Everton Under 23s manager David Unsworth has stated that he expects Matthew Pennington, Beni Baningime and Nathan Broadhead will leave the Goodison Park outfit in January, having ‘found it tough’ to secure moves this summer.

What’s the word?

Speaking with the Liverpool Echo, Unsworth has noted how Pennington, Baningime and Broadhead had all sought to secure loan moves through the recently-concluded summer market but were unable to land transfers.

The Everton chief suspects their struggles came heavily as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with clubs reluctant to commit on players they would not own.

It is now likely that each of the trio will attempt to land moves once the January window opens and Unsworth is optimistic over their chances of finding new clubs, though will continue to offer them game time in Everton’s reserves over the coming months.

“A lot of teams have found, certainly in this current climate with coronavirus, there just isn't the resources out there to take a gamble on a loan,” he said.

“We found it tough to loan our players, and over the period really it's never really been easy to loan young players. The turnover of managers at League One and Championship [level] makes it [difficult].

“Hopefully, in January, these boys will go out on loan. We want them to go out on loan. The club, Marcel [Brands], myself – it's not easy to loan young players but we will give them the platform to try and impress every week.”

Pennington and Baningime both featured for the Toffees U23s in their 2-1 loss to Manchester United on Friday, while Broadhead returned to the pitch for the first time in four matches having been forced to sit out recent ties with a hamstring issue.

Unsworth went on to laud the maturity Baningime and Pennington have shown since the summer market closed, adding that their attitude has been “absolutely outstanding. They are great pros.”

Unsworth must secure Baningime a move

This is not the first time that Unsworth has lauded Baningime, having previously compared the midfielder with former and current Chelsea stars Claude Makelele – who won the Champions League with Real Madrid – and N’Golo Kante – who lifted the 2018 World Cup.

“Beni just gets better and better,” Unsworth said, via quotes by the Liverpool Echo in 2017. “He's just of the mould of Makelele, of Kante and, honestly, I cannot pay him a big enough compliment to say he is that good I fully expect him to kick on and be that type of player in our first-team.”

Unfortunately for the 22-year-old, the first-team has rarely been on offer with Baningime making the last of his 12 senior outings in April 2018 under Sam Allardyce and never featuring in a first-team squad during Marco Silva’s tenure.

Carlo Ancelotti named the Kinshasa, DR Congo-born talent in 10 of his matchday squads upon arriving at Goodison Park last season, though never called on the youngster to feature.

Unsworth must now fulfil his claim that he and Director of Football Brands wish to see Baningime secure a loan move in January, as it is vividly clear that he will never make the step up at Goodison Park purely from playing in the U23s week in, week out.

AND in other news, Everton have been offered a second chance to put a panicky summer decision right.