From “Our Wayne”, “Our Ross” and now “Our Anthony”, long-suffering Evertonians have had their hearts broken on many occasions when it comes to home-grown heroes but while Jordan Pickford was born over 150 miles north east of Goodison Park, Blues now see the lad from Washington as one of their own.
After signing a new four-and-a-half year deal that commits him way beyond the move to the new stadium and up to a decade of service to the club, Pickford spoke of the people who make ‘The People’s Club.’ He said: “It’s massive to sign this new contract at such a special club for me.
“The support I’ve had from everyone at the club since I joined as a 22-year-old has been so important to my family and me. I’m happy here and so are my family. We love it at Everton.”
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Those aforementioned Scousers, Messrs Rooney; Barkley and Gordon, all grew up kicking footballs around the streets of Liverpool that inspired David Moyes to coin his now iconic ‘People’s Club’ tag en route to his unveiling as manager over two decades ago, but chose to jump out of the Merseyside football goldfish bowl at a young age. Whereas stardom came early for those local lads, Pickford had to bide his time to get a chance at Sunderland having to go through half a dozen loans at Darlington, Alfreton Town, Burton Albion, Carlisle United, Bradford City and Preston North End before returning to the Stadium of Light to establish himself as first choice under Moyes of course.
Perhaps that nomadic existence during the early part of his career, taking the lumps and bumps of lower division and even non-League football at times, has helped Pickford appreciate the comforts of being settled and appreciated at Everton – “a terrific working class football club” as Malky Mackay described them to the ECHO in an interview published last week – and one with a strong sense of kinship similar to his roots back on Wearside at the Black Cats. While it might have seemed convenient for then Blues boss Frank Lampard, a man who by his own admission had been fortunate enough to have experienced Champions League football for the lion’s share of his own playing career, to claim that dining at the game’s top table wasn’t the be all and end all for professionals, without sounding naïve, that sense of belonging cannot be discounted.
But regardless of whether a suitor that can offer such a stage does come calling, such as Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur who have both been linked with moves for Pickford of late and might be on the lookout for new goalkeepers in the near future, Everton have now, at very least, protected their asset. Before putting pen to paper, the 28-year-old had less than 18 months remaining on his current deal and if – like Richarlison – there had been little indication that the player was willing to extend his stay further, then the Blues might have had little choice but selling Pickford for a knockdown fee this summer to avoid risk losing him for nothing in 2024.
Instead, Pickford – who joined in Everton’s record-breaking window of spending in 2017 – has committed himself to the club for a decade of service and beyond the move to their new stadium in the 2024/25 season. While nobody is offering cast-iron guarantees that he’s signed for life, if he did want out then he could have easily sat tight and let his previous deal run down like boyhood Blue Barkley did when joining Chelsea for £15million in January 2018, little over four months after the same club had offered £20million more for his services.
Like another son of County Durham, the late, great Howard Kendall, Pickford might not have been born an Evertonian but he has taken the Blues faithful who appreciate his efforts, to his heart. Given the amount of arbitrary animosity towards him from rival fans of certain clubs, something of a mutual siege mentality has been built up between Pickford and the Goodison Park faithful.
Here is a player who should be considered a national treasure for his heroics with the England football team, helping to end their penalty hoodoo on the way to equalling their best-ever World Cup showing on foreign soil and saving two spot-kicks in a shoot-out in the European Championship final only to be let down by his team-mates’ misses, yet many continue to display their ignorance or just downright prejudice by questioning whether an individual who in truth is one of Gareth Southgate’s star players and most-trusted lieutenants should even be in the team. Such a jaundiced slant is nothing short of insulting to the displays that Pickford has produced over recent years for BOTH club and country and have even been branded a “witch hunt” by both Neville Southall and Kevin Campbell.
As the man who launched Nick Pope’s Premier League career, Sean Dyche understandably refused to be drawn on whether Pickford is better but this correspondent has no such qualms. Pope is a fine goalkeeper who – like Aaron Ramsdale, another pretender to Pickford’s throne – is currently riding high with a successful club at the business end of the Premier League table, but neither man is operating anywhere close to the levels that the Everton player, the best non-Brazilian in the division in his position, has produced.
Unlike the Blues ace who has been a model of consistency for the Three Lions since winning the first of his now 50 caps (turning out for Everton has never held him back and he’s now represented England more times than any other player in the club’s history), Pope and Ramsdale have both made a hash of their rare opportunities between the sticks at international level with the former dropping a clanger against Germany last September and question marks over the latter for all four goals he shipped against Hungary in June. Also, can you imagine the level of scrutiny Pickford would have come under had he made the handball blunder that saw Pope sent off against Liverpool last weekend and resulted in being suspended for the Carabao Cup final?
Rather than the outpouring of sympathy and calls for ‘common sense’ that have followed the Newcastle United custodian’s red card, you can imagine that some of the keyboard warriors would probably now be calling for an extended ban and his axing from the England set-up along with unfounded claims over the length of his limbs – a serious accusation for someone in his position. That kind of disgusting attitude from many in other parts of the country has ensured for a long time now that Evertonians have – quite rightly – double down with support for their man who they regard as ‘Our Jordan Pickford.’
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