Hornby secures Belgium loan move

You have to be an exceptional footballer and also have to be a super fit athlete and that means that you also need a remarkable turn of pace in order to impress at EPL level.

Many of our youngsters have some, but not all of these attributes.

So, they are being given opportunities to show what skills and attributes they do have, in other leagues.

If, they impress at that level, they might then get a recall to EFC, otherwise, they have the option to acquire a living in football in a different league / environment.

It's a tough world and getting tougher every season.

Kristian, some perspective on how good Hornby is, is a reference to his age. He is 19, but he turns 20 in a couple of weeks, ie well before Moise Kean does. He's a million miles behind Kean, and so the reality is the lad will never make it.

Is this general for the whole of the Premier League, something I had just not realised before or the contracts of Marcel Brands?

However, since our success in the Youth World Cups (U17 and U20), English youth talent is viewed as supreme, and the Premier League is viewed as underutilising it. So, more foreign clubs are looking to take our kids. The kids didn't want to go abroad but Sancho and the German contingent changed all of that.

So, there is a general trend or a fashion, for English youth players to go abroad on loan, but I suspect Brands is assisting with this.

Also, have you seen Anthony Gordon's goal last night? I bring him up because he was heavily linked for a move to Germany in the summer, with Dortmund and Bayern interested in buying him.

Yes, Hornby has never impressed me in the U23s. Not just the finishing when he has the chance but also a lack of sense of awareness and positioning.

I wish him well.

Fraser was a midfielder and suddenly had a big growth spurt and filled out and got moved to centre-forwards quite recently, as in in the last 2 years. He has zero penalty box awareness. He scored a cracking pair of goals for Scotland, but they were both long range goals. He's done that for us before too.

But in the "mixer", like Calvert-Lewin, you just don't see him in position for tap-ins. But that's a bit unfair to Calvert-Lewin who was often in position, and did score such goals, at youth level.

Hopefully, Fraser will have the time of his life in Belgium and it will be the making of him.

To Hugh's point, Sheedy said his job as Under-18 coach was to try and get as many kids as possible to have careers as professionals. He didn't say "with Everton" so being "good" is all about context. Additionally, with growth spurts not everyone who is "good" at 16 is "good" at 21 e.g. Kissock.

I saw Connolly play several times for under 23s and England. I always though he was the weakest link in the quartet of Williams, Dowell, Kenny and himself. He was at the worst championship team last year and is now going to one of the better League 1 teams. So he seems to have his level. Maybe he will be a late bloomer like Lundstram.

Agree with Lundstram. Working your way up through the leagues didn't do Jamie Vardy any harm either despite being let go at an early age by Sheffield United (?)