Seems in all the excitement of yesterday, everyone missed the u18s game against the Bitters.
We lost 4-1 with Yan Dhanda getting our only goal
Plenty of the lads are in the U23s at the moment, so maybe a wee bit more experience for these U18 lads will put them right. That said, Everton do have a very capable youth academy, which has sadly, put ours to shame over the last decade. But I am encouraged by some of the talent in the U23s.
Plenty of hype this week on Trent Alexander Arnold. I'm sure a bit more time in the gym to strengthen up and training with the seniors will see him ready to make the jump to the match day squads.
It would be great to have some local talent in the squad. I think of all the great Liverpool teams and a lot of their success was based on academy products. Whether they are strong supporting cast (e.g. Fairclough) or lead actors (like Gerrard and Carragher) the Academy definitely has a purpose in ensuring a cost effective but efficient way of improving the squad. Nobody likes to be reminded of them, but Manchester United would not have had the success of the last 25 years if it weren't for the efforts and promotion of youth who formed the backbone. Likewise, our successes in the 2000s were built on a backbone of academy graduates.
It is very often the case that great squads around the world are built upon the ethos and style of the academy. Often adapting seamlessly to a style of football that is endemic in the club, they have the potential in being more finely tuned than incomers to the squad. Ensuring a prosperous academy with top level coaching will I'm sure help us propel ourselves back to the top.
I'm not expecting once in a lifetime like geniuses like Gerrard but, at the very least, lads who can fill gaps in the squad and provide us with the strength in depth required for the top level of competition (that means competing for the biggest trophies at the same time).
Who knows - if our academy had produced a lot more capable talent in the last 15 years as opposed to the dire state it was in, then we may not have seen such a crisis where sh*te like Konchesky, Manquillo, Moses, etc were brought in.
I have full confidence that Jürgen will get this right - his record at Dortmund proves it. And I'm optimistic at last that the talent we see in the U23s have the potential to make it to the senior squad.
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