Stanley Mills 56

Son of famous Manchester City, Leeds United and England defender, Danny Mills, Stanley joined Everton at the age of 14 having previously been at Leeds United.

Mills broke through at Under-18 level in 2020-21, scoring in the FA Youth Cup quarter-final clash with West Bromwich Albion.

Elevated to the Under-23s for the last two games of the season, he marked his debut with a superb goal in a 5-0 win at Southampton. That helped seal a first professional contract with the Blues in July 2021, a 2-year deal.

18-year-old Mills became a regular for the U23s in the 2021-22 season, often playing on the right. He scored a fine goal at Sheffield Utd in the Premier League Cup.

Mills went out to the USA with the senior players in the Summer of 2022, putting in an impressive rookie performance against Arsenal in Baltimore, before extending his contract until June 2025, and making his senior debut as a late substitute for Demari Gray in a League Cup tie at Fleetwood that August.

Mills would make just one more sub appearance, again in the League Cup, but this time it was a 4-1 defeat at Bournemouth in November 2022.

He had a good 2022-23 season with the U21s, being Everton's leading scorer in PL2 with 10 goals, plus another 5 in cup competitions, and trained on occasion with the first-team squad, with a place on the bench for seven Premier League games, but he was not used by either Frank Lampard or Sean Dyche.

Some good performances in pre-season games during the Summer of 2023 confirmed the decision to send him out on loan for the 2023-24 season with Oxford United but his spell with the League One outfit was cut short in January when he suffered a serious knee injury that required surgery and prematurely ended his season.

The 21-year-old tore a patellar tendon against Coventry City in the FA Cup; it was 11 months of patient rehab after the operation before he was back out on the grass, training with the medical and sports science staff to regain full match fitness without being rushed into U21 competitive fixtures.

Entering the final six months of his Everton contract and with first-team opportunities at Goodison Park unlikely, Mills completed a permanent move back to Oxford United on transfer deadline day in January 2025 for an undisclosed fee (reported to be around £400k), with Everton retaining a 20% sell-on clause.

After impressing at the Kassam Stadium following his return, Mills was snapped up by Championship club Preston North End in August 2026 for a fee reported to be close to £2M, triggering a neat windfall for the Everton Academy.

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