Marco Silva has confirmed that Anthony Gordon is on the verge of earning a first-team call-up.
The Everton starlet has been tipped by many fans to be the next youth product to make the breakthrough into the senior set-up at the club, having consistently impressed for David Unsworth’s Under-23s.
The 18-year old has regularly scored and assisted in Everton’s start to the Premier League 2 season, and with the senior side lacking a creative edge, many fans have called on his inclusion to spice up proceedings.
Gordon already trains with Silva’s squad regularly at Finch Farm, and the Everton boss admits that he has been impressed with the youngster’s performances.
However Silva claimed that the issue with selecting Gordon boils down to the stacked options in his position. When asked if Gordon was close to earning a call-up, Silva told the Liverpool Echo:
Really close. Close.
I will tell you, unfortunately for him, it is maybe the area of the pitch where we have the most quality. Maybe it is the position where the competition is hardest.
Of course, he can play in the three positions in our attack line and we are talking about different players but he has more or less the same profile as Richarlison, who can play left, right or can play behind the striker, or even alone upfront.
Unfortunately for him, when you look for out-wide positions these are the positions where we have more solutions and different solutions, more solutions but since we took him to work with the first-team every single day I am always seeing improvements.
Even in moments when he doesn’t do all the session with the team, he is always aware of everything, trying to learn every time. When he is doing something individual with one of my staff, he is always trying to improve and you can see results.
He has quality and, in my opinion, since I join Everton he is the player closest to achieving a place in the first-team.
It is up to him to keep working hard because with his level he will achieve the first-team, I have no doubts.
Read Everton Verdict
I’ve said it before but it is exciting to hear that Gordon is close to making his Premier League debut. I’m a big fan of having young players continually coming through the academy into the first-team, it is something Everton as a club should be proud of, and hopefully it continues as Everton keeps growing.
It remains to be seen what impact Gordon could have, but Tom Davies and Beni Baningime made immediate impacts once they were given a chance to impress, so fingers crossed that Gordon can be the creative injection that the Toffees need, which theoretically he can be given the ability he has shown already in the U23s this season.
