After trying and failing to oust Rangers’ very own Captain Marvel James Tavernier at Ibrox, Nathan Patterson obviously felt that a January move to Goodison Park would enhance his prospects of regular first-team football with the Qatar World Cup looming on the horizon.
A penny for his thoughts, then, with Patterson left out of the matchday squad for Everton’s dismal 5-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Monday night.
Since arriving for £11 million over two months ago, the Scotland international is yet to feature in the Premier League. On his one and only Everton appearance, Patterson was hauled off at half-time with the Toffees threatening to come unstuck against non-league Boreham Wood in the FA Cup.
Now, this is not to say Everton do not foresee a bright future for Patterson on Merseyside.
The Glasgow-born right-back is just 20 years of age after all. And not even Everton – a side who’s recruitment policy has often learnt towards the baffling since Farhad Moshiri’s 2016 takeover – would sign a player for £11 million only to deem him surplus to requirements just a few weeks later.
Patterson’s time at Everton will come. When, however, is another matter entirely.
“We brought him in for a reason,” manager Frank Lampard said this week (The Sun).
“He’s a young player, who’s a developing player still. And he will feel our support of how we want him to play and how we want him to develop.”
Will Everton sign another right-back this summer?
But that fact that Patterson continues to be omitted, despite the ongoing malaise of 33-year-old Seamus Coleman, tells it’s own story. Everton clearly believe that Patterson, for all his talent and potential, is not yet ready to be thrown in at the deep end.
It would not come as a surprise, then, if Everton went into the summer prioritising another new right-back. One capable of replacing Coleman in the here and now while giving Patterson time and space to develop behind the scenes.
Someone like Zeki Celik, for instance.
Now, Celik, a Ligue 1 winner 12 months ago, is free to leave this summer. He has just one year left on his contract. And, according to FootMercato, Lille are will bring in Clermont’s Akim Zedadka as his successor.
If Coleman is coming towards the end of his career and Patterson is just at the start, then 25-year-old Celik lands somewhere in between. Someone capable of easing the burden on an overworked Coleman. And someone who’s arrival would allow Everton to ease Patterson in while keeping the pressure to a minimum.
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