Sean Dyche has never been one to mince his words.
Asked during Everton’s long sticky patch in the middle of last season whether any players from the academy were ready to help his Premier League strugglers, he replied bluntly.
“If there was an 18-year-old here who I thought was good enough to play in the first team, he would be playing,” Dyche said. “But there is no one I have looked at and thought, ‘You are ready to jump in’ — and I must say that is not just Everton.”
The comment raised eyebrows but had a grounding in truth. At least when it came to academy graduates ready to make an instant impression at Premier League level, Everton’s stocks were relatively bare. The issue prompted a stream of questions when The Athletic asked at the end of last season what you subscribers would like to read about this summer. Here is that piece.
Few associated with the academy would have been quite as candid as Dyche was above, but in private there has been an acceptance there is work to do if the club’s youth programme is to succeed in its objective of providing players for the first team.
Everton’s academy transfer ban, which prohibited signings between 2018 and 2020 after a breach of rules regarding the market for youngsters, has taken its toll. So too the financial woes and subsequent lack of investment that has seen top talent — on the playing and coaching side — leave the club over the past five years.
With cash flow and PSR (profit and sustainability rules) compliance both considerations, proceeds from the sales of Anthony Gordon, Ellis Simms (both now 23), Tom Cannon and Lewis Dobbin (both now 21) alone over the past 18 months total around £70million.
Left-back Ishe Samuels-Smith, long heralded as a potential Everton first-team player, was sold to Chelsea last summer at age 17 due to financial issues, while Manchester City signed promising forward Emilio Lawrence, now 18, a year before. This summer has seen full-back Jayden Lienou, a Wales youth international, also join City after being released and fellow 16-year-old defender Aaron Epia move to Newcastle United. At least one academy coach has ended up making the switch to City, too.
After being appointed in February 2022, director of football Kevin Thelwell’s response to the talent drain across all levels was to attempt to overhaul the academy.
Gareth Prosser joined as academy director, Carl Darlington as head of academy coaching and Dan Micciche as player development lead coach. Former Everton striker James Vaughan was installed first as loans pathway manager and this summer has moved to an expanded remit taking in the head of academy recruitment role. The popular Paul Tait was promoted to manage the under-21 side, with ex-Everton and England full-back Leighton Baines, who this summer secured his UEFA Pro Licence, succeeding him as under-18s head coach.
The hope is that these moves will improve the production line to the first team in the long term, but there has been a more immediate aim to replenish stocks in the academy’s playing ranks. Talent has been brought in from elsewhere, albeit on a meagre budget.
The past year has seen unattached former Chelsea and Arsenal youngsters Malik Mothersille and Omari Benjamin join on trial. While striker Mothersille, now 20, eventually signed for Peterborough United in September and went on to make more than 20 first-team appearances for them in League One, versatile 18-year-old forward Benjamin completed his move at the start of this month. He will be part of Tait’s under-21s in the coming season. In January, 19-year-old Ghanaian winger Kingsford Boakye arrived after the expiration of his contract with Italy’s AC Milan last summer.
Thelwell is revamping the academy recruitment (Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)
The recruitment drive has continued this summer, even after the departure of former head of emerging talent Dan Rice in May to a more senior role at Wycombe Wanderers in League One. While a replacement is found, Rice’s remit has been split between Vaughan and other recruitment department staff.
As trailed by The Athletic, teenage strikers Braiden Graham and Ceiran Loney have joined the under-18 ranks from Northern Ireland’s Linfield and Scottish second-tier club Partick Thistle respectively.
There is excitement about Graham, a 16-year-old seen as a parting gift from former head of academy recruitment Joel Waldron and his staff.
A prolific, diminutive forward with smart movement, he made his senior debut for Belfast’s Linfield aged just 15 and was touted as a future senior international by their manager at the time, David Healy, who is Northern Ireland’s record goalscorer. Graham scored his first senior goal last December against Larne, below, and has already played for Northern Ireland under-18s and under-19s.
As Braiden Graham departs, let’s watch this one more time 😍🚀#COYB #AFJ pic.twitter.com/dL7NNGwDAR
— Linfield FC (@OfficialBlues) July 3, 2024
”He’s got all the tools, but we’ll not be getting carried away — he has got a long, tough road ahead of him,” Healy said. “He’s brave, prowls around and is a deadly finisher.”
Loney is also 16 and is already 6ft 3in (190cm). Strong in the air, he made his first-team debut for Partick in May. He had trials with Everton and fellow Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion before signing a deal at Finch Farm this summer.
Aura off the charts.
Ceiran Loney going straight to the very top. pic.twitter.com/xC0saEvQ04
— reisshaldane (@reisshaldane) May 27, 2024
They join highly-rated England Under-17s goalkeeper Doug Lukjanciks as headline names in Everton’s new batch of academy scholars. Lukjanciks was linked with champions City, Aston Villa and clubs in Germany, but had made clear his intention to stay put this summer.
Defender Freddie Freedman, 16-year-old son of former Crystal Palace and Scotland striker (and now Palace’s sporting director) Dougie, has joined from Manchester United, alongside attacking midfielder Ademide Akarakiri, 15, from Arsenal, while ball-winning midfielder Melvin Matos is the brother of Chelsea’s 19-year-old Alex and has signed from Norwich City.
Of the 12 players handed scholarship teams, only five came through Everton’s ranks — a sign of a shift in approach.
Everton’s first team kicked off their pre-season on Monday, with four young current or former academy players — midfielder Tyler Onyango and goalkeepers Billy Crellin, Harry Tyrer and Zan-Luk Leban — part of the group.
The clearest pathway to Dyche’s senior side appears to be between the posts, with last season’s third-choice ’keeper Andy Lonergan having departed and Everton usually conducting sessions with four players in that position. It opens the door for at least one of Crellin, 24 last month, and 22-year-old Tyrer to be retained in the coming season as a backup option, but there is a feeling they both need loans to push on with their development.
Rangy midfielder Onyango, 21, has seen his progress stall since he made his senior debut in January 2021, in part due to injuries and tough loan spells in League One with Burton Albion and Forest Green Rovers in 2022-23. He spent the second half of last season playing as a central defender for the under-21s.
It is a similar story with Reece Welch, a 20-year-old centre-back who was recalled early from a difficult loan also at Forest Green, then struggling in League Two and on their way to relegation, in January. He will look to get back on track in the coming season, most likely via another loan.
Eli Campbell, a left-sided central defender who can also play full-back, fared better with Fleetwood Town in the second half of last season, earning positive reviews despite their relegation to the fourth division. Campbell, 19, could head out on loan again if first-team minutes are in short supply.
Stan Mills was injured on loan at Oxford United last season (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Winger Stan Mills is progressing well after surgery on a knee injury sustained on loan at another third-tier club, Oxford United, in January. Initial estimates suggested a timeframe of around nine months for his recovery. With the 20-year-old’s contract due to expire at the end of the coming season, Everton may look to offer fresh terms in a bid to keep one of their top young talents. At his best, Mills is a hard-working, athletic wide player with an eye for goal — all traits that, in theory, should endear him to Dyche.
Striker Francis Okoronkwo is also considered to have many of the traits needed to make it at a decent level in the professional game. Tall but with the pace to spin in behind and take players on, the 19-year-old had been expected to head out on loan in January to continue his development, but a hamstring injury curtailed his season. If he stays fit, Okoronkwo is likely to get that loan to an EFL club this time.
Pacy right-back Roman Dixon made his England Under-20s debut last month before signing a new three-year deal, however Everton prefer to blood their youngsters on loan, with captain Seamus Coleman, Nathan Patterson and Ashley Young all in front of the 19-year-old in the pecking order at that position. Central midfielder Jenson Metcalfe was Everton Under-21s’ 2023-24 player of the season and has impressed with his technical ability and competitiveness. Turning 20 in early September, he is another who may need to be farmed out and play some EFL minutes in order to push on.
As such, Youssef Chermiti, signed for an initial €12.5million (£10.5m/$13.6m at current rates) from Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon last summer, is the closest to pushing for first-team minutes in the coming season, though a loan move for the 20-year-old will be considered if Everton strengthen their attacking options in the current transfer window.
Chermiti joined from Sporting last summer and made 18 Premier League appearances (Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)
There are high hopes for England Under-18s goalkeeper George Pickford (no relation to the club’s senior England side No 1 Jordan), who made his debut for the under-21s in April as a 17-year-old, and Harrison Armstrong, a languid, skilful midfielder who started for the club’s second-string in February a month after turning 17. The latter was rewarded with a three-year contract over the summer.
Both, though, will need to establish themselves at under-21 level before thinking about first-team football.
The development of Coby Ebere, last season’s top goalscorer for Everton Under-18s, will be intriguing.
The Germany-born 18-year-old struck 11 times in eight league games between January and March after overcoming injury but is yet to fully make the step up to the under-21s squad, playing just 10 minutes in a single appearance under Tait. Capable of playing across the forward line but best cutting inside from the left, Ebere thrives in space and physically dominates at youth level. He’ll find playing under-21s football full-time will be much tougher.
And as Dyche knows, the jump from there to the senior ranks will be even harder still for Everton’s young hopefuls.
(Top photo: Braiden Graham, the Northern Ireland Under-17s striker, has arrived this summer; by Cameron Smith/Getty Images)
