Everton next generation assessed as swarm of starlets join first-team training
A number of Everton Under-21 and Under-18 starlets have hopped into first-team training this week, according to the Liverpool Echo.
Much of Frank Lampard’s first-team squad is currently away on international duty which has left him needing numbers to put on full sessions for those still at Finch Farm.
As a result, Paul Tait’s Under-21s side have been joining in with the senior professionals at Everton and learning plenty while also being assessed by the first-team coaching staff.
Joe Anderson, Mackenzie Hunt, Sebastian Quirk and Billy Crellin all made the step up this week while Ishe Samuels-Smith got his chance earlier in the month.
Mathew Mallon, Tom Cannon, Halid Djankpata, Katia Kouyate, Elijah Campbell and Charlie Whitaker also made the step up, albeit temporarily while numbers are low to mix it with Lampard’s usual pretenders.
Opportunity
For the senior players at Everton, this week might have just been seen as another training session but those who are yet to make their breakthrough at Goodison Park will have seen it as perhaps their last opportunity.
Some of the youngsters mentioned above have been close before and not been given the chance to shine and they won’t have wanted this chance to get away from them.
Luckily for all of them, they have time on their hands to make the necessary progression but those few sessions will have been very intensely watched by Lampard who wants to see who is the best of the best coming through the ranks.
In what is only a training session, some of those teenagers will have seen their careers defined one way or another.
The regular mob will soon be back at Finch Farm and the vast majority, if not all, of these youngsters will return to their own training schedule but who knows what the future may hold for them all.