Demi Akarakiri signs up with Everton Academy

We have already acquired Kingsford Boakye and (for next season) Braidan Graham. We had Omari Benjamin on trial too from Arsenal's academy but nothing has come of it by the looks of things – and have been linked to various teenagers playing in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

It's not a bad strategy, picking up kids who are not going to make it at places like Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd and Man City. Man City and Arsenal have a good handful of highly-rated youth internationals all out of contract in summer – some of whom would already be pushing hard for first team appearances with us (eg, Hamilton, Wright, Walters and Cozier-Duberry).

Hopefully this is an interim measure while we improve the standard of our homegrown players – but it is certainly a low-cost way of improving the depth in our first-team squad in the next few years.

Other academies (like Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea) are far better resourced so taking the best of their cast-offs for little or no cost is a sensible policy.

The chances to break through at Everton are far higher and one thing I like about the 777 Partners approach is the easy opportunity to send good young talents to affiliated clubs where our interests are deemed important.

Can anyone confirm he got his work permit / is training and playing for Everton?