Joe Thomas looks at how Everton's squad has become a hotbed of starlets who could grow with the club's ambitions
liverpoolecho
The injury to Jack Grealish meant there was an immediate need for support on Everton’s left flank. That came in the shape of Tyrique George in the final minutes of business on transfer deadline day as the Blues entered deal sheet territory for the fourth consecutive window.
George was a necessity if Everton are to continue their push for Europe after a promising start to the season. Yet he has the potential to be so much more than a short-term fix.
This is another signing that could work toward the transformative shift that has taken place within the dressing room over recent seasons - one that could set the club up for an exciting future.
The hope with George is that he will provide immediate support to the Blues’ assault on the top half of the table, though David Moyes will be keen to avoid putting too much pressure on a player who may have three dozen first-team games for Chelsea under his belt but is still learning his trade.
The 20-year-old has already had an impact at Finch Farm, linking up with England youth team-mate Tyler Dibling and, by some accounts, providing the winger with a notable morale boost. The pair could dovetail well to share wideman duties with Iliman Ndiaye in the best-case scenario for the second half of the season.
With Everton having the option to make George’s move permanent this summer, all parties have a stake in his success. If he does well, the squad that Moyes will enter the summer with will have a core that is young, talented and growing in experience.
It would represent some turnaround from June, when the club's slow start to a transitional summer window was put down to the amount of complicated contractual issues that had been left to the new owners to deal with.
And while a good number of the promising players were on the Blues' books at that stage, it was unclear what the vision for them would be.
Fast-forward eight months and Everton look like, at the very worst, a steady mid-table side. That is some platform for the young players to build on.
In Ndiaye, Jarrad Branthwaite, James Garner and Jake O’Brien, the Blues have four established Premier League players aged 25 and under who would compete for the starting XI in most top-flight clubs.
Beyond them, in Carlos Alcaraz, Merlin Rohl, Thierno Barry, Dibling, Tim Iroegbunam, Adam Aznou and Harrison Armstrong, there is a substantial group of players in their late teens and early twenties who look increasingly competent on the main stage and should only get better.
Throw in George and Moyes could field an exciting line-up with plenty of experience that is largely under the age of 25.
Given the relative youth of Jordan Pickford for a goalkeeper and that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is 27 and Vitalii Mykolenko is 26, there is a lot to like about the likely starting point for Everton’s squad next season.
Moyes will, of course, want to ensure this group of players is surrounded by experience and knowhow and is unlikely to overhaul the first XI for the sake of fielding a young side.
But with the right players around them - which is why James Tarkowski was offered a new deal and why the likes of Michael Keane, Seamus Coleman and Idrissa Gueye were kept on in the summer - there is every reason to believe the future could be bright for the Blues.
Having saved its money in this window, the club is expected to provide Moyes with a healthy budget for the summer to move Everton to the next stage of their journey towards the upper tier of the Premier League.
If he can blend experience and youth for the rest of the season he should be able to build a healthy platform for the next, one in which those younger players feel comfortable wearing Royal Blue, feel at home at Hill Dickinson Stadium, and are prepared to grow with the club’s ambitions.
This is one of the reasons European football is an aim for Moyes - it will allow him to target a higher calibre of player to supplement the group now in place at Finch Farm.
There is plenty to be excited about if Everton can harness the potential of the young talent already at the club - a group George could now strengthen if the coming months go well.