Ronald Koeman has warned that Everton’s under 23 title-winning side will not break into the first-team en masse.
The Blues were crowned the Premier League 2 champions on Monday night and followed the success of several home-grown players in the senior fold.
Tom Davies joined Ross Barkley in staking a regular starring role under Koeman while Matthew Pennington enjoyed a successive run of games earlier this month.
But the Everton manager is attempting to harness expectations that David Unsworth’s burgeoning crop will soon be following in the pair’s footsteps.
He said: “It’s a really good achievement – you play football to win.
“The most important is to bring good players to the first team but you play to win.
“Sometimes though, I feel there’s too much positivity about the young players and I know they’re not ready.
“It’s very difficult to make the last step and I know that even though they win the title, it doesn’t mean they’re ready.
“It’s too easy to tell people we have a lot of players ready for the first team because it’s not the case.
“Now we have enough young players in the squad. We need more players in the age bracket [of] 26 to 29 to improve.
“We stay open to young players as well but little by little. Not too fast.”