David Moyes says Adam Aznou is “not quite ready” to play first-team football yet

Having him in a Dycheball like Everton against Wolves, would not have suited what he is use to.I doubt Moyes will play him, he won't be prepared to accommodate his development.

Dibling probably needs time too. And Röhl is already adding to his injury record.

Young kids have got to play football to aid their development, so it sounds like Aznou is currently in quite a precarious position.

You only need to look at the fee we paid, it's practically a free transfer. So it's obviously a gamble that we can develop him.

Other clubs sign players at 19, 20, 21 who I've never even heard of and within a year they propel themselves as key components to that said club.

Look at players at Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford, they all seem capable of pulling out unheard of gems.

We sign players like Chermiti that disappear up their own arse.

We needed left-back cover and brought in a youngster we were never going to play. So put Coleman at left-back. Bizarre.

We have no identity and our academy is shite.

We pay millions for untested players and never play them.

Whilst other clubs unearth gems that are "ready".

When exactly will they be ready? Is it when the are old enough, like Tarkowski or Coleman or Keane?

For fuck's sake, Moyes, give the young ones a shot and integrate them into the team. Dibling and Barry cost nearly £70M between them. Who in god's name signed them to be bench warmers???

I'm sure I've read that Barcelona were disappointed when the kid went to Bayern, and I've definitely read that Bayern Munich were very disappointed when he chose to sign for Everton.

So, if it is a gamble to see if we can develop him (something I wouldn't argue with after reading where the manager thinks the kid is at), then I think it's fair to question why?

Especially when you look at his pedigree, including already having three senior caps for a country that came 4th in the last World Cup!

The money we have spent just isn't anywhere near the first team: Barry, Röhl, Aznou and Dibling.

Awful recruitment for a club with not much cash.

I think this time next year he'll be in the team, but let's remember Moyes didn't even put Baines straight in. I reckon this kid will pick up a handful of appearances by season end.

And I think he's doing right by the kid; if he comes in and gets laced, the fanbase will label him a dud pretty sharpish.

He will either sink or swim.

Sounds a little like some are ready to castigate Moyes for not giving young players a chance when he doesn't feel they are ready, whilst also slamming him for not just picking the 'first team' against Wolves! ;-p

All recruitment is hit and miss, for every club. I'd say the record of the last 2 years has been light-years better than what came before.

1. Great deals (1st team): Grealish, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye, O'Brien
2. Solid business (squad): Alcaraz, Iroegbunam
3. Promising (but yet to be proven): Dibling, Röhl,
4. Jury's out (unknown or a bit meh): Aznou, Barry
5. Bad business: I'm not really sure any of the last two seasons' full-time signings can fit here. The likes of Broja and Lindstrom would arguably be in this, but they were loans.

Another year back we had Beto (2?) and Chermiti (4) and Danjuma (5) - but even then it wasn't at the level of Gbamin, Maupay, Tosun, Rondon, Delph, Bolasie, Ramirez, Niasse, Klaassen or even our version of Moise Kean.

At his age, it is inevitable he will gain strength over the next couple of years. Hopefully he is close enough to Moyes's personal preference that half a season might get him there. I'd think a change of formation could get him there quicker.

When Branthwaite is back and able to cover behind him, as part of a back three, he could operate as a wing-back where his robustness should be less of an issue.

As Mr Moyes says, never mind the quality feel the width.

And at the very least, there's part of the problem.

Coach says, "He's not the right sort of left-back to do the job I want."

"Left-back, schmeft-back -- you're the expensively hired coach... coach him so he is!"

Baines grew up in England so was used to English football, whereas this kid has obviously grown up being surrounded by a lot more thoroughbreds, and is now at a little bit of a crossroads regarding where he is at in his development stage right now.

Do you get him used to English football by getting him to play half a season in the U21s and then put him on loan? Or, given his obvious pedigree and the physical nature of English football right the way across the pyramid scheme, do you keep him at the club and try and introduce him slowly?

Seriously, I watched a League Two game yesterday and, if a player couldn't head the ball, then he definitely could not have played for either team as a defender yesterday.

I'm not questioning the kid, just what is the best way to aid his development. But when I remember the sheer desire of the Moroccan players during the last World Cup, and especially their ability to run, then I just hope Aznou has the same qualities.

For me, Aznou should have played vs Wolves if Mykolenko needed a rest. Coleman is not a left-back and Aznou was bought as cover and should have been allowed to be so.

Moyes is wary of youth and especially of players lacking experience in English football. If that's the case, then he should be out on loan, either to a Championship team or possibly a European one.

Caciedo may be a good example. He was bought for peanuts by Brighton and deemed not quite ready for the Premier League. He went out on loan to a Belgian team (Beerschot) and played well, then being recalled by Brighton after some injuries in centre-mid and never looked back. Likewise, Branthwaite was only trusted after his loan to PSV.

Our record for developing young players who haven't played in England before is truly abysmal. Over the last 8 or so years, the only success I can think of is Onana, and many on here would not describe him as such. Maybe Mina could qualify or would have if not for injuries. It's a huge issue when you compare to lots of the clubs around us.

It is indeed strange to have spent this money on Mykolenko's back-up to only then say he's not Premier League ready... Everton that! Despite the excellent business done this summer.

These young players at other clubs are almost never instant hits. Most of them spent time acclimatising or out on loan.

Bournemouth bought Juan Soler in January -- an extremely talented Argentine left-back. He's a year older than Aznou and has had 10 minutes of Premier League football. Does this mean Iraola doesn't trust youth? Or does it just mean that players need looking after properly?

Not all of these young players bought for tiny fees succeed. Aznou may not. Soler may not either. If it works out, then we have a first team player. If it doesn't work out, we can probably sell him for more or less what we bought him for.

As for Moyes, he is a "stay in the Premier League" type manager, so his plan is short term and survival. All these type of managers: Big Sam, Dyche, Moyes, have never really given youth a chance when under pressure. Moyes in fairness did to some extent when things looked up, but his glass ceiling was then hit.

There have been young players at Everton who have had to move on to get their careers moving. This has been increasingly the case. I expect Aznou will be the same. All Barry and Dibling need is an injury and they will disappear.

The conundrum for Moyes is that these young players were bought in as part of a Strategic Plan which he was part of, no matter how much he denies it. This Strategic Plan was developed with the consent of all footballing departments to develop players for the first team, so there will be accountability under this new regime. Service levels would have been agreed.

TFG were either not prepared to put up the packages in the Strategic Plan or Moyes was not able to convince the hardened pros he seemed to want to bring in over the Summer transfer window.

Davy boy, you are going to have to earn your corn and shut your mouth.

Last season, I don't think he saw Beto as the answer but to buy a youngster to replace him from abroad with little or no experience of the Premier League doesn'tt look like a move Moyes would make. Seems like we learnt nothing from signing Sandro from Spain; that didn't work out to well.

By the way, for those criticising Moyes for not playing youngsters... well he didn't hesitate to play Rohl at the earliest opportunity.

I have long argued the manager should be the person who decides who we buy... after all, it's the manager who gets sacked if the team don't do well, not a DoF or a committee as we seem to have now.

Obviously it will never be made public but I just wonder who did buy these players? TFG wanting to go down the route of buying youngsters and hoping they come good is a very risky strategy. I have only known 2 managers do anything with many kids in the team: they were Busby and Ferguson. But they were lucky in having some of the most talented kids all there at the same time.

Röhl is 23 and he didn't start him; he brought him on with 30 minutes to go.

That, as you rightly say, is unknowable, although it doesn't seem to stop you repeating your theory — third time is a charm? — presumably helping it gain truth each time?

Perhaps we can apply the same approach to this gem:

"Dibling... is yet to make an appearance."

Hmmm... really? Who was that young kid wearing the Number 20 shirt then? And more than once.

I think the point still stands though - I think a lot of fans look enviously at young players breaking through elsewhere but miss the fact that they have been developed on loan or acclimatised with their club for a long time being breaking through. This is especially the case for bargain bin signings like Aznou.

Moyes handling of him isn't especially unusual, although some managers probably would have played him in the cup if fit.

Not rocket science, David, is it? We are only 4 vpoints above the bottom three place, we ain't got lotsa time to wait for no development of signings. You see, Dave, as far as cover for our defenders goes, we don't gotts none.

Perhaps a loan would be in order, maybe to a top league like La Liga and maybe a smaller club like Valadolid where he could get some first team action. oops!!

You think 10 million is a small fee for a youngster who has only one year on his contract and the giants are desperate to keep him?

We don't know if he's ready or not because we can't judge but I can certainly tell you that Harrison Armstrong could certainly hold his own, I think he has performed better than Tim when given the chance.

Let's face it young Anzou couldn't have done much worse than an unfit Seamus playing in a role he hasn't done for years.

And yes I do think the fee of £7.8M paid for Aznou is absolutely tiny. It will be a remarkable bit of business if (as we all hope) he develops into a regular starter for us.

Would he have done better than Coleman? Hard to say. Possibly. The whole team was pretty awful. As I said in the earlier post, some other managers might have played Aznou if fit. Martinez probably would have done, for example, since attacking full-backs were key to his tactical (and not very defensive) set up.

And you're welcome to tell me that Harrison Armstrong can hold his own because I haven't brought that up. I'm not sure what it's got to do with anything. Although I do notice that he's only been given 78 minutes across 3 games for Preston so far this season, so it appears they are easing him in fairly gently despite his obvious talent.

The fee you have quoted is his initial fee without add-ons. To put his fee into context Malick Fofana was quoted to us at £35M inclusive of add ons but he wanted Champions League football. This is one of the hottest properties in European football and they were looking £11.7M per year of contract all in.

The point about Armstrong was nothing against you so you don't need to be so defensive, it was in reference to Moyes telling us Aznou wasn't ready, I would take it with a pinch of salt.

Go back to Barkley or Armstrong or whoever you like as you yourself have now highlighted. In your previous post, you implied that he probably wasn't ready and gave examples as to why; he may not be but I certainly wouldn't take David Moyes's word for it, was why Armstrong came into the mixer.

Is he suggesting he's not focused and is there a discipline issue or is it something else?