Photo by Harry Langer/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images
Photo by Harry Langer/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images
Everton are running the risk of losing this season’s standout academy performer for free in 2027 unless David Moyes starts treating him like a star.
This season has seen Harrison Armstrong continue to nail down a starting role under David Moyes, beginning to look like the next big academy success story for the Blues. After managing to retain Armstrong amid Nottingham Forest bids in the transfer window, he is absolutely unsellable.
Armstrong is an example to Moyes that the academy can be the answer to his squad depth problems. However, the next one up is currently banging on the first-team door to no avail, and if that doesn’t change, the Toffees will see him walk out the door in 2027.
Who has been Everton’s most successful academy graduate in the Premier League era?
You can't say Wayne Rooney 🤔
Everton must prioritise Harvey Foster at risk of losing him
If Everton had to select an academy top performer this season so far, Harvey Foster would at least be in the conversation. The 19-year-old midfielder has been superb for the U21s across multiple competitions.
Foster has dominated in the Premier League 2 and was the man of the match against Boreham Wood in the National League Cup last month, impressively coping with the physicality that was demanded from him.
However, Foster is in the final year of his contract, and if Everton don’t act now, then they may end up losing the prospect for absolutely nothing. The act needs to first agree on a new contract, and with that should come the promise of first-team football.
Foster will be demanding first-team football if he is to commit to Everton, and rightly so, considering he is clearly too good for U21 football, so the next step up would be first-team football.
Having seen the success of Armstrong in the past few years, Foster getting his chance should be an absolute no-brainer for Everton; he is clearly deserving and ready to be thrown in.
Losing Foster and seeing him no doubt go on to achieve great things in football would be a huge blow to Everton and would make Moyes look terrible. So give him the chance he deserves, get that contract signed so that Foster can start getting minutes and becoming another success story for the academy right alongside Armstrong.
Everton can’t afford to lose viable first-team prospects when the squad itself is so unbelievably thin as it is. So Foster is a solution for Moyes, and he needs to act now.