Everton Academy finally gets a shake-up

Everton's Academy has been through some rough times in recent years, with few trophies to celebrate, and even fewer players making it through the development levels to become fully fledged Premier League stars.

The days of local talent seamlessly making it through to the first team seem a distant memory. While the case of Anthony Gordon — our last big academy product — signing for Barcelona after a highly successful spell with Newcastle United could be cited as a success story, it comes with the rather embarrassing caveat that he only joined the Everton Academy in 2012 as an 11-year-old after having been released by Liverpool. We didn't discover him; we just picked up our neighbours' discarded dross.

Much of the criticism directed at Finch Farm over the last decade has focused on a persistent "jobs for the boys" culture. Under the former regime, ex-players frequently seemed to be handed plum development roles, leaving fans to question their actual qualifications for such roles that should be critical to the modern infrastructure of top-flight professional football.

David Unsworth was the prime example. He presided over a period of heavily mixed fortunes for the Young Blues, winning the Premier League 2 (then the Under-23 trophy) twice — first in 2017 and again in 2019. Yet, while those trophies looked nice in the cabinet, the actual output was damning. Unsworth's teams were often built around physically mature 22-year-olds who dominated youth football but completely lacked the skills and spirit needed along the pathway to the top tier, eventually slipping down into the EFL wilderness.

When Unsworth departed, Paul Tait stepped up, putting in 8 years of dedicated service across the U18s and U21s. But this week, the club finally drew a line under that entire era.

The New Dawn: Clearing the Decks

Following a comprehensive, 6-month strategic review led by Technical Director Nick Cox, the club announced a sweeping restructure that completely abolishes the traditional U21 Head Coach role. Paul Tait has left the club, bringing an end to his 16-year association with the Blues.

Instead of comfortable continuity, Everton appear to be finally implementing a highly modern, streamlined leadership structure under new Academy Director Dean Rastrick, who arrived this summer with an elite youth-development pedigree from Tottenham Hotspur and Norwich City.

The new structure signals a massive shift toward accountability and specialised progression of young developing talent:

• David Hughes (Head of Academy Player Development): Joining after a stint at Newport County and prior elite academy experience at Manchester United, Hughes takes on a massive, unified remit. He will directly oversee the U21 group, bridging the gap between youth football and first-team demands.

• Carl Darlington (Head of Academy Coach Development): After a steadying hand as interim director, Darlington returns to a permanent role focused purely on elevating the quality of coaching across all age groups.

• Nick Chadwick (PDP Senior Coach & Loans Programme Manager): In a vital move for modern football finance, former Everton Aademy graduate Chadwick will explicitly manage the development and outward loaning of players.

• Ben Dickson: Earns a well-deserved internal promotion to Head of Academy Recruitment.

Why This Matters in the Friedkin Era

This complete overhaul isn't just about shifting names on office doors; it represents a fundamental change in philosophy driven by The Friedkin Group's broader mandate to make Finch Farm a productive pipeline.

Under SCR constraints, homegrown talent is quite literally worth its weight in gold. Pure profit on the balance sheet is what keeps modern clubs alive. Yet, our current reality was starkly highlighted by this summer’s standard academy cull, where 12 players — including Roman Dixon and Francis Okoronkwo — were released upon their contracts expiring, sparked by long-standing injuries and a lack of belief that they could break into David Moyes's rigid first-team squad structure.

We can no longer afford to run a finishing school for players destined for League One. The academy must exist to build modern, dynamic athletes capable of stepping out at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium and performing in the top flight, or generating vital trading capital.

Nick Cox and Dean Rastrick are finally bringing an elite, audited, and unsentimental structure to a department that felt stagnant for far too long. The "old boys' club" is officially dismantled. Now, the real work begins.

 

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