There were 13 players between Jack Harrison and the Bournemouth goal when he guided Neto’s punched clearance back over a packed penalty area to open his Everton account in audacious style before the international break. “Everyone keeps asking me: ‘What were you thinking?’” he says. The answer is nothing, instinct kicked in, and not for the first time Harrison took an unorthodox route towards a Premier League goal.
Harrison’s pathway to becoming a Premier League fixture started routinely enough with brief spells at Liverpool’s and Bolton’s academies before he joined Manchester United aged eight. From there, however, it diverged in a bold, life-changing direction when, at 14, he moved to a boarding school in Massachusetts. If the decision to relocate alone was tough for the teenager from Stoke it was harder for the person who presented him with the opportunity: Harrison’s mum, Debbie.
