The Everton Academy

Steve Ferns 13/10/2015 9comments  |  Jump to last
This week Barkley has come of age in the eyes of the adoring media and it follows on the heels of Tom Davies being elevated from training with the England U-17s to training with the full squad, such is his promise.

We have to read article after article about how great the Southampton academy is or hear how West Ham call themselves "the Academy" or some such nonsense.

There is no doubt about it, we have the best academy of the last 30 years; however, you need to determine the criteria. In the 1980s, we provided the most England internationals for the decade.

Let's look at the last 15 years:

1. Michael Ball - capped in 2001, came through our youth system and was from Crosby.

2. Francis Jeffers - capped in 2003, came through our youth system and was from Liverpool.

3. Wayne Rooney - capped in 2003 for the first of many caps, came through our youth system and was from Croxteth.

4. Jack Rodwell - capped in 2011 twice, came through our youth system and was from Southport.

5. Leon Osman - capped in 2012 twice and came through our youth system and is from Billinge, near St Helens.

6. Ross Barkley - capped in 2013 to present, is from Wavertree and came through our youth system.

Now I could have included:

1. Joey Barton who came through our youth system before being cut at 14 and then going on to play for England in 2007, and of course, he's from Huyton.

2. Phil Jagielka who came through our youth system until the age of 14 or maybe younger and being cut. He comes from Sale in Cheshire and of course is a multi-capped player and current England Captain!

3. Leighton Baines another player we cut as a youth before the age of 16, who then fought his way back before rejoining us and then going on to win 30 caps.

What's my point? All of these 9 players come from no more than 35 miles of the ground (Google Maps distance from Goodison to Sale) or for the first six I named, no more than 15 miles of the ground. What this shows is that over the last 15 years we've produced 6 England Internationals and done so using the resources available. All of the other clubs, especially Southampton are producing on a combination of good coaching, poaching, and scouting. Everton are proven that we will produce no matter what.

In the last 15 years, Liverpool have produced no-one other than Carragher and Gerrard who both emerged just before the 15-year period and since then they've produced Raheem Sterling, Stephen Warnock and Martin Kelly, but note that Sterling was actually bought at the age of 16 and therefore cannot really be classed as a product of their academy.

Why are there no glowing articles about our academy, and looking hopefully at the next generation that won the U18s title twice in the last three years?

Another thing that is not being picked up on is the quality of the coaching. Barkley is two-footed with great control. Rodwell was a centre-half with two feet and so good on the ball he became a midfielder. Stones is great with both feet and on the ball. We all know about Rooney's technique. Ledson has great technique for a holding midfielder, with a lovely touch and control. Davies too. Even McAleny, who doesn't look like he'll be Premier League class, cannot be faulted for technique.

The proof here is in the coaching. All the criticisms of England over the last 40 years are being addressed by our academy churning out player after player in these moulds, and yet again, the press prefer to highlight the academies where they just go and poach the best player from a much smaller club or scout the width of the country to take the best kids they can find — not the academies making the best of what they have and producing decade after decade after decade.

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Reader Comments (9)

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Jakob Herd
1 Posted 15/10/2015 at 23:08:41
Steve

Man United? Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Nevilles (x2) all regulars

Jeffers: 1 cap
Osman: 1 Cap
Ball – not sure but not many
Rodwell – how many?

Only Rooney and Barkley are the worth a mention here.

We are scratching here...

Danny Broderick
2 Posted 15/10/2015 at 23:35:17
The academy is the best performing part of our club. I'm not overly interested in how many go on to play for England - I'm more interested in how many play for Everton.

I would include the likes of Unsworth, Hibbert, Dunne, Vaughan, Anichebe etc as successes from the academy. They all made the first team and, apart from Hibbert, gave us much needed money from being sold on.

We must be near the top of any table showing how many young players each teams produce.

Anthony Dwyer
3 Posted 16/10/2015 at 00:56:27
Some valid points in the above article and comments, the most pleasing aspect of our academy is what’s currently going on there.

We are producing some fabulous talents of our own, namely Barkley and Browning, and also finding a way to bring the best out of a lot of our young signings such as Galloway, Stones, Garbutt and hopefully Holgate too.

We have an academy to be proud of; long may it continue.

Terence Leong
4 Posted 16/10/2015 at 02:30:47
West Ham has to be given some credit though:

Frank Lampard
Michael Carrick
Joe Cole
Rio Ferdinand
Jermaine Defoe
Glenn Johnson

Julian Wait
5 Posted 16/10/2015 at 02:54:29
Note: I have a feeling Davies was "elevated" to the senior set up to make up the numbers because they knew he wouldn’t figure in the U21 squad (he didn’t make the bench). They kept their likely players to train together, which makes sense.

Still he’s 17 in the U21s, so we’ll see how he gets on.

Otherwise, while I think we’ve done a decent job with the academy, I am not sure if it’s really better than West Ham, Southampton, Crewe which all have noted academies.

And now we’re up against the super academies of Chelsea, Man City where they have money to burn on coaches and facilities.

It’s no time to be complacent, that’s for sure.

Mike Allison
6 Posted 16/10/2015 at 16:07:33
It reads like a bit of a whinge Steve, I don't really see why we'd want attention. We'd probably just get richer clubs sniffing around earlier on if anything. We obviously don't struggle to recruit, so attention wouldn't help us in that respect. No, far better to quietly get on with doing things well and enjoy the benefits whether other people notice or not.

By the way, you didn't mention Victor Anichebe, who opted to play for Nigeria, but is nevertheless an international footballer and product of the Everton academy.

We could briefly mention Eric Dier and Shkodran Mustafi as well.

Nick Entwistle
7 Posted 16/10/2015 at 16:43:31
Is this a tallest dwarf competition?

I don't think Southampton poached any of Bale, Theo, Bridge, Ox, Lallana, Ward-Prowse, Shaw, Chambers, Dyer. So they win.

We're pretty average as the occasional talent like Rooney and Barkley will always come through with natural talent alone.

A production line would be nice to complement the hand crafted specialties.

Steve Ferns
8 Posted 17/10/2015 at 10:23:25
Yes they did Nick, and they scouted up and down the country, they don't make do with what they have, and continuously year after year after year produce players from within 15 miles of the ground, and most importantly, their youth team isn't in the top 3 year after year as well.
Colin Glassar
9 Posted 17/10/2015 at 10:47:48
The WHU academy has, over the years, been the most successful in English football without a doubt.

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