Everton boast of some of the best youngsters in the land at the moment, and that was highlighted when the under-23’s clinched the Premier League 2 title last term.
As a result, a couple of Dutch teams are keen on having the Toffees’ youth players on loan in order to boost their campaigns.
However, Blues manager Ronald Koeman has claimed only clubs with natural playing surfaces would be considered.
Speaking in his column for Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf (as cited on Liverpool Echo), the Dutch manager said: “The fact that Everton has a good squad is also proven by the number of requests from Dutch clubs we get for loaning our young talents.
“It may be good to explain that Eredivisie clubs who play on artificial grass are out of line with such requests. Those clubs are no longer taken seriously in England.
“I like a real pitch and there are plenty of them. What I saw in the first weekend on artificial turf, it didn’t really look like the Eredivisie. I cannot take it seriously anymore.”
The Dutch topflight is a famous grooming ground for English youngsters who are ready for first team football but have no chance with their parent clubs.
One of such is Everton’s under-23s skipper Jonjoe Kenny. The England youth international, 20, is firmly behind Mason Holgate and Cuco Martina for the right-back spot.
Koeman’s seldom deployment of a 3-man defence also means Kenny will even struggle to make it to the bench at times this term.
A loan move to the Netherlands will indeed do him and other youngsters a lot of good in terms of maturity, and there are a couple of big sides with a real pitch that would love to have him.
