Martínez: sending players on loan is better than U21 league

Everton’s Roberto Martínez: sending players on loan is better than U21 league

• Everton currently have 10 youngsters out on loan
• ‘The league doesn’t develop players in the way we want,’ says manager


Luke Garbutt, who has previously had loan spells at Colchester and Cheltenham, has made nine appearances for Everton this season.

Roberto Martínez has described the Under-21 Premier League as inadequate for the development of talent and believes there is more benefit in sending young players out on loan.

Everton Under-21s, coached by the former defender David Unsworth, are facing relegation from Division One of the professional development league system with two matches of the season remaining. Two teams are relegated from the 12-strong league and Everton are currently 11th, one point behind Fulham, albeit with a game in hand on the third-from-bottom side.

The Everton manager attributes the position to problems with the league rather than a lack of talent emerging through the ranks at Goodison Park. While welcoming the introduction of relegation to the league system, claiming “young lads need to understand how to cope with the fear of getting relegated”, Martínez believes competitiveness is still lacking at under-21 level. To that end he has sent 10 Everton youngsters on loan and appointed the club’s former manager Joe Royle to oversee the transition of individual players from the academy to the first team.

“I feel that 10 months in the Under-21 Premier League doesn’t develop players in the way we want to develop them,” said Martínez. “Our Under-21s do not have a consistent squad. If you look at the players who started the season for the Under-21s, when they were competing against the top sides, a lot of them are out on loan now. We have 10 players out on loan at the moment so the Under-21s’ position in the table is not a worry at all.

“To us as a club, the league is a vehicle to allow us to assess players. We have got four from the Under-21s who will make pre-season training with the first team this summer and have the potential to play a part. It has been a good year in terms of the development of our Under-21 players but that is not reflected by a league position, if that makes sense.”

Martínez gave seven academy players a taste of first-team football in the Europa League dead-rubber against Krasnodar in December but, with the exception of the senior squad members Luke Garbutt and Tyias Browning, he sees no benefit in blooding them in the Premier League before the end of the season.

The Everton manager added: “One of our problems in British football with developing young players is that we talk about giving them a few games and experimenting with them for a few games. That doesn’t work. That doesn’t develop youngsters. Every youngster needs to have a plan and when they are ready, then you give them a proper run and a proper role in the first team.

“We have other players who are fighting for their futures in the first team at the moment and that is more important. Ryan Ledson will have a future in our first team, so will Kieran Dowell but they need to take certain steps before they get to the first team.”

Guardian