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Two Everton gems star in youth team win

By Matt Townsend

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 23: Joseph Olowu of Arsenal battles for possession with Ellis Simms of Everton during the Premier League 2 match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on August 23, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Harriet Lander/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 23: Joseph Olowu of Arsenal battles for possession with Ellis Simms of Everton during the Premier League 2 match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on August 23, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Harriet Lander/Getty Images) /
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As Everton are continually linked with new signings next month, two youth team starlets shone in the Under-23s win over West Ham United.

Those two players are Thierry Small and Ellis Simms. Small with his first goal and Simms both netted as Everton Under 23s secured a hard-fought 2-1 over the Hammers. 

In fact the win was quite similar to the senior team’s defeat of Chelsea at the weekend. The Under-23s started brightly got an early lead and then had to repel some concerted pressure to hold onto the three points.

Small is a teenage full-back of great potential who is on the radar of some of Europe’s top clubs with the likes of Juventus and Bayern Munich apparently tracking his progress.

His team-mate on Monday night, Simms has been progressing through the Blues ranks for a few years now. He first came to attention when he scored a sackful of goals for the club’s Under-18s. Now he is continuing to regularly find the back of the net for the Under-23s.

Simms has been building a case for a chance in the Toffees first-team although he’s still a raw and developing young striker.

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But given the lack of other viable options behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the club might well be forced to give him that opportunity sooner than they’d perhaps like to.

Everton have been linked with signing another striker just in the last few days but Simms will be hoping he gets his chance to prove to Carlo Ancelotti he has what it takes to follow in Calvert-Lewin’s footsteps and graduate from the club’s youth ranks.

However, recently Ancelotti has seemed reluctant to give young players chances in his first-team with both Niels Nkounkou and Anthony Gordon frozen out of the matchday squads.

This is slightly perplexing as both had shown enough to surely merit a few more opportunities especially in Nkounkou’s case with the injury crisis at full-back.

Another dimension to this question is the fact that the club’s recently announced financial results mean that a renewed emphasis on successfully bringing through more home-grown and developed talent is a must.

Obviously the Blues like all the other Premier League clubs took a big hit from the fallout of the Covid 19 situation last season and this.

The lack of matchday income and falling TV revenue, (although this was in part because of the poor finish to last season), have further eroded Everton’s financial position and left the club with record losses.

These losses aren’t as horrendous as other clubs, but the new situation means the Toffees might have much less money to spend on transfers in the future so ensuring young players like these two can come through more effectively would surely make a lot of sense.

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