Ebere scores a hat-trick as Everton U18s thrash Leeds

Omari Benjamin, who played for Everton last week on trial, was back on the Arsenal bench yesterday and the lad from Italy hasn't been mentioned since he played a couple of weeks ago – he was signed on a 2½-year deal!

Can I be the first to hysterically call for the lad to get a start for the senior side???

I think I know what you mean: managers – especially when they are fighting for their lives at the bottom – are very reluctant to take any chances.

Well, were any of Fergie's kids good enough? Look across the Park and tell me the Devil's children are not good enough.

But we don't need him. We have got forwards who can score goals... ooh, wait a minute.

I say give the lad a chance. Can he be any worse than what we have got? I don't think so. We don't know how good the kids are because we never play them.

For anyone who has actually watched our U21s, it's very hard to argue with that Echo piece. We have some decent players but no-one who looks like first-team regular.

Dobbin for example is our stand-out academy prospect but managed only 3 goals in 43 appearances for third-tier Derby last season. He's also nearly 18 months older than Garnacho and hasn't featured in the England youth set up since one of just two appearances for England U19s in October 2021.

There are loads of youth players of this sort of standard and better at every Premier League club academy and some Championship clubs. Most find their level in the 2nd and 3rd tier. Many, like Manasse Mampala, drift away altogether despite strong performances in the academy. Now 23, he has 1 appearance for Marine this season.

Since Ishe Samuels-Smith left, only Branthwaite features in the current England youth set up between U16 and U21 level. This does not bode well.

George Morgan (age 17 / Wales U17) looks a player but still only has 2 in 7 at Everton U18 level.

Comparisons to the RS are misplaced. Like Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd, they have invested heavily in their academy – and many of their players are recruited not developed.

Noticeable that Brighton and Southampton are well represented too at England youth level – also WBA, Blackburn and others.

If Rooney was coming through now, every manager in the Premier League would go down on their knees and thank God he was with their club.

Walter Smith, a conservative sort of manager, said he'd play him in the first team if he could; the reason he couldn't was Wayne was still at school.

I understand why you're saying Rooney wouldn't get picked now but he was just impossible to leave out. I saw him v Spurs in an FA Youth Cup game when he was just turned 16, I'd heard about him for two or three years but had never seen him.

Unbelievable, he had the two or three thousand fans who were there mesmerised, never seen anything like him and he was ours: for just a couple of years…

Apologies, Paul, if you already knew all of this and you might have even been there that memorable night.

That must have been an incredible experience. I think Branthwaite is the one player I've seen (on TV) for the academy who looked far, far too good for that level.

Before then, it hadn't really dawned on me just how low the standard was. Since then, I've concluded you have to look absolutely outstanding at that level (and youth international level too) to stand a chance (and possibly carry that sort of form into a loan too).

It's a brutal system for the many hundreds (and more) of kids who devote their life to it.

Just because a kid named Rooney was ready at 16 doesn't mean Coby Ebere is. Those advocating for him to start without knowing enough about the lad smacks of typical TW hysteria.

Easy, this football managing job, innit?

Personally, I am a great believer that many average-looking players, once given a chance, raise their game by just playing with much higher quality players around them… but the stakes are so high that they never get that break. Rooney was exceptional as a schoolboy, Barkley too, but they are rare.

In this day of player analysts, every stat is dissected to counter by the opposition, but playing kids is an unknown and hard to deal with, that can be a benefit too, the unknown factor...

The loan system has now replaced the reserves, not the U21s.

And yes, I watch the U21s. You get nowhere by not giving youth a chance and quote people that do not make it. Well, that's like saying if only I actually bought that lottery ticket!

If Ebere scored one goal for the first team, it would be a better contribution than the rest of the useless lot we have now.

Oh, and were not Kenny, Dowell and Calvert-Lewin U21 World Cup winners? Time for something new because what Dyche is doing ain't working. We are 4 points away from the Championship but, like Dyche, you all seem to not try anything new! Who dares wins!!!

He also praised Branthwaite, and said Dobbin had earned the chance to play now.

I doubt many managers, no matter which league, would take a chance with young players especially those fighting a relegation battle or even at the top.

Liverpool have had to play younger players because of a raft of injuries and they have done a great job and surpassed anything that was expected of them and Man City have threw three or four into their team mostly because of injuries.

Well run clubs with money, Everton have been the complete opposite even with quite a bit to spend, mostly wasted.

Let's see what is round the corner, I'm predicting blue skies, Nothing but blue skies from now on, starting very soon.

I hope Ebere has a great career. Many of my posts and articles are about how I'd love us to become an academy-led club.

My point was very specifically that the U21s are not a route to the first team. But the U18s where Ebere plays certainly can be.

The players you mentioned all largely bypassed the U21s. The top academy players all do. They are in the first-team squad by 19 – often sooner.

Garnacho (19), who made the difference on Saturday, played just 12 games at U21 level at age 17 to acclimatise after a season in U18s, age 16, and was then straight into the first-team squad.

Ebere is obviously doing really well in the U18s – but the best ones tend to be in an international youth set up (like Danns of the Liverpool). Ebere qualifies for Nigeria and Germany (possibly England too?) but no caps at any level.

I hope I am not right but I'd be surprised if our next first-team regular from the academy is older than 15 at the moment (unless we get relegated).