Which Everton youngsters could feature for the first team before the season’s end?

Everton supporters could be forgiven for turning their attentions elsewhere as the 2015/16 season draws to a close.

Heartbreak in two cup semi-finals, a potential second bottom half Premier League finish in a row and a loss of faith in current manager Roberto Martinez have rendered the final four matches of this campaign irrelevant to many Toffees fans.

Despite gloomy skies engulfing Goodison Park, though, there is a chink of light for those of a Blue persuasion.

Sitting third in the Under-21 Premier League Division One table, Everton’s youth side have impressed under the watchful eye of former Toffees left back-turned coach David Unsworth.

The club has a long tradition of handing youth players the opportunity to work their way through the ranks into the first team, with Michael Ball, Wayne Rooney, Leon Osman, Tony Hibbert, James Vaughan and Ross Barkley just a few of the talented young stars who have gone on to feature for Everton’s senior squad.

And, with a number of the current crop making their mark at under-21 level, here are five of the brightest talents who could feature for the Blues in the final weeks of this term.

Keiran Dowell

Kieran Dowell has been the name on the lips of many Evertonnians in recent weeks thanks to some sterling performances for the Under-21 side.

The 18-year-old attacking midfielder, who has been with the Club since the age of seven, has netted a number of sensational strikes in recent victories over Norwich City, Manchester City and Leicester City – the latter of which saw Dowell bag a superb hat-trick.

Adept with the ball at his feet, with an eye for a pass and a box of tricks to boot, the Ormskirk-born teenager made his first-team debut in the 1-0 home defeat to FC Krasnodar in the Europa League in December 2014.

Dowell put in bright cameo appearances in two of the first team’s pre-season fixtures against Hearts and Dundee before an injury curtailed his chances of impressing further, but expect him to be in and around the senior squad for the Toffees’ final fixtures of 2015/16.

Matthew Pennington

Warrington-born Pennington is another of Everton’s youth players who has enjoyed first-team exposure during the current campaign.

A centre-half by trade, with the ability to figure at right-back, the 21-year-old has started matches against Barnsley and Dagenham & Redbridge in the Capital One Cup and FA Cup respectively.

Pennington had been earning rave reviews for his displays whilst on loan at Walsall but, due to the Blues’ injury crisis ahead of their recent FA Cup semi-final, the defender was recalled and took up a place on the substitutes’ bench at Wembley.

With Ramiro Funes Mori still suspended and Phil Jagielka’s season potentially over, Pennington could be in line for an appearance or two before the season’s end.

 

Callum Connolly

Accomplished in a variety of positions across the park, including centre midfield and full back, Connolly’s versatility has ensured his presence as a mainstay in the Under-21 side.

The 19-year-old was part of the team that secured the 2013/14 Under-21 Premier League title, and has represented England at Under-17 level.

A member of the Everton youth ranks since the age of nine, Connolly enjoyed his first taste of senior football in the recent 1-1 draw with Southampton, receiving praise for his performance from fans and manager alike.

A likely contender for a place on the substitutes’ bench in the finals weeks of the season.

 

Tom Davies

Davies has been a member of the Toffees’ academy since the age of 11, and has rapidly risen through the ranks to become a regular at Under-21 level.

The 18-year-old midfielder was on the scoresheet in the first mini Merseyside derby of 2015/16 – a match that ended 3-3.

Like Connolly, Davies made his first-team bow in the Goodison Park clash with Southampton, with his eight-minute cameo giving him a platform to show off his undoubted ball control and skills.

Feisty in the tackle despite his small demeanour, further appearances may lie in wait before the season’s end.

 

Mason Holgate

The only youth player on the list who hasn’t made his way through the Club’s academy, Holgate joined the Everton ranks from Barnsley for an undisclosed fee in August 2015.

The 18-year-old defender has settled into life on Merseyside particularly well, and was handed a place on the substitutes’ bench during the Blues’ 5-3 Capital One Cup triumph over his former club back in September.

The former Tykes player has become a regular under Unsworth for the youth side, and recently bagged his first goal for the Under-21s in the 2-0 win over Chelsea.

With the ability to play at right-back and centre-back, Holgate could end up making his first senior appearance for the Toffees before the end of the campaign, with first-choice full back Seamus Coleman currently nursing a hamstring strain.

Who is the real hero of Quantum Break?

Heroes and villains. Protagonists and antagonists. Good guys and bad guys.

Whatever terminology is used to describe them, it is usually easy to recognise who to root for, and who to root against, in any form of entertainment.

In Remedy Entertainment’s recently released Xbox One exclusive title Quantum Break, it seems easy to assume, on the surface at least, who are the heroes and who are the villains.

The player takes control of Jack Joyce, who returns to the fictional city of Riverport after six years away to aid longtime friend Paul Serene with a time travel experiment at Riverport University.

The pair become imbued with time-altering powers after the test goes awry, Paul Serene travels into the future, and returns 17 years older and hellbent on allowing something called ‘the End of Time’ to occur.

Naturally, Joyce opposes his best friend-turned nemesis’ viewpoint and sets out on preventing the onset of a ‘permanent time stutter’ – an event which would see time break down, and hold the world in a perpetual fixed state of immobility.

Serene, who leads the shady Monarch Solutions corporation, is only interested in allowing a select few members of the human race to ‘survive’ the apparent End of Time by initiating the Lifeboat Protocol – a plan which would allow the chosen few to retain the ability to move as they look to find a solution to time’s end.

So far, so simple with regards to who the hero and villain are – but look a little deeper, and those roles aren’t so easily defined.

If Jack Joyce is not the hero of Quantum Break‘s story, then who is?

There are four potential contenders for the ‘Hero of Quantum Break‘ crown in my mind, and each has their own pros and cons.

Note: Spoilers for Quantum Break are likely from this point on, so turn back if you are playing the game and haven’t finished it, or if you are going to play it at some point.

Jack Joyce

On the surface, it seems pretty clear that Jack Joyce (portrayed by Shawn Ashmore) is Quantum Break‘s undeniable champion.

Along with attempting to stop Serene’s plan to allow time to end, Joyce also has revenge on his mind after Serene seemingly murders his brother and world renowned physicist William Joyce – another action that lends credence to Jack being the good guy as he seeks retribution for this incident.

With the aid of Beth Wilder and either Amy Ferrero or Nick Marsters (depending on what decisions you make at certain junctions in the game) Joyce ends up stealing back the countermeasure (or chronon field regulator) – an object made by his brother that can prevent the End of Time from happening.

Again, it seems logical that Jack is indeed the hero this story needs.

But, during Quantum Break‘s fifth and final act, it is revealed that a) William is actually still alive (he’s saved by Jack himself via time-travel logistics) and b) the countermeasure does not prevent the End of Time; instead it merely seems to halt its inevitable arrival.

So can Jack be viewed as being the hero, when his path for vengeance stands for nothing in the end, and after stopping the initiation of the Lifeboat Protocol, which we can safely presume is the only way that a solution to the End of Time can be prevented?

Paul Serene

Paul Serene (Aiden Gillen) appears to be the primary antagonist of Quantum Break.

He appears to murder Jack’s brother William, kills Beth Wilder when she comes into contact with the countermeasure, and is only concerned with allowing the best of humanity to continue on at time’s end thanks to the Lifeboat Protocol.

But are Serene’s villainous motives as clear cut as they seem?

Afterall, Monarch’s head honcho is the only person with a plan in place for such an occurence.

Of course it’s helpful that, due to the time machine experiment going wrong, he sees the End of Time itself and vows to find a way to rectify it when it transpires.

Furthermore, he’s not leaving the other seven billion people on the planet to die – those outside of the Lifeboat Protocol and without the necessary equipment to move inside of the permanent stutter are merely held in place, unable to move due to time’s end.

Providing a solution is found, time would restart and those seven billion individuals would be unaware of anything happening.

Would Serene’s actions not be viewed as heroic, then? Is sacrificing a few people worth it to save the lives of billions?

Beth Wilder

Beth Wilder (Courtney Hope) is an operative employed by Monarch solutions, but whose allegiances lie with the Joyce brothers due to circumstances that are explained during Act 4 of Quantum Break.

Throughout the story, she helps Jack escape Serene’s clutches, aids him in securing the services of Paul Serene’s chief scientist Sofia Amaral to help fix William’s old time machine, and attempts to steal back the all-important countermeasure.

In the end, Wilder suffers a heroic death at the hands of Serene six years in the past due to a cleverly put together plot that sends her both forwards and backwards in time in a bid to locate the countermeasure.

But, in being an aide to Jack Joyce to stop the End of Time, she only assists in pushing him down a path which, for the mean time, appears to have been fruitless, what with the End of Time still likely to arise.

Due to other time travel mechanics later on in the story, she also causes her own enclosed time loop – going back in time to tell her younger self that her only priority in life is to stop time from ending and, in doing so, prevents herself from ever being able to live a happy life.

It is often said that the mark of a true hero is to put your own needs aside for the greater good, but what kind of hero would end up being the one who causes their own life objective and untimely death as a result?

William Joyce

World renowned physicist and Jack’s older brother, William Joyce (Dominic Monaghan) is the creator of both time machines that exist in Quantum Break, as well as the countermeasure that can apparently stop time from ending.

Building the chronon field regulator, after being informed of its necessity by a time-travelling Beth Wilder, Joyce ends up producing the only object capable of preventing the End of Time.

But, in being the scientist that first discovers the existence of Meyers-Joyce field, subsequent unearthing of time-related chronon particles and, a as result, building two time machines that are able to send things into the past and future using those particles, Joyce appears to set in motion all of the events for Quantum Break – even if it is indirectly.

Naturally, he does all he can to prevent time’s inevitable end, but is it difficult to look past him being the instigator of the events which unfold throughout the game?

The Verdict

So who is the real hero of Quantum Break?

All four individuals are trying to prevent the same thing, the End of Time, from occuring but each character ironically appears to launch its unavoidable onset through their various actions throughout the game.

In spite of this, however, their major decisions and actions can be deemed as heroic – even Serene who, in the end, is only trying to save the human race.

Perhaps the characters will be defined more clearly as ‘hero’ or ‘villain’ in the hinted-at sequels but for now, it is arguable that all four are heroic in some form throughout Quantum Break‘s story.

Opinion: Martinez comments on Baines a step too far for beleaguered Everton manager

If you were to ask Evertonians for their opinion of Leighton Baines, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would say a bad word about him.

The Everton left back has been a devote servant of the club for almost nine years, and has received widespread praise for his performances during that time.

The England international has also always come across as an honest, intelligent, salt-of-the-Earth individual when giving an interview.

Earlier this week, Baines was questioned over whether Everton’s first team stars were finding it tough to motivate themselves in the Premier League after progressing to the FA Cup semi-finals a few weeks ago.

“It is yeah, but the motivation should be in trying to get your name there for it, shouldn’t it?” Baines replied.

“It’s like (pause of several seconds), I just think, you know, I don’t know, I just don’t feel like the chemistry is quite there on the pitch within the team at the moment and it hasn’t been for a while.

“Obviously results have an impact on that because chemistry and confidence can go hand in hand in a way. You start winning games. I mean look at the teams who are having success this year. You would say they’ve got chemistry, you know?

“If I had to say one thing it would be, I don’t know if it’s there at the moment for whatever reason.”

A typically candid, forthright answer from Baines then.

Which makes manager Roberto Martinez’s comments on the 30-year-old defender today all the more unnecessary and, perhaps, insulting..

The Catalan was quizzed over this apparent lack of on-the-field chemsitry, and replied in less than glowing terms.

“I think there are two aspects of that,” he said.

“First, it’s very disappointing when you see a misinterpretation of certain words that a player says and really this has been taken out of context in the way that it’s come out.

“And the other aspect is that someone of the experience of Leighton Baines knows he has to take responsibility for those words – I have had a chat with him – those words have given the opportunity to be maybe attracting a meaning that is not right, not correct and obviously for that he has apologised and taken responsibility for that for leaving those words open.

“Those quotes have been taken out of context and that’s disappointing on one side.

“But on the other side, obviously Leighton takes responsibility for putting himself in a position which has given the wrong words and allowed the wrong interpretation and for that, as I said, he has apologised and is ready to move forward.”

If Baines’ words were indeed misrepresented – they weren’t – then why has he been made to apologise?

And if Martinez was justifiably concerned with one of his senior players being frank and upfront, when he did not believe Baines should have been, then why not keep all of this in-house instead of publically deriding him?

It is a very dangerous game to try and leverage yourself against any individual who has given a truthful, honest answer to a genuine question.

It is even more perilous to do so against a senior member of your first team squad, and a player for whom Evertonians across the globe have a lot of time and affection for.

Of course, this is nothing new, providing you believe the rumours of discontent from both past and present Everton players who have allegedly had run-ins with Martinez.

Samuel Eto’o, Sylvain Distin and Kevin Mirallas have all supposedly made it known that they have not agreed with the former Wigan Athletic manager’s tactics, opinions or management style – and all have paid the price to varying degrees.

But none of the above have been subjected to public embarrassment like Baines has, thanks to today’s comments.

Martinez was already walking a thin tightrope with Everton fans after another discouraging campaign; the upcoming FA Cup semi-final his only potential saving grace.

Now he has taken on a beloved servant and important first team member of his squad.

There is only one winner where Toffees supporters are concerned – and it certainly isn’t Martinez.