Rhys Hughes joins Tranmere Rovers

The writing reads like we have just let a Ward-Prowse type player go because of his lack of size or strength.

Unbelievable, are we operating an academy set in the 1980's?

Despite the introduction into the first team squad of the likes of Davies and Gordon; one of the most successful of our other players who were under the rein of our coterie of Kenwright-dependant ex-player-"coaches" is Luke Garbutt.

When he was with us as a debutant I cringed to hear him boasting of his own pass-stats "that Unsy had so admired".

Garbutt, after signing a five-year contract, eventually left us on a free transfer - recouping no money at all given that we'd paid him for years.

He's still playing, when selected, by Blackpool, up to now in the third tier of football.

These are his career stats;

2011–2020 Everton 5 (0 goals)

2011–2012 → Cheltenham (loan) 34 (2)

2013–2014 → Colchester Utd (loan) 19 (2) 2015–2016 → Fulham (loan) 25 (1)

2016–2017 → Wigan Athletic (loan) 8 (0) 2018–2019 → Oxford United (loan) 25 (4) 2019–2020 → Ipswich Town (loan) 28 (5)

2020– Blackpool 46 (4)

National team 2008 England U16 5 (0) 2008–2010 England U17 24 (3)

2010 England U18 1 (0)

2011–2012 England U19 7 (0)

2013–2014 England U20 5 (0)

2014–2015 England U21 11 (0)

A pretty sad career for a lad who was supposed to be developed at what we were, and still are, being told is a world-class training facility.

As if!

Justin (1) - Rhys Hughes is nothing like Ward-Prowse, so don't worry.

Good luck to Hughes at Tranmere and beyond. He's a tidy footballer for sure, and should have a decent enough career, but when I've watched him play I always thought he lacked the desired urgency and tenacity to stamp his authority on games.

A bit like Kieran Dowell in that respect – but without the wand of a left foot and the catalogue of long-distance screamers.

Justin @1,

Comparisons with Ward-Prowse seem unwarranted but there was a time fairly recently when it was not just the Academy staff who were saying pretty complimentary things about him:

10 Exciting Prospects from Everton's Academy

He had a pretty good appearance record for the U23s and didn't look too shabby when I saw him play. Not stand-out, but then few of them really do.

And that's the problem, it seems: poor coaching. So promising players, perhaps like Rhys Hughes, get shifted and shafted because of the failings of said staff.

At least he is the only one of the 10 who has been released… so far! But that particular Academy staff person has since been "moved on" as well since he wasn't all that good really.

I have always thought that Bobby Brown Shoes was the biggest culprit in terms of over-hyping our young guns that led to them given ridiculous contracts that the majority of Football Leagues couldn't afford, hence the relatively small number of them heading out for loans. Let alone asking those clubs to take on the full wages during their loans (Dowell? Williams?), or even worse, getting rid of their contracts before their expiry dates (Pennington? Beni?) to try reducing the wage bill.

Now, we finally know that it was Rhino who has been the bigger culprit, misleading Higher Hierarchies up the club, in terms of what we have in the youngster pipeline and how ready it is in helping to replenish an aging First Team.

Imagine the pipeline to replenish Wayne Enterprise was mismanaged, who would suffer? It was the whole city of Gotham, not the Wayne Family (and Batman himself).

Dig a slightly deeper into Red Shite's player tradings and it is crystal clear that a large chunk of their income (and even profits) were made out of hyping up their prospects to an extent that other lower tier Premier League Teams (or even promotion-chasing Championship Teams) would cash out their crown jewels to buy them (Good to see you back Bournemouth but really hate to see you financing the Red Shite before you went away last time).

As much as I love Rhino the player, not so much for Rhino the Coach.

Unsworth lost all credibility to me when Mampala (I think that was his name) was 20-odd, almost out of contract, and Unsie gave an Echo interview saying it was in his hands as he had the talent to do anything he wanted – even though he'd failed to make an impact at the Under-23s.

Don #2, in the words of Carlo : Who?