Kenny signs new three-year deal

The Norwich game was a perfect chance for Koeman to play 2-3 of the in-form youngsters, and I was sad to see that he overlooked the whole youth team for the Norwich game.

Cleverley, Lennon, Valencia et al are the players that will be called upon during injuries and suspensions and so they need to play where possible.

Other than Holgate, I suspect these younger lads will only see brief cameos this season (if at all).

I hope he goes out on loan shortly to aid his progress, I am a massive believer in this for a players future development.

If I was advising young players, the first thing I would tell them is, if you want the best chance of a career in professional football, don't sign for a Premier League club. You have almost zero chance of 1st team football and the club will buy before using their own young players, which will stunt your progress.

Sign for a lower-division club, work hard and make a name for yourself. Then, the Premier League clubs will come to you.

We tend to have a liking for the "local lad made good" story. Just look at Barkley. Yet, even if he does, by some miracle, become a 1st team player, what makes you think he will stay at Everton? Rooney didn't and he was supposed to be a dyed in the wool blue.

He is captain of the U23s and is having a good season. He is committed to football has his feet well grounded. He has done well, hard work doesn't worry him, he knows there is plenty of more hard work in the future, that will not bother him.

The reason he will stay at Everton? He is a committed Evertonian, Rooney was a different story and we could argue the rights and wrongs of that case and never really know the true story. I believe him going saved Everton financially; there is a lot more to that story – Rooney was made out to be the baddie but, as I say, you will never get to the bottom of that story.

Back to Jonjoe, I think he has a very good chance of making it at Everton; if he does, he will stay here.

If Kenny was doing so good at Wigan why was he called back only to be loaned out again? How many times did McEleny get loaned out? Wasn't he the next big thing? Hows Henen working out?

I hope you're right. He makes it into the 1st team and becomes a star player ..but I seriously doubt it.

Also, you are sceptical that Rooney's sale saved the club because it is too coincidental we had such an asset? That makes no sense mate, we were lucky to have such an asset or we would have been in a dire situation. The club was rotten to the core (some argue we still are) and we were flogging assets. Maybe not cease to exist but doubt we'd have stayed in the top league.

But back to Kenny; Unsworth has great faith in him and even gave him a cameo after the much belated sacking of Martinez. If it were up to him, we'd see more of Kenny and I personally would back him not to disappoint. Thing is it is Koeman's decision and I wouldn't be surprised to see him line the squad with his own players before long.

As I said with Rooney, we will never find out the truth of what happened: yes, I fully believe Everton would have been in serious danger money-wise if Rooney hadn't have been sold. Did Everton offer Rooney a big deal to stay? You can believe what you want regards to that... in fact, do you have a version of what you think happened?

However, that is not the main purpose of this post. The question is: When are young players considered good enough for the 1st XI?

Too often we hear that they don't have the experience but, other than send them on loan to lower league clubs, how else would they get that (necessary?) experience? Obvious talents like Colin Harvey, Wayne Rooney and George Best stand out but it seems the likes of Beckham, Scholes et al at Man Utd were thrown into the deep end.

It is not that long ago in a much more physical First Division that Everton threw in the likes of Royle, Hurst, Husband etc.

May be size isn't that important after all.