I think most people agree that we should judge the Everton Academy including the Under 21s and Under 18s on their ability to progress the football careers of young footballers to the professional game. I say “professional game” rather than Everton’s first team because it’s reported that only 4% of teenage scholars ever make it to the top flight of football in England. That’s an astonishingly low figure given the amount of effort ploughed into youth development by football clubs and, of course, not
forgetting the young hopefuls themselves. Everton are definitely in that range if not lower, certainly currently.
The football facts around the Under 21s’ performance on the pitch last season were that they finished a disappointing 18th out of a 29-team league. They missed out on the final run of Premier League 2 knock-out fixtures and instead were pitted in a somewhat pointless knock-out competition against some teams from the Professional Development League (mainly Championship U21 sides). They also struggled this time around against the physically stronger Football League sides that they faced in competitions such as the Vertu Trophy.
In fairness, the last 5 competitive fixtures of the season saw a run of 4 victories where they scored a very healthy 18 goals and conceded 10. That happened a few times during the season where they had runs of 2 or 3 successive wins, scoring plenty of goals but ultimately falling short. An early season cross-competition run of 5 successive defeats with a goal tally of 8 scored and 13 conceded tells its own story.
The success stories off the field?
Undoubtedly, winger Isaac Heath (below, in red) was a highly successful loan to League Two Accrington Stanley where he scooped all their Young Player of the Season awards and featured in 30 games scoring 4 goals. He recently joined League One Cambridge United for a nominal fee so we must still count that as a success and wish him well. Likewise there were moderately successful loans for striker Martin Sherif (7 appearances for Rotherham and 17 for Port Vale, both League One), George Finney (16 appearances for Ayr United in the Scottish Championship) and also Will Tamen (main picture) who featured 10 times for League Two Tranmere Rovers after captaining the U21s for the first half of the Premier League 2 campaign. There were also two players, George Morgan and Jack Patterson who experienced loans at clubs in France and Poland respectively.
Success stories on the field?
Absolutely no question, Braiden Graham, with 22 cross-competition goals at U21 plus 4 more at U18, was a shining light. Yet, at the same time there was widespread supporter frustration that, in a first team struggling to score goals, there could not have been some cameo opportunities for the young talent from Northern Ireland. At least his efforts were recognised by the National team as he was recently involved with the seniors from his home country. He’s pictured here with another vaguely familiar French football talent.
Also, on the pitch there were breakthrough seasons at U21 level for a few players who were just 16 at the start of the season, notably attacking midfielder Malik Olayiwola and winger Shea Pita (pictured below after signing his first professional deal with the Toffees). Both are truly exciting talents.
In addition to those mentioned as successes, I must also pick out George Pickford who was top quality in goal and a positional change that saw a quite dramatic upturn in performance for Luca Davis (pictured below). A centre back during his early years, following the January departure of regular right back George Finney, Davis was handed an opportunity at right back. He was outstanding in that position, even scoring 4 goals.
Davis has a good blend of physical strength, pace and ball carrying ability and, I’m sure you’ll agree from the video below, an eye for goal! A certain irony, like with Graham, that a first team crying out for a comfortable right back couldn’t see what was under their own nose!
The squad will return for training in a week or two, still some doubt as to will be in the manager’s hotseat. One of the benefits of playing so many 16 year old players last season is, of course. that they have that experience under their belt for the coming campaign . Good luck to them all!
