Everton boss must give Dobbin chance if he wants him to stay
Rafa Benitez has stated he’s confident Everton starlet Lewis Dobbin will put pen to paper and sign a new contract very soon.
The teenager has around six months left on his current deal and there has been speculation that he will leave Everton rather than commit to a new long-term contract at Goodison Park.
Benitez though claims he his sure that the youngster will opt to remain on Merseyside and continue to develop his career with the Toffees’.
Dobbin is the latest in a number of talented youth team players at the Blues’ who’s future at the club has become uncertain.
This season for example, despite all the problems with injury and poor form that has affected his squad, Benitez has appeared reluctant to give these individuals a chance to show whether they can make it or not.
He did evenutally start picking Anthony Gordon much more regularly and the Liverpool-born teenager has impressed more and more as he grows in confidence.
This issue of how to effectively bring through young players is in part a product of so much change at the club with managers coming and going so often. And, in the case of the last two coaches, Carlo Ancelotti and Benitez, ones who are not known for their interest in develping young players anyway.
The club’s overall strategy in terms of youth development has also sometimes seemed a little haphazard with players sent on loan almost as an afterthought when no first-team opportunities seem to be forthcoming.
Some of these loan periods then don’t always appear to be particularly helpful for the player, especially if they return injured as happened to both Ellis Simms and Jarrad Branthwaite.
That’s obviously bad luck, something as we all know which seems to plague this football club. But, then decisions like the one to send Nils Nkounkou on loan this campaign leaving the club without a specialist left-back in reserve, seem questionable to me.
While there is a case for giving Nkounkou a spell away where he will get regular football, inevitably a problem then emerged with first-choice left-back Lucas Digne. Not for a change because of an injury, but rather an alledged falling out with the manager.
That has ultimately led to the French international being left out of recent first-team squads and now it seems with Everton closing in on signing Dynamo Kiev’s Vitaly Mykolenko, that Digne could well be leaving in next month’s transfer window.
Talking of left-backs leaving the club, one player’s recent story is a warning to the club about what can happen when youngsters don’t think they will get the opportunity to progress they want.
That player was Theirry Small, a hugely talented full-back who left Everton to join Southampton in the summer rather than sign a professional contract with the Toffees’.
I’m not saying that Dobbin is necessarily as highly-regarded as Small or that he will succeed in the Premier League, but he has shown flashes of real talent in the brief moments he’s had, especially at Chelsea. He certainly appears to have the pace, versatility and direct running skills this Blue’s team desperatley needs more of.
My advice to Benitez would be to give Dobbin a real sustained opportunity over the next few months to show his ability, if you really want him to stay. With a squad ravaged again by injury and other absences, he frankly seems to have little choice but to do so anyway.
Perhaps then this injury crisis just might turn out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise if players such as Dobbin can show the ability and temperement to succeed at the highest level.