At the 35th Dixie Dean Memorial Award Evening at Goodison Park, Peter Reid used Everton's Carabao Cup tie with Fleetwood to make a bigger point about the club's direction. Everton drew Fleetwood in the quarter-finals of this season's Carabao Cup, and Reid said the club still has to get three basics right before it can talk about success again.

Reid's three pillars for success

“I look at Sunderland though and they’ve got a lad up front Brian Brobbey who they got from Ajax for £17million and we’ve got to get the recruitment right. The biggest things in football are man-management with your players, recruitment and youth policy,” Reid told liverpoolecho.co.uk.

He added: “They’re the three things that will get you success and we’ve got to get on the best page on those. I don’t think we are at the moment, I think we’re far from it in my opinion.”

That view fits the state of Everton right now. They are 14th in the Premier League with 10 points from 8 matches, have scored 8 league goals and conceded 9. The form is uneven rather than disastrous, but it is also nowhere near the level Reid is asking for.

Reid is not talking as an outsider trying to make noise. He won two League Championships, an FA Cup and a European Cup-Winners’ Cup with Everton, so when he points to recruitment, youth policy and man-management, it comes from someone who knows what the club looked like when standards were higher.

The youth case he thinks Everton are starting to build

Reid also pointed to individual players he thinks show the right direction. Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, he said Tyler Dibling has talent, praised the tackle he made 30 seconds after a pass through against Wolves, and said the youngster has grown after a more difficult spell last season.

Harrison Armstrong drew an even warmer line from him. Reid called him “a class player” and said, “thank God we didn’t sell him.” That part of the argument matters because it matches the broader point he was making about youth policy, not as a slogan but as a practical part of team building.

He also backed Everton to beat Fleetwood, saying: “We’ll beat Fleetwood. We will beat Fleetwood, I promise you!” Reid said he was apprehensive before the Newcastle United tie last Thursday, then delighted with the result, which is a fair reminder that cup ties can change the mood quickly.

The debate over when Everton's 1984 momentum truly began is less clear. Reid said the League Cup run was a good catalyst, but he thought the Stoke FA Cup game away was the real start. Either way, his point was the same, good cup runs can give young players confidence and edge.

Everton's Carabao Cup quarter-final is scheduled for the week commencing Monday December 14, and the club go into it with Reid still asking for better decisions on the pitch and behind the scenes.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →