ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Another lost prospect

What is going on with our Youth Academy and scouting system. I am constantly reading about young Premiership players, who were raised trough, the ranks at Everton and then released and I am not speaking about Owen, Fowler and Gerrard.

The likes of James McEveley at Derby,Barton at Newcastle and the last one - Michael Johnson at Man City who was released as recently as 2004, were all at our books. Yes we are producing some good young players ?mainly forwards but we are letting far too many quality youngsters slip through our net.

In times when we need good central midfielder for whom we are going to break the bank Michael Johnson with his energy and drive could have been very good solution and cost nothing instead he is making his name at City. The market value of the above three players is sure more then 10m GBP, moreover they would have been very good squad/first team players in the mood of D.Moyes signings ?young, hungry for success, with potential and abilities.

If we want to achieve success on modest budget we should not allow this to happen in the future and explore the talent among our ranks, although I have the feeling that it wont be the last time when we will lose a good prospect for next to nothing.
Stefan Tosev, Vienna Posted 11/12/2007 at 11:32:44

back Return to the Mail Bag

Comments

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

Colm

All clubs lose players coming through their various academies, such is football. Yes, it's frustrating as hell when you see a kid prosper in another shirt after not, in your eyes, been given the reason(s) for their departure.

Stephen Davies
1 Posted 11/12/2007 at 14:01:31

When the club offered Johnson a pro contract at 16 he asked for an extra £100 p/w. Thats why he was released, i don’t know whether you would personally see that as a positive or negative attitude from the club and i suppose the answer is dependant on how highly rated he was at 16.

David London
2 Posted 11/12/2007 at 14:50:28

Often being rejected by "their" club make a player,especially young lads,get serious.Many top players have gone this way.

Stefan Tosev
3 Posted 11/12/2007 at 15:47:44

David, you have a point but it just seems to me that every year some Everton reject is making the grade in PL and I cant say that about other clubs youngsters.

Declan O'Shaughnessy
4 Posted 11/12/2007 at 15:53:13

In fairness, very few players released by Everton in recent years have gone on to achive much at the top end of the game. So in that respect, I think the Everton youth coaches have been pretty good at spotting the ones who?ll make it and ones who won?t.

But, yeah, every club makes mistakes.

John Lloyd
5 Posted 11/12/2007 at 15:57:01

But lets weigh up with the players that have come through recently......Rooney, Osman, Hibbo (maybe should of let him go!! harsh i know), Victor & Vaughany.

The youth system is working fine & with the finch farm move it will only improve as the youngsters will see what it takes to break into the 1st team squad in terms of training, effort & ability. Dont think I’m being too positive here....

Tim Keen
6 Posted 11/12/2007 at 16:56:32

I read an interview (somewhere don’t ask for a link!) in which he explained he wasn’t released by Everton.
When he has clearly showing promise his dad gave him a year at what he considered to be the best 4 academies around, us, Crewe, Man City and Feyernoord. At the end of it they weighed up where would suit him best and decided his best chance would be Man City as they had just won the Nike Cup for the age group and were in the FA youth cup final.
Good luck to the kid, it sounds a very sensible choice.

James Elworthy
7 Posted 11/12/2007 at 18:11:02

Didnt some kid leave us to go to a bigger club because of his pushy dad, Sean Dougherty may of been his name.
The bigger club the dad got him to join was Fulham. He is now playing on the continent in a lower division think, on loan from Fulham, I think he joined that big club same time as Tomas Radzinski.

Rob Jones
8 Posted 12/12/2007 at 02:24:59

To be honest yes we have lost some decent players but look at other clubs: Barca lost Fabregas, Forest lost SWP. It happens to every club but a lot of evertonians (including myself until not long ago) think that we have had it worse because Everton is the club that we read every scrap of info so we are bound to pick up on every Everton acadamy dropout while other fans are seeing their clubs releasing youngsters who then go on to do well. Most of the Prem is made up of either foreign players or British youngsters who have been at more than one club.