Everton’s academy is in transition. Is it on course to deliver ‘homegrown superstars’?

Under American owners The Friedkin Group (TFG), there is expected to be a renewed focus on the academy setup. After completing its takeover of the club in December, TFG mentioned “cultivating homegrown superstars” as one of its key aims.

The divisions below are littered with Everton academy graduates who are either still developing or did not quite make the grade. West Bromwich Albion’s Isaac Price, a Northern Ireland international, Wrexham and Wales forward Nathan Broadhead, Sheffield United’s Tom Davies, Coventry City’s Ellis Simms, and Ishe Samuels-Smith, on loan at Swansea City from Chelsea, can all be found in the Championship, England’s second tier.

That sizeable cohort explains Everton’s rise in Training Ground Guru’s latest academy productivity rankings, which assess “English academies according to the number of graduates who made at least one appearance in the top five English leagues (Premier League, Football League and National League), as well as in the other ‘Big Five’ European leagues — La Liga (Spain), Bundesliga (Germany), Serie A (Italy) and Ligue 1 (France) in 2024-25”.

Everton leap from eighth to fourth in this year’s table, behind only Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Liverpool are seventh. These are solid outcomes. Only a tiny proportion of academy players make the breakthrough at the top level, and forging any kind of career in the game is seen as an achievement.

» Read the full article at The Athletic [£]

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