Everton to sign 16-year-old Jack Patterson

Nathan and now Jack. Please let us make a bid for Les.

Just turned fifteen when making his senior debut, Rangers, Leeds and West Ham have been tracking him too. It will be good to see him develop with us.

The Irish academy chief:

“Jack is a great kid, with real enthusiasm and someone we actually use as a role model to our younger Academy players” continued Waterworth. “He has such a wise head on young shoulders and is always willing to take on board criticism.

“We are working hard on defining his role and it will be interesting to see his development either as a defensive midfielder or number eight”.

Jack has been over to Finch Farm and trained there and it was announced a few months ago he would sign in the summer when he leaves school, I think his future with us could depend on what league we are in and where his potential leads him to.

Alan (1) Nathan and Jack are fine, leave Les in Australia if he and her are still going!!

A few more years at Everton and Frank will resemble Les Patterson.

Alan @ 1, I believe he is a brilliant dribbler! :-)

I suppose it's encouraging that we are still recruiting, albeit a young lad, who knows how he will turn out?

I've always advocated that these so-called megabuck superstars at £XM started out like Jack Patterson at some point.

Any promising youngsters that we can beat off opposition for must be good long-term moves. Either we can save another £20m in the future, or we have a player we can move on if he doesn't work out.

For every Rooney there are several Dowells and the odd George Green. But, despite what some people on here think, we are no different from all the other clubs in that regard.

Good luck to the lad. I look forward to seeing him come through the ranks.

Kudos to our scouting system...at least he's British!

Next stop North Wales to sign Lee Jenkins at Aberystwyth Town and Josh Williams (a real star in the making,imo) at Connah's Quay Nomads, please.

There is a lot of young talent in the Irish league, they come in at an early age and play competitive football early. A lot of clubs now full time or going that way as well.

As a side note, Ian Rush and his consortium just took control of Crusaders, for whom this young fella plays, with the aim of developing young talent. C'mon Everton, get in touch with my local club Glenavon and do the same! 😆

Old news really, something like the Belfast Telegraph ran the story months ago, Echo is just catching up. He'll join as a first Year Scholar so it'll be interesting to see how he compares with current talented bunch ready to move up to Scholars in July.

It was the Belfast Telegraph:

Graham Luney
13 January 2022 09:50 AM
Crusaders chairman Ronnie Millar says rising star Jack Patterson will leave the club with the best wishes of everyone at Seaview when he becomes the latest teenage sensation to pursue a career in professional football across the water.

The Ballyclare High pupil is expected to join Premier League side Everton once his studies are concluded.

Patterson's move follows hot on the heels of Trai Hume's switch to Sunderland and Callum Marshall continuing his development at West Ham.

The 16-year-old former Greenisland ace, who also caught the eye of the Hammers, Leeds United and Rangers, has already gained first team experience with Stephen Baxter's side and shown a maturity beyond his teenage years.

“Jack will get his move across the water once he's finished his school year” said Millar. “He played in midfield a few matches last season and he played like an experienced player, his distribution of the ball as excellent and it was easy to see why there was interest in him.

“I think we will see more opportunities for our young players to move to England or Scotland. They can make a great career in football. Our clubs will receive fees for the lads but it's also important their progress is not blocked and that's why there needs to be compromise in these deals. Clubs certainly don't want to hold players back.

“Gavin Whyte and Stuart Dallas took our league by storm learned their graft here and that aided their careers but you also can't deprive young players of these exciting opportunities. Jack will leave with our warm good wishes. When the boys' careers take off it reflects well on our league. Stuart (Dallas) shows his versatility for Leed United and Northern Ireland and he learned that in the Irish League.”

Matthew...are you sure about that ?

We should be worried about the shite that the first team is recruiting – not harping on about 15-year-olds that will probably never play in the first team. Mind you, he may get a chance when we are in the Championship!

Red shite look set to sign Scottish RB Calvin Ramsey for £4m. That's about 25% of the fee we've paid for Patterson.

Surely with Kenny leaving and Coleman needing to be “Bainsey'd” it's got to be worth a punt of gazumping with £5m bid….albeit I appreciate there are many other parts of the team that need sorting.