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This week Everton have been linked with a £8 -10 million move for Manchester City’s Michael Johnson who was at Everton when he was a schoolboy. Last year Everton signed Phil Jagelkia from Sheffield United for £4 million who was also once at Everton as a schoolboy, they did the same with Leighton Baines, the combined fee for them both set them back £10m on players they could of kept at the club! The question which seems to be cropping up is ‘Is our Academy doing enough to bring in and keep quality young players’?

The answer at this time would seem to be no. Over the past decade Everton have brought through a number of players but only a few have made it. Players such as Michael Branch, Danny Cadamarteri, Francis Jeffers and Michael Ball have all been good prospects but none have managed to make it to the heavy heights as it was predicted. Although Everton did make a total of £14 million for Jeffers and Ball when they left Everton their careers tumbled into insignificance.

Everton sold Richard Dunne to Manchester City back in 2000 for £3 million. Walter Smith believed he wouldn’t really be a big miss but since he’s been at Manchester City he has been their best player in many peoples view and is now apparently leaving for around £5 million with a number of suitors interested in the Irish defender. Dunne was a product who we kept at Everton and turned out to be a great player after being sold.

However, Everton have brought through a few players into the first team who have done well. Leon Osman and Tony Hibbert have been playing for Everton for a combined 11 years and have both established themselves as important players for the club. Everyone knows about the success of Wayne Rooney who did make Everton a reported £30 million profit on the striker.

Also James Vaughan and Victor Anichebe have also recently broken into the first-team over the last couple of years but there are doubts about both players. Anichebe only seems to be effective when he comes off the bench and Vaughan has had horrendous injury problems.

“Last year Everton signed Phil Jagelkia from Sheffield United for £4 million who was also once at Everton as a schoolboy, they did the same with Leighton Baines, the combined fee for them both set them back £10m on players they could of kept at the club!”

Everton believe that moving to Finch Farm will help the academy players with brand new facilities and they can also brush shoulders with the first-team squad. However, surely it really comes down to academy staff being able to develop and judge the youth players right to help Everton F.C continue to move forward and prosper.

If the new batch of youth players such as Jack Rodwell, John Paul Kissock and Jose Baxter fail to break into the first-team squad then Everton need to seriously think about restructuring their youth system.

And now, if the move for Michael Johnson DOES go through, Everton could be seen to be wasting £10m they didn’t need to spend, if their academy could / had spotted talent whilst at Everton.

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