Top young Everton talent Harrison Armstrong is subject of interest from Nottingham Forest
Top young Everton talent Harrison Armstrong is subject of interest from Nottingham Forest
View Image
Three minutes into stoppage time of Everton’s historic 2-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion on August 24 2025, David Moyes made a fourth substitution of the afternoon. It didn’t just enable Jack Grealish to be given a standing ovation at the end of his home debut, it ensured that a Scouser came on to the pitch for the first competitive fixture at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
That local lad was Harrison Armstrong, the West Derby prospect who has been at the Blues since he was five years old. This wasn’t a decision based on sentiment – Moyes doesn’t do that – but the same manager who nurtured Everton’s greatest ever home-grown hero Wayne Rooney and also handed debuts to Leon Osman, Tony Hibbert, Ross Barkley, Victor Anichebe and James Vaughan, who until March this year was still the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history over two decades on, has always rated the midfielder.
Having sent Armstrong on loan to Derby County the previous season – where the aforementioned late bloomer Osman had set out upon his pathway to playing as many matches for the Blues as Dixie Dean – Moyes then carefully selected his latest protege’s next port of call, choosing Preston North End, the team where he started his own managerial career and a club still close to his heart and also, importantly, close to his home so he could regularly check up on his progress.
Although the Everton manager was still unsure of youngster's best position last Christmas and was at pains to let his former employers down by recalling him early from his season-long loan on New Year’s Day, a selection crisis back at his parent saw Armstrong play nine matches in a row following his return.
Those playing minutes dried up somewhat toward the end of the campaign as more experienced team-mates returned, but with new signing Christian Norgaard still injured and yet to kick a ball for Everton plus reigning Player of the Season James Garner, Armstrong has taken his early opportunity with both hands.
There were a couple of stellar displays in the convincing victories prior to the proverbial hitting the fan on the morning of the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth when the Nottingham Forest working on a deal bombshell dropped. They say that a week is a long time in politics, but just seven days prior to the Blues’ trip to the Vitality Stadium, fellow midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall said of Armstrong's performance in the 2-0 win at home to Crystal Palace: “Harrison was exceptional today. He plays well beyond his years and he has that Everton spirit, which I love, and he has an engine on him, he runs all day. If he keeps playing like that it will be hard to take it out of the team.”
For his part, when looking at what lay ahead for this season, the 19-year-old said: “I do want to be playing at the elite level but at the same time, whatever is best for my development is the approach that needs to be taken. Whether that is a loan or staying, I’m happy to do either and make the best of whatever it is.”
Understandably, in England’s most passionate football city, much has been made of Curtis Jones’ move from Liverpool to Internazionale this summer and the transfer’s possible implications when it comes to the Reds’ record of always having a locally born player in their first team. A similar situation exists at Everton.
For all their intense rivalry, between the clubs they have ensured that this is the only city in the country to have an ever-present representation in the top flight since the Football League began in 1888. Another unbroken thread that has existed over that 136-year timespan is the Blues having fielded a Scouser in their first team for every competitive season since.
However, if Armstrong had gone – an act that Evertonians have threatened to riot over, and they don’t mean a light-hearted one like when another local lad Tony Hibbert scored – then the sequence that has continued longer than any human lifetime would have been over. While, like other pioneers of the professional era, they imported talent from further afield from the start, Everton have always had a Scouse heartbeat in their side.
Even when the Blues were dubbed ‘The Mersey Millionaires’ under John Moores’ ownership and Harry Catterick’s managerial tenure, with some of the strongest purchasing power in the game, there were the likes Brian Labone, Colin Harvey, Johnny Morrissey, Tommy Wright and Joe Royle. Later on came players such as Mick Lyons and Terry Darracott and then Howard Kendall’s heroes of the 1980s included Derek Mountfield and Peter Reid.
Everton’s last trophy winning side that lifted the FA Cup in 1995 – under Royle’s stewardship of course – was captained by Scouser Dave Watson, with Gary Ablett making history as the first man to triumph in the competition with both the city’s clubs.
When the Blues’ finances became weaker in the early 2000s, some of their best local talent was sold off early in their careers to help make ends meet. One of those fledgling Scouse starlets who left too soon along with the likes of Rooney and Michael Ball – in his case, in the same transfer window as the latter in 2001 – Francis Jeffers spoke to this correspondent last year, explaining how he hoped, with the move to Hill Dickinson Stadium and the takeover by The Friedkin Group (TFG), those days were now over.
Jeffers told the ECHO: “We shouldn’t be selling our best young players and hopefully we don’t have to now. When I was coming through, people did have to leave to keep the club in a stable position.
“There will always be people coming after the best players, no matter what club you’re at, but I think now we should be able to stave them off to keep our best young talent.”
The Evertonians have had their say on this matter and their message is loud and clear. Their actions forced Blues chiefs to act as it is understood that while the potential deal had reached an advanced stage, chairman Dan Friedkin – perhaps we might now finally see him making a first appearance at Hill Dickinson Stadium some time soon? – personally intervened.
Both Angus Kinnear and TFG are incredibly fortunate to be custodians of this football club with their amazing fanbase but woe betide crossing them. The soul of the Blues supporters ensured Goodison Park was dubbed 'The Grand Old Lady' yet hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.