'No-one ready' - Sean Dyche lifts lid on why he's not used Everton academy as challenge laid bare

Sean Dyche said he has not delved deeper into Everton’s academy to solve squad issues because he has not yet seen anyone with the clear potential to make the step up.

The Blues boss has promoted young players to his first team squad this season, with Jarrad Branthwaite becoming a key star and Lewis Dobbin having been given an enhanced squad role. Several others, including Mackenzie Hunt and Jenson Metcalfe have regularly made the bench - though neither have earned Premier League minutes under him yet.

But with a threadbare squad that has been undermined by injuries across recent months he has felt unable to go further into the academy because, he said, “there is no one I have looked at and thought: ‘You are ready to jump in.’”

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His comments come after a summer in which some of the club’s brightest young players were sold as part of efforts to relieve the club’s troubled financial situation, one that has had an impact far beyond the first team.

Speaking ahead of Everton’s trip to Manchester United - where youth product Ellis Simms made a surprise start under Dyche last season - the Blues boss was asked whether he had seen any youngsters he believed were currently good enough to help a squad that has gone winless in 10 league games.

He said: “No, because if they were they would be playing. That is a really simple equation. If there was an 18-year-old here who I thought was good enough to play in the first team, he would be playing. There is no one I have seen so far who is ready to jump in there. That is it at the moment. Dobbo is doing a good job,