Roberto Martinez has already “hit the ground running” since being unveiled as Everton FC manager last month.
But there is one area at Goodison he is particularly keen to get his teeth into in the weeks and months ahead.
The Toffees boss is keen to help transform little boys Blue into men.
Everton had five youngsters on duty at the recent Under-20 World Championships, but while Ross Barkley has already enjoyed some first-team exposure, Martinez is keen to accelerate the progress of players like John Lundstram, John Stones, Chris Long and Luke Garbutt into fully fledged senior players.
Chief Executive Robert Elstone, speaking at a Liverpool Business Week breakfast yesterday, explained Martinez’s mission to turn promising teenagers into accomplished first teamers.
“Clearly our Academy graduates are very very important,” he said.
“Roberto has come in and probably one of the first things he has looked at is the transition between 16/17 years of age when players are almost leaving the Academy up to 21 and 22.
“He feels that we have improvements to make in that age group.
“In this country, at an age when development ought to be at its most intense and at its most valuable, we almost stop developing.
“Players go from the Academy into reserve or Under-21 football and the development plan stops.
“Roberto has already started to look at coaching and structures and how we go about looking at that very important age group.
“It’s not an area of expertise for me, but our head of Youth Development Alan Irvine and Roberto will tell you that at a point when a player is on the cusp of professional football it seems rather perverse to slow down their development.
“We should be accelerating and intensifying it at a time when technical development is still really, really important.
“We certainly can’t assume that a boy has reached his technical development by the time he reaches 17 or 18.”
Everton already have an impressive track record of developing players from their youth Academy – with Wayne Rooney, Jack Rodwell, Francis Jeffers, Gavin McCann, David Unsworth and Michael Ball all making the step up from the youth team to full England international level in the past two decades.
But equally there have been other young talents – initially rich in promise and capped at junior international levels – who failed to progress beyond a handful of senior appearances: names like Michael Branch, Jamie Milligan, Kevin McLeod, Peter Clarke, Neil Moore, Adam Farley, Phil Jevons, Nick Chadwick and Jon O’Connor.
It’s an area Martinez hopes to improve upon at Everton in the near future.
“Sometimes maybe the focus is on converting a young lad into being a tough, winning Premier League footballer to the detriment of maybe some of his technical development,” added Elstone.
“What you have to achieve is a blend of both.
“Roberto’s going to focus closely on that.
“And he’s got a great, great guy leading that in Alan Irvine and that augurs well for us getting that right.”
The Blues boss has already made an impact on all of the staff at Finch Farm and Goodison.
Elstone was in Austria along with chairman Bill Kenwright and director Jon Woods on Sunday to witness Martinez’s first match as Everton manager against Austria Vienna.
And he explained the impact the new boss has already had.
“He’s hit the ground running, is full of enthusiasm, has a great work ethic, but above else has come in with new ideas, a fresh approach – but absolutely sensitive to what’s already there because there’s already a lot of good stuff here which has been built up over a number of years.
“But he’s been terrific and we’re all excited and optimistic.
“He never stops working and he’s a very nice man. So it augurs well.
“We know this is a results game and Roberto has been absolutely phenomenal in the very short space of time he has been with us and we are all very optimistic for what lies ahead.”
