Everton U21s get a great win over Chelsea at Walton Hall Park

Everton’s academy is in transition. Is it on course to deliver ‘homegrown superstars’?

The weather in Kirkby was practically biblical, but that mattered little to Everton Under-18s. In Wednesday night’s driving, torrential rain, they celebrated an impressive 3-1 comeback win over city rivals Liverpool.

Watching on from the sidelines were first-team coach Leighton Baines, who took the team until his promotion to the senior setup in January, and new technical director Nick Cox.

A recent arrival from Manchester United, Cox comes from a development background and will be — among other things — expected to oversee the running of the academy. He is only weeks into the job but has been an active presence behind the scenes as he seeks to understand more about the setup he has inherited.

Cox joins Everton at a key time, with the academy in a state of transition. The departure of former director of football Kevin Thelwell last season was quickly followed by other notable exits. Academy director Gareth Prosser moved to Al Jazira in the United Arab Emirates. Head of academy coaching Carl Darlington has taken on the role on an interim basis. Head of academy recruitment and player pathways James Vaughan, meanwhile, has taken up a role at an agency.

These are significant gaps that need to be filled. Cox’s appointment was seen as a coup for Everton, but now he has work to do.

Under American owners The Friedkin Group (TFG), there is expected to be a renewed focus on the academy setup. After completing its takeover of the club in December, TFG mentioned “cultivating homegrown superstars” as one of its key aims.

It has been a long time since Everton did that. Wayne Rooney and Ross Barkley both earned England caps after coming through the setup in 2002 and 2011 respectively. Anthony Gordon, sold to Newcastle United in January 2023 for an initial £40million ($53m) at a time of financial crisis, has since joined them.

Gordon, Barkley and Fulham’s Antonee Robinson are all still plying their trade in the Premier League.

The divisions below are littered with Everton academy graduates who are either still developing or did not quite make the grade. West Bromwich Albion’s Isaac Price, a Northern Ireland international, Wrexham and Wales forward Nathan Broadhead, Sheffield United’s Tom Davies, Coventry City’s Ellis Simms, and Ishe Samuels-Smith, on loan at Swansea City from Chelsea, can all be found in the Championship, England’s second tier.

That sizeable cohort explains Everton’s rise in Training Ground Guru’s latest academy productivity rankings, which assess “English academies according to the number of graduates who made at least one appearance in the top five English leagues (Premier League, Football League and National League), as well as in the other ‘Big Five’ European leagues — La Liga (Spain), Bundesliga (Germany), Serie A (Italy) and Ligue 1 (France) in 2024-25”.

Everton leap from eighth to fourth in this year’s table, behind only Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Liverpool are seventh.

These are solid outcomes. Only a tiny proportion of academy players make the breakthrough at the top level, and forging any kind of career in the game is seen as an achievement.

It was telling, though, that Everton did not feel able to dip into their academy reserves to replenish the first-team squad during the mass exodus of players over the summer. The sense at the time was that only 18-year-old midfielder Harrison Armstrong, currently excelling at Preston North End in the Championship, was close to making the step up — and even he was sent on loan.

Some of the reasons for that shortage of talent have been explained on these pages before. The sales of Gordon, Samuels-Smith and Co were motivated by the desperate need to improve the club’s profit and sustainability rules position.

The financial turmoil at the club also meant the academy infrastructure and recruitment suffered. Below the age of 16, the club did not run a full-time programme, prohibiting them from recruiting talent from outside their usual north-west catchment area in those younger age groups. That is something TFG and former academy director Prosser had been keen to rectify.

Going further back, Everton were handed a two-year academy transfer ban in 2018 after being found guilty of breaching recruitment rules.

There have been some green shoots of recovery of late. Armstrong looks like a first-team player in waiting and Everton Under-18s, coached by former Blackpool player Keith Southern, are fifth in their northern division.

Southern’s side came back from the concession of an early goal to beat Liverpool on Wednesday, and also completed the double over their city rivals last season.

Results do not particularly matter at this level. Not really. Most academy directors and coaches would argue that player development takes priority over positions and points. It is also worth pointing out that Everton’s under-21 side lost 4-1 to their Liverpool counterparts at the weekend, albeit after playing most of the game with 10 men. They were drawing 1-1 when right-back George Finney was sent off on 27 minutes.

It was a reckless moment and a learning curve for Finney, but he remains an interesting prospect who has largely gone under the radar. The Liverpool-born defender possesses many of the attributes needed as a full-back in the modern game: height, athleticism and the ability to create chances. He overlaps, underlaps and crosses the ball well.

Everton’s comeback win on Wednesday was all the more notable given the players they were missing. Regulars Reuben Gokah and Malik Olayiwola were away with England Under-17s, while prolific schoolboy Jonathan Nsangou was also absent after being called up by England Under-16s.

All three have potential. Gokah, signed from Charlton Athletic over the summer for an initial six-figure sum, is a tall, ball-playing centre-back known for his composure. Olayiwola, recruited from the renowned Manchester junior team Moston Tigers, is a box-to-box midfielder capable of scoring and creating. Nsangou is an exciting attacker who made his under-21 debut aged just 15.

Everton choose to promote the best talents early where possible, meaning they were also without other eligible players like Braiden Graham and Justin Clarke, both now regulars in the under-21 setup.

As a result, Southern’s line-up featured three first-year academy scholars and one schoolboy, the 15-year-old central defender Harlow McEveley, son of former Scotland international Jay. Two other schoolboys, Jake Doughty and Francis Boggan, were on the bench.

Liverpool had to contend with absences of their own. On the same night, their first team lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup, with the likes of Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni featuring despite still being eligible for academy games.

One of the things I like about attending academy games is that you are close to the action. You can hear how the players interact, see the speed of the game and witness their body language. Under-18 football is a million miles away from the Premier League in terms of tempo, physicality and technical proficiency, but it is a decent place to assess potential.

Everton’s standouts were goalkeeper Doug Lukjanciks and midfielder Demi Akarakiri. Lukjanciks, who hails from nearby Southport and has been capped by England Under-19s, captained Everton and made three outstanding one-on-one saves. Akarakiri, signed from Arsenal last year, is a mobile, dominant central midfielder capable of evading opposition challenges and driving forward.

Everton’s goals came from Ray Robert and Ceiran Loney, joint-top scorers this season on four, and Kean Wren. Like Graham, Akarakiri and Gokah, Loney was signed as part of a recruitment drive under Thelwell, joining from Partick Thistle of Scotland.

His strike partner Robert made history earlier this year when he became the first Everton player to score at their new Hill Dickinson Stadium, during a test game against Wigan Athletic. The 17-year-old is pacy and an adept finisher, but is yet to make the step up to the under-21s.

What comes next for a lot of these young players is uncertain. But they savoured their moment in front of the watching Baines and Cox. Even the torrential rain could not dampen their celebrations.