A very reliable source in the shape of The Bobble has today revealed that Paul Tait will be leaving Everton shortly. The Under 21 coach has been in charge of that age group for four full seasons having taken over from David Unsworth in 2022. Prior to that he had been the head coach of the U18s for another five seasons.
In those nine seasons if you tracked the players that had been under his guidance at the time you would find Barcelona’s new signing Anthony Gordon plus Jarrad Branthwaite and Harrison
Armstrong as players who have proved themselves as being part of the Blues’ first team squad as well as a few others who have gone on to prove themselves beyond the Blues’ Academy like Isaac Price and Ellis Simms. In addition, there are players who feature regularly in Championship sides like Lewis Dobbin, Nathan Broadhead and Tom Cannon.
I guess it is something that Tait was perhaps expecting given the appointment of new Academy director Dean Rastrick two months ago.
The role of Under 21 manager is almost a no-win situation. On the one hand if you develop players to a certain level where they are ready to go out on loan as he did often, then on the other hand you are left with a weakened, younger playing squad to try to win some games and more importantly develop together and grow into players ready for the first team.
No matter how you look at that it’s an extremely difficult balancing act. The fact that he saw U21 regulars Isaac Heath, Will Tamen, George Finney, Jack Patterson, George Morgan and Martin Sherif leave during the season meant he was often playing 16 and 17 year-olds in their place.
Some of those first year professionals (some were still scholars) will be regulars next season no matter who is in charge and there are some outstanding prospects amongst them.
It was commonplace to hear all the graduates speaking highly of Tait when interviewed. One of the things I personally liked about him was that he regularly adopted the style of the current first team manager in terms of formation and approach. You won’t need reminding that in Benitez, Lampard, Dyche and Moyes that is a variety of styles at first team level! It may have been under instruction of course but it was different to the previous regime where results seemed to have taken priority over developing the pipeline to the first team.
It seems on the face of it a little harsh. Like any manager he is only as good as the squad he has to work with. He spoke glowingly of young Braiden Graham as the latter received his Young Player of the Year award recently and if that is his crowning glory as a coach it’s not a bad way to bow out (see below).
Change will always happen of course, it is called “evolution”. There’s a suggestion other changes will follow, you wonder about Keith Southern (below) who had a very good year with the Under 18s. He could either replace Tait or likewise be relieved.
It’s always about the players for me, if the recruitment is right at academy level as well then it should follow that there is a production line to the Toffees’ first team. David Moyes, rightly or wrongly, has strongly suggested that there is nobody even close to being called up to first team level. That has to be the ultimate aim!
