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Everton Youth Teams Thread

LinekersLegs said:
They have a great academy but they just seem to use it to get in transfer fees which are then used to buy established players. Going to be interesting to see if Loftus Cheek gets much more game time under Hiddink.
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Suppose when a club can buy any player in the world must be way harder for a young lad to break through when instant success is demanded as opposed to a club like ours where we have no choice but to try and bring players through due to our financial situation.
 
bluebrotha77 said:
Suppose when a club can buy any player in the world must be way harder for a young lad to break through when instant success is demanded as opposed to a club like ours where we have no choice but to try and bring players through due to our financial situation.
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True but the manager plays an important part - Wenger for instance is pretty good at giving youngsters a chance.

The club environment also a factor, Abramovich's policy of sacking managers who aren't immediately/regularly successful means few coaches are going to risk bringing through a new player as they are unlikely to be around to reap the rewards of their development.
 
ToffeeDoug said:
I'm struggling to think of the last young player that Chelsea developed and promoted from within and gave a fair crack to in the first team squad.
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Yep, Mourinho was under pressure to promote youngsters but didn't, though I see Loftus-cheek played and scored at the weekend. Didn't see tonight's game but caught goals on Sky. Jay Dasilva who scored 4th ,had 5 on his back , is a really good prospect. He's a left back and played LB in the England U17 team that won their age group Euro about 18 months ago, when Kenny and Ledson played. He's a year younger than them, and subsequently Callum Connolly got the LB slot at that age level, which must mean that England really rate Connolly to play him ahead of Dasilva. Tammmy Abraham is the other Chelsea player I've seen playing well for England.
Yep Chelsea and City have some cracking players........ but it was very satisfying to read tonight's match report mentioning City players who are foreign internationals, made first team debuts etc but we beat them with only Leandro foreign and bought in, and a clean sheet too. Great result for our youngsters.
 
bluebrotha77 said:
Suppose when a club can buy any player in the world must be way harder for a young lad to break through when instant success is demanded as opposed to a club like ours where we have no choice but to try and bring players through due to our financial situation.
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Another indication of too much killing the game at the highest level? Other clubs are forced to develop their youth and then sell them on to the likes of Chelsea.
 

LinekersLegs said:
True but the manager plays an important part - Wenger for instance is pretty good at giving youngsters a chance.
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Agree, but he then faces the same problem as others that fans/owners want trophies and susequently few youngsters get a long run in their first team. I remember about 6, 7 Or 8 years ago Wenger regularly played youngsters in theLeague Cup and they trounced some really good teams but few seemed to make it to their first team. Then there's Afobe signed by Bournemouth for £9 mill after leaving Arsenal 12 months ago for £1.8 mill cos he couldn't break through. That's one reason we must be very attractive to talented youngsters , we re prepared to be patient , although inevitably we also lose the odd one or two who makes better progress elsewhere.
 
blueloon said:
Agree, but he then faces the same problem as others that fans/owners want trophies and susequently few youngsters get a long run in their first team. I remember about 6, 7 Or 8 years ago Wenger regularly played youngsters in theLeague Cup and they trounced some really good teams but few seemed to make it to their first team. Then there's Afobe signed by Bournemouth for £9 mill after leaving Arsenal 12 months ago for £1.8 mill cos he couldn't break through. That's one reason we must be very attractive to talented youngsters , we re prepared to be patient , although inevitably we also lose the odd one or two who makes better progress elsewhere.
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wenger has still brought through wilshire and bellerin in the last 5 yrs and we've only had barkley really come through in the same time frame.
 
Darth Toffeeman said:
I like to read this thread to see how the next generation of potential homegrown superstars are progressing.

For me it is not about winning things at this level, it is about progressing to the 1st team and becoming as important as Barkley, Stones or Galloway.

Ask anyone when Everton last won a trophy. Nobody mentions youth league wins or FA Cups. They are competitions to prepare the youngsters for the real thing in the future. I am hopeful that a few of these will make the grade and we will continue to produce excellent players from within.
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Selfishly, I'd like them to win U18s again so I can take the kids to watch them in Dallas again.
 
mightymoyes said:
wenger has still brought through wilshire and bellerin in the last 5 yrs and we've only had barkley really come through in the same time frame.
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Bellerin and numerous others at Arsenal are foreign lads Arsenal cherry picked from foreign clubs' academies, that's what Wenger has been doing for years. Players like Bellerin, as good as they are, can't be compared to home grown lads like Barkley, who's obviously been at Everton since he was virtually in nappies. Not even Wilshere is from London, they literally have no one in that team who was both born locally and come through their academy. Not 1 player
 
blueloon said:
Yep, Mourinho was under pressure to promote youngsters but didn't, though I see Loftus-cheek played and scored at the weekend. Didn't see tonight's game but caught goals on Sky. Jay Dasilva who scored 4th ,had 5 on his back , is a really good prospect. He's a left back and played LB in the England U17 team that won their age group Euro about 18 months ago, when Kenny and Ledson played. He's a year younger than them, and subsequently Callum Connolly got the LB slot at that age level, which must mean that England really rate Connolly to play him ahead of Dasilva. Tammmy Abraham is the other Chelsea player I've seen playing well for England.
Yep Chelsea and City have some cracking players........ but it was very satisfying to read tonight's match report mentioning City players who are foreign internationals, made first team debuts etc but we beat them with only Leandro foreign and bought in, and a clean sheet too. Great result for our youngsters.
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Solanke and Baker are doing well at Vitesse too. Philip Cocu was praising Solanke recently sayinh he had a lot of potential etc.
 

ToffeeDoug said:
Another indication of too much killing the game at the highest level? Other clubs are forced to develop their youth and then sell them on to the likes of Chelsea.
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Ya suppose thats the way its always been mate hasnt it but maybe with the money the less well off teams get now that wont always be the case ala stones,berahino:)
 
blueloon said:
There's an interview with Dr Peter Vint, the new Academy Head , on the OS . He's saying all the right things and potentially an exciting appointment for the club bringing in different expertise. It will be interesting to see if he also tackles two things mentioned above.
@bluebrotha77 mentions the 4 coaches in the Academy and Holland mentions coaches too. It may be "unique" to rotate 4 coaches but does it work? It's the players we are developing at this level, not the coaches . Does rotation make for confusion and some unsettling at such a young age? The best spell our U18s have had this year was the first 6 or 7 games where it was noticeable that they used a fairly settled team in this period with the same players playing regularly. You need a degree of rotation to find out just how good some are, but undoubtedly settled sides and settled coaches pay dividends too.
I'm with @mightymoyes re some of the places we've sent our youngsters to this season. Roberto is big on making sure youngsters he's purchased can face the rigours of English football, something he's mentioned with Leandro, Henen and Tarashaj. They seem to want to toughen our local youngsters too, and maybe Ledson and Walsh's loans to League2 will do that given they are both abrasive/competive players , but the loans to National League North and below that have occurred, Brewster, Dyson, Duffus etc don't seem to make a lot of sense in terms of developing a skill set - I just can't see them playing skilfull football that will progress them at that level. In contrast, our most successful loanee this season appears to be Conor Grant playing in League 1 at a level which is allowing him to develop his skills. Same could be said of Kenny's loan at Wigan , Pennington at Coventry last season. We can't stick them all in at League 1 level when they are only 18 but it's probably the league to aim for with a balance of right skill level and likelihood that youngsters would get regular games at that level.
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We have to remember that development isn't just physical or skill related, but mental too. Maybe a loan to a team outside of the football league is a reminder of how fragile professional football can be and that a youth contract at Everton is no sign that you've made it.

The mental side is so important in progressing from a good youngster to a good senior so that may be some part of it. May not of course, but we've had so many good young players come off the rails in recent years that maybe we're trying different things to keep their heads straight.
 

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