Everton academy chief Joe Royle says they'll continue working the loan system.

Royle says it's a crucial part of their development programme.

"We've seen the benefit not only Harry Kane at Tottenham but ourselves with Ross Barkley, Seamus Coleman: they've all been out on loan and come back to be first team players," said Royle to the Liverpool Echo.

"You can get players playing serious, hard professional football and they can go away from this place (Everton) and realise it's not all as good as this.

"Sometimes, when the apprentices came through the old apprentice system, we used to clean the dressing rooms, clean the toilets, and I'm not advocating it being right, but there was a hardening and seasoning that went with it, and that seems to be missing a little bit.

"As a young player at Everton I played in the reserves with six internationals in one game, and I learnt more in that 90 minutes than any amount of training in the previous week. It's just a little bit missing with no reserve football and the 21s being a little bit of a buffer, if you like."