It has been “three very, very difficult years” at Everton, as director of football Kevin Thelwell candidly admits.

The club has been buffeted by – among other things – two separate points deductions, managerial upheaval, fan protests and several collapsed takeovers. So why do things feel so upbeat when the club give i unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to their academy on a bright blue autumnal morning in November?

While it has sometimes felt like Everton have been about to capsize since 2021, academy staff at Finch Farm have kept their heads above water and their eyes on the prize. Quietly, a new vision for the academy has been forged amid the off-the-field uncertainty and it is beginning to have a real impact.

First things first, as a training ground Finch Farm remains one of the best. Opened in 2007 it is Everton’s one-stop shop with academy and first team facilities located on site. The little touches – there are, for example, a couple of pitches inside cages to replicate the street football where many youngsters in inner-city Liverpool hone their talents – supplement some top class, cutting-edge facilities. TV gantries are stationed around the pitches, capturing footage of training sessions and games that players and coaches can pore over at a later date.

They are also big on legacy here. Everywhere you turn there are nods to the club’s storied history. Down one corridor there is a mural with full-size depictions of some of their greatest success stories and slap bang in the middle is Wayne Rooney with the legend “England’s all-time record goalscorer”, in a nod to an achievement since surpassed by Harry Kane. It must be an inspiring sight to those who tread between offices.

On the ground level, along the corridor that houses the academy dressing rooms, are portraits of players who have made the journey from one side of the building to the first team area. Aspiring stars walk past pictures of Ross Barkley, Leon Osman, Tony Hibbert and – who else – Rooney himself before they step out to train.

Living up to that legacy has been difficult in recent years, with the club in a precarious position on and off-the-field.

“It’s been hard for everyone because it’s been a tough three years hasn’t it, let’s be honest. It’s been very, very difficult for everybody,” Thelwell tells i in an in-depth interview.

“There’s a lot of noise out there and that’s probably where having a very clear vision and creating opportunities where everyone is collaborating on something better has been important. It’s been about keeping us on this track.

“I’m not saying we don’t come off it or divert sometimes, because everyone does, but us selling this message of ‘Come on, we’re going to need to be ready to be able to achieve our vision’ and focusing on a plan that keeps us aligned has been the right thing to do.

“We also have to create some hope that things will be better, making sure we do get people out of bed in the morning. In due course if you keep selling that message long enough – and you can see that thing coming – then hopefully people start to believe we are going to have a better day and all this noise won’t necessarily disappear but it won’t be as loud as it was.”

The academy has provided a blueprint for how to cope during challenging times. Away from the stark headlines, serious people – some already in the building, plus a few new faces – have put in the hard yards to try and turn things around. There is still much work to do but – at last – a feeling that a corner is being turned.

“The future looks bright,” Thelwell says. “We think we are in the process of building something very, very special here.”

Here are the stories of some of those who have helped to construct it – and what comes next at a critical time for the club.

Kevin Thelwell, director of football

A few weeks ago, Thelwell was presenting at a conference of fellow sporting directors.

After he had spoken in depth about Everton’s behind-the-scenes restructure, he had a tap on the shoulder from someone working for one of the Premier League’s elite clubs. “You’ve got a better process, vision and strategy than we have,” they told him. “It’s just that you’re near the bottom of the league and we’re near the top.”

The name of the club and individual is withheld for obvious reasons but the anecdote is revealing.

Thelwell does not recount it for a pat on the back. During a fascinating half an hour over a cup of tea at Finch Farm his mantra is clear: Everton and their academy still have plenty of hard yards to travel. No one in a building that houses nearly 70 staff spanning everything from chefs to scouts and full-time performance psychologists believes they are yet close to the goal of returning the club to European competition and competing with the elite.

But by opening their doors to the royal blue talent production line, they can at least showcase some of the considerable progress that has been made since the club launched its much-vaunted strategic review of football operations three years ago.

Thelwell arrived as part of that process, departing a job as head of sport at New York Red Bulls to oversee a much-needed reset of Everton’s football operations.

He is exactly what insiders say he is: calm, measured and strategic. But there are enough moments of bracing honesty – decrying the “very, very difficult” last three years, admitting additional resources for the academy have largely dried up – to make the warm words about his first impressions of what he found all the more authentic.

“Everton gets a bad rap because we’ve had some problems but that doesn’t actually mean the quality of what was going on in a lot of spaces wasn’t at a really good level,” he says.

“Each department probably needed anywhere between a five and 25 degree turn to get it operating in an appropriate space and the academy was no different.

“There was loads of good work and good people but maybe some alterations that were needed to make it more productive and more focused developmentally.”

So Thelwell got down to work with the academy at the beating heart of his wide-ranging restructure.

“Everton has always had an unbelievable tradition of developing its own players – growing its own trees – my view is it’s an integral part of the journey for any club,” he says. His own background, as a former head of youth at Preston and academy manager at Wolves and Derby, means it is a department close to his heart.

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The riddle he was facing was this: how to prosper in the increasingly competitive, big budget academy world? With fewer resources than some of their local rivals – “We told them there’s no £1bn budget to spend here,” Thelwell says – Everton needed to become disruptors and to think differently.

Head count went up – new roles and new hires bringing in fresh ideas – and there was new leadership in the shape of academy director Gareth Prosser and Carl Darlington, recruited from the Football Association of Wales to join as the head of academy coaching.

Everton also gave a leg up to talent already in the building. One figure name-checked regularly is Charlie Reeves, Everton’s head of insights. A pivot to utilising more data in the academy has leant heavily on his expertise.

Two big projects were launched almost immediately by Thelwell, the first a huge fact finding mission to set up a new masterplan. Staff were pulled into a meeting where they were asked one big question: what does great look like to them?

“We said to them that if we want to get back where we belong – ultimately our vision is to get us back to winning trophies, playing in Europe, have a team befitting of that amazing new stadium – then what are the things we all need to do so that we’re ready?” Thelwell says.

The other one was building a game model that would identify an Everton identity, along with a road map for how coaches could teach it from under-8 right through to under-21. Thelwell says to think of the sweet spot between Everton’s duel traditions of “school of science” and “dogs of war”, with a modern twist.

A culture of development was also implemented – more on that later – while their approach to recruitment and retention has leaned into Everton’s reputation as “The People’s Club”, developing deeper relationships with players, deploying more scouts locally and having a clear sales pitch about a first-team pathway.

A year on the green shoots of recovery are starting to show.

In regular coaches’ meetings through the age groups Everton’s academy staff discuss players’ performance and potential, identifying players who can step up to the next level. Suddenly Thelwell is seeing more high potential players in every age group, a marked change from the situation a year ago.

This matters because Everton on Thelwell’s watch – with buy-in from the first-team coaching staff – are committed to providing first-team chances for academy prospects. One of Finch Farm’s advantages is that everyone is housed on one site, the proximity of the training pitches meaning Sean Dyche’s backroom staff often walk a few hundred yards to the under-21 and under-18 pitches to watch the youth teams train.

Recruitment for the senior team over the last four transfer windows has also been heavily influenced by what is coming through the ranks. The club do not want to “block the pipeline” by spending money in areas where outstanding prospects like Harrison Armstrong or Roman Dixon could provide a long-term solution.

“I’d be daft to spend millions on a player when we’ve got one who might come through. I’d much rather give him the opportunity than spend that money and luckily we’ve got first team coaches who feel the same,” he says.

There then follows another stark truth from Thelwell: £70m of academy sales in the last two years have “kept the club functioning” in a period when their finances have been precarious and the club have breached Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) twice.

“It has been a very, very difficult time for the football club – we’ve had a PSR issue year on year in the time I’ve been here – so we have to find successes from the academy in the likes of Anthony Gordon, Ellis Simms, Tom Cannon, Lewis Dobbin and Ishe Samuels-Smith,” he says.

“They have done one of two things, they’ve either gone to the first-team to help us to win games or we’ve had to sell them to resolve PSR issues which has helped to keep us in the league, truth to be told, and keep us functioning.

“We’ve generated circa £70m in profit from the academy which is a crazy number really. If we’d have had our time again we’d not have wanted to do some of those sales, we’d have wanted to go longer with some of those players, but on a needs-must basis we’ve had to do that.”

Everton’s precarious position over the last two years has, in a perverse way, almost helped the club’s academy to evolve and challenge itself to improve. With no money to throw at problems, they have had to innovate or create solutions that aren’t reliant on resource.

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Thelwell admits it has not been perfect. But there is also a sense of momentum building.

“It feels like we’re in a good space. But have we got some distance to go? I think we have,” he says.

“Quite frankly we haven’t got the resource some other clubs have got at this level but I don’t see that as a negative at all. I still think we can build something very, very special here that will allow young players to develop and go down that pathway.

“There’s a lot of good that can come from people thinking innovatively about how we solve problems and how we develop players rather than just throwing money at it. You might gain from that but you also lose from doing that.

“I wouldn’t want to lose what we have at the moment, which is special, that we recognise that it’s important to be personal with people, recognise relationships, trust and we have to deliver.

“For me and Gareth [Prosser] to be connected in the way we are is a massive advantage. At any stage he can just walk down the corridor and come into my office. If it’s important to him it’s important to me and that’s got a lot of value.

“I’m not sure how many academy managers could do that two-minute journey and for people to pay attention to what they’re being told. So I suppose we’re not a big ship that takes a bit of time to turn around. We can move quite quickly with smaller steps.”

The next part of the journey promises to be the most fascinating. In a matter of weeks the Friedkin Group – led by Texan billionaire Dan Friedkin – will complete the final formalities of a takeover that promises to be game-changing for the football club.

New resources – and the academy is the one area where investment can be freer than in other departments where PSR issues will linger – can give Everton help. But Thelwell believes the evolution of the last 18 months means the academy is primed to go from strength to strength under the new ownership team.

“I would say the biggest piece for us now is we’ve got a lot of good process in place,” he says.

“The biggest issue we’ve got across the whole building – because we’ve not been able to invest – is recruitment. First-team men’s, women’s, losing talent, recruiting at younger ages can be improved hugely.

“I would hope new ownership would be supportive of that process. Once we get that resource that can help us a little bit with programme stuff, a little bit with process stuff, a little bit with recruitment stuff, I think we’re going to be in a really exciting place.

“I think we’re ready for that next evolution, is how it feels. Assuming they [the Friedkin Group] get regulatory approval, it’s just now a case of getting the new owners in, getting them bedded in, not going crazy but certainly being able to take the next step.”

So is there, finally, some cause for encouragement for supporters after one of the darkest periods in Everton’s modern history? Thelwell’s parting summary sums up the prevailing mood that follows you around at the academy: hope.

“There’s definitely reasons for Everton fans to feel optimistic,” he says.

“The new stadium [at Bramley-Moore Dock] is incredible, there’s potentially new ownership who feel like the right people to me and it feels like they’re going to take over soon, which I think is a huge positive.

“And then behind the scenes we’ve been working hard to scaffold up and build something so that when that time comes we are ready to be able to hit the ground running.

“Things can turn around pretty quickly but I think we’ve got a lot of really good people here doing really good work and in due course hopefully we can make that next step.

“We’re not there yet but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’re definitely all pushing now to take that final step outside into the sunlight.”

Gareth Prosser, academy director

Gareth Prosser has one of the best offices at Finch Farm.

Open the door, turn left and within a few strides you are on a balcony with one of the finest views of the site.

On a nice day – as it is when i visits – you can see everything from the mini stands at the “show pitch” that hosts under-21 and under-18 games to the small-sided pitches the academy’s younger kids play on.

The view suits Prosser just fine. “There is so much good work that goes on here, it is nice sometimes to just take a minute and see it all,” he says.

It is just over two years since he reunited with former Wolves colleague Thelwell, leaving a job as general manager of Professional Game Academy Audit Company – the firm that oversees the auditing process of academies in the Premier League and EFL – to lead the academy restructure.

His job, he admits, is challenging. “There’s no doubt it’s become more competitive for us, especially with Brexit and the ability to recruit younger from abroad being restricted until the age of 18,” he says.

“Now there’s many more clubs and eyes looking internally than ever before and again the investment some of these clubs are putting in is huge. We’re in a very competitive market in the North West alone.

“It’s super competitive and coupled with our uncertainty over the last couple of years, we’ve got some work to do.”

Prosser has experience of the system as a scholar at West Brom, his boyhood club, nearly 30 years ago but says the experience the players have now is “night and day” from the one he had.

An example: a fortnight ago the club gathered every single one of their academy players from the age of eight to 21 for the annual photo shoot. At the front of the picture sit Armstrong and Dixon clutching Nike Premier League balls in glass cases, their reward for making their first-team debuts.

“It’s like you’re looking around at them all and saying ‘Who’s next?’” Prosser says. But his remit is wider than just creating footballers.

“We also recognise our responsibility to develop these young people into young men, just as much as players into professionals,” he says. It is a salient point, and a key part of his ethos.

“We are trying to develop players for the most competitive league in the world – it is tough, but a great challenge for all involved.

“The experiences and memories the players receive from being part of the academy are better had than not at all.”

This is one of his first big interviews and he is honest that it does not come naturally to him to talk up the academy’s achievements. But he should, because the culture he has helped to create is visible as you walk around the building.

His open door policy is now extended throughout the building, where staff have been encouraged to talk to each other more. The relationship with Thelwell has helped break down barriers which existed between the first-team and the academy.

Prosser is personable and friendly, practising what he preaches. He goes out of his way to greet and chat to staff as they mill around the academy canteen at lunchtime, asking about family members of the media staff and shaking hands with players.

He likens his role to that of a chief executive, with ultimate responsibility for creating an environment in which the academy’s 180 players and nearly 75 staff can prosper in a safe environment and feel “supported but challenged”.

“I’m not the expert in everything but I’m joining the dots to bring it together and will hold people to account on the quality of work,” he explains.

His first priority was changing the culture. “When I talk about culture I’m talking about changing the narrative from looking backwards to looking forwards,” he says.

“We want to learn from the past – the club has a huge tradition and history here – but we’ve got opportunities to grasp here so it is about turning round, facing forwards and seeing the path ahead of us.”

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The idea that players and coaches would be judged on results was quickly dropped, with clarity that staff are judged on their behaviours and how they develop players. Consultation and feedback from coaches and staff has played a part in delivering a clear vision and most importantly they have been clear about their ultimate, ambitious goal: to be part of English football’s elite again.

“It’s very much been an evolution as opposed to a revolution,” he says.

“People didn’t need me to come in and be a bull in a china shop. I needed to understand properly what was happening, there’s so many good people here and what myself and the rest of the management team needed to do was give them some direction.

“They needed a bit of care and support. There is greater alignment across the academy with a clear plan, which staff are engaged in, and we can build from that.”

The management at Finch Farm have a saying, he explains: “positively dissatisfied”. “We’re pleased with the progress but we want more,” he says.

What does that look like? Here, in abridged form, is Prosser’s shopping list in an ideal world.

First: a return to the full-time training model that the club moved away from a couple of years ago. Their current hybrid model means less training time and, as a result, they are not permitted to recruit nationally from the age of 14 like Premier League rivals who run full-times programmes.

“We’d love to have one. We had one previously and it’s an area we’re looking to address which allows us to increase our contact time as well as support our recruitment,” he says.

“It would be a huge thing for us to be able to do and from our point of view it has worked. Anthony Gordon came through that programme, Harrison Armstrong came through that programme.

“It’s not that you have to be part of a full-time programme to be successful but it would allow us to increase contact and engagement with young players.”

Second: spades in the ground at the training ground itself. Everton own land around Finch Farm and there have been plans to expand the facility but they have been mothballed. i understands a plan to build an indoor dome on the site – which would free up space to create an academy-specific gym – was one of those ideas.

“If we were to talk about growth then the facility would be something we’d like to grow,” he says.

“We’d also like to make further improvements to the development programme in place and support with additional staff, for example individual development coaches and off-field staff in psychology, player care and education who would help support the boy as well as the player.”

James Vaughan, head of academy recruitment and player pathways

There he is, No 19 on the navy blue board hung from wall of the academy canteen.

On it is the name of every young player who has graduated into the first team since 1996, their age and the year of their achievement. James Vaughan was just 16 years and 271 days when he pulled on the shirt – “One of the proudest days of my life,” he says – and now he is back where it all started, trying to find the next names to adorn the board.

Vaughan retired three years ago after a career in which he scored 111 goals in 363 games. At the age of 35 he still looks lean enough to be able to play at a decent level but has swapped his boots for the boardroom, first as sporting director at Tranmere before moving into Everton’s loans department ahead of his current job heading up academy recruitment. It feels like a good fit.

“I was always fascinated by the business element of the game,” he says. In the second half of his career he negotiated his own contracts and he has an MBA in sports directorships. This is not an “old boys network” appointment.

Given the challenging nature of the role – Everton’s geographical location puts them in direct competition with not only city rivals Liverpool but both Manchester clubs – it is a good job. “Tough but enjoyable,” is how Vaughan describes his first 18 months in the role. He went into it with his eyes open.

There is no getting away from the elephant in the room: Everton’s comparative lack of budget makes Vaughan’s job more difficult. In a domestic market that has become more competitive than ever, spending six and even seven figure sums on potential is not unheard of.

Everton have had to go another way, recruiting in different places and using a different scouting profile from their rivals to unearth potential.

An example: the club’s data team have just completed a piece of work on player profiling and “Everton attributes” that is being transferred over to the academy recruitment team. It should make it easier for them to discover talent that has passed under the radar of clubs looking for the more obvious stand-out stars.

“I think we have to look outside the box a bit, be a bit innovative and I think we do a really good job of that,” Vaughan admits. A two-year academy recruitment ban, levied in 2018 for breaking Premier League rules, also meant they were playing catch up.

“Finances can be tough but they’re not the be all and end all. For the past year, 18 months there’s some really good recruits that we’ve got by looking at it this way.”

There is no special, easily boiled down algorithm for their success – although Everton are starting to utilise data that is available at academy level – but the club are determined to “look in different places, different programmes and at different profiles”.

“The easiest thing in the world is to look at the same players everyone is looking at and say ‘We want the same player’ but it’s about knowing your own mind and the kind of player who will benefit from your programme,” he says.

There is a moment earlier in the afternoon when director of football Thelwell talks about the club leaning into their reputation as “The People’s Club” and that is at the heart of what they’re trying to build in academy recruitment.

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Their sales pitch is that while at some clubs you might just be a number, at Everton there is a culture of development and opportunity. There are no blank cheques so the club turn to personalised, bespoke development plans for new recruits.

“It’s about showcasing what we can do, what we can bring,” Vaughan says.

“Every parent wants their child to be a footballer so it’s up to us to show them that our pathway, our journey can lead them to where they want to be.”

On Vaughan’s watch the scouting network has expanded. Their London scouting team now has a specific talent spotter for South London. Experienced scouts in Ireland and Scotland are “embedded” in those markets, with real local knowledge.

But the focus remains resolutely on the local area, where Vaughan believes Everton can begin to leverage their reputation for development and giving chances to “win the Merseyside battle” for talent with Liverpool.

“The local network now is getting really, really strong,” he says.

“For me Everton FC is built on local players and local lads coming through so that’s something we’re putting a lot of resource into – our local networking, to ensure that when we bring in players from elsewhere in the country they’re really just the cherry on top.

“We’re not building new squads at 16. It’s about developing our own squads in the right way and getting some success. It’s how we’ve done it over the years.”

As well as the progress of Armstrong and Dixon, there is a genuine buzz surrounding Northern Ireland age group international Braiden Graham, who signed his first professional contract earlier this year.

But the prospect of the Friedkin Group takeover is tantalising. Even a small amount of extra resource can make a huge difference.

“It’s exciting for everyone. New ownership would mean new conversations,” Vaughan says.

“We believe we’re doing some really good work and that’s without massive investment so I think we don’t know what that level (of finance) is going to be but we can only plan for all eventualities.

“If that means we’re going to get more resource then we believe we can put that to good use and kick on again.”

Carl Darlington, head of academy coaching

Of all the work done in the academy in the last couple of years, the hundreds of hours of work that went into creating Everton’s new “game model” might just be among the best spent.

When insiders talk of the meticulous, measured work being done as the club’s status has been buffeted by points deductions and profit warnings, this is the sort of thing they mean. It feels like a long-term investment in the club’s future.

The man who oversaw it is Carl Darlington, the former head of coach education with the Welsh FA, who came to Everton in October 2022 with the remit to “have a look at the academy, find out where we are, where we need to get to and put a new structure in place”. But he bristles at the suggestion it is his plan, pointing out firmly that it is a collective effort.

Here, for the first time, i can reveal in detail how Everton’s new playing philosophy was put together, and what it means for how the club develops footballers.

It started with a huge data project – led by head of insights Reeve – on tactical trends and the way football is heading, moving onto Everton’s own evolution. Among the insights was the discovery that modern teams made an average of three tactical changes per game.

“The whole point of the academy is to get players ready for tomorrow, so we needed to know where the game is today, where it’s going tomorrow and where Everton fit into that,” Darlington says.

“We looked at clubs across the world, the international game and where Everton measure against that standard and what it means for what we needed to do.

“We wanted to ask our coaches ‘What does great look like’ and that research project meant we could go back to them with tangible evidence.”

Working groups formed from the coaching teams were set up and asked to present ideas over a fortnight in terms of in and out of possession work and transitional moments. There were, Darlington admits, some “interesting arguments” over what mattered but a vision was hashed out and presented to Thelwell and first-team coaches Steve Stone and Ian Woan for their feedback.

From that came their game model – a set of principles taught to academy players that form a core part of the club’s identity moving forward.

The club decided that rather than a fixed style of play, they would be flexible, working on three different formations: 4-4-2, 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 that they learn in blocks of six weeks across the season.

So young central midfield players in the academy learn how to play in a two, three or four across the middle, full-backs play as orthodox defenders and wing-backs while centre-backs are coached to play in a four or a three.

Their strikers are taught to play as a nine, as a two up front or in a three or a four up top.

“If you’re a player coming through you’ve got to be flexible in terms of your understanding of the game nowadays,” Darlington says.

i sees the presentation delivered to coaches and players which sets out this model, as well as the curriculum agreed on among the staff to deliver it. It is seriously detailed.

So what are the Everton principles? “Out of possession of the ball Everton teams are front-foot,” Darlington explains.

“We have dropped the word defending from the model. We changed it to attacking without the ball to get the mentality right.

“We want Everton teams to be high up the pitch, pressing teams, getting the fan off their seat in terms of press. [We want to be] front-foot, aggressive, trying to get the ball high up the pitch, going in waves of support in terms of trying to defend from the front. We want a really aggressive, front foot mentality.

“When we get the ball we don’t want to be a Manchester City type team, a 75 per cent possession team, because it’s not Everton Football Club.

“We call it having controlled, purposeful possession. We have control of games and purposeful possession to get up the pitch.

“We want a bit more guile around us trying to get up the pitch and how we exploit overloads and then when we get there speeding the game up.

“Those are the fundamentals we’re trying to drill into the players. A front-foot mentality, purposeful possession.”

Just as important as the principles are how you deliver them. To that end every player is given a development plan and asked to set themselves goals – short-term aims for the season, long-term career aspirations and which player they would like to model their game on.

Here is the cool part. Every player from under-9 to under-21 is also given an account for video platform Hudl with access to comprehensive match and training footage.

Youngsters are then encouraged to act as their own analyst, dropping clips of what they do well and what they want to improve on into the system. The idea is that at regular coaches’ meetings the players lead the discussion (the aspiration is that coaches speak for just 20 per cent of the time at these summits) and the early signs are encouraging.

When i visits Finch Farm an under-18 side under the watch of Leighton Baines is working on drills. It looks fairly orthodox to the naked eye but, when Darlington pops over for a chat, he explains the session has been devised based on things the players themselves want to work on. So on one side wingers are working on “unbalancing” their defenders, positional work is going on in the middle while duels are the focus in the middle of the field.

“We’re not just trying to develop footballers here, we’re trying to develop individuals. That’s critical to us,” Darlington says.

Chris Adamson, head of education and player care

There is more to Finch Farm than just football. Just ask Chris Adamson.

A former assistant head and PE teacher, Adamson is responsible for delivering education for the hundreds of boys who come through the doors after finishing GCSEs. It is rewarding work.

“We want the boys to leave here better for having had the experience than not at all,” he says.

“We want them to enjoy it, to develop them as footballers and to have these enrichment activities too.”

Everyone on a full-time, two year scholarship does a BTEC level three national diploma in sport – written in conjunction with the Premier League – but there are options to do A-levels if they wish.

One example: Harrison Armstrong is doing the extended level programme, giving him the equivalent of three A-levels for UCAS purposes and balancing it with his first team aspirations.

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“We had a conversation with him after he did well, got involved with the under-21s and first team, about maybe scaling it back but he wanted to continue, which is the measure of Harrison really,” Adamson says.

Education is delivered through Everton’s long-standing link up with the Ofsted-outstanding Carmel College, where academy lads spend a day and a half per week working on their education.

It is a system that has worked well and one that Anthony Gordon, the most succesful recent graduate, went through. At Carmel they are treated like normal students, blending in with the rest of the campus on their college days.

Academic studies are just a part of the programme. Modules on anti-doping, money management and the pratfalls of being an athlete are all taught as part of a programme that intends to help them identify risks.

Performance psychologists are also on hand to help them while Adamson’s department delivers “reactive” support too if players are experiencing off-the-field issues.

The morning i is in the building an FA talk on betting and integrity has been delivered.

Adamson’s department is unique in that success stories aren’t just delivering first-team players. There is real pride at the story of former player Josh Hosie, who made it into the under-18 side but now has a burgeoning career in the financial sector in the US.

“It’s a huge job that we’ve got here. We know how difficult it is to become a professional footballer so our job is making sure they’re ready for whatever comes next,” he says.

Pete Beirne, head of academy physiotherapy

Pete Beirne is, by his own admission, a “fervent Evertonian”. And it just so happens Finch Farm was built on the doorstep of his family home.

The head of academy physio is responsible for the health of nearly 180 boys. It is a demanding job that has changed “beyond recognition” in recent years.

“It was great for me, working for Everton, a lifelong Blue and then they build your academy on your doorstep. Perfect,” he jokes.

Beirne, who was a peadetrician, has been at the club since 1996. He has seen a “dramatic rise in expertise” in the academy medical department and with it raised expectations too since those days.

“You see it with families, players and agents,” he says.

“Academies are widely spread and there’s a standard of support they expect from you. In the past it was ‘Can we get support from you?’ now it’s expected so that has shifted.”

Players now get individual programmes, which are designed and delivered in collaboration with the sports science and performance psychology and nutrition staff. With more eyes on them more issues are spotted and managed and advances in medicine and sports science mean treatments and prevention are cutting edge.

But what sets Everton apart is that they also embrace their history and identity – even down to the make-up of the department.

“Working for a long period of time you see the changes, the different aspects of Everton,” he says.

“There’s a balance there – we need to keep the identity of Everton but also allowing people who are learned who don’t follow the club to come in and share their expertise.

“But I like the way there’s an Everton identity in the medical department, which goes right the way through the club.”