With 16 Everton players away on international duty at various levels and Merlin Rohl injured, it was inevitable that for those left back home at Finch Farm, they would need boosts from the youth squads just to make up the numbers for training.
As we’ve already seen, summer signing Christian Norgaard looks well on the way to recovery so he was one of just nine senior players to be involved. The full training reel is at the end of this post.
Having studied the training footage, I identified the following
younger players from the youth sides as being involved:
Goalkeepers George Pickford, Zach Lee and Seve Patrick
Defenders Ezra Carrington, John Dodds, Luca Davis, Reece Lambert and Francis Boggan
Midfielder Harvey Foster
Forwards Jonathan Nsangou and Ceiran Loney
There may have been others to make up full sides but they were the ones I could identify and most prominent perhaps was the inclusion of youngsters Jonathan Nsangou and Francis Boggan.
Pictured before the session , almost like meeting football royalty in Jack Grealish, are three of the younger players, Carrington, who Jack already knew from Manchester City, big John Dodds and Nsangou.
Nsangou, with four goals in five games for the Under-18s was a natural inclusion. He’s more of an attacking midfield player than a striker so that tally is even more impressive. Here below is a snippet of what he can do in the esteemed company of the first team:
Just as further evidence of his finishing ability with that sweet left foot, here are two recent goals in competitive matches he has scored
Young defender Boggan, still only 15, was more of a surprise. He plays centre back or right back from what I gather. He captains England Under 16s at the age of less than 15 and a half, and clearly has a bright future, albeit he won’t be eligible to sign full scholarship terms with Everton till next summer.
He’s pictured below:
In truth, because there is usually very little coverage of the groups below the Under 18s, I have seen nothing of him. He may get a chance with this season’s FA youth cup squad although the Toffees are already well stocked for defenders in the right age-qualifying bracket. The short clip below show that, even at that tender age of 15, he is not fazed by senior professionals Thierno Barry or Ainsley Maitland-Niles!
The full training video is below, opened amusingly by a Jack Grealish greeting in German. It was nice to see Under 21s boss Dave Hughes and his assistant former Blues striker now coach, Nick Chadwick on the touchline supporting “their” young players and being greeted by David Moyes.
In summary, the focus was naturally on the welcome sight of our defensive midfielder signing from Arsenal, Christian Norgaard, showing his skills but who knows if, in a couple of years time, we won’t instead be talking about a pair that we first saw with the first team here, Nsangou and Boggan. Good luck lads!
