Joe Williams joins Bolton on loan

Good luck to the lad – I hope he comes back better than Schneiderlin.

I wonder what is the situation with Baningime? The few times that I saw him play last season, I was very impressed. I know he picked up an injury, but I don't know if he is back in training.

Hopefully he will sharpen up a bit in the Championship.

Like above let Baningime follow him out on loan and send Kenny plus maybe Dowell too. Kenny isn't getting 30+ games at us; if Coleman is missing, Zuoma and Holgate can cover; if Sigurdsson is missing, Lookman will need that game time if he's kept so I can't see Dowell getting much time either.

It's claimed he played a holding roll last season, Unsie said if he would have been asked to loan out Williams to play this role, he'd have said No as he sees Williams as a box-to-box player and playing the holding role would basically cut off his legs.

He went on to say he watched him 5 or 6 times last season and was very impressed as he did the holding role superbly, something Unsie didn't think he had in the tank. Since then, Silva has talked highly of him, before he got injured pre-season.

Hopefully this will all add up to make Williams an all-round defensive midfielder, maybe in the Gana / Henderson type role where he's an energetic central midfielder who tackles and keeps the ball, something all big teams seem to have within a 3-man midfield.

I believe Davies is a similar style player, he's not a 10 at anything (apart from possibly energy), but he's a solid 7 at everything else.

Again, it's only an opinion (and a big comparison) but Michael Essien used to do this well at Chelsea. Makelele would tackle, Lampard would score and Essien would beast everyone. Again, don't quote me that Williams is am Essien, but he's possibly that mould.

Apologies mate but How can Holgate or Zouma cover for Coleman?!?

Do you watch the games and understand what Silva is trying to achieve with his full-backs? (High energy, offensive, attack-minded, mobile etc). Zouma and Holgate are proper centre-backs and we've all seen Holgate offers little or nothing going forwards from right back.

I really really don't understand your knowledge of what Silva is trying to achieve. Where has this comment come from? Merely to get Kenny some game time to sacrifice our right-hand side cover???

The best thing for him is to go out on loan and get playing time. I don't know if he will make it or not (he reminds me a lot of John Paul Kissock) but it certainly won't help his career if he is only playing U23 this season.

Yes Holgate can cover if that was the only option available but why would we choose that?

We've had so many seasons of shoehorning players into unnatural positions eg Sigurdsson left wing, Martina left back, Holgate right back etc etc and it hasn't worked

We're finally trying to achieve a clear plan that's obviously identifiable. Why in God's name would we choose the rabble of last season instead of specialist players in specialist positions???

It's literally against what Silva is trying to achieve. Why should he undermine himself? I honestly honestly don't get why we would shoot ourselves in the foot like this?

Williams, Dowell and Beningime all need gametime and a full season in the Championship (with a good footballing side) would give them a platform to shine.

Dowell did it for 1/2 a season last year then faded badly. Williams and Baningime could also light up the Championship and come back first team players.

As Brands has said; the project is a long one and is focused on youth and not spending. This summer was about balancing the side and therefore required spend; but that'll not be the norm.

He then got a very long-term injury which set him right back. He came back into the U23s at the back end of the 2016-17 season and, although still full of energy, he looked to me like he had lost one or two yards off his pace.

He then went to Barnsley last season and, playing as a holding midfielder, impressed them enough to offer ٟM for him, which Everton immediately turned down.

He got another injury while impressing Silva this close season which set him back a bit; he has now gone to Bolton but can be recalled at any time.

To me he was ahead of Tom Davies as a 17-year-old and I think he is being looked at by Everton as one who has a future at the club, when he returns from Bolton.

All this talk about your knowledge of Silva and his tactics – I'd ask you to view what Coleman himself as said about them. He said he's told to use his head when to push on and not to bomb on aimlessly just for the sake of it, and leave the central defence exposed.

I'd also ask you if you think neither Holgate or Zouma are able to bomb on when needed, because imo both are quick and Holgate especially is a good passer of the ball. Are you suggesting he can't cross a ball into a box even though he's a professional footballer?

I agree that full backs should play at full-back, but Kenny is at an age and level were 30+ Championship games would benefit him much more than a handfull of sub appearances.

Loan him out and insert a bring-back clause where, if Coleman was injured for a month or longer, we would bring him back. This clause would be beneficial to us as we would have a player returning who is playing regular competitive senior football instead of U23 football.

Little JP was 4-ft nothing. He was brilliant until he got to 14 and stopped growing. He never lost his technical excellence but he was too small even at youth level. He could still dribble around everyone all day long and you couldn't get the ball off him, but he was far too small for the professional game, despite a good loan spell at the now sadly defunct Livingston.

Dowell is not a dribbler. He is an elegant playmaker with superb vision and passing ability. These two players are very different in their skill sets.

I assume you are referring to his languid playing style and if so I'd only say his style is just that and ought not to be mistaken for lack of effort. His game is to keep things simple – in many respects, he is quite like Gana, who I'd never describe in a million years of requiring a rocket in the arse or anywhere else.

ps re: Holgate: "Are you suggesting he can't cross a ball into a box even though he's a professional footballer?" – I refer you to Everton's resident fisherman, Tony Hibbert.

Again, in my opinion, Ledson, Walsh and Williams had more potential than Tom, it doesn't make him a bad player and at the moment he is ahead of the three players I have mentioned.

Walshy was a big favourite of yours and every time I saw him I was very impressed. He has a great range of passing and could do a job in this team. That said he's struggling to get a game for Bristol last I heard. He's perhaps a bit too small.

On Davies though, I only ever heard rave reviews. Not the level of Barkley or Rooney, but not far off. There was scouts from all over Europe watching him too. But my cousin stopped playing not long after that and I fell out of the loop about 3 years ago.

Steve, you know your football and size has nothing to do with ability. Liam's heart is what counts, it's massive, the same as Collins, Ball, Bremner, Giles, Kante and dozens more. I'm not saying Walsh is as good as any of those but his size will not keep him back.

Baningime is tidy in his sideways passing, but I'm yet to see him pick attacking passes, or really look like he's ready to tear up trees to win possession for his teammates.

The kid is young and has only played a handful of times so don't take this as me saying he's not a prospect, it's just imo a kid being given a chance should be putting a hell of a shift in, and never having his heart and desire questioning.

In refferece to Gana, I've never seen a person so far away from him in terms of effort or needing a rocket up his arse as Baningime. Gana is a high energy player who runs around like a loon challenging anything and everything in sight.

Gana is more similar in style to Davies than Baningime, but Baningime would do well to put in half the effort of Gana or Davies next time he's given a chance.

I'd agree with Ed @ 25 in that Baningime has more attributes similar to Schniederlin than Gana.

Lastly, it's again just my opinion but I firmly believe Holgate could cover Coleman if needed, and I also believe he's capable of a decent cross.

Appreciate your response, buddy, but my opinion is different to yours on this one; I do hope Baningime is a destined to be a big player for us. Again, he's young and talented; hopefully, with more matches, he pushes on.

My recollection of the emergence of all these young talents is exactly like that of Dave Abrahams. Ledson and Williams were the top prospects at 17, Ledson an England international and winner alongside Jonjoe Kenny. I first saw Davies in a televised U21s derby and he ran around like a headless chicken before bundling in the equaliser. The standout players were Walsh and Williams. Davies was probably 16 years of age at the time.

Since that particular match, he obviously came on leaps and bounds. Williams had the injury that Dave mentions, Ledson and Walsh were loaned out successfully at Cambridge and Yeovil respectively and returned to discover they'd been somewhat usurped by the good form of Davies and the pre-injury Williams, and the emergence of the younger Baningime. My understanding is that Everton very much wanted to retain Ledson but he was now facing stiff competition for his place and the player himself chose (IMO bravely) to get started on his professional career immediately.

ps: Footage of Baningime is in short supply on the web so we'd both have to re-watch games from last year to decide whether or not Baningime requires a rocket, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.