The Mail Bag
Youth ? The New Year(...s)
Comments (22)
Most of the papers, especially todays, have articles about the current state of play in the Premier League and at England level. Usual end-of-year predictions from most of the sports writers: Who will finish in the Top Four? Who will go down? Who's for the sack? ? and so on.
Interestingly, several have made long-term predictions about England after Cappello. The names of Jack Rodwell and Ross Barkley appear in many as the future of England. Now I know Barkley is out with a double broken leg at the moment but do ToffeeWeb readers believe that now is the time to build around the young players? (I include Felliani as one of the young players, and Coleman.)
Any others you can suggest? I mean to play now, when fit in Barkley's case, on a regular basis and to build around them ? slowly bringing in other younger players over the next 3 to 4 years when the four mentioned will be seasoned professionals enabling them to support new younger players. I see Baines, Jagielka, Arteta, Pienaar and Cahill as shorter long-term players, if you know what I mean, certainly able to be first team players for several years yet.
As you can see, we are lacking in young strikers and a goalkeeper. I am not sure of Mucha's age. I do not see goalkeeper as a long-term worry but certainly strikers seem to me to be a short- and long- term problem. I cannot see Anichebe as either a short- or long-term answer.
George McKane, Posted 26/12/2010 at 15:37:45
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Goalkeepers I don't see as an issue; Howard should be added to your medium-term list surely? And Pienaar can't be a medium-term player until he signs?
I'm excited about Barkely. He seems to have similar hype to Rodwell and even Rooney.
Elmander is decent but isn't really a goal scorer and he's no better than what we have.
To be honest, I struggle to think of an available striker who we can get who's better than what we have. Let's see if Moyes has something up his sleeve.
As for the youth, I agree it's the best way for a club with our finances to go. Barkley is being fast-tracked which is a sign of his promise, think he'd've had a few first team games under his belt if it wasn't for the horrific injury he suffered. Heard he'll be back in April which is a relief as I thought he'd be out for much longer.
How about we take Victor Moses when Wigan get relegated and end up with this team dominating in a few years time.
Turner
Coleman Duffy Jagielka Baines
Barkley Fellaini Rodwell
Moses Garbutt
Wickham
Just a thought.
If two players of Rodwell's quality come through in the next 5 years, that will be a result. I wouldn't place too much faith in a team of youngsters coming through on the cheap.
Gavin #2.
Your comments are not quite on the mark. Everton's youth team policy and scouting network is 2nd to none.
Lumsden and Holden are quite litterally all over the north west, Wales and quite often in Ireland reviewing young lads that Everton's scouting network have spotted.
I can promise you when Everton make an offer to these boys it is not often refused. However, the unfortunate thing is that after we have trained these boys into talented players, it is THEN that the big fish come sniffing.
Marcus, I would be cautious of saying Elmander is no better than what we have got. He has scored goals and has been fit.
I personally am not worried about finding a striker that is better than what we have, because we have next to nothing at the moment. Yak is immobile, Saha has lost it totally, Anichebe is unproven and Vaughan wont make it. Beckford has some potential but you can't see him taking it to the better teams in the league.
We seem to have some great young players but we do not get to see them play consistently. Go with a "youth policy" and stick to it ? hopefully we will see the rewards later on.
For me, the worse situation was the feeling of merely drifting along with no ambitions or goals (every pun intended). I feel that we are going nowhere just waiting for something to happen, a catastrophe or an investor. We need to make decisions, have policies, put our own future in our hands. I would support the Manager and The Management totally if I felt that they were pursuing something.
This could be tried in January when Tim's away. JV should be given one last chance and Beckford should be given a couple of games with the full 90.
It's a curiosity thing.
I honestly am not enthusiastic about our kids and really I have not seen anything to get too excited about Rodwell either, despite the hype. We usually empty our academy each season and if you look at the results of our reserve sides you can see why.
I reckon Villa have found a good one in Albrighton but most seem to flatter to deceive. Almost all the best players in the Premier League are unfortunately foreign and that is the same for our team. Pienaar (despite his criticism for wanting away) has the best work ethic followed by Cahill (another foreigner)... just look without the blue tinted specs and you will see that we do not have any young players seriously pushing for places.
The Ajax and Barcelona academies are world renowned and I believe run by people with vision who teach technique and attitude.
While most English academies have improved, they are still run by people like Steve Round and various other FA coaching course products.
We need a revolutionary not an evolutionary approach.
I thought "The Everton Way" was quite a progressive step but have not seem any more about it nor its success or failure.
Anybody more informed?
True, a lot of the academy grads won't make it but the setup should be aiming to bring through at least one player every year who can compete with the squad, this may not be a Rooney but an Osman or a Hibbert.
The sooner we start affording the best of our youngsters prolonged opportunities, the sooner I think we will become aligned to what our future course must necessitate.
Unless of course that insanely wealthy lifelong Everton fan finally comes out of the woodwork!
Jay, some time ago, these pages discussed the dearth of coaching in the UK ? the Howard Wilkinson schools of pitch-based percentage footballing misery and how players with flair these days tend to come from foreign shores where it hasn't been schooled out of them.
This scouting issue is a old chestnut and has been debated many times over the past years. We actually had Baines and Jags as youngsters and let them go... where were our youth development people??? Both ex-academy kids were developed elsewhere and then BOUGHT back! (Good business acumen, my arse!!)
What usually happens is our scouts report back raving about certain players, only to find big European teams have enquired with the big bucks to back it up!
There are database companies now with details of thousands of players gathered by scouts they hold on retainers. Clubs can pay for this info or pay them to send their scout to watch teams/players for them in a given situation rather than employ full-time scouts.
When you go out of your catchment area, it's extremely difficult, cut throat competition. Better coaching is needed closer to home to make the scouts' job easier.
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1 Posted 26/12/2010 at 21:59:36
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To Moyes's credit, he has tried to lower the age of the squad, and as mentioned we currently have Coleman, Fellaini and Rodwell with possibly Barkley as excellent young players.
The current Barcelona team was built through the youth team, not just the players, but the whole system, tactics, etc to make it an easy progression from youth to reserve to first team.
Everton have to admit that we currently and for the foreseeable future can't compete in the transfer market and wages so the only way to go is youth.