he played.
Anthony Gordon - I do think he's a PL level player but maybe not our level yet.
Ellis Simms - I don't think he's PL level yet and maybe never will be.
Ryan Astley - Bigged up when he was 16 but he's most certainly not got the physical stature to be a PL centre-half

We have a few now that are getting bigged up: Dobbin, Onyango, Welch, Campbell, Small etc. but it's a bit early for them and even then I'm not really sure any will make it here. Remember everything is subjective and some on the forum rate players more than others. They all need the eye test.

As you can see it is not a case of Unsworth holding players back it's just the talent was never really there to begin with.
 

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