Season › 2011-12 › News

How George Green chose Everton

Everton have been tracking Bradford City's young star George Green all summer, after watching him play in an U-18s trial match for Spurs against Aston Villa when he scored a scintillating hat-trick that left the queue of watching scouts in awe.

Archie Christie, Bradford's head of football development, is delighted his protegee chose Everton, ahead of a long line of other jealous clubs.

?I'd spoken to Harry Redknapp shortly after George played for our reserves earlier this year and said, ?We've got a boy here who's as good as they come,?

?He was 15 playing for the reserves, challenging for headers he had no right to win against men. Harry had loaned us a goalkeeper at short notice so we owed him a good turn, and we agreed to let George go and have a trial down there.

?For the first 15 minutes of the game against Villa he was quiet, then he took it by the scruff of the neck and scored three. His first was sublime, a 25-yard effort into the top corner, and for the second he beat about six opponents.

?Everton had a scout watching and he sounded me out about speaking to David Moyes.

?I said to George, ?You'll be going to the Premier League and you need to go for the right footballing reasons, the money will come,' and I knew there were so many clubs ringing me asking for him.?

Liverpool were among the covetous throng of admirers, but Christie insists Green, who had an earlier trial with the Anfield club, was adamant he did not want to return.

?He said he'd rather stay at Bradford than go to Liverpool,? he says. ?He had been last year and was just told he wasn't big enough, he wasn't strong enough etc.

?That made my job much easier. It was down to Arsenal, Everton, Rangers, Tottenham and Southampton. Davie Moyes phoned me and we had already agreed an offer for Spurs, but he asked to at least have the chance to speak to him.

?So we took him to the Merseyside derby on Saturday. They told him this is the People's Club and that you're either red or blue in Merseyside, and he said ?I'm a Blue'.

?I told him about my pals Duncan Ferguson and Neville Southall. I told him they've got a great manager who gives young players a chance.

? ?Everton are not going to go out and spend £50m on a foreigner, they will spend two or three years developing you,' I said.

?Look at Wayne Rooney and Jack Rodwell. Even the boy now Ross Barkley. Everton won't go and spend £18m on an English midfielder from another club like Jordan Henderson.

?I told him that if he works hard and shows what he's capable of he could be in their first team frame in two or three years.?

Quotes or other material sourced from Liverpool Echo

---

---

Reader Comments (23)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

About these ads