England young guns must play central part in Silva’s Everton revolution

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While the England senior team will scoop the majority of the headlines after that historic win against Spain, there is plenty of reason for excitement in the junior ranks as well.

The revolution at full international level was preceded and perhaps even inspired by the hugely impressive fortunes of the junior sides; and Aidy Boothroyd’s Under 21s thrashed Andorra 7-0 last week.

The make-up of that Young Lions side should have brought a smile to the face of Marco Silva. Four of that side were Everton players; Tom Davies, Jonjoe Kenny, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ademola Lookman.

Silva has inherited an imbalanced squad which was over-reliant on experienced players in some positions. Everton have a proud history of producing their own academy players; but the influx of money secured a raft of badly thought-out arrivals at the same time as a host of promising kids needed a first-team opportunity.

Silva must now give them that opportunity. The misspent millions have loosened the connection between the fans and players, as well as making Everton’s identity unclear. Blooding these promising talents, including Mason Holgate, would do wonders in that area.

And those players will be hungry. Every young Englishman in the Premier League knows that regular gametime gives him a fantastic chance of getting into Gareth Southgate’s plans.

Silva needs players who will buy into his heavy-pressing, high-tempo vision and the youngsters are ideal for that. He cannot ignore them.