How close is Everton's Liam Walsh to making his first-team breakthrough?Walsh scooped Premier League 2 Player of the Month award for FebruaryLiam Walsh is the skilled, tenacious and royal blue blooded midfielder who is a vital cog in the Everton under-23s team.
Today, the Huyton teenager earned wider recognition after winning the Premier League 2 player of the month for February.
Walsh has served his apprenticeship on loan at Yeovil, returned to Everton an improved player for the experience and on the back of signing a new two-year deal in September was doubly determined make the next step up.
On the back of constant rave reviews, the praise of his coaches and the buzz amongst those who had seen him, it felt as though he was ready.
But how close is Walsh to his first-team breakthrough?
“He runs games,” David Unsworth said this morning.
He did so in last month’s impressive win over Southampton at Goodison, in front of the watching Ronald Koeman, but when the Blues boss was asked how many of the u-23s were close to following Tom Davies into the first-team set-up, he said: “Difficult, difficult, we have already big competition with our midfield players.
“I was really happy how Matthew Pennington is playing, how he came back after his injury, maybe he is one of the few players from that team really close to the first team.”
It will have been tough to take for the club’s emerging talents, especially after a season’s best performance had cemented their place at the top of the Premier League 2 table.
A shift in Everton’s transfer policy in recent seasons, ramped up since the injection of Farhad Moshiri’s cash, has seen Everton scour the Football League for young players and shown themselves willing to pay sizeable transfer fees to land them.
Director of football Steve Walsh, this week, said: I’ve completely refurbished our youth recruitment, too. I’ve appointed Jamie Hoyland as Under-21 head of recruitment and given him two full-time people, Damian Matthew in the south and Tony Grant in the north.
“I’ve said to those three to go away and find me the best five or six players where they’re at an age I can invest. We might have to pay a bit of money but, if they’re the right people, we’ll do it.”
For the existing crop of first-team hopefuls, this makes life even harder.
There’s a strong argument to say that Walsh and Co. are the best second string Everton have had in a generation and they remain on course to win the league title ahead of Manchester City.
Yet, and he makes few apologies for this, Koeman’s focus is the short-term.
He has signed a three-year deal and plans to meet the expectations of turning Everton into a top four contender in that time.
And though the Blues boss will rightly point to the fact has he used Davies, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Mason Holgate Ademola Lookman regularly this season, while Jonjoe Kenny made the bench for the derby, his transfer plans centre more around the recruitment of experience; players for the here and now.
And his words from last month suggest few other youngsters will be called upon before the end of the campaign and it leaves Walsh, and many of his team-mates, in a difficult position.
For the time being their focus is winning the Premier League 2 crown, finishing the season strongly and trying to impress Koeman whenever the opportunity arises, but many, if not all, will be coveted by sides in the Football League and offers are certain to be made in the summer.
Liv Echo
