Kyle John signs 2-year contract extension

He's a year older than Patterson though, I think, and well behind him in development. I'd assumed he'd be let go in summer to find his level in the third tier or thereabouts – like Lundstram, Ledson, Bidwell, Forshaw etc potentially climbing back up the league.

Hope he does well and proves me wrong, but never quite looked Premier League class.

If the staff come to the conclusion by next summer that Kyle will only be like what Robert mentioned above, a solid Football League Pro, he can then either be loaned out (for the entire last season of this contract till expiry) or sold (on a nominal amount) to a Football League Club next summer. Either way, this contract extension will not have the downside of a financial burden, à la Matthew Pennington, but all the upside of managing a "borderline" talent responsibly.

Of course, I'm rooting for him finding his way up to the first team: if that is the case, he will likely sign another medium term contract extension (like those 3-year terms for Simms, Broadhead, and Dobbin) to have his sales value protected and be loaned out to Football League clubs for one to two seasons (depends on Kyle's own progress) to ply his trade.

In short, Thelwell's structure is well positioned to allow the club to monitor the progress of a youngster properly and be benefited (or well covered at the very least) financially.

Sorry but this guy is already 21 and hasn't seen a minute of action. I can only assume, as with Mayor Joe Anderson, we are keeping him around to add some experience to the Under-21s.

So, I'd love to see him get some game time for the first team. But, I'm with Robert – I'm not sure he is, or ever will be, quite there. Although he has been on the first team bench recently – but / and so have Mills, Welch, Price...

As Dupont says, perhaps "another low-cost move by Thelwell to buy time for his coaching staff to evaluate Kyle correctly", though haven't they had time enough already? Or, as Kieran says, we're "keeping him around to add some experience to the Under-21s"?

Perhaps Everton are being cautious about moving Kyle John on too soon, given Patterson's injury, and uncertainty about Coleman's ability to still provide cover (though his job on Zaha suggests otherwise – we might yet see more Dame Nellie Melba-type "farewell" appearances from Coleman).

You know, it actually sounds very similar to the way it has always worked in recent years, for many players coming through the age bands.

Yet we're told there's been a revamp of the Academy under Thelwell. So things are going to be different.

How, I wonder?

We're still giving decent contracts to older youngsters.
We're still playing competitive teams in their leagues.
We're still trying to win various cup competitions.
We're still pushing limited players out on loan.
We're still not selling players for big fees.
We're still releasing players who aren't going to make it.
We're still accelerating the best ones through the levels.
We're still losing top talent to other Academies.

Or is it just too soon to be seeing any difference yet?

He's determined, he's committed, but he's 21 years of age, and needs to be playing real competitive football. I think this will bring him on more because he did look like he was a very committed kid, but I'm not sure he's good enough for the football to play in the Premier League?

I hadn't read any of the thread, but reading back, I'm not alone in my thoughts regarding this kid!

Kyle John has been in and around the U23s/U21s for years, and at 21 I doubt anybody needs more time to evaluate him.

Unsworth for me outstayed his time with us and thankfully he's now moved on. But your barbed criticism of him re John makes no sense.

Kyle John was an average winger / midfielder for the U18s, he was one of a number of players we tried to convert to a right-back, and the one who has been most successful. If he makes a career in the game at right-back he'll have a lot to thank Unsworth and the other coaches for.

For me, John won't make it with us. A big point for him was the match at home to Man City a couple of seasons ago when a fast City winger continually tore him apart for pace and lack of defensive positioning. He's decent when going forward but has never improved much in his defensive ability.

I would preach patience. We need to re-build the "hype" amongst other Football League Clubs (& the Scottish Clubs, if they have the money and enough scouts) that our youngsters carry the necessary "Blue Blood" pedigree and are worth them to fork out decent fees to acquire.

The ultimate goal is to be like Chelsea (the fee they got back from Tammy Abraham might be a pittance to them but certainly wasn't shabby) and the Red Shite (the £40 Million in total that they ripped off Bournemouth on various sales of over-hyped but sub-par youngsters is textbook material).

I trust that, with Thelwell in place, we shall gradually make more money replenishing the club's coffer via the sale of youngsters:

- No more releasing the likes of Lundstram, Ledson, Bidwell, Forshaw for free, then seeing them making respective returns to Premier League (and/or having long careers with Football League Clubs) with other clubs and have no sell-on or development fees in return.

- No more free-transfers like Joe Williams, then seeing the club that signed him (Wigan) right afterwards recouping £1.2 Million by selling him 12 months later.

- No more over-paying the likes of Pennington so much that Football League clubs can't afford to cover his pension money for loans.

Fingers crossed on Thelwell's ongoing work and improvement of the club's overall structure!

I had to look up that Joe Williams example because it did sound like bad business. From what I could find (Wigan Today), it seems he wasn't quite a free transfer, with the newspaper reporting that Everton sold him "for an undisclosed fee believed to be in seven figures".

Still nowhere near the level of fees Liverpool seem to extract for their mediocre Academy players, though.