Everton U23s lose to Peterborough in cup game

I was going to write something philosophical about rather watch the U23s lose than the first team, but couldn't be arsed. Oh well, with any luck I'll still wake up tomorrow morning, and if I do, I'll still be a Blue. 🤷‍♂️

Well, there is this link on YouTube again:

Everton U23 vs Peterborough U23 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴

But I can't see it somehow with the Premier League slate...

If you want to see more clearly the sickness that pervades EFC, then look at the youth team – not the derby. The fans shout the easy answer "Sack the board" – but the problem is at Finch Farm.

Bill. And the professional pie eater still clings to his job with the youth showing no ambition to test himself, thanks to Teary-Arse "jobs for life" pledges.

The fabled Under-23 success case, in which everyone thinks plucking these players into the first team will improve things.

Club is rotten to the core.

I honestly think this change of direction at Under-23 level is something that needs preserving with because there are quite a few very young kids gaining massive experience, and I'm certain this will eventually bring better rewards?

It's hard to disagree with much of the above, though I don't think Finch Farm is the root of our problems. My worry is that there is so much wrong with our club that the failures going on at Finch Farm will get overlooked.

The only positives at moment is that at last we are bringing the young players through early to the U23s. But really we shouldn't be losing 0-3 at home to the likes of Peterborough even if they did have a few first-teamers playing.

We just haven't backed up our strategy by buying in some decent young players to back up the youngsters. That suggests a complete failure of our scouting system.

Unsworth is the easy scapegoat, but the issues are more than just him. Having said that, it's time for him and Ebbrell to move on and get a fresh approach in.

Sadly I don't see anybody at our Club with the ability and foresight to carry out the root and branch changes we need, so Moshiri will just toss a coin and either Benitez or Brands will go and the rest will carry on untouched.

I think this puts into perspective whether Simms and Onyango etc are ready for the Premier League. Loans are needed.

On the basis that U23 teams are broadly reflective of the status of their main team, this means Everton is notm just much worse than Kipetty's mob, but significantly worse than Peterborough.

Phill,

You say we haven't brought anyone in to back up the youngsters... I don't know that it meets your criteria but there is some fresh blood coming in: Okoronkwo and Nash are new intake.

I think there were a couple last season too but, prior to that we had the transfer ban in place, didn't we?

If you're looking for more experienced players coming in higher up than that, then there's been Kean and Nkounkou... and where are they now?

Michael, yep Okoronkwo, who's played, what, 20 mins for the u18s and also Iman Jagne who dropped rapidly from the U23s to the U18s and really has been underwhelming in terms of his impact. But he's moved countries and may improve.

I deliberately used the word “ decent”. In recent years we've missed out on so many good young PROFESSIONALS from other clubs, highlighted because we could have signed them even during the ban.

The likes of Leeds, Villa, Brighton have moved ahead of us in attracting and buying youngsters from other clubs. Right back is the obvious example, we've tried converted midfielders but never addressed the issue at u18/23 to allow maybe someone to challenge at first team level.

The fact that every player in our squad last night came through the u18s is commendable, and we've moved on a lot of the deadwood we had. But there are many components to establishing a good U23s team, I just think we're missing a vital ingredient.

Phill (11), the one player they really missed out on they let go, Joe Gelhardh, a mad Liverpool fan, Liverpool had the chance to sign him twice as a kid but decided not to, Everton had him but let him go so he went to Wigan, was getting rave notices there so we must have seen him, maybe the transfer fee put us off,
£1.6M when Wigan at a low ebb financially sold him to Leeds Unt eighteen months ago.

A cocky Scouser and an aggressive striker for Leeds this season, still only nineteen would have been an ideal signing for us when Leeds snapped him up, where were the Everton scouts when this lad was impressing at Wigan, or maybe they did recommend him but it wasn't followed up on.

Dave, yeah Gelhardt was a big miss, the other ex RS Wigan had was Sean McGurk, he played well against us in the Youth Cup tie …..he too signed for Leeds. Best player in the next Youth Cup game? ….Livramento of Chelsea, signed by Southampton, now their regular right back.
We obviously can't sign every good young player but I'm just baffled that our scouting system picks so few, we seem to revamp it every 18 months with a new “ Head of Somethingorother”. I'm happy to acknowledge Branthwaite and Nkounkou though.