Feeder Club

[Nymzee]

Why?

FC Leifering are the lower league feeder club of RB Salzburg and by extension RB Leipzig.

I'm saying should we as Everton go down the feeder club route to combat the limitations of youth team football.

Wasn't mentioning turning a team into the next RBL.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Just reading on The Guardian an article explaining the George Hirst deal, obviously is a work around for Leicester to get out of paying lots of compo for the lad.

Got me thinking though, with how poor the level of academy football seems to be in terms of competitiveness, and the stockpile of good young players we have - would anyone be in favour of one day the club buying a stake in a smaller foreign team?

I don’t want to go down the Chelsea/Vitesse route but it’s guaranteed first team football for our best young players and helps us sign academy players for cheaper.

I'm not sure about feeder club but the idea of having a "special arrangement" with either a European or even a Championship club makes good sense. With Joe Royle at Wigan I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of our younger players go there for experience in the future. In similar vein, could we not use Brands' relationship with PSV to strike up a relationship with them. Dutch football is a decent standard for some of our players who are maybe not so suited to he Championship, and they will get a first taste of European football too. Plus any arrangement that moves us closer to signing Lozano is not to be sniffed at.

 

[Azzurri]

FC Leifering are the lower league feeder club of RB Salzburg and by extension RB Leipzig.

I'm saying should we as Everton go down the feeder club route to combat the limitations of youth team football.

Wasn't mentioning turning a team into the next RBL.

I know, but I don’t like that either, at least morally. Say we do it here. How do fans of Doncaster or Wrexham feel about their long history and traditions becoming reduced to Everton’s reserves? Maybe they’d like having good young players, I don’t know. Regardless, I’m not sure there’s any evidence to suggest that sort of system works.

 

[Nymzee]

I know, but I don’t like that either, at least morally. Say we do it here. How do fans of Doncaster or Wrexham feel about their long history and traditions becoming reduced to Everton’s reserves? Maybe they’d like having good young players, I don’t know. Regardless, I’m not sure there’s any evidence to suggest that sort of system works.

If we're doing it I'm not suggesting sending them to the likes of Doncaster or Wrexham mate haha needs to be a European team.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Is there much evidence of players going out to feeder clubs on loan and then becoming a central part of the first team at their parent club? I believe Chelsea have, for instance, sent over 20 players to Vitesse over the years. How many of them have made it back into the first team?

From memory, the only one of those who became a regular is Matic, and that was only after he was sold to Benfica in the meantime.

You're right Bruce, it doesn't work at Chelsea. That's because they don't give them an opportunity through their first team, and in fairness it's difficult when you have so many top class players in there already. Same at City. They just keep on sending them on loan until it's too late and the players end up not taking that final step up in quality.

Ideally they need feeding into the first team set up between the ages 19/22. If it hasn't happened by then the chances are it won't.

For the players sakes the big clubs should sell them to mid level premier clubs, with perhaps a buy back clause to protect their interest. Similar to city did with Iheanacho last year.

Before everyone jumps in, this isn't an exact science and there will always be exceptions. But generally, if players are not getting fairly regular game time at top level by the age of 22/23, it's unlikely they will go on to become a top level player.