Talks with Gibson continue as suitors gather

Holgate and Gibson could turn out to be our defence, young, English, and no need to spend 50 million.

I cant judge him as I've not seen him but by all accounts he's very good, a promising player in the Holgate mould having good pace and comfortable on the ball for a defender.

I'm pretty sure his agent wants more money or a move but as we bought him for a million would we still be due compensation if he did leave?

He's probably watched the dogs abuse that Davies, Holgate, Kenny and Calvert-Lewin have had and thought “nah”.

Calvert-Lewin has an interview recently where he said that it's not nice having 40,000 fans thinking you're not good enough, credit to him he said that you have to puff out your chest and prove them wrong. Not everyone is like that.

Did you hear the Liverpool fans getting on their teams backs in the first 20 minutes the other day when passes were going astray and they were conceding chances??

We need to look at ourselves and realise that, since Moshri, Goodison has become a horrible toxic place for any youngster to try and make it.

2 games ago Calvert-Lewin was the answer, 2 games later against the top two teams in the league starved of service and there's quite a few posters who have now backtracked. We are a horrible fickle bunch at the moment and have to take some responsibility for what we've ended up with. Davies takes constant abuse when a forward pass goes astray, the result is tepid, safe passing like we saw against Liverpool.

If Gibson, and any other promising youngster leave, I'm afraid that we get what we deserve.

He certainly could be. Who knows how his game would play out if he started? Who can and can't step up from the U23s is guesswork. Pennington, Galloway, etc in recent years stepped in with varying degrees of success. Their U23 performances were good but it's difficult to predict how the step up will go.

I'm not against giving the likes of Gibson some first team game time, if carefully managed. Part of his success in the U23s is down to a really good understanding between him and Feeney. Will he gel with Mina? with Holgate?

There will be some players who will rise to the top regardless, however there will be some that are affected by the crowd - and that's what we as a fan base need to change. Calvert-Lewin is a great example - he looks a different player since Big Dunc's spell in charge and that is due to confidence. Confidence that, as a young player, he should be able to get from the crowd.

Boo senior pros who should know better and don't put the effort in. But we should, and we don't, get behind the youngsters.

If we want to break into the top echelons, then we need to build a young hungry team. We've tried paying mega money for established players - it hasn't worked. The only way we can attract young hungry players is if we create an atmosphere where they aren't criticised for every mistake and written off early in their careers.

I'd love to trust in the likes of Gibson, Gordon and Adenerin for the remainder of the season, but I dread to think what players they'd become after a couple of mistakes in front of our fans.

He does look a player, and we will kick ourselves if he leaves for a nominal fee as he will fill out and develop and his footballing ability is there for all to see. Time is on his side and he needs to be patient. He is best going on loan next season and trying himself in the rough and tumble of the Championship.

I think the opportunity was that season to blood all the youngsters. We should have made a statement saying that, now that the season was over (end of December) that we will try and integrate our own golden generation. We wouldn't have gone down, nor would we have qualified for Europe. But we would have known which players would have succeeded and which wouldn't. All we can do now is speculate.

And the assumption that youth = relegation whilst sticking with 'seasoned pros' = survival is bollocks.

Given the state of my memory, however...

We need someone to partner Mina in a relegation scrap. It's not the time to give unproven young centre backs a run in the team.

As for the fans getting on his back, what kind of statement is that. Do you think that every other teams fans encourage and clap poor decisions and passes.

Footballers are single minded, ruthless, stubborn and resilient characters. Without those traits they wouldn't get past youth team football.

The book reproduces some of the fans letters to the Echo, the only platform then. They could have been written today.

And this was in a period perceived as successful!

Previously we had more patience, however all any talk these days is how we can replace players with the next big signing. Then we wonder why the team is so bad.

We have become a set of fans who now expect instant success and, while I accept that this is a result of years of having no resources, this reflects in the stick that we give to players.

Its the same old story, if he's good enough he might get the odd game if there is a spate of injuries to our central defenders, otherwise I don't see Ancelotti risking an inexperienced player.

As for abusing players, yes we all moan when mistakes are made, but to verbally abuse someone within earshot says more about you than anything else.

After not winning anything for 25 years and instant success don't fit into the same stratosphere.

No matter which player we sign as soon as they make their debut we want them to succeed. We are a group of fans that are living on hope and clutching at straws.

It's so hard for 19-year-old central defenders to break into a Premier League first team. Brighton's 22-year-old defender Ben White has had an exceptional season on loan at Leeds, and he is now ready to play Premier League football after previous loans at Newport and Peterborough. Whether Gibson stays at Everton or leaves, my feeling is that he is still at least 2 years away from being able to deserve to play regularly for a decent Premier League team.

Brent is right about the book title. It's very well researched with a great deal of detail and documentary back up. Gavin Buckland is the Everton FC official statistician, seemingly.

I was 11 at the start of Moore's tenure and the arrival of Tommy Ring etc so it was like Christmas coming early and then regularly thereafter.

Because of my blue tinted spectacles, I had forgotten about/ brushed from my memory the antipathy and bile of the press throughout that period, and the perception of dirty Everton/buying the league/ TonyKay/drug taking etc. I hadn't forgotten those events, just the degree of animosity.

It's well worth a read, but it was not all sweetness and light. Quite sobering actually.

The other good book is Blue Dragon, all about Royston.

People would rather stick with what we have, rather than give Gibson and Gordon a run out.

They cannot possibly do any worse, look at our neighbours youngsters yesterday, look at Greenwood, Rashford.

Our youngsters are too young, yet in the same breath, people are saying give 19 year old Kean more game time.

We need to start giving these youngsters a chance, the other option is sticking with players who have seen countless Managers lose their jobs.

Try Gibson indefence and slot Holgate in midfield, play Gordon in Siggys place, if it is not working you can always slot Holgate back in defence and further changes upfield if needed.

We need to get Gibson signed on a new contract before we kick ourselves.

For example, look at Tomori of Chelsea. He played for Chelsea's u18s, then u23s, and then when he was 20 he went to Brighton &HA for 6 months on loan to the Championship and played 9 games. Then the next season he did a full year with Hull C and played 25 games, and then last year, at the age of 21 he went to Derby C and played an entire season of 44 of 46 league games, 11 cup games, and this year, at the age of 22 he has stayed into Chelsea's defence and looks ready.

Gibson is 19 and 3.5 years younger than Tomori. He can see this season out and then next season, at the age of 20, he can go out on loan and see how he develops. We just need to make the career progression clear to him, and that we have a spot in our first team waiting for him in 2 years.

He may not be ready in your view but you can guarentee he will walk into whoever buys him, if we do not give the guy game time.

He will learn a lot more alongside Coleman, a Holgate and The likes than in the u23 team.

I have seen enough of Gibson and in my eyes this guy is a decent centre half and great composure on the ball and certainly worth a game or two, to build experiance.

Can you tell me how many times Delph has been injured this season Steve, and how many games he has played for our first team.

Dier was on loan and went back to Portugal. Arsenal fans consider Mustafi to be one of the worst centre halfs they have ever had and in recent years they have had some bad ones.

Phil, Mustafi won a World Cup. Crap or not, he played at the very highest level and he was schooled in our academy until the age of 20.

I am not out to score points or anything, but certain players have been out injured, yet has not hampered them being picked when fit.

Coleman was out over a year, Kenny came in and in my opinion did a good job, but was dropped as soon as Coleman was fit.

We will not know how Gibson will do, but he should at worst be on the bench and getting some game time here and there.

We cannot afford to lose this player and if giving him game time from the bench to reassure him to sign a new contract, then we need to act fast, or risk losing a very good player.

Ryan Astley has had to move in from right back to centre-back, Kyle John has dropped back from right wing to right back. The other centre back is Con ouzounidis, who himself is just getting over a long term injury. The u23s are on a mid-season break and hopefully Gibson is now fit and ready to play.

He's played just 5 times this season, and never been fit enough to play more than 3 in a row. He cannot get in the first team, because he is not fit long enough.

Brian #60. Me too. I saw the same game and he looked like the only U 23 that was ready to make the transition.

I would also give Gordon some game time and drop Siggy.

See where we are around the summer transfer window.

For me we need to try and offload some players this window and start our rebuilding in the summer.

I'll put it in my diary, mate. It's a lunchtime game so hopefully it will be fine.

Great player!

The day after my birthday

This is not new!
Ajax have been doing this for decades.

We need to give a couple of youngsters a go, regardless of any saying not the right time due to our position, but our position is down to the very players that need dropping.

I love to see kids coming through but in truth very few make it. Kenny might be the next though Ancellotti seems to favor attacking full backs. Gordon might be a truly influential player who breaks through this year. It's harder to introduce young players into a team we're the pressure to win is greater than the pressure of just playing the game.

Gibson? Injured
Feeney? Injured
Baningime? Injured
Simms? 2 goals in his last 5 games

The u23s have lost 4 of the last 6 games. They look poor. Their midfield has a very promising 16 year old and an 18 year old Einar Iversen who is just easing back in after a major knee injury. The defence is martialled by a right back playing centre back (Astley) and another player recently back from a long injury lay off (Con Ouzounidis ).

I follow the youth sides because I love nothing more than playing the kids. I want to see a team with 11 local lads, not a team of foreign mercenaries. But we have to have decent players to promote. We do have a few, but they are injured and the only one really ready is on the cusp of getting a game anyway.

Not sure I can be any different tbh.

Good news for me.

I recall reading somewhere that the definition of success at most PL teams is to generate one first team regular every 6-7 years via their Academy structure.

Over at Mordor Trent A-Arnold is the first since the Carragher/Gerrard era - and the majority of the "kids" Liverpool deployed against us won't become first team regulars.

Paul Tait's comments were interesting as he seemed to imply that the u23 league was now (as in this season) was starting to become more of an u19s league, and that Everton have not got with the programme. This is what I think we should be concentrating on.

A good premier league pro who comes through our academy should follow a pathway as follows:
u18s football up until the age of 18
if good enough step up to u23s at 16 or 17
if able to make that step up then consideration for first team regardless of age
if not good enough for first team consideration by the age of 19, then look to loan out
if still not near the first team at 21, then sell or release, unless an exception can be made

An exception example being Antony Evans or Kieran Dowell. In that if there is a lot of talent there and they are clearly Championship standard players who with the right loan might prove to be first team worthy, or alternatively might increase transfer value.

In those days, we sassenachs had little knowledge of Scottish football and I found it hard to believe that Scotland had a player the equal of Billy. I became a believer when I saw Tommy in the Blue shirt.

12,000 miles from my local to the Wilmslow makes it impossible for me to join you and other believers but I shall raise a glass to toast the memory of one of our finest left-wingers, your uncle Tommy.