Harrison Armstrong goes out on loan at Preston

How many players have we had who have stagnated in the reserves with the odd appearance here and there. Get him playing regularly and get him back when he’s genuinely challenging the first team.

Better that than 10 minutes here or there

We signed Rohl so this was always going to happen once we signed another central midfielder.

I'm usually a bit iffy about loans, but in this case I'm pleased to see this club taking the long view and making decisions for the future. I consider Armstrong a star in the making, but he's 18. He won't develop much coming off our bench for 15 minutes a week and competing for starts during AFCON and the League Cup with a player five years older (Rohl).

At Preston he'll get 3000+ minutes in the crucible of the Championship and more in the Cup comps. That'll forge him into everything he can be. And I think he'll come back to us ready to challenge for the starting 11.

Good move in my view.

Lewis Gibson. Remember him? All the years of injury after injury, Lewis hung in there and has been logging lots of minutes the last 2 seasons. Been through a lot for a player just turned 25. I'm happy for him.

Lewis Dobbin is there on loan. Scored a goal last week. Always liked him. Hope he succeeds.

Thierry Small. After bouncing around, he played heavy minutes for Charlton Athletic last season, helping them to promotion to the Championship. Preston NE signed him for this season. Turned 21 a few weeks ago. Maybe the lightbulb finally went on over his head.

That is a lot better than staying on the bench and "rot".

Interesting that Moyes talked about Ossie. Let's not forget that Seamus making his bones during that 6 months loan at Blackpool remains an underrated part of his legend.

My only concern is whether Preston's current manager, Paul Heckingbottom, will play an attacking-style football like his predecessor Ryan Lowe, which is more beneficial to Harrison's development, IMHO.

If he doesn't develop into a truly Premier League standard player, this move will ensure we get a decent fee for him from a Championship club...if he plays well.

Good luck, lad.

That’s off my chest now —it’s no use cryin’ over spilt bleedin’ milk.

James (23) Thanks James for that information on the three ex Everton players especially Lewis Gibson, we paid a lot of relative money for the lad and Newcastle were far from happy when he decided to join Everton, as you say injuries spoilt his progress he was well thought of by many people in the game I hope he has a very good career ahead of him, he certainly deserves it after all the bad luck he had previously. Good luck to Lewis Dobbin and Thierry Small too.

My only doubt is whether Preston is the right pick? I'm a little surprised that he didn't return to Derby where he already seemed so settled.

Not sure what the reason for picking Preston over them would be but hopefully it's in his best interests. Smashing player and hopefully he really excels there and comes back next year ready to take up a first-team role for us.

I hope we have a recall on his loan agreement and he returns in the second half of the season. He has proven that he can be a valuable asset.

It just feels like our over-cautious manager doesn't have the cojones to play him, so he may as well go and play a full season and be so good that he's straight into our first XI next season. Just think back to Derby would have been better. (Although selfishly Norwich would have been better, then I could have seen more of him! :)

Dobbin was on loan here from January, had some good games mixed with some frustrating ones. Quick, made some great runs and stretched the defence, but didn't take on his full-back anywhere near often enough. Confidence looks key. Should have a good career in Championship though.

He's left Preston for Huddersfield after 5 plus years.

For all the he should stay / play talk - who does he start ahead of out of Garner, Gueye, Iroegbunam, Dewsbury-Hall, Alcaraz, Rohl and possibly Grealish if played centrally? He has 3 players ahead of him as a sub option in that company.

We are overloaded in this area of the pitch, so he wouldn't get playing time for that reason.

Preston is just 35 miles away from Liverpool by car, Armstrong won't have to move house and he can be easily watched at PNE's home matches.

Indeed Moyes can call off on his way home from Finch Farm to Lytham to see him play in night matches at Deepdale!

So this season won't be his last.

I’m not better placed to judge him than the club - since I’ve only seen him play for Everton against very poor standard opposition in Peterborough and Mansfield.

Do you believe he is better? If so, why?

The PL is a different level, he's not ready to boss games at this level YET !
I hope it goes well, he improves his physicality and fills out a bit while getting that bit of game knowledge and experience, comes back with the confidence to say I'm as good as Garner, Rohl or KDH.

I'll be watching him with interest.

If we could have bought a dedicated right back instead of Röhl, wouldn't that have been money better spent? And Harrison might have been kept..

Moyes calls the shots, seems to know what is best for the lad and Everton. I'm not a Moyes fan but he is the manager so only time will tell if his decision is the right one.

Now they've bought him back. What kind of accounting BS is this?

You'd imagine it's being looked at though.

I do understand why he's gone on loan though. Especially as Moyes seems to prefer young players getting experience this way. Hopefully he comes back even better and kicks on.

Hopefully he'll establish himself fast at Preston but it just feels like he would have hit the ground running at Derby where he was already a favourite with the manager and fans.

Kieran, I read somewhere that Samuels Smith was one of 6 players moving to Strasbourg in the transfer window, either permanently or on loan, but Samuels Smith has now been loaned out to Swansea.

I wasn't aware of PIF's possible financial connections with

Clearlake, owners of Chelsea. I believe PIF are investors in Clearlake somewhere along the line,

A few Chelsea players have ended up in Saudi football.

PIF are the majority owners of Newcastle.

These associations between clubs are so complex. How do we expect the PL, FA, UEFA and FIFA to keep up.

I can just about work out how to keep afloat wirh a basic bank account, business acct and a couple of credit cards. If I can remember my PIN numbers and my passwords I call that a good day.

It must be hard waking up as an accountant or financial advisor of these multi-club groups and thinking who can we buy and sell from today.

I imagine as clubs are selling the women's teams to themelves, the next logical step would be for the selling of women players to the men's team and vice versa to alleviate PSR and whatever the UEFA's version is called.

Anyway back to Harrison Armstrong. Let's hope he has an injury free and successful season and comes back ready to play in the first team next season. Has given me a reason to take an interest in Preston this season

Shame he left. He was the stand out class act in the academy at the time - and just made (I think) team of the tournament for England U16s in some youth Championship thing.

Samuels-Smith, Small, Aznou. Three left-backs, all a similar age, and all just potential at this stage.

Out of interest, how do you rate them?

Aznou I have no idea other than he’s got pedigree in a top 5 league as a teenager.

Dave # you might be right but the club disagrees. You could say in retrospect that Tom Davies (fairly similar) would have benefited from a loan. I think some people dislike the loan system but it is the usual right of passage for most teenagers.

With Tom Davies, like a lot of Everton fans, I wanted Tom to succeed but in the end, I thought he was a very slow learner making the same mistakes repeatedly.

Although injuries had taken their toll on him in the last couple of years, he doesn't seem like he will get better… but I wish him well and hope he has a good career financially.