Sean Dyche, manager of Everton, during his side's draw at Brighton & Hove Albion(Image: Warren Little/Getty Images)

Sean Dyche lifts lid on why he's not used Everton academy as challenge laid bare

Sean Dyche has provided opportunities to Jarrad Branthwaite and Lewis Dobbin but his honest answer when asked why he had not turned to youth during his times of need may spark concern among Everton supporters

09 Mar 2024, 06:00 by Joe Thomas · Liverpool Echo

'No-one ready' - Sean Dyche lifts lid on why he's not used Everton academy as challenge laid bare

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Sean Dyche said he has not delved deeper into Everton’s academy to solve squad issues because he has not yet seen anyone with the clear potential to make the step up.

The Blues boss has promoted young players to his first team squad this season, with Jarrad Branthwaite becoming a key star and Lewis Dobbin having been given an enhanced squad role. Several others, including Mackenzie Hunt and Jenson Metcalfe have regularly made the bench - though neither have earned Premier League minutes under him yet.

But with a threadbare squad that has been undermined by injuries across recent months he has felt unable to go further into the academy because, he said, “there is no one I have looked at and thought: ‘You are ready to jump in.’”

His comments come after a summer in which some of the club’s brightest young players were sold as part of efforts to relieve the club’s troubled financial situation, one that has had an impact far beyond the first team.

Speaking ahead of Everton’s trip to Manchester United - where youth product Ellis Simms made a surprise start under Dyche last season - the Blues boss was asked whether he had seen any youngsters he believed were currently good enough to help a squad that has gone winless in 10 league games.

He said: “No, because if they were they would be playing. That is a really simple equation. If there was an 18-year-old here who I thought was good enough to play in the first team, he would be playing. There is no one I have seen so far who is ready to jump in there. That is it at the moment. Dobbo is doing a good job, learning as he goes. It is slightly different with Jarrad because he was brought in later [Branthwaite signed for Everton at the age of 18] but still at a young age. But there is no-one I have looked at and thought: ‘You are ready to jump in.’”

Dyche’s comments put into context the difficulties faced at Finch Farm following years of changes in direction at the top of the club’s football operation. When hired two years ago, director of football Kevin Thelwell identified improvements to the structure and culture of the youth teams with a long term plan to build a better pathway from the academy into the first team. Several key appointments that the club hope will lead to long-term progress have followed. Strategic plans have been undermined by the club’s financial predicament, however, and the relentless on-pitch pressure faced by a team in its third consecutive relegation fight.

Last summer, Isaac Price turned down a contract to move to Standard Liege due to a desire to play more first team football. Former manager Frank Lampard had highlighted the player, now a full Northern Ireland international, as a potential star after he impressed on the club’s winter trip to Australia. Ishe Samuels-Smith, an England youth international and one of the most talented players in the academy, was sold to Chelsea in July. Now 17, he had been named on the bench for first team squads by both Lampard and Dyche. Meanwhile Tom Cannon, now 21 and prolific in Premier League 2, was sold to Leicester City on transfer deadline day after finishing last season by scoring goals in the Championship while on loan with Preston North End. He was the second academy-produced striker with a goalscoring record at senior level to depart in the summer after Ellis Simms was sold to Coventry City.

Those sales provided a valuable boost to club finances and whether Dyche would have turned to any of them this season will never be known. But Dyche has faced issues in positions occupied by each of those players. For instance at Fulham, in January, he had just one fit senior central midfielder available, while goalscoring has been a problem for large chunks of the campaign.

A secondary issue is that the departure of talent has hollowed out the youth teams. Paul Tait’s Under-21s are 23rd in the 26-team Premier League 2 and for much of the season he has had his squad selection hampered by the promotion of important youngsters such as Metcalfe and Hunt to fill the first team matchday bench. As a result, U18s have regularly been moved up to compete in the U21s.

There is talent within the youth setup, with hopes for players including the likes of Francis Okoronkwo, Harrison Armstrong and George Morgan. Dyche also acknowledged he had not had time to “get to grips” with the academy such has been the turbulence of his time on Merseyside so far. Thelwell’s efforts to evolve the academy are also difficult to judge given that changes require time to bear fruit and the instability he has had to operate in. He did also set out to improve the club’s efforts to bring in vital funds for youth players whose pathways to the first team were blocked - something he has achieved, with Cannon, Simms and Samuels-Smith bringing in millions of pounds at a time of need.

But Dyche’s comments will be a source of frustration and concern for a fanbase that has regularly seen major talent emerge from its ranks, including more recently the likes of Champions League winners Wayne Rooney and John Stones.

Dyche and Thelwell can point to the progress of Branthwaite as a positive, with both playing an important role in his emergence as one of the brightest centre back prospects in Europe. Thelwell renegotiated his loan deal at PSV Eindhoven last season to improve his game time, sparking a rapid development, and has said he opted to clear the pathway for his progress this summer by not attempting to renew deals with Conor Coady and Yerry Mina. Dyche, meanwhile, has made him a focal point of his team and the 21-year-old is in contention for a first England senior call up later this month as a result.

Asked whether he was surprised at how well Branthwaite had taken to Premier League action, Dyche said: “He’s adapted well. There are things he still needs to work on, but you unravel a player slowly, you can’t just fast-track everything into them and say ‘that’s it’. So while he’s developing nicely and while he’s learning, sometimes the hardest thing is not to coach at all when you just step away and you go ‘no, no, you’re fine, you keep doing what you’re doing’. There’s the odd little team, tactical pointers, but I’m not breaking it down every game and saying ‘you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that’. Let him naturally learn as he develops.”

The Blues boss said he remained hopeful he would not need to sell Branthwaite in the summer to satisfy any financial needs, adding: “We don’t want to sell any good players. It’s as simple as that and he’s proven to be a very good player. We’re not in the business of trying to sell players. You only sell players if you have to sell players or there’s a problem. There’s no problem, therefore I’m just hoping we don’t need to sell players. At the minute, we certainly don’t. so we will see.”

Dyche could also point to the growth of Dobbin, who scored his first senior Everton goal this season against Chelsea - the same opposition Simms grabbed his only Everton strike against last year, also under Dyche.

The manager, who has often refuted claims he does not give youth a chance by pointing to his oversight of Dwight McNeil’s rise at Burnley, stressed he did not believe any issues over producing young talent were specific to Everton. He said: “I must say, that is not just Everton Football Club. That is a big task nowadays. Everyone says ‘where are all these 18-year-olds?’ If you look across the Premier League then there are not many playing. So now we talk about two careers. The first career is away from the club and the second one is back at the club. I remember Tom Cleverley when I was coming through on the coaching side, he was at Watford and had already been at Wigan and then ended up in Manchester United’s first team. He had already had two loans before he had his Manchester United career. That is a modern football situation. It is very rare if you look across football that an 18-year-old who has come through an academy goes straight into the first team in the Premier League without having some of these experiences first to be ready for that. That is how difficult it is.”

Dyche recently acknowledged that the size of his squad had impacted youth development, suggesting that teenage striker Youssef Chermiti, signed in the summer, might typically have gone out on loan this season but the club had not been willing to sign off his departure given his potential importance to the first team. He will also now have the opportunity to take another look at Lewis Warrington, who has just returned to fitness after an injury that ended his loan spell at Plymouth Argyle. Stanley Mills, another promising youngster, suffered a serious injury while on his first senior loan spell at Oxford United.

Everton have been open to strengthening its senior academy sides and remains active at scouting prospects who may be made available from other clubs. Chelsea product Malik Mothersille had a trial at the start of the season, 19-year-old striker Kingsford Boakye was signed as a free agent in January and 18-year-old Arsenal forward Omari Benjamin is currently on trial at Finch Farm.

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