Youth Shut Up, No! YOUTH Shut up!

Do we, as football fans, sometimes expect too much from players in the youth system? After being a football supporter for nearly 20 years now, I’ve come to the conclusion that most football supporters fall into three categories.



The first category don’t really don’t care about the youth team. At the end of the day, the youth team is just there to provide the odd decent player. These supporters don’t have an emotional connection with the youth squad or the youth players. If one comes through and he’s amazing, fair enough, but he’d better be amazing, otherwise they’ll be cat calling the manager and demanding he bring on that 30 year old journeyman the club sparked 5 Million on in the January transfer window.



The second category care a lot about the youth team. They honestly believe that the youth team is the breading ground for future club legends. These supporters keep their ear to the ground to hear about the recent prospects who are delivering in the youth system and under 21’s. They will keep up to date with the youth team results and may even attend youth games when given the chance. They are fine with a 30 year old journeyman playing in the squad and delivering, but he better be delivering, otherwise they’ll be cat calling the manager and demanding that he bring on the most recent youth team graduate as he as “Proper boss against Blackburn in the youth cup”



The third category are those supporters who balance in the middle, bouncing between the extremes of categories one and two. For a while I used to think that I nestled in the third category, leaning slightly toward category two, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I may no longer be leaning that way and I may actually be firmly in camp number two.



On countless occasions now I seem to find myself always leaping in to defend any young prospect that has shown even an ounce of potential in the Everton Youth Team. I’ve even gone to watch youth games at Goodison Park this season (something I have never done in previous seasons). I actually know quite a few of the youth team by name and have a reasonable idea of their abilities and not just from playing FIFA either. I’m going to the Pre-Season Friendly against Accrington Stanley on the 17th July, mainly because I’m interested in seeing whether any of the younger players will get a run out. I will actually more excited if Matthew Kennedy plays on the right rather than Kevin Mirallas. I will be happier to see Francisco Junior playing in the Centre of Midfield rather than Leon Osman or Darren Gibson.



It’s got to the point now where I’ll actually be disappointed if some of the younger players don’t get a game than whether I’ll get to see Fellaini, Baines, Howard and co. I’m actually hoping Mason Springthorpe gets a game because I think he’s got real potential and I’d like to see him get a game under his belt.



I’ve also got to the point now where I will shout down at the dug out during games demanding that the manager get Barkley on or get Oviedo on (Not a member of the youth team per say, but still a younger player who’s been hungering for his chance)



Ross Barkley getting in the team has become a personal cause of mine in recent months. If he ever does become a regular first teamer, I think I’ll be more excited about it than he will. Watching Barkley has become nothing short of weird recently. I don’t know the man, have never met him and I haven’t got a clue about what he’s like off the pitch, but when I watch him play I want him to do so well that it’s almost like I’m watching a family member play. It’s beyond weird really.



Recently, Everton sold Jake Bidwell and most of the category one folk were coming out saying that he was never going to make it anyway. There were a few supporters, myself included, who lamented that this was a real shame and noted, correctly I feel, that Bidwell had never really been given a full chance to make it at the club. Out of all the players to move on, it was a potential LB, a position that Everton may be experiencing a massive hole if Man United gets their way in the coming months.



Sometimes I honestly think that Everton’s transfer policy is handled by a Magic 8-Ball. It’s bad enough to let a player go before he’s had a chance to reach his full potential, but it’s even worse when you do it when you know that you’re going to potentially be another player light in that position.



I recall visiting the Everton Forum www.grandoldteam.com and lamenting the loss of Bidwell. Most of the posters didn’t agree. One poster even suggested that some supporters were “wearing masks” over the incident and were only pretending to express displeasure in order to have a sly pop at Roberto Martinez.



I can’t speak for anyone else, but I will say that my comments in that thread and my comments in this post are truthful. I do think Bidwell could have done more at the club and I do think he deserved more of a chance. You can argue that he was 3rd or even 4th in line at the moment at the LB position. Fine then, send him on loan. I doubt getting him off the wage bill will finally allow the club to sign Messi or Ronaldo. I don’t think we could even get Phil Babb using that money.



I actually see Martinez coming in as somewhat of a positive. David Moyes, despite some success stories, wasn’t exactly great at blooding youngsters. Moyes usual policy was to give a younger player some games and then stick him on the bench, never use him, and then get rid of him claiming he had dreaded “attitude problems”. Rumours abound that this is the reason why Barkley had such a stop-start season last year.



I surely wasn’t the only one scratching my head to see Barkley not start the game against Sunderland after he had done so well against Arsenal. That game may have been one of the most frustrating away trips I had last season. Barkley wasn’t even named in the squad to face Liverpool in the run-in. Rumours again were that he was ill, but I’ve never had that confirmed. If he was healthy, then it was a disgrace that he didn’t at least find himself on the bench for that fixture.



Now I’m sure that some of the younger players in the squad have had, at times, attitude problems. But it seemed a bit of a regular occurrence to me. Even if all the players who were sent on their way due to having bad attitudes did in fact have bad attitudes, after a certain point shouldn’t the club themselves perhaps be held accountable and not just the individual players. If I run a club and countless players start acting up in the youth team, my first thought would be “bloody hell, what is up with the youth team?”. It wouldn’t be “Let’s just sack off the bad apples and carry on business as usual”



I’m hopeful that Martinez will give some of the younger players a chance but the fact he would rather spend money on bring in Alcaraz rather than promoting Shane Duffy leads me to believe that it might just be a case of “more of the same” at Everton football club.



A personal plea to all of those in category three, step on over to category two. If there’s enough of us, maybe one day players like Francisco Junior, Duffy, Barkley, Bidwell and Garbutt make get a fair shake.



One can only dream.