Recruiting The Best

I am charged with the job of recruiting the best players available in Everton's North-west catchment area between the ages 5 - 16.

In my time at the Club I have been involved in bringing in players such as Jack Rodwell and Jose Baxter, who were both just six years old when they came here.

You could see instantly that they were going to make it as top players. Both dominated games for their local teams and it was evident that they were both very good technically.

I used to think it was just luck when I brought in a player who made it to the highest level, but having worked in the sector for almost 15 years, I have realised that is simply not the case.

I work seven days week and am on call 24 hours a day. Over the past year I have received 31,000 text messages relating to player recruitment at every level. I have spent 1072 hours discussing players who I could bring in - that's a massive 26 weeks this year just talking on my mobile!

We try and get our players locally and statistics prove that we are the best for producing players. When you look at clubs such as Liverpool, bringing in international players is influencing how they recruit their youngsters.

There are three key age ranges at our academy, with the 5-8 age range being the most important piece of the jigsaw.

This section includes the best young footballers from the whole of the North-west. That's because this early on in their footballing career, players do not have a specific team. One night they will play for Everton, but another night during the same week, they might train with the likes of Manchester United or Liverpool.

But I firmly believe that we have the best academy set-up in our catchment area.

The key factor in the process for boys of that age is to allow them to enjoy themselves - and so we do our utmost to make the experience fun for the youngsters.

One defining feature of our academy system is that we arrange games for the players - which many clubs do not. That, coupled with the team spirit here at Everton, goes a long way to persuading the boys to choose us over other teams.

In football there are no guarantees as to how far you will go - but it is my job to guarantee the boys a good time, as well as the opportunity to have fun playing football - not just in the United Kingdom, but all round the world.