Everton starlet Stanley Mills has first-team plan mapped out – Paul Tait
Stanley Mills is coming on leaps and bounds at Everton and Under-21s manager Paul Tait can see a first-team move on the horizon.
The 19-year-old has been an ever-present for the academy teams this season and starred in most games under Tait while also being called onto the pre-season tour of America.
The Under-21s boss has revealed plans for Mills to soon make his graduation to the first team with Frank Lampard but it may take a bit of time yet.
“Stan has been excellent. He got a real good chance with the first team and he was with them for eight weeks from pre-season,” Tait told the Liverpool Echo.
“Apart from being a really good player, he is a really good person and he does things right. He is really professional and diligent in everything he does and the first-team staff saw that.
“His programme at the moment is playing for us, training with us, but of course going and training with the first team, which will be a real stretch for him, which is what he needs.”
Time for a loan
Mills has impressed in the Under-18s previously and now is doing the same for the Under-21s and there is only one step left to conquer before he will be ready for the senior team.
Much like Anthony Gordon did a couple of years ago, the 19-year-old has to try and find a loan elsewhere in the Football League, perhaps with the help of contacts from Frank Lampard.
The Everton boss should be looking to anybody he might know for a favour when it comes to Mills and other youngsters at the club who are nearing the end of the road in youth football.
Luckily for the boss, his first team is very settled at the moment and there is adequate depth to survive the season which should allow him to loan out some of these teenagers desperate for game time.
Next season might be the time when Mills is getting close to a regular spot on the bench with a big summer of change potentially on the horizon.