I was thinking more about this when playing fifa last night and realising past talents that have started to blossom elsewhere since leaving us..
Moise Kean
Ademola Lookman
Both great young talents that came here but didn't get rated by managers or given a bit of patience. Most likely both worth alot of money now too.
Barry needs patience, and minutes. He is a better footballer than Beto, so we simply must support him and back him. I believe he has the right qualities to succeed, and has shown glimpses of good all round play, just needs to put one in the back of the net and build on understandings with team mates.
No point buying great young talent if we won't let them develop here and then become a success only once they move away..
I am seeing this revisionism a lot these days.
It's missing a massive amount of context and implies that both Lookman and Kean left Everton and became world beaters after other clubs gave them space to develop.
But what actually happened to them both after Everton?
It took Lookman 5 years after leaving us to get his move Atalanta where he started to shine in a very specialized second striker role most teams don't use. Recall that after leaving us for Leipzig he was bounced out on loan to Leicester and Fulham because he wasn't making an impression.
Kean returned back to Juventus and didn't make the cut there and wasn't impressing before he made the move to Fiorentina at a bargain price and things finally started to click for him.
The players they are now at 27-28 is not who they were when we signed them as promising 19 year olds. Let's stop pretending like other teams immediately recognized some undeveloped greatness in them. They failed to make an impression at the next clubs they were at after Everton until finally finding a team that fits them, and these are not even the top of Serie A but the Everton's of that league.
Did we have another five years to waste on them not wanting to be here and put the work in? No, selling them was always the right decision.
