Long moves on to Burnley

On that basis, it is best for him if he moves on. Good luck to the lad and hopefully he will be more fitter than Vaughan.

The players who don’t get the chance to play in our 1st team go to the Championship -- or lower leagues, whereas Chelsea, Man City etc have the luxury of an academy and U21 team full of potential Premier League players that they can swap out or loan to othe EPL clubs. Garbutt is at Fulham on loan for example, surely he must have known this before signing his contract, couldn’t he have gone to one of the newly promoted clubs? If not, why are we holding onto him when other clubs wouldn’t?

In my opinion, this is where the EPL really sucks. I imagine that Chris Long didn’t see where he could get noticed quick enough at Everton and felt that he’d be better off moving to a club, permanently, where he would have a better chance of getting noticed while maintaining some stability.

I can’t say I’d blame him!

My problem with the move is, we seem to getting more players leaving the club than we have coming in.

I don’t really think there’s any need to complain about our club. If he turns out to be a great player one day, then I’ll eat my words, but I’m 99.9% sure that won’t happen. Good luck to the lad.

Martinez rarely even gives Naismith a go in his best position, so Long has made the correct decision.

Good luck to you Chris.

If that is where he feels comfortable, then good luck to him, but to have come so far and not believe that you can make it at the top level must be soul destroying for the player and for the training staff who believe he is good enough to go on.

I hope that this is a decision neither he, nor Everton live to regret.

A few years ago I heard Sheedy say that his job was to try and ensure as many kids as possible could forge professional careers at Everton or elsewhere. That being said. Good job Mr Sheedy.

Second point is RM's development plan which sees players being kept in the wings until they’re 22 or 23. Problem with that is they are all only one bad tackle away from retirement.

Is relatively low pay and obscurity something you’d accept for the possibility of eventual first team football if you can make money now?

Daniel Fox? A couple of years with Southampton before slipping back to Nottingham Forest.

John Ruddy? Made it with Norwich City.

Eric Dier? Seemed set to show us a thing or two at Spurs...

Jose Baxter? Doing okay with Sheffield Utd... until he failed a drugs test.

I feel we’ve lost a player with a lot of potential because Martinez is desperate for Kone to be a hit.

He never got to show what he could do at first team level, one pre season game in Germany then a few minutes in a dead rubber game in Europe, he deserved better than that.

I would love to know what sort of offer the club made him, I’d bet he got a better one off Burnley plus the chance of more first-team football; sorry to see him go.

I have a view on that. I think to break through in the Premier League requires a real mental toughness and determination.

The lads that don't have this will usually opt for an easier chance with lower league clubs who in turn generally don't have the facilities or people to help these players develop, so in most cases they never fully realise their potential.

The top clubs will usually identify who is destined for the top table and do their best to hold onto said players, eg, Garbutt.

I think if Everton really felt Long was a good prospect they would have done more to hold onto him.

The real problem is the way the game is structured now. The gap between youth and Premier League is now a chasm.

I'm amazed that Garbutt didn't make the same decision but maybe Everton's offer was the best he got. What's the betting he'll never play here again?

Hopefully we have put a sell-on clause in the contract like we did with Forshaw.

IDon’t actually see him doing much better than Championship level to be honest but, even if he doesn’t, that is still a very profitable way to make a living. I would swap with him instantly!

I’m glad Jonjoe Kenny has gone on loan to Wigan, he’ll learn more there and hopefully improve rather than playing with the reserves.

Unsworth, Grant (prematurely retired), Jeffers, Rooney, Rodwell and Barkley. And that's out of hundreds who have gone through the mill.

I suspect that few clubs can boast even that many as so few slots are available to our 'own grown produce'!

What does worry me is that useless Kane from Spurs was picked ahead of him. He is utter garbage.

Such is the painful life of a prophet!

Gavin McGann
Richard Dunne
Wayne Rooney
Francis Jeffers
Michael Ball
Tony Hibbert
Leon Osman
Victor Anichebe
John Ruddy (although we nicked him from Cambridge)
David Unsworth
Tony Grant
John Ebbrell
Ross Barkley
Jack Rodwell
Daniel Fox (like a career)
Lucas Jutkiewicz (ANYTHING like a career)

Then we have a whole lot more who had creditable careers at lower levels like Baxter, Clarke, Barlow, Branch, Forshaw, Cadamarteri, Boyle, Jevons, Paul Gascoigne ...

Sorry, I'll get me coat.

These kids see mates come and go. They know the time of day where the Premier League is concerned. Ready made youngsters like Stones, Besic, Henen, Deulofeu and Galloway brought in and placed ahead of them.

After years of academy games they all want the real thing. Ledson can't wait to go out on loan, especially after chatting to his pal Gethin Jones who said it was fantastic.

Joining Burnley with a realistic chance of first team football must be a tremendous thrill for Long. I'll enjoy watching out for him and wish him well.

There’s no way I would play Kone before him so I understand him wanting to take care of his own career, as Harold says, especially after experiencing playing in front of crowds in the Championship.

I think the club will regret letting him go; he looked like a natural striker to me.

Hope he does well and good luck to him. Always a shame to see the back of a promising player, and disappointing if he felt he couldn't fulfil his potential by signing and going out on loan.

Very quick striker with goals in him. I’m dumbfounded why our management team didn’t make more of an effort to keep him with a better offer and promise of an opportunity. Surely he was worth a chance ahead of Kone who has had too many chances already.

I’m sure he’ll do well score lots of goals and whose to say where he’ll end up maybe back at Goodison probably for lots more than we got for him.

Totaly agree sir.

Norwich won the cup that season beating Chelsea in the final, I wouldn’t put a great deal of trust into a lot of the coaches who train and rate these young players, some excellent coaches, quite a lot of jobsworth who haven’t got a clue.

Harold, you make a very pertinent point about lads who just want to play first team football in this day and age where it’s popular to knock footballers as arrogant, money motivated and lazy. Best of luck to Long.

There’s no shame in that, every player makes these decisions, he chose to play more minutes at Burnley, you have to respect that.

It will be a crime if Long develops into a serious striker but, that having been said, there are very few examples of young players leaving Everton having not had the chance to shine in the first team and then making it big elsewhere.

Developing players like Jack Rodwell, John Stones, Ross Barkley and others forced their way into first-team contention by working hard in training and giving the manager no excuse NOT to pick them. Luke Garbutt, Brendan Galloway and Tyias Browning are busy doing that now.

Baines: As a youngster, Baines played Sunday league for a team called Key Ways alongside future professionals Ryan Taylor (who ended up at Newcastle) and David Nugent (Portsmouth and Leicester, among others) and appears to have had two different trials with Everton without being accepted into the Academy.

Jagielka: The Manchester-born player... started out as a 14-year-old Everton trainee in the old YTS. But Everton ditched almost their entire Under-15 team back in the later 90s and Jagielka went on to learn his trade elsewhere.

So yes and no is the answer. Seems Baines never got past the trial stage...

Also, was it not under Kendall, at the Boards insistence, that Everton abandoned the Academy as a cost cutting measure that saw all those Evertonians emerge as Red Scavengers across the park and Joe Royle insist it was recommenced during his term?