Mark Hughes

Soccerbase

Mark is locally-born defender who has been at Everton since the age of seven.   Not to be confused with the other Mark Hughes, who also played briefly as a striker for Everton bfore coming a Premier League manager, he is composed centre-half who is comfortable bringing the ball out of defence, Hughes is also a regular goalscorer from both the penalty spot and in open play.  Making his debut at for the Reserves in 2003-04, Mark Hughes became a pretty solid defender and eventually captain of the Reserves.  He was invited on several occasions to train with the first-team squad.

After making it into David Moyes's senior squad at the beginning of the 2005-06 season, he spent a month on loan with Stockport.  Hughes finally got close to a full debut as he sat on the substitutes' bench for the FA Cup 4th Round tie against Chelsea.  In May 2006, he was offered one more year to prove himself.

Described as a centre-half in the traditional mould, Mark Hughes finally got his senior debut in the second round League Cup tie at Peterborough.  And the occasional sub appearance in the league followed as is development slowly progressed.

But the irregularity of his involvement in the first-team squad — just a couple of sub appearances over the next three months — should have been a telling factor, and it should really come as no surprise that Everton allowed him to leave the club in January 2007.  On the last day of the transfer window,, he completed a move to Northampton Town for an 'undisclosed fee', reported to be a paltry £30,000, signing a 2½-year contract.

So, the joins a long line of young up-&-coming presumably talented players who have worked their way up through the ranks of the much vaunted Everton Youth Academy, to have been farmed out on loan under David Moyes, ostensibly to give him first-team football, for him to then be allowed to leave before really being given much of a chance to make any sort of impression at senior level. 

Is it really because the players aren't good enough to make the final step up?  Or is it something of the self-fulfilling prophesy from Moyes, that there's no real prospects to speak of in the Academy, and that the way for players to develop is by playing lower league football... which begs the question: why bother with an Academy???

By Michael Kenrick
Last updated February 2007