Stuart McCall is the latest footballing figure to heap praise on Harrison Armstrong as he continues to impress on loan at Preston
Preston North End's Everton loanee Harrison Armstrong in action during the Sky Bet Championship match with Swansea City at Deepdale Stadium. Photo by Lee Parker - CameraSport via Getty Images
Preston North End's Everton loanee Harrison Armstrong in action during the Sky Bet Championship match with Swansea City at Deepdale Stadium. Photo by Lee Parker - CameraSport via Getty Images
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Former Everton midfielder Stuart McCall believes Harrison Armstrong has “probably been better than I would have imagined”.
It is a big compliment to the Blues starlet - even more so given the extent of the due diligence Preston North End’s assistant manager carried out before convincing the Championship club to bid for the teenager on loan.
That effort came off on deadline day, a breakthrough that surprised McCall after Armstrong’s starring role in Everton’s Carabao Cup win over Mansfield Town. David Moyes had agonised over whether to sanction his exit but the exposure to first team football at Deepdale appears to be boosting the youngster’s development.
“He’s doing OK, but he needs to stay with us until the end of the season, there’s no doubt about that”, McCall said this week - appearing to make reference to concerns among Preston supporters that Everton could seek to recall him in January.
Armstrong picked up an assist on Wednesday night after his long clearance was hunted down by Milutin Osmajic to give Preston a two goal lead over Swansea City. They held on for a 2-1 victory that continued their promising start to the season - moving them to fourth place and within just two points of the automatic spots for what would be a dream promotion to the Premier League.
Armstrong, who was made to fight for his place after he joined a team in form in the final hours of the summer transfer window, has now started the last six consecutive matches.
Speaking ahead of the England youth international’s role in the win over Swansea, McCall heaped praise on the 19-year-old.
He told BBC Radio Lancashire: “At the end of [last] season I got about 14 midfielders to look at from the analysis and recruitment department. I went through them all and Harrison was the one who stood out. I obviously looked at all the games that he played for Derby [where he spent the second half of last season on loan], but it wasn’t so much that as it was just his maturity. At Derby they were fighting for their lives when he went in, and he was doing the bits of the game that a lot of people don’t see.
“For an 18-year-old, his game intelligence was very, very good and since we’ve started working with him, we see that every day. He’s such a popular lad in the dressing room, he gets on with the young and the old and everyone - he’s infectious. I thought he’d be good when we managed to get him, and I know we had to wait until the last day, and he’s been worth it. He’s probably been better than I would have imagined.
“We saw him against Mansfield in the cup for Everton and I thought they might keep him in. He created two goals that night. I think it has done his development good.”
Armstrong enjoyed a remarkable rise last season, emerging from the Under-18s in pre-season when then-manager Sean Dyche selected him to help out amid an injury crisis. A series of impressive displays, including in a friendly win at Preston, led to him making his Premier League debut in the final minutes at Tottenham Hotspur weeks later, and a first senior start in the Carabao Cup against Southampton.
Moyes has also taken a liking to him and has closely followed his loan spells, including attending Preston’s narrow defeat to Birmingham City last month. He recently told the ECHO: “He doesn't look out of place in any way. I think it's good for him.”
For McCall, there are already similarities between Armstrong and another teen star who went on to become an Everton stalwart under Moyes.
He said: “I’ve been in the game over 40 years and I’ve had players with great ability but they haven’t had the attitude to match it. At the moment, and I can’t see that changing, Harrison’s attitude to the game and his all-round demeanour, his maturity – the last time I probably saw someone as mature as that at that age was Phil Jagielka when I was at Sheffield United.
“I went there as an old man at 38 and Jags had just got himself in the first team at about 18 or 19. That’s what Jags had, Jags was very mature for a young kid and I see a lot of that in Harrison.”