Seemingly every few days on the various Rumour Mills (including ToffeeWeb and BBC), Everton are being linked with players who I have never heard of, playing for some mid-ranking foreign team or for clubs such as Brighton, Southampton, Leicester etc, who, if we are honest, is like scratching around a car boot sale for players who may or may not make it at Premier League level.
My thoughts over the last few years are that Everton and their scouting team may do worse than look around the youth and second teams of the teams that seem to buy any young kid within a 50-mile radius (the supposed Top 6). Plenty of young talent at Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City etc, who will need to wait for their opportunity to get first-team experience.
These youngsters will be impatient to start regularly and their frustration at opportunities being limited to the League, Milk, Carabao, Whatever Cup could mean an enterprising team could tempt them away with a promise of development and regular football.
The exception of course would be Cole Palmer who cost £40M+, but I think his transfer will have opened the eyes of similar players who want to play for whoever and potentially Everton could pick them up for around the £10M mark.
Doak, from Liverpool, is playing really well for ‘Boro, and could be a target instead of looking around at players who we need to Google to see who they are. Quansah is another one. Neither are getting a first-team start anytime soon, so could be tempted to move on.
Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea (particularly) have plenty of talent in their ‘shadow squad’ and, if their star players don’t move on soon, clubs could be tempted to reduce wage costs and be open to a transfer of younger players.
Look at the recent young exodus to Germany and Italy (including Bellingham) — why didn’t any Premier League club pick them up before they moved abroad??? … none of them: Abraham, Tomori, Viera, Gittens, Fleming Oxford etc… they were on no-one’s watch list before moving abroad — and most are doing rather well.
Just a thought — instead of paying £multi-millions for experienced players who are not up to Premier League standard — and our own youth development scheme seems wanting just now.