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Everton Past Player Profile
JOHN HILLS
Defender

John Hills FACTS
Born Blackpool, 21 April 1978
Height 5' - 9" (175 cm)
Joined Everton from Blackpool in October 1995 (£90,000)
Debut Sub: v Wimbledon (h), 28 December 1996
Full: v Chelsea (h), 11 May 1997
Last Appearance v Chelsea (h), 11 May 1997
Left Everton to re-join Blackpool in February 1998 (£60,000)
PREVIOUS CAREER
Seasons Club Apps Gls
1997-1998 Swansea City (Loan) 7 1
1996-1997 Swansea City (Loan) 11 -
1992-1995 Blackpool - -

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
  • Takes good corners
  • Still inexperienced and nervous
 
BIOSKETCH
 
Joe Royle took the unprecedented step of paying a transfer fee for a schoolboy from Blackpool.  Hills made a good impression from the start, scoring the only goal to knock out Notts County in 3rd Round of the FA Youth Cup.  The £90,000 transfer fee is in fact a down-payment.  John's eventual fee could rise to as much as £500,000 if he makes it into the Everton first team and eventually plays for England.

After having a run in Everton Reserves, Hills was dispatched to The Vetch were he spent two months on loan to Swansea City, and made a good impression. When he came back, Dave Watson had him on the subs bench before letting him start what was to be his one and only full game for Everton – at home to Chelsea. 

Soon after the start of the 1997-98 season, he was back at The Vetch for another loan period, scoring a nice goal in his first match.  As Jan Mobly says:

"I was obviously pleased with the performance of John Hills in his first game back in a Swansea shirt.  He took time coming to terms with the pace of the game, but once he got into it he proved once again what a good player he is. And what a goal."

Back at Everton over the winter of 1997, the closest Hills got to a first-team match was the subs bench for the FA Cup 3rd Round tie against Newcastle United.  After going out on loan in January 1998, this time to his old club in Blackpool, John Hills finally rejoined them at a knockdown price of £60,000.  He can be marked down as a casualty of the managerial change in which Howard Kendall progressively whittled away at the list of players he had inherited from Joe Royle.


JOHN HILLS – EVERTON CAREER STATISTICS
Season Squad
Number 		League
Apps(sub) 		League
Goals 		Cup
Apps(sub) 		Cup
Goals 		TOTAL
Apps(sub) 		TOTAL
Goals
1996-97 #35 1 (2) - - (-) - 1 (2) -
1997-98 #35 - (-) - - (-) - - (-) -
Totals: 1 (2) - - (-) - 1 (2) -
© Marko Poutiainen and Michael Kenrick 1998
Last update: 15 February 1998

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