U21s full-back Dixon signs new Everton deal

Very promising rapid right back. Probably best served by a loan to a championship team.

Still, he has the second most U21 appearances for last season behind Jenson Metcalfe and has looked okay (none of them have looked outstanding) so hopefully he can make the next step up to training with the first team.

He said he wants to go and get the experience of playing some first team football, next season, (either at Everton, or on loan) so hopefully this happens for him, because it will definitely be better than playing under 21's football, imo.

Now instead of "youth team" they used that term to cover all the teams from under 16 to under 20. Evidently Roman is presently in the under 20 team for England. Although the under 20s are now called the "elite" while the others just have numeric titles.

I've just checked and he's not twenty until Boxing Day, but he still needs to get out on loan, and hopefully gain from the experience of playing competitive men's football.

Interesting the lads released, at the end of last season.

This could be a spur to drive on and prove a point to Everton

Belief, and I hope he makes the grade.

Hopefully very soon a new era starts for Everton FC.

Hopefully a football club that will be properly managed and ran professionally off the park.

UTFTs!

He came on as a sub for the "elite" last week v Ireland (in Croatia) and against Sweden a few days earlier.

It says he was 14 when he made his England u16 appearance - 2-1 win against Scotland.

He likes a tackle apparently, so he should relish playing real competitive football, which is surely the best place for any young player to learn?

I wonder what happens to Jenson Metcalfe this season, because he has shown quite a bit of talent in the younger age groups, so if he can adapt to the physical side of the game, (didn't he play for Duncan Ferguson, last season?) then hopefully he's another young player who can come through.

I saw Connor Bradley, playing for a good league one club, (Bolton) around that age Robert, and he stood out with certain things he did that day.

I think the other kid who also plays for Liverpool who Southgate, kept on standby,ahead of Brainthwaith (Quanda?) made his debut for Bristol Rovers, around the same age playing for Bristol Rovers, also in league one Robert, and believe that sometimes it's just about seeing if these young kids can stand up to the rigorous of men's football.

I know Tony has watched a fair bit of Championship and Leagues 1 and 2, and Robert, you seem to have a handle on many layers of football. I watch kids, Marine at tier 7 (moving into tier 6), and the Premier League.

I have often thought it would be great for a 19-20 year old lad from a Premier League club to have a full season at a club like Marine. The player would presumably have the skills and pace to compete at that level, such a move to a local club would toughen them up, make them look after themselves, get a full season playing against men, while still being able to be in regular touch with their parent club.

Or do you think the gulf between the Premier League and tier 6 is too great?

Peter, in my view there must be very little benefit playing non-league. Toughening up is one thing but the standard of football and team mates needs to be right too for these young players to actually develop.

Personally, I think these kids would develop more playing top flight football somewhere like Denmark or Switzerland or Greece of wherever. They'd also grow up a bit faster – like youngsters are expected to do when arriving in the UK from abroad.

For the youngsters, then send them over from Easter to say July or August and see how they go. Quite a few of our U21s play few games and so going to clubs over there in our close season will keep them learning and maybe we will learn a few things as well.

I've written on these pages before how I played a Central League game against Aston Villa (on the night of the Lockerbie bombing) and we had a trialist playing from Grantham Town who I'm sure were around the eighth tier of the footballing pyramid.

This very slight kid had a really good game and I remember Clough being delighted with his contribution whilst christening Gary Crosby, "Bing".

I went home for Christmas straight after the game (it's why I remember it being the night of Lockerbie); when I went back to Nottingham 12 days later, Crosby had signed professional terms. A week or two later, he made his First Division debut and scored after capitalizing on a mistake by the England left-back, Tony Dorigo.

It's not often I disagree with Robert but I believe that sometimes football is all about rolling up your sleeves and just getting on with your job; sometimes, I don't think the standard matters as much as people make out.

It's really interesting to hear your first-hand stuff from within the game.

The game has moved on massively from the eighties, especially with so much science now having being adapted, from a purely physical point of view, but football will never change and the ones who can tough it out will go a lot further than the kids who seemingly have more talent in a lot of cases.

Football is an unbelievably physical game nowadays and I don't think that the academy system concentrates on this anywhere near enough. I look back to when France beat England during the last World Cup and would argue that, more than anything else, France were just physically too strong for England. That was my belief, anyway.

But, as with most young players over 18, they learn more from playing weekly, competitive football against and with older, experienced players than they do training or playing against other youth academies.

Any of the top 4 tiers in England or top 2 in Scotland would be beneficial. Don't dismiss the physical and mental development of a league 2 loan.

Whilst I agree most world class players shine by the time they are 20, that is not always the case, especially with defenders.

Everton are in need of very good and top class players to improve the first team and squad which is mostly average to good Premier league standard.

Otherwise the youth players just need to be decent enough to sell for a few million and contribute to the club coffers whilst hopefully enjoying a good playing career.