Jordan Pickford did not have to commit his future to Everton earlier this year.
The club’s biggest talent had just reaffirmed his credentials as England number one with another good World Cup campaign to add to the two previous international tournaments he had excelled in. The Blues were in chaos on and off the field and even the most optimistic supporter would have foreseen, at the very least, a second consecutive war with relegation.
Fighting at the bottom of the table is not where Pickford wants to be. It is not where he deserves to be. Yet amid the crises surrounding him, he signed a new long-term deal to keep him on Merseyside. It was a development that had been a long time coming but few would have begrudged him delaying while he waited to see how Everton’s season unfolded.
