Whether Harrison Armstrong will be allowed to gain experience elsewhere will partly depend on how senior midfielders recover from injury
Everton starlet Harrison Armstrong is already attracting interest ahead of the January transfer window. The 17-year-old has enjoyed a sensational six months, emerging into Sean Dyche’s thoughts after stepping up amid the injury issues in the senior squad during pre-season.
The box-to-box midfielder came off the bench in the friendly at Salford City and then sustained his place in the first team squad, particularly impressing with his cameo at Preston North End.
He has since made his first team debut, as a late substitute at Tottenham Hotspur, and his Goodison first team debut, first as a sub against Doncaster Rovers then starting against Southampton, both in the Carabao Cup.
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His exposure to senior football has seen his reputation grow, leading to an England U18s call-up and interest in his services, including from Football League clubs keen to secure him on loan in the new year. His appeal grew further last week when he scored for Everton U21s against Accrington Stanley’s senior side in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy. It is understood he is being monitored by clubs in League One and even the Championship.
Armstrong was then back in the senior squad for the Premier League defeat at Southampton and his value to Dyche has grown in recent weeks after the serious injuries suffered by central midfielders Tim Iroegbunam and James Garner.
How that pair cope with their recovery will be a factor in any decision over Armstrong in January. Dyche has been open about the prospect of the starlet, and his fellow academy talent Roman Dixon, being allowed out on loan.
He said last month: “We are fast tracking these young players, probably sometimes slightly unfairly, not unfairly for them, because if you’re a young lad, you’re buzzing, you’re playing for Everton, fantastic, and training with the first team, you are playing or you are around it on the bench, that is amazing.
“What I’m saying is for the way that we’re trying to develop them to be ready, really sometimes it’s quite hard on them. It is a flip a coin because if I’m a young player I am going ‘I am not bothered, I want to be part of Everton’. But from years of knowing the game, you know that the steps in place are important. And the steps in place for some of these players should have been to go out on loan. But, because of the circumstances, they are thrust into first team life very quickly.”
