This last season was a big one for several players, some of them starting for the Everton U18s as first year scholars then moving up to the U21 age group side. Exactly how it should be!
For all of the critics with the club’s apparent inability to bring youth players through to the first team, this year was one of considerable progress that saw a new leading goalscorer after the promotion of last year’s prolific marksman Braiden Graham. That honour fell to young Scotsman Ceiran Loney (see main picture)
who, courtesy of a final day hat-trick took his tally to a healthy 11 for the season, leapfrogging previous leading scorer, Ray Robert, at the last hurdle.
The nice thing to see was how well the goals were spread out amongst the squad with 6 players getting 5 or more across competition for the season. The six included England Under 16 international Jake Doughty who, as a midfielder, scored 5 goals in the last 6 games of the season. He’s pictured below beating an Italy defender to the ball in an international game.
The team finished a respectable 4th in a very strong U18 Premier League North behind the two runaway Manchester club academies and Newcastle United.
Also high in the scoring charts was Malik Olayiwola (below) on 7 goals despite playing half the season with the U21s and grabbing another 3 goals at that level.
The side managed to score 5 on 3 occasions with the standout result being the final game of the season when they thrashed champions Manchester City 5-3. Their average goals scored per game (across competition) was an impressive 2.09
In the Cups, the FA Youth Cup ended in disappointment despite having hotshot Braiden Graham in the ranks and venturing further than the two previous years.
As for the return to business for the 2026/ 27 season I would expect whoever is signed up on scholarship terms in the summer to feature very heavily for the U18s. In many ways the U18s were helped from time to time by Loney and Olayiwola, even Braiden Graham stepping down from the U21s, often doing double duty across age groups to help the younger boys. Such has been the turnover at U21 level this summer (and you would expect more departures either permanent or on loan) that last year’s scholars will, in the main, be the nucleus of the U21s for the 2026/27 season.
Ones to watch out for in making that transition are, in my opinion, the afore-mentioned Doughty, centre back Lewis Evans, left back Harvey Billington, and midfielders Melvin Matos and Jonathan Nsangou. Little or nothing was seen (due to injury) of two centre backs signed last season, John Dodds and Reuben Gokah but they are apparently highly rated by the club so could also feature at the higher age group.
The new recruits/ scholars have yet to be named and it remains to be seen what changes managerially or structurally the new Academy head Dean Rastrick might make but U18s head coach Keith Southern, for one, can be rightly proud of the last season!
