Comments on: Academy let them go but do they regret?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:13:26 +0000

Nice to hear some good thoughts on this so far.

By: Mike (tb1)

Mike (tb1) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:42:11 +0000

One of the hard facts is that players such as Baines and Jagielka have matured in the way they have precisely by not being at Everton. Had we kept onto them they would likely have not developed and would not be the players they are today. We simply cannot put 4-5 academy players into the first eleven for a full season, it would turn out disastrous however that is the only way the players would actually develop. As such the money spent on Jagielka and Baines is not money lost or wasted at all, they would not exist as the players they are had we kept onto them.

As for Richard Dunne leaving that is an entirely different issue, based on whether or not we should have sold him and quite frankly Walter Smith is the worst manager Everton have had in my lifetime, even over Mike Walker. The same for Rooney, Jeffers etc, we sold them for whatever reasons and that should be praise not criticism for the academy.

To sum up, only a few players can make the cut, academy players will have a detrimental effect on the first team in the short-term unless they are real wonderkids, apart from Rooney we don’t have any examples of that. If some have to go and return later, we will not be buying the same player as the one we kept on.

By: John

John — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:15:45 +0000

I think we should have far more players coming through than we have but I don’t dwell on ‘the ones that got away’ – The RS have let far more go than us but as much as it pains me to say it, maybe we should take a leaf out of United’s book and loan out young players for a Season or so to let them develop. We do half of this at the moment – We loan out and then seel them to Club. What’s all that about?????

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:07:48 +0000

“for the years he’s been away we would have paid him over £8m in wages had he been with the club”

of course we wouldn’t, don’t be daft…

By: Issac Merlon

Issac Merlon — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:43:01 +0000

If the academy can’t see potential at a young age then they should be sacked for not doing their job in my opinion.

By: Joanne

Joanne — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:56:11 +0000

I don’t believe there is any regrets. Firstly i’m personally a believer in looking forward not backward anyway. But it wasn’t Moyes who sold him so there can be no recriminations now, also, for the years he’s been away we would have paid him over £8m in wages had he been with the club.
Had we kept any half decent players and not been as bad as we were then we might not have bought the players we have to fill the places, I believe our players we currently have are better than Dunne so I dont see any cause for regret.
The same I believe can be said of Jagielka in the wages we saved. Plus the experience he gained in a heavily relied upon role at Sheff U compared to what games/opportunities he would have got at Everton have IMO made him the player he is. I’d argue the same point for Baines, but to a lesser extent as his experience isn’t as much, but, all in all i’m not a bit bothered we’ve sold them and then bought them back.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:39:07 +0000

I’m not sure that Moyes rates the academy very highly because of the amount of youth players he has signed from other clubs. Turner, Ruddy, Gosling, Spencer and Jutkiewicz to name a few.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:33:17 +0000

Few shed tears when Dunne left he was unreliable on and off the park. Only for likes of Keegan and Pearce persisting with him he’d have been out the game by now. Jagielka admitted himself that with hindsight being let go was the makings of him. But the combined fees of buyin back what we let go does raise serious questions about what the academy is doing to develop youth players – what about more loans to get the first team experience needed like with Ossie.

By: Mark Sadler

Mark Sadler — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:12:07 +0000

Many times a player gets beter by developing his game by playing first team ball. When Everton cannot offer that as perhaps we were too strong at that particular position at the time then the player moes on gets better and comes back. Seems logical to me.

By: David Jones

David Jones — Sat, 31 May 2008 12:48:24 +0000

Like Michael Johnson is apparently the ‘new gerrard’.
Is that a good thing or not? “_”