Everton have been linked with a move for Brighton & Hove Albion right-back Tariq Lamptey
Everton’s biggest signing of the summer transfer window Jake O’Brien strengthened their grip on a Premier League table they already topped but the latest name linked with the Blues could represent a change in direction. Sport Witness cites Africa Foot as reporting that Tariq Lamptey has expressed a desire to leave Brighton & Hove Albion and Everton have already expressed an interest in signing him.
The right-back berth has been a moveable feast for Sean Dyche’s side so far this season with Ashley Young, Roman Dixon, Seamus Coleman and midfielder James Garner all starting in the role while the club’s most expensive signing in the position, Nathan Patterson, who joined for £11million from Rangers in January 2022 hasn’t even played yet.
An injury hit period has restricted Lamptey’s outings in recent times and having been ruled out of the Seagulls’ 3-0 win at Goodison Park on the first day of the season, he’s played just 10 minutes of Premier League football so far this term, coming off the bench in Fabian Hurzeler’s side’s 2-2 draw at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on October 26.
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The Hillingdon-born Ghana international, who has been capped 11 times by the west African nation, is due to see his current contract at the Amex Stadium expire at the end of the season and the article states that he’d prefer to stay in England if he can, despite the likes of Juventus also showing interest in him. Brighton chiefs are also said to be open to letting the 24-year-old leave in the January transfer window, to avoid the potential of losing him for free next summer.
At just 5ft 4in, Lamptey is a full 14 inches shorter than the aforementioned O’Brien who joined Everton for £16.43million and throughout the club’s 146-year history, only 6ft 8in Lacina Traore, nicknamed ‘Le Grand Arbe’ (The Big Tree) who turned out for just 62 minutes on loan from Monaco a decade ago and is the joint biggest player in Premier League history alongside goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon from Romania who played for Manchester City, Sunderland and Watford, is taller. O’Brien, whose stature might seem more common in the NBA – he’s the same height as the legendary Michael Jordan – immediately tied another custodian Asmir Begovic as the Blues’ second-tallest player of all-time ahead of a clutch of names who are an inch smaller, including Yerry Mina and his new team-mates Jarrad Branthwaite and Reece Welch, who has been subsequently loaned out to Belgian side Deinze.
Last season, research from King Casino Bonus calculated that Everton had the tallest team in the Premier League this season with an average height of 185cm or 6ft 1in. The Blues edged out the likes of Nottingham Forest (1.848m); Newcastle United (1.843m) and Liverpool (1.842m) when it comes to having the biggest players while Crystal Palace (1.841m) and Tottenham Hotspur (1.84) weren’t far behind.
With Everton having now snapped up O’Brien though, Dyche could in theory name an entire team of players 6ft and above with an average height of 6ft 2½ if he picked Branthwaite at left-back like he did against Fulham in the Carabao Cup last season. This could be done by selecting the following side: Joao Virginia (6ft 3in); Nathan Patterson (6ft 2in); Jarrad Branthwaite (6ft 5in); Michael Keane (6ft 3in); Jake O’Brien (6ft 6in); Tim Iroegbunam (6ft); James Garner (6ft 1in); Jesper Lindstrom (6ft); Dwight McNeil (6ft); Beto (6ft 4in); Youssef Chermiti (6ft 4in).
In contrast, Lamptey could potentially become the latest of Everton’s mighty atoms. You have to be shorter than 5ft 6in to qualify so even stars like Alan Ball, Peter Reid, Royston Drenthe, Jimmy Dunn and Adrian ‘Inchy’ Heath are all too tall to fit under our bar.
Aaron Lennon
Although he’s just 5ft 5in, Aaron Lennon was Everton’s big signing on transfer deadline day in 2015, as he returned to Goodison Park in a permanent deal for a £4.5million fee. The Leeds-born winger had come under scrutiny for supposedly looking grumpy when joining the Blues on loan from Tottenham Hotspur the previous season, so he made sure he was all smiles when coming back to Merseyside.
Previously capped 13 times for England, Lennon started 2016 in fine form, netting in a 1-1 draw at home to former club Spurs (before future Blue Dele Alli equalised); plus goals in wins over Newcastle United (3-0, home); Stoke City (3-0, away) and Aston Villa 3-1, away). In total, he netted six times in 31 games in what proved to be Roberto Martinez’s final season in charge but found himself dropping down the pecking order under Ronald Koeman.
Lennon made 77 appearances for Everton and scored nine goals before joining Burnley for an undisclosed fee on January 23, 2018.
Fred Geary
‘Goal a game’ Geary was Everton’s first big star at centre-forward in the pioneering Victorian era. Unlike later Blues icons in the position, he was hardly a target man given his pint-sized 5ft 2in frame. Quite probably the smallest ever player to turn out in the club’s first team, Geary, who was snapped up from home town club Notts Rangers, netted 86 times for Everton in 98 outings – including 20 in their first title-winning season of 1890/91 before crossing Stanley Park to help Liverpool win the Second Division Championship in 1896. Alex Stevenson
Deceptively strong, inside left Alex Stevenson stood a mere 5ft 3in but was known as Goodison’s ‘Celtic Sorcerer’ either side of the Second World War. After rising to prominence with the Dolphin club in Dublin he briefly turned out for Rangers, making a dozen appearances for them during the 1933/34 title-winning season. He left Ibrox in January 1934 and remains the last Irish Catholic to have played for the Scottish club but went to turn out 271 times for the Blues until 1949, scoring 90 goals and winning the League Championship in 1939.
Johnny Holt
If Geary was an oddity as a vertically-challenged Everton centre-forward, Johnny Holt, who played centre-half for a decade between 1888-1898, was nicknamed ‘The Little Devil.’ Goodison stalwart Will Cuff remarked that Holt, who played 252 games for Everton and won a League Championship in 1891, was actually considerably smaller than his official ‘listed’ height of just 5ft 4in. Holt, regarded as “without doubt one of the best half-backs in England” made up for his lack of inches with some crafty ways. Club historian Thomas Keates remarked that he was: “an artist in the perpetuation of clever minor fouls. When they were appealed for, his shocked look of indifference was side-splitting.”
Bobby Collins
Goodison’s ‘Little General’ who arrived in September 1958 was just 5ft 4in and took just a dainty size 4 boot. But there was nothing delicate about Collins’ play and the ‘Pocket Napoleon’ was famed for his ferocious style against much larger opponents. After playing 147 games and scoring 48 goals for the Blues, Collins was controversially offloaded to Leeds United in March 1962 and three-and-a-half years later he returned to his former stamping ground with the Yorkshiremen where he was involved in the ‘Battle of Goodison’ in which the referee temporarily took both teams off for a ‘cooling-off period.’
Alec Troup
Mini marvel Troup, a mere 5ft 5in, set up the most momentous goal in Goodison history, floating in the corner kick in 1928 that provided the prolific Dixie Dean with a record 60th league goal of the season. It was just one of many occasions that the Scot, who played 260 times for Everton between 1923-1930 scoring 35 goals, produced the ammunition for Dean who said: “Out of those 60 goals I scored, I must have scored 40 from centres by Troup. “I think we had a perfect understanding and I think I have to thank him for more than anyone else for the part he played in scoring the goals I did. I’d rate him as one of the best wingers there’s ever been.”
