Everton equalled their club-record fee to bring Jordan Pickford in this summer, and Ronald Koeman has commented on what the stopper brings to the team.
Ronald Koeman has told Everton’s official website that he has plenty of belief that Jordan Pickford will be fully capable of justifying the Toffees’ decision to spend £30 million on the youngster, and expressed his delight for the stopper after he appeared in their pre-season friendly with Sevilla at the weekend.
Everton equalled their club record for the highest fee spent on a player by bringing Pickford in to Goodison Park this summer, and he has already started to repay that faith shown in him.
Jordan Pickford
The 23-year-old kept a clean sheet in their Europa League qualifying clash with Ruzomberok and followed that up with a promising display in their pre-season friendly with the La Liga side on Sunday. And after the friendly, Koeman heaped praise upon the summer signing.
“We paid that money for a goalkeeper because we believe in the young boy,” he told the club’s official website. “He is only 23, but he’s really comfortable, a great kicker of the ball and I’m really happy to see him ready to play 90 minutes now in front of the fans.
“He did well last Thursday and he did well today. It’s a great signing for the club.”
It will be interesting to see how Pickford gets on in his first season as featuring between the sticks for Everton looks set to be a completely different challenge than playing for a hapless Sunderland side last term.
Ronald Koeman
Pickford was one of the few players to emerge from that Black Cats team with any credit, but he will now have to cope with a much higher level of expectation on Merseyside, and the fact that he will have to stay switched on when he will have considerably less to do than he did last term.
But Koeman appears to be more than confident that Pickford has the ability and the potential to prove that it was the right decision to sign him for such a large fee.
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