Kieran Dowell has endured a lot of frustration in the early parts of his career to date.
Now, the midfielder has been backed to go and show what he can do when he moves to Rangers at the end of this season.
The out-of-contract Norwich player is close to finalising a summer switch to Glasgow having agreed on a three-year Gers deal.
And former Everton and Gers ace Michael Ball reckons Dowell is exactly the type of player needed to help Michael Beale get the Ibrox side on the road to recovery.
The 25-year-old will be given the chance to prove he's got what it takes to operate at a high level when he signs for the Light Blues.
Until this point though, his progress has been stifled, to an extent.
Although highly rated as he made his way through the Everton youth ranks, Dowell found the route to a regular first-team slot on Merseyside closed off.
That's because the club's owner Farhad Moshiri pursued a new policy of chasing more expensive recruits.
Injuries have held him back along the way at Norwich, but Ball is glad to see the ex-England youth international is heading in the right direction again.
He told the Daily Record: “It’s a huge opportunity for Kieran to step up and show he can play for a huge club like Rangers.
“He deserves his chance having racked up a number of successful loans while at Everton. He should have got more games at Goodison had Everton not wasted so much cash bringing in big players under the new owner.
“Before Moshiri came to the club, Everton was successful in promoting youngsters into the first team. Kieran was among a long list of lads that the academy staff were very excited about. Players like Kieran and Antonee Robinson were expected to play a big part in the first team.
“But then Moshiri changed the philosophy of the club and Kieran found his pathway blocked. All of a sudden Everton were splashing the cash - but most of it was wasted.
“We bought Gylfi Sigurdsson for £40million, gave James Rodriguez £200,000 a week, brought Wayne Rooney back, and signed guys like Alex Iwobi and Davy Klaassen. Everton were the only club I’ve ever known to sign three No.10s in one window.
“That obviously is going to halt any progression for players like Kieran Dowell. Would he have been good enough for the club at the time? No one knows because he didn’t get the chance.
“The club must have believed in him, though, as they gave him a long contract. He was sent out on loan to gain experience in the Championship but the reports coming back were always positive.
“He went to Nottingham Forest and they were keen to keep him. Everton didn’t want to sell at that stage and he went on a few more loans but ultimately Kieran decided it just wasn’t going to happen for him at Goodison and he had to move on to get the games he needed.
“But he’s now getting that reward with this move to Rangers on the horizon.”
