Could Everton youngsters force their way into senior squad next season

After some promising performances in the first pre-season game of the summer, will any of the young Everton players who were on show, get a chance to impress next season?

True it was only one game against a second tier Swiss side which the Toffees won 2-1 with a goal from one of those youngsters, but there were some positive signs perhaps that one or two of them might be worth a closer look by Sean Dyche.

Everton were seriously short of squad numbers by the end of last season because of injury and the failure to bring in any players during the January window.

This was something that hurt them, particularly in the run-in when manager Sean Dyche was forced to use several players out of position. It nearly contributed to the club going down.

And, to compound these problems, since the end of the 2022-23 campaign, a number of exisitng players have also left the club for various reasons.

Asmir Begovic, Yerry Mina, Conor Coady, Tom Davies, Nils Nkounkou, Andros Townsend, Ellis Simms and youth team players Issac Price and Ishe Samuels-Smith have all departed.

As for incomings, only free agent Ashley Young has joined so far and despite constant, increasingly feverish rumours of this signing or that, there is no indication of any further additions yet.

Manager Dyche has indicated he wants at least four new players by the time the new campaign starts next month. That seems to me highly optimistic of him.

At the moment it looks a tall task with finances so tight and therefore little room for any significant outlays beyond loan deals.

It is a sign of how bad things are now for this club that such situations are considered the likely way recruitment will be done now.

There is still time of course, and Everton supporters have to hope against all expectation, that progress is being made behind the scenes leading to some breakthroughs before the transfer window shuts.

Even if he gets his four players, Dyche will still be short of the sort of squad numbers needed to cope with a long, demanding Premier League season.

And so, it seems inevitable that he will have to consider bringing some of the club’s youth products into the first-team squad.

One of those players might be Katia Kouyate. The 19-year-old attacker impressed with his pace, smart running and dribbling skills as well as producing a superb left-foot finish to open the scoring for the Blues.

Obviously, he is still very young and inexperienced and scoring a goal against the opponents the Toffees played last week, is a whole different thing to doing so in the Premier League.

But, as I’ve said before you will never know whether these players are good enough to make that step up, if they don’t get a chance to do so.

Another youngster who did himself no harm was 18-year-old striker Francis Okoronkwo who came on against Nyonnaise.

Okoronkwo was sharp and impressed with his movement and work rate and he won the penalty that put Everton two up as well. He is a prospect that we have been waiting to see for a while now.

As we all know the Blues are to put it mildy, extremely light up front, especially now that Simms has left too.

At the moment that leaves only a semi-permanently crocked Dominic Calvert-Lewin as the sole recognised senior centre-forward in the squad. That is a terrifying prospect for next season!

Unless Dyche can get at least two more attackers in during this tranfer window (a big if) then he may well have to consider promoting young strikers like Tom Cannon and Okoronkwo to the senior squad, if only as back-up options.

Finally, one other young footballer who had been around the finges of the first team before a period on loan and then injury, returned to play for Everton against Nyon.

That was midfielder Tyler Onyango. The tall, rangey, ball-winning player looked strong and worked hard in the middle of the park.

With Idrissa Gueye, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Amadou Onana and James Garner, all available, Everton look well stocked for central midfield enforcers.

However, it’ is still very possible Onana might leave in this transfer window – if a big enough bid comes in for him – and Gueye is 34 and so you would think hasn’t realistically got many more seasons left in him.

So, unless he goes out on loan, Onyango might also find himself promoted to the senior squad again with a chance perhaps to see whether he can step up as well.