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Former academy technical director Tosh Farrell believes Everton's proficiency at developing young stars of the future is down to the enthusiasm of the coaching staff.

Farrell, who is credited with working alongside 17 of the last 20 first-team footballers to represent the Blues including Ross Barkley, Jack Rodwell and Jose Baxter, also headed the club's international football development between 2007-2010.

"When we were at Bellefield we didn't have much," Farrell, who initially arrived part-time on the academy staff in 1996, explained to the ECHO.

"The lads that came in, the opportunity was there if they were good enough.

"We worked hard, Martin Waldron, Robbie Anderson, Eddie Murray and myself. We worked hard at keeping them there and getting to know them as people rather than commodities.

"We got an awful lot of players [into professional football]. Jack Rodwell, a Liverpool supporter, chose us over Liverpool. Jose Baxter, the youngest-ever player to play for Everton, chose Everton over Liverpool.

"I'm proud of that. You like to think you had something to do with it, that they came because you were doing more for them than coaching them football."

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Farrell played a crucial role in the creation of 'The Everton Way', a philosophy which allowed him to share the coaching methods across the world.

With stars plying their trade across England's professional leagues as well as at Everton - including Callum McManaman and full Welsh international Ryan Hedges - the highly-respected mentor opened up on the secrets to developing young talent.

"I'm a big believer in the individual," he continued. "If you've got 10 good individuals you've got a good team, haven't you? But I would always work on the one, because you don't know who the one is.

"It was my remit at Everton to make them as technically competent as they could be. Rodwell should have been a centre-back. They tried to make him a central-midfielder. He could have been the best centre-back.

"Kieran Dowell is the best all-round footballer I ever had the privilege to work with and he was eight!

(Image: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

"Down the line the numbers we recruited became less because we were good at identifying what made a player. Not an Everton player, but a player.

"You don't know what life's hand will deal you; going off the rails, losing interest in football, getting injured. But we had a type.

"But when Dowell came in, Josef Yarney [Newcastle United], Tom Pearce [Leeds United], Callum Connolly - there were three under-20 World Cup winners [Jonjoe Kenny joined Dowell and Connolly in lifting the trophy in 2017] in that group. You're just trying to do the right thing."

Farrell says there is no instant formula to identifying a player of, say, Barkley's calibre but he does believe there is one attribute all players currently earning a living from football possess.

"When you would see the likes of Rodwell, Ross, Jose, and even Callum McManaman and Jon Nolan [Ipswich Town] - the list is massive that came through - they had enthusiasm.

"They all wanted to play. The secret to me is when you start curbing that enthusiasm, when you become pass-mad or all about possession, you stop letting players express themselves.

"And that's what we tried to do. I surrounded myself with people who were enthusiastic back with the kids and enthusiastic about their enthusiasm.

"For Everton to give them the support and the opportunity to develop, to go and see them play elsewhere, I don't call that a failure by anyone's standards."

Ross Barkley thanked Everton for their work at the academy and beyond following his move to Chelsea HERE

Now running his successful soccer school after a period of coaching in the United States of America while also working in non-league football, Farrell believes the academy system has changed dramatically since his departure in 2010.

"Players are hoarded around club to club," he says. "There's money involved for players of 11 and 12. It's turning their head when it should be the last thing they think about.

"Jack [Rodwell] had the chance to go to Chelsea at 14, 15. Jose [Baxter], Manchester United and Liverpool."

In the face of such interest, how did Everton manage to keep their prized assets?

"We knew about birthdays, who was doing well at school and not just the players, the whole family," Farrell replies.

"We'd go bowling and it was like a big family occasion. That bonding was fantastic for the development of the player. It inspired them. They didn't want to leave.

"We had Mike Dickinson on the school side. They didn't want to leave our environment so they would work harder in school to make sure they could have a week off to go on tours."

Farrell continued: "We had good players. We played futsal before it was all the rage.

"Colin Harvey would sit against the wall and watch. Players would come in and take part. Alan Irvine was a big mentor for me. He was brilliant. Lee Carsley, David Unsworth, Alan Stubbs, they got involved with the under-nine to under-12 group.

"They enjoyed the enthusiasm, the buzz. We'd have a conflab at the end and the players would say he's a ball-player, he's a dribbler, he's clever, he knows when to pass and when to dribble."

With Dowell, Tom Davies and Jonjoe Kenny all now tasting first-team football, it would be easy to assume Everton is a football factory, a conveyor belt of talent.

But Farrell reveals the club were keen to mould good people as much as good players during his time at the academy.

"It's a lifestyle," he adds. "We always tried to leave a good impression. Yes, that's for Everton, but also skills for young people. This is what you have to do in life, you have to be respectful of everything.

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"There was a lot more than just playing football. When we went on tour it was secondary. It wasn't about winning the tournament it was the responsibility of taking young kids abroad, making sure they weren't homesick, making sure they enjoyed themselves.

"I look back and people say whatever they want to say about me as a coach but I like to think I did a little bit more."

Barkley, Rodwell, Baxter.

The list extends across Britain and beyond with hundreds of former academy stars owing part of their professional careers to Farrell and his coaching team.

It's fair to say he did that little bit more.

To learn more about Tosh Farrell and his soccer development programmes and soccer camps CLICK HERE.