Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BUTTER FINGERS
Everton’s £25M keeper made his own lunch and washed his kit at skint Darlington
JORDAN PICKFORD could have afforded himself a wry smile after Everton’s early-season form sparked talk of a crisis on Merseyside.
After all, a few defeats at the start of the season is nothing compared to the kind of chaos he was used to as a Sunderland loanee.
The £25million summer capture by Everton is currently the third most expensive keeper in football history.
Hard to imagine that, not too long ago, he was having to bring his own food along to training at cash-strapped Darlington.
The 23-year-old joined the Quakers in February 2012 during the very definition of a football crisis.
For his first National League match against Fleetwood, Pickford was greeted by the sight of Darlington fans trying to raise funds with collection buckets.
Craig Liddle, the club’s then manager, admits that the glamorous life of the Premier
League and scrabbling around to make ends meet in the fifth tier, could not have been further apart.
He does, though, believe that Pickford’s time at Darlington offered him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“He certainly had a lot of shots to save,” said Liddle (below), now the boss of Middlesbrough’s academy.
“We had a transfer embargo, so the only players we could sign were youth team players or Under-19s.
“I knew Jordan because I had worked with him as an Under-12 at Sunderland, I played with his brother at Darlington as well, so I had an idea of what kind of character he was.
“His first match was that game against Fleetwood. He was only 17 at the time and there were about 7,000 people in the ground.
“To play in that kind of environment at that age was a great experience.
“He was a confident boy, a tough kid. I remember him coming for a cross in the first few minutes of his debut in a crowded penalty area.
“He claimed the ball and that calmed everyone down. It was a baptism of fire, but, as his spell went on, he was putting in performances, week after week.
“It wasn’t easy. There was no money, I was doing everything off the pitch, basically.
“I was the only full-time member of staff, so it was a huge challenge. I think it really opened his eyes.
“He had come from Sunderland and everything that goes with a club in the Premier League.
“Then he came here to train at a local college, he had to wash his own kit, make his own lunch and bring it to work.”
It certainly provided Pickford (below, in his Darlington days) with food for thought, but there was only so much he could do as the side slid towards relegation.
In 17 matches, he did not once finish on the winning side.
But he did more than enough to persuade Liddle that he was an exceptional talent.
“I think you can tell a lot about someone in that kind of situation,” said Liddle.
“He would have come through at Sunderland because he was that good, but I think we gave him the playing time that he wouldn’t have got anywhere else.
“He certainly showed what a magnificent talent he was.”
So, if any Everton players want to know what a real crisis looks like, then Pickford should be their first port of call.