Season › 2014-15 › News Everton confirm Devine as Academy director , 12 November, 31comments | Jump to most recent Everton have announced the permanent appointment of Tim Devine as Academy Director at Finch Farm. Previously the club's Head of Academy Management, Devine has been fulfilling the Director role since the departure over the summer of Alan Irvine for West Bromwich Albion but he has now been handed the role on a full-time basis. “The past work that has gone on at this football club's Academy is fantastic," Devine told evertonfc.com. "Alan Irvine did a fantastic job, managing to achieve Category One status for the Academy and, really, I am just trying to maintain the excellent standards that have gone before me. “It has been really important for us to work with [Roberto Martinez] on a playing philosophy. That playing philosophy centres on the kind of work that he does at first-team level in terms of dominating possession of the ball and dictating the tempo of games. “It's about creative, attacking football when we are in possession and encouraging players to have a defensive intensity when we don't have the ball.” Reader Comments (31) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Phil Walling 1 Posted 12/11/2014 at 19:34:56 Only three proper Â’graduatesÂ’ in Premier history. Rooney, Rodwell and Barkley. Says it all. ItÂ’s an employment bureau for kids and coaches ! Paul Andrews 2 Posted 12/11/2014 at 19:52:30 Michael BallLeon OsmanTony Hibbert Frank McGregor 3 Posted 12/11/2014 at 19:53:12 Phil, Glad to see youÂ’re happy with the Academy. Jay Harris 4 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:03:54 Franny Jeffers (best 10 million we ever got), Jose Baxter and John Ruddy? Craig Harrison 5 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:19:40 Anichebe, Coleman Kieran Riding 6 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:26:25 Craig " Sixty Grand, Sixty Grand, Seamus Coleman ! " Peter Morris 7 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:24:41 John Ruddy was bought Jay, for a substantial six figure Â’in hopeÂ’ fee.Cambridge United I think.Likewise, I donÂ’t think we can claim Coleman as an Academy graduate can we? Even Luke Garbutt was poached from Leeds. WeÂ’ll have Manure claiming Rooney next!Surely Â’trueÂ’ graduates are those who have been with the club since they were children, of which many of the above were, but not all by any means. Patrick Murphy 8 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:24:58 Probably about 㿲-75m value just in those three players I bet there is at least one Evertonian very happy with that - a certain theatre impresario springs to mind.Phil - is there any aspect of Everton FC past or present that you support, I reckon that youÂ’re not just an Evertonian but a frustrated theatre critic who has had to sit through too many BK productions either that or youÂ’re an unemployed actor and BK denied you your big break. Kieran Riding 9 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:31:01 Peter, come on, next thing you will be telling me that Raheem Sterling isnÂ’t a proper boss scouse Â’lidÂ’ who used to mind cars outside Anfield on a match day ? Steavey Buckley 10 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:32:45 The academy with the highest quality of young players coming through their youth ranks to make it to the first team has to be Southampton, what ever they are doing by whom are reaping rich dividends. Craig Fletcher 11 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:36:54 Phil, whatever it is the Everton academy has cost over the past 15 years, IÂ’d say with the sales of Rooney, Rodwell, Anichebe, Duffy, Jeffers, amongst others, you could argue if it was a business, it would be quite profitable.And thatÂ’s not to mention past Everton academy graduates playing in the first team and their current worth.ThereÂ’d be a few premier league sides around IÂ’m sure wishing they had an academy with the output that we do. Craig Harrison 12 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:48:11 Most youth graduates from prem teams begin with different clubs. We paid x figure for a raw talent from a lower league club. Put him in the youth system and turned him into a solid pro. Should he count as a youth product ? I think he should as without a solid youth system the 60 grand paid for Seamus would most certainly have been wasted. Mark Dunford 13 Posted 12/11/2014 at 20:39:42 There was a really interesting piece on R5 about SouthamptonÂ’s Academy which featured Alan Pardew talking about the difference between Newcastle and Southampton. He spoke about the nature of the catchment area and the educational work the clubs needed to do with the kids. Southampton has a vast area to select kids from -a far larger geographic scope (from outside London to South of Birmingham) to choose from with a demographic that differs from many other football clubs in class and educational terms. IÂ’m not saying I accept the thesis but it was interesting and worth considering. Oh, and Gavin McCann and Richard Dunne should be added to the list. Both solid professionals and McCann was sold far too cheaply. A few have secured fees of some description for the club and carved careers at a lower level - the latest being Duffy but also Bidwell and many others. Anichebe and the incredibly unlucky Vaughn in this group. This money should go on the balance sheet. The academy shouldnÂ’t be judged by same yardstick as BritainÂ’s Got Talent. Dave Abrahams 16 Posted 12/11/2014 at 21:31:54 No disrespect but Tim Devine... who is he? Steavey Buckley 17 Posted 12/11/2014 at 22:01:39 "In May 2013, Andre Villas-Boas, manager of Tottenham Hotspur praised the Southampton Academy for its ability to produce star players, describing it as "a great school of development" and comparing it to Sporting Lisbon." Colin Glassar 18 Posted 12/11/2014 at 22:29:38 God Phil, it must be a bag of laughs living with you. Bill Gall 20 Posted 12/11/2014 at 22:31:58 Was Colin Harvey not a acadamy graduate. Phil are you suggesting that clubs should not have an acadamy. Sorry Colin was before the premiership started. Phil Walling 21 Posted 12/11/2014 at 22:42:19 Apologies, I had meant to say this century rather than post Premier. Of course it has had the ODD success and so it should have done but as compared with Saints very little. Perhaps, rather than the failings of its recruiters and coaches, it has been the reluctance of successive managers- including this one - to give the kids exposure that sees it poor value for money. Craig Harrison 22 Posted 12/11/2014 at 22:55:04 Poor value for money? How much do you suppose it costs to run each year? and how much did we get for rodwell, Rooney, anichebe, Jeffers. IÂ’d say as far as returns go we are doing pretty good. As far as Southampton goes. They very near went bankrupt and dropped down the divisions. They then Started snapping up any decent young player within 100miles. They found some gems for sure, they also had littlr competition for these youth players from other clubs. Now look at our situation we have to compete with the rs, Man U, man c and to some extent the Birmingham clubs all within our area. We will struggle to attact youth given our recent history yet we still developed Rooney and Barkley Colin Glassar 23 Posted 12/11/2014 at 23:11:51 DonÂ’t forget Hibbo. Eric Holland 24 Posted 12/11/2014 at 23:23:57 Joey Barton. Gerry Quinn 25 Posted 12/11/2014 at 23:24:44 Is he related to Sydney, the Scottish singer? Correction - the Scottish guy who tries to sing! Eric Holland 26 Posted 12/11/2014 at 23:28:05 Branch, Browning Cadamarteri, Chadwick, Duffy, Mustafi, Vaughan... Bill Gall 27 Posted 12/11/2014 at 23:38:21 Royle. Lyons. Temple. Bill Gall 28 Posted 12/11/2014 at 23:44:34 Forgot T Wright – and what a disgrace not mentioning Brian Labone, Phil Gardner 29 Posted 12/11/2014 at 23:45:44 Gascogne, Ginola, Gough.....and thatÂ’s just the Â’GÂ’sÂ’.... Jim Knightley 30 Posted 13/11/2014 at 00:09:10 I donÂ’t think comparing our academy with Southampton is that productive. They are the best example at the moment for sure, at least in terms of nurturing talent from a very young age, but what about Chelski, Man City or Spurs? How much have they created lately? I think we certainty have a better record than most teams. Harold Matthews 31 Posted 13/11/2014 at 03:37:56 Forshaw. Phil Walling 32 Posted 13/11/2014 at 09:43:07 Further to yesterday’s debate, a full audit shows that home-grown graduates of the Academy who have established themselves as Premier players since 2001 are Hibbert, Osman, Rooney, Rodwell, Anichebe, and Barkley.I don’t think any of the others mentioned quite fit that criteria although perhaps six in 14 years could be judged a fair return on investment given the great service given by Hibbo and Ossie and the c 㿛M banked for Rooney, Rodwell and Anichebe.The jury is out on Barkley although he is already a Full International. Dave Abrahams 33 Posted 13/11/2014 at 11:21:31 Joe Mercer, Eddie Wainwright, Jackie Grant, John Willie Parker. Chris Hockenhull 35 Posted 14/11/2014 at 12:31:53 Rankin... Hurst... Kenyon... Whittle... Johnson... Sergeant... Darracott... Husband... just a few from mid/late Â’60s. Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads © ToffeeWeb