Why didn’t Francis Jeffers fulfil his undoubted potential?

Players like Jeffers fall into the Michael Branch, Jack Rodwell, Danny Cadamarteri category, suspect attitudes.

Players with maybe less drum beating from fans at young ages but far more application and stronger attitude and character are the likes of Leon Osman, Tony Hibbert etc.

As for Jack Rodwell, it was not a poor attitude at all. He had a good attitude and was a model professional at Everton. He was plagued by injuries and sold to Man City at a time many on this site were debating whether he should be a starter or not due to inconsistent form coinciding with those injuries. You can't blame Jack for going to City, particularly at a time when his career was so stop-start, as he never knew if that contract would be his last.

Going back to Jeffers, he didn't help himself by drinking and smoking. The effects of drinking on rehabilitation from injury are now well documented. I think that, with the money they get paid these days, all professionals should be teetotal — they've all the time in the world to drink themselves stupid when they retire.

I assume he was more of a standout as a kid and his early reputation carried him along even though as an adult he never did anything to warrant his burgeoning reputation. attitude, lifestyle, injuries just exacerbated it.

Cadamarteri I would argue was a headless chicken Shaun Wright-Phillips type. He hit a lucky patch when he first came through but was never that good.

From what I read in various autobiographies Rodwell never possessed the greatest attitude as you think.

Taking a paragraph from Leon Osman's book.

“Jack was a very talented footballer but his outlook after games bemused me, it seemed he was quite pleased with his own personal performance after games we had just lost, almost as though he was saying I've had a good game there so what's the fuss, whereas I (Osman) would sit there in the dressing room fuming we had lost even in games I'd scored in.”

I get the feeling with many young players these days it's all about personal glory and self-adulation and the team comes second, not just in Jack Rodwell's case but it's less bred into young players I think nowadays about the importance of "team comes first; you second".

I disagree with your comments on "young players these days."

Osman basically paraphrased what Sharp said, talking about Cottee after he scored two consolation goals in a 6-2 thrashing at Villa. There have always been glory hunters.

The other argument you could make is that maybe Rodwell, having frequently been left on the bench or played out of position was disgruntled. Therefore, when he got to play maybe he had a sort of "Screw you, Moyes, I did my part so it isn't my fault if the team lost with your favorites Anichebe, Neville etc struggling as makeshift wingers, center mids" etc.

Additionally, I think the manager takes some responsibility for fostering that team commitment. Case in point: Man Utd. When you hear Scholes, Neville, Giggs etc talk, they lament the loss of that team spirit since Fergie left. Fergie himself, was quick to push Keane out the door once he started to disrupt the morale. I think a lot of other managers are too weak to do that.

Finally, you have to be somewhat skeptical about these biographies. If Osman or anyone else wrote a book saying "We all got along, everyone did their best, the end." No-one would buy it. They have to exaggerate things so that the press pick it up and we all rush out to buy their books and boost their coffers once their careers are over.

Of course, they all won't make it - yet a number should and this could give us as many as 4 or even 5 very good players. We can't really predict who they'll be.

One thing is notable from the games is that they seem to see themselves as a group: Holgate, Davies, Baningime, Clavert-Lewin, Kenny, etc. They all need support and opportunity. It is clear BS wasn't going to provide this and we need to ensure that the next management team does.

Brands has made some very encouraging remarks. We want to retain the young players so we have more like Osman and Hibbert (who stay with the club to contribute over time) and fewer who leave to languish on a medal-winning subs bench elsewhere.

Going to a club who had Berkamp and Henry thinking he was going to play above them is dilussional.

How he got a job back with us is beyond me. A bad apple if ever there was one.

A proper gobshite.

“If I was coming through now, there is no way I would be leaving this football club. Why would you? Especially being an Evertonian, a young scouse lad dreaming of playing for them” – is a quote from him since Kenwright took him back as an unpaid coach.

Well that's all fine and dandy Franny but we already had a misfit forward who was also signed on by Kenwright as an unpaid coach, his playing career also being a car-crash in spite of his God-given talent, so what do you now (or him) deliver to the kids as good practice, apart from NOT doing bloody stupid, selfish things?

I think he benefited from the 80 version of the 'Busby Babes' with Giggs, Beckham, Scholes and the Nevilles providing an instinctive camraderie around which incoming talent could latch onto.

The optimist in me believes that in Pickford, Kenny, Holgate, Lookman, Calvert-Lewin, Beningame, Dowell, Davies, etc., could develop very quickly the 'core' of a team which, with Pickford and 4 to 5 well motivated and selected complementary players, could do surprisingly well. Gueye, Walcot, Tosun, Vlasic, Siggurdsson, etc. . .

An example of the difficulties of this approach is the challenge of say Coleman and Kenny - 2 of my favorite players. Coleman should be playing and be captain. Kenny could become a captain in the future, but must be playing, and not out of position! Options are:- 1) Move Coleman on (unthinkable!) 2) Kenny on loan (but for how long, and he must not become an outsider).

Jeffers role in this, plus Big Dunc is integral to the team ethic, but suspect because of the 'jobs for the boys' mentality. Was Jeffers ever a great player? Probably not Judging from his career stats. Do he and Big Dunc appreciate the subtlety of their impact on the team ethic? Very likely. This is where I start to understand the breadth of the role of DOF. The overview is essential, with balance being the key.

He's now a footnote in EFC history, when it could have been so much more.

The biggest wasted talent for me was and always will be Billy Kenny.

I can't recall exactly which team it was but possibly against Charlton, his all-round display had Alan Hansen purring 'the kid Jeffers has everything'. More fanciful comparisons to Bergkamp followed.

I fear your recollection of him as a player may be warped by his second spell at the club where he was indeed garbage and barely looked like a footballer.

Ironically, the only goals I can recall him scoring where on his one and only England appearance – Rooney's debut too as it happened.

Oh, and the one he scored for Arsenal against us in a late-season hiding.
He celebrated by kissing the Arsenal badge. Why do we bring these jokers back?

Had the best movement of any Everton striker I can think of in my time (match going since 87). Very clever payer and had some bottle.

He was part of a really bad crowd of Ball, Dunne, Cademarteri and others whose behaviour was often appalling.

Amazingly still earns a living with EFC