FACTS
	Born	Blackpool, 10 January 1978
	Height	5' - 11" (180 cm)
	Joined Everton	as a trainee
	Debut	Sub: v Newcastle United (a), 24 September 1997 Full: v Tottenham Hotspur (a), 4 March 1998
	Left Everton	to join Sunderland in November 1998 (£500,000)
	Finale	Full: v Sheffield Wednesday (h), 25 April 1998 Sub: v Coventry City (h), 1998, 10 May 1998
	Nicknames
	Honours	England U-15
	JUNIOR EVERTON CAREER
	Seasons	Club	Apps	Gls
	1998-1999	Everton Reserves	8	1
	1997-1998	Everton Reserves	11	2
	1996-1997	Everton Reserves	14 (4)	2

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
Good passer of the ball Good touch and vision Good tackler Deadball specialist	Not really a ball-winner Can be a little lazy Slow to pick up opponents

BIOSKETCH

Gavin McCann is another graduate of the Lilleshall National School of Excellence, where he spent two years. Gavin is noted in the reserves as an elegant passer of the ball who can also tackle sharply. The closest Gavin McCann came to playing for the first team during his first season as a professional was to warm the bench as an unused sub against Chelsea in the last match of the 1996-97 season. Despite his involvement in all six of the pre-season friendlies in July 1997, it was late September before McCann got off that subs bench, and April 1998 before he actually got to start a match. The suspicion is that Kendall would have preferred him to Thomsen, but the purchases of Williamson and Farrelly effectively held back McCann's development into a first-team player. Injuries to most of the midfielders saw him debut as a sub in the inferno of St James Park, and it was Kendall briefly losing faith in Farrelly that gave Gavin his full debut at White Hart Lane, and a run of five games at the end of the 1997-98 season. With Walter Smith making high-profile transfers of John Collins and Olivier Dacourt to improve Everton's weak midfield, the writing seemed to be on the wall for young Gavin. Despite good efforts in the Reserves, a move to Peter Reid's Sunderland finally came about at the end of November 1998.  Rumour has it that he was basically given to Sunderland in lieu of cash as their share of the gate for the Worthington Cup Tie that Sunderland won on penalties... Gavin has got stuck in well and started scoring plenty of goals for the old Evertonian, and was playing an important part in Peter Reid's impressive assault on the Premiership until he was laid low by ligament damage in February 2000.  The loss is devastating for Reid's high fliers who now look to be in free-fall after putting on a very brave showing against the big boys. McCann spent four seasons at Sunderland before joining Aston Villa in 2003 for the rather substantial fee of £2¼M.  He must go down as one who got away... or was given away by Walter Smith!

EVERTON CAREER STATISTICS
Season	Squad Number	League Apps(sub)	League Goals	Cup Apps(sub)	Cup Goals	TOTAL Apps(sub)	TOTAL Goals
1996-97	29	- (-)	-	- (-)	-	- (-)	-
1997-98	22	5 (6)	-	- (-)	-	5 (6)	-
1998-99	22	- (-)	-	- (-)	-	- (-)	-
	Totals:	5 (6)	-	- (-)	-	5 (6)	-

Last update: 7 July 2003