Everton Youth Teams Thread

[Stephenlloyd]

I would say once we stop playing the dross, and assuming at all levels we’ll play 4-3-3, this would arguably be our strongest XI:

Virginia

Bramall
Feeney
Gibson
Foulds

Markelo
Adeniran
Evans

Bowler
Hornby
Broadhead/Mampala

Back-ups from: Hilton, Con, Astley, Denny, Gordon, Sambou, Lavery

I feel it’s time to get rid of Charsley, he’s been decent but turns 22 in November and still doesn’t have a set position. We really are starved in both full-back positions though.

This was the thing last season. Playing garbutt, grant, hennen and even Baxter getting games. I can understand a little bit last season as defending champions.

But I would rather see us mid table and the lads from the 18’s the previous season playing every week

 

[Eggs]

Unless they leave, there's no way we'll stop playing those players though. Not a chance that we're having 4/5 lads earning senior wages not even playing for the under 23s, it would be madness and would make it even more difficult to shift them.

..it’s an interesting one. I expect Galloway and Browning are in their final years anyway so it would be strategically poor to block the way of younger, more promising players who might have futures at the club. I expect we are doing all we can to find clubs for those two in particular.

 

[blueloon]

I would say once we stop playing the dross, and assuming at all levels we’ll play 4-3-3, this would arguably be our strongest XI:

Virginia

Bramall
Feeney
Gibson
Foulds

Markelo
Adeniran
Evans

Bowler
Hornby
Broadhead/Mampala

Back-ups from: Hilton, Con, Astley, Denny, Gordon, Sambou, Lavery

I feel it’s time to get rid of Charsley, he’s been decent but turns 22 in November and still doesn’t have a set position. We really are starved in both full-back positions though.

I think you’re right to be harsh on Charsley, a great team player at U23s level but not going to make it with us. Similarly I don’t think Bramall has much chance, and much as I love Broadhead for his goal scoring ability, last night he proved he hasn’t got the pace for PL level. I would say that or the first time ever Sambou impressed me with his 2nd half performance.
I assume that Joe Williams is not in your team as you think he’ll be with the first team/ loan.

 

[Lanolin]

..it’s an interesting one. I expect Galloway and Browning are in their final years anyway so it would be strategically poor to block the way of younger, more promising players who might have futures at the club. I expect we are doing all we can to find clubs for those two in particular.

Galloway is contracted until 2020, as is Williams. Pennington until 2021. Browning is the only one of those who is out of contract at the end of the year.

We will of course be trying to get Galloway out, but it's not his fault we gave him a long and lucrative contract, and if leaving would mean a big drop in wages (which it undoubtedly would), who could blame him for not being keen to go? It's a difficult balance. While you're correct in saying that we would ideally like younger players to be coming through, how likely are they to commit their futures to us if they see lads 2 or 3 years older than them being frozen out completely and not being given the opportunity to kick a ball because they didn't quite progress as much as we hoped? In my opinion giving Browning and now Pennington new contracts was silly, because they never looked likely to become PL players, but now that we've done it we're pretty much obligated to play them in the under 23s, as we did with Henen, Grant etc last year.

 

[toffeejack]

Galloway is contracted until 2020, as is Williams. Pennington until 2021. Browning is the only one of those who is out of contract at the end of the year.

We will of course be trying to get Galloway out, but it's not his fault we gave him a long and lucrative contract, and if leaving would mean a big drop in wages (which it undoubtedly would), who could blame him for not being keen to go? It's a difficult balance. While you're correct in saying that we would ideally like younger players to be coming through, how likely are they to commit their futures to us if they see lads 2 or 3 years older than them being frozen out completely and not being given the opportunity to kick a ball because they didn't quite progress as much as we hoped? In my opinion giving Browning and now Pennington new contracts was silly, because they never looked likely to become PL players, but now that we've done it we're pretty much obligated to play them in the under 23s, as we did with Henen, Grant etc last year.

i didn't get pennington one bit, no offence to the lad but he's one of the worst players i've seen get a game for everton. Players like browning and galloway are better than him and even they are way down our pecking order, so it was stupid. The only thing i could think is that we thought we could get a good fee from leeds for him.

 

[Eggs]

Galloway is contracted until 2020, as is Williams. Pennington until 2021. Browning is the only one of those who is out of contract at the end of the year.

We will of course be trying to get Galloway out, but it's not his fault we gave him a long and lucrative contract, and if leaving would mean a big drop in wages (which it undoubtedly would), who could blame him for not being keen to go? It's a difficult balance. While you're correct in saying that we would ideally like younger players to be coming through, how likely are they to commit their futures to us if they see lads 2 or 3 years older than them being frozen out completely and not being given the opportunity to kick a ball because they didn't quite progress as much as we hoped? In my opinion giving Browning and now Pennington new contracts was silly, because they never looked likely to become PL players, but now that we've done it we're pretty much obligated to play them in the under 23s, as we did with Henen, Grant etc last year.

..cheers, I wasn’t aware Galloway had two years. We will do well to shift him permanently given how his form really seems to have gone. The decision to give Pennington a 3 year deal still surprises.

 

[Barnfred 55]

I'd be fairly certain the 3 of them will all leave within next 10 days

Yeah I would too. Certainly Pennington and Browning you'd have thought would be in demand. Williams too. Just thinking of reasons why they haven't gone out already.

 

[Nymzee]

Unless they leave, there's no way we'll stop playing those players though. Not a chance that we're having 4/5 lads earning senior wages not even playing for the under 23s, it would be madness and would make it even more difficult to shift them.

They earn the wage whether playing or not. Can’t see Marcel passing off on it. Proper stifles the academy that point of view.

 

[Nymzee]

I think you’re right to be harsh on Charsley, a great team player at U23s level but not going to make it with us. Similarly I don’t think Bramall has much chance, and much as I love Broadhead for his goal scoring ability, last night he proved he hasn’t got the pace for PL level. I would say that or the first time ever Sambou impressed me with his 2nd half performance.
I assume that Joe Williams is not in your team as you think he’ll be with the first team/ loan.

Yeh I’m not sold on Bramall, Broadhead or even Lavery really but struggled to think of who to shove in those positions! I consider Williams first team/loaned out now.

 

[Lanolin]

They earn the wage whether playing or not. Can’t see Marcel passing off on it. Proper stifles the academy that point of view.

See my reply to eggs, it's a lot more nuanced than you're suggesting. Marcel has evidently 'passed off' them playing last night so not sure why'd he'd suddenly change his mind.

 

[Nymzee]

See my reply to eggs, it's a lot more nuanced than you're suggesting. Marcel has evidently 'passed off' them playing last night so not sure why'd he'd suddenly change his mind.

Because the window is still open.

 

[Lanolin]

Because the window is still open.

But the same principle applies even after the window closes. If a player is contracted to us until 2020 and we're not even picking them for the under 23s, you can be sure we'll be paying their wages for that whole period because nobody is coming to take someone off our hands who hasn't kicked a ball for 2 years. If they're playing well for the under 23s then we might get a bit of interest in January, maybe even get a small fee as well as losing their wage. Just pretending players no longer exist once we've decided they won't make it with us will absolutely not help us to run a successful academy.

 

[Nymzee]

But the same principle applies even after the window closes. If a player is contracted to us until 2020 and we're not even picking them for the under 23s, you can be sure we'll be paying their wages for that whole period because nobody is coming to take someone off our hands who hasn't kicked a ball for 2 years. If they're playing well for the under 23s then we might get a bit of interest in January, maybe even get a small fee as well as losing their wage. Just pretending players no longer exist once we've decided they won't make it with us will absolutely not help us to run a successful academy.

They’re not academy players though are they? Browning (24) and Pennington (almost 24) should be nowhere near an academy. If they’re here past the 31st I’ll bet good money we’ll rarely see them. Just because we have them doesn’t mean we have to play them. If they’re not generating interest now whilst playing we may as well drop them. They’re only starting now for the shop window.

It’s just the same as Bolasie and Besic only we can’t risk putting them in the shop window as the stakes are far greater in a PL match.

 

[Lanolin]

They’re not academy players though are they? Browning (24) and Pennington (almost 24) should be nowhere near an academy. If they’re here past the 31st I’ll bet good money we’ll rarely see them. Just because we have them doesn’t mean we have to play them. If they’re not generating interest now whilst playing we may as well drop them. They’re only starting now for the shop window.

It’s just the same as Bolasie and Besic only we can’t risk putting them in the shop window as the stakes are far greater in a PL match.

I didn't say they were academy players though. I said, it won't help us run a successful academy if we just freeze players out once they reach a certain age. No promising 18 year old is going to commit to a 4 or 5 year deal if they think that they'll spend the last 2 years of that kicking their heels because we don't pick them for any team once we get bored of waiting for them to be first team ready, it's just common sense.

I'm not saying we should feel sorry for them or anything, simply that it's not a good business plan to hide away assets which are costing you money so nobody will take them off your hands.

I've already said, giving Browning and Pennington new contracts was stupid, you won't find me arguing there. The damage is done now though, and the only thing worse than giving Pennington a new deal would be giving him a new deal and then refusing to even play him for the under 23s. Same with turning down a £1million bid for Williams in January and then continuing to pay him for 2 years just for turning up to training.

That's before we even get on to the potential pitfalls of having to use under 18s in the 23s before they're ready, and then in turn having to pull players from lower age groups to cover their teams...

There's a lot more to think about when looking at the long term success of the academy than just whether a player currently in the under 23s is going to contribute to the first team.

 

[Nymzee]

I didn't say they were academy players though. I said, it won't help us run a successful academy if we just freeze players out once they reach a certain age. No promising 18 year old is going to commit to a 4 or 5 year deal if they think that they'll spend the last 2 years of that kicking their heels because we don't pick them for any team once we get bored of waiting for them to be first team ready, it's just common sense.

I'm not saying we should feel sorry for them or anything, simply that it's not a good business plan to hide away assets which are costing you money so nobody will take them off your hands.

I've already said, giving Browning and Pennington new contracts was stupid, you won't find me arguing there. The damage is done now though, and the only thing worse than giving Pennington a new deal would be giving him a new deal and then refusing to even play him for the under 23s. Same with turning down a £1million bid for Williams in January and then continuing to pay him for 2 years just for turning up to training.

That's before we even get on to the potential pitfalls of having to use under 18s in the 23s before they're ready, and then in turn having to pull players from lower age groups to cover their teams...

There's a lot more to think about when looking at the long term success of the academy than just whether a player currently in the under 23s is going to contribute to the first team.

I get what you’re saying but I think it’s a little bit different in this case. An 18-year old in the academy won’t be deterred from a signing a long contract because we’ve proven the first team will play you if you’re good enough. The players in question have graduated from the academy and are now BACK in it.

If anything, playing 24-year olds does more damage to attracting youth players than freezing them out ever would.