Everton have just made the ideal academy appointment

Leighton Baines has always done things his own way and now Everton’s young players will be benefitting from his unique approach.

Baines is of course the best-known member (certainly among the general fanbase) of the trio of Blues appointments confirmed on Monday as the club looks to reshape its junior sections.

New academy director Gareth Prosser already boasts a glowing CV from a similar role at Wolverhampton Wanderers while Paul Tait has been working with youth players at Everton for many years. As a former Premier League player for 15 years and England international, Baines possesses a bigger profile than either of them but he remains at this stage something of an unknown quantity when it comes to his coaching ability.

Baines has been working with Everton’s young players for the past two years since hanging up his boots but this will be the first post in which he’s working full-time as the main man. Even before he got to this stage, former opponents such as Paul Robinson and Danny Mills both tipped him for a career in football management with the former even going as far as predicting he could become a future Blues boss.

This is only a step onto the first rung of the ladder in terms of potential aspirations down that road but like Colin Harvey, who rose from being a hugely-respected Everton player, then youth coach, reserve team boss, first-team coach and eventually manager, those working under Baines will realise that he’s very much one of their own. Here was a Merseysider who got to pull on the royal blue jersey and serve the club with distinction for well over a decade.

Indeed, he was much more than just a loyal club servant and solid citizen in the mould of fellow local lad Tony Hibbert, who patrolled the