Unsworth grateful to Stubbs

David Unsworth has expressed his gratitude to Alan Stubbs for helping to bring him back into the Everton fold.

The duo were teammates as players and Unsworth was recruited as Stubbs' Under-21s assistant manager in October last year.

With his long-time friend appointed as the new first-team boss of Hibernian late last month, Unsworth has taken charge of the Blues' second-string for their pre-season trip to Austria.

And in backing Stubbs to shine in Scotland, the 40-year-old also revealed his enjoyment in the role he currently occupies.

"Alan's a great friend of mine and is a super coach," Unsworth told evertontv. "He was the one who originally asked me to come back to the Club and, thankfully, Roberto wanted me to return as well.

"I'm absolutely delighted for Alan, I wish him the best of luck and I can't thank him enough for bringing me back.

"This is my Club, I've never hidden that and it's great to be here. I've got the crest on my shirt again and I'm proud of that. But I'm also proud of the job we do here developing players and I believe we're at the best place to do that."

Indeed, having come through the Club's youth system himself before breaking into the first-team, Unsworth is as well-placed as any to know the progress young hopefuls need to make in order to play for Everton.

He added: "I'm not saying this from a biased point of view - for any player, we have the finest academy and best pathway to really be a top Premier League player.

"It's been proven year after year and we're living it at the moment. There's players in our first-team who are young lads that have come through the system.

"The lads here in Austria this week can see that and they know how close they are. They show that by giving everything every day."

Video: www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/2014/07/12/unsworth-grateful-to-stubbs