• Skilful and Enthusiastic
• Takes a wicked free-kick

• Promise unfulfilled

Jamie is a keen, hard working and skillful midfielder with an excellent eye for dead-ball situations and a great ability to cross the ball deep into the danger area.  He gets forward well, but also covers back defensively in the manner of a good modern wingback.

Unfortunately for Milligan, and a host of other young Everton stars, Walter Smith is not a great believer in the merits of youth, and he no doubt subscribes to the TV pundits' adage: "You can't win anything with kids."  A few brief spells as a sub, totalling all of 20 minutes, is all he has allowed Jamie Milligan.  And with Smith's propensity to buy in players, rather than promote from the ranks, the arrival of Peter Degn will surely prevent Jamie Milligan from getting anywhere near to a decent chance in the first team. 

The widely predicted exodus of Everton "stars" over the summer of 1999 didn't really happen, and Jamie Milligan now seems to be even further from making it into the first team during the 1999-2000 season.  In October, his name slid ominously off the Premiership Squad list, but Walter Smith eventually gave him a fleeting chance in the last match of the season, against Middlesbrough, when Everton were already losing.

Walter Smith's third season in charge at Everton bought little joy to many of Everton's young hopefuls in their much-vaunted Youth Academy, and Milligan was no exception.  Although given a  Premiership squad number again, the closest Jamie got to a big break was the role of bench warmer as an unused sub on just two occasions.  And in March 2001, Steve McMahon enticed the lad to sign for Blackpool, his home-town team, Walter letting him go on a free transfer. 

Ho hum; Walter knows best...