One Night in Cyprus: Part 2 -A Redhead
As I continue to look into Everton academy players who made were called up for the 2017 dead rubber match in Everton’s Europa League (https://sheboygan-toffee.medium.com/one-night-in-cyprus-part-1-scotland-ed01b131f59), I am going with a redheaded forward who started on the bench. No, not Anthony Gordon, but Shayne Lavery.
Similar to Fraser Hornby, though different build (Lavery is 5 ft 11 in) Shayne Lavery was a player who wasn’t with Everton his entire youth career. Lavery started in his native Northern Ireland and switched over to Everton in 2015 after a successful trial. He was on scholarship for 2 years and he was impressed enough with the u-18s (18 goals in 33 appearances) that he was offered a professional contract in 2017. The 2017–18 season saw him come off the bench and score a couple of goals for the u-23s and led to him being named on the bench in Cyprus. He never got into the match, but to be included was impressive. Random fact: the game was December 7th and his birthday is December 8th. After that match, he returned to the u-23 setup but was hampered by a hamstring injury. Everton did see the potential and extended his contract another year.
2018 started with Lavery making his senior debut for Northern Ireland. He had been involved in the youth setup for Northern Ireland and scored 8 goals in 22 appearances for his country’s youth teams. Back at Everton, he played in a couple of u-23 games, and then went on loan in the Scottish Championship. Unfortunately, his loan spell only consisted of 6 substitute appearances and no goals. With that in mind, Everton decided to release Lavery and his career with Everton was over.
Following his release from Everton, Lavery signed a 1 year deal with Belfast club Linfield FC. He has a successful first year scoring 14 goals in 34 appearances and Linfield extended his contract for a year. Because of this, he earned 4 more Northern Ireland caps from 2019–2020. The 2020–21 season was where Lavery proved he was too good for the NIFL Premiership. He went on a tear scoring 30 goals in 38 appearances and was named Ulster Footballer of the Year, NIFWA player of the year, AND Young Player of the Year. Linfield won the title that year as well.
Looking for a more challenging league, Lavery joined League One playoff winners (in part thanks to Everton loanee Ellis Simms) Blackpool. Fittingly enough, he was joined at Blackpool by former Everton academy players Callum Connolly and Josh Bowler. In his step up to the Championship, Lavery has shown no signs of stopping his goal-scoring form. He is the team’s leading goal scorer with 9 in 26 appearances in all competitions. He even bagged his first goal for Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifier in September. Blackpool currently sits in 15th place, 20 points clear of the relegation zone, which is a good return for the club back in the 2nd tier.
From an Everton perspective, Shayne Lavery feels like a miss. He was a player who clearly had potential but unfortunately, it didn’t show until he was no longer under contract for the club. It’s hard to cut players loose who have potential like Lavery, but if he was never let free, he may have never found his goal-scoring confidence. In a perfect world, he would’ve generated Everton one of their “undisclosed fees” (TransferMarket has his value around £500,000). His loan didn’t work out and Everton made the logical decision. He was challenged with a loan and it didn’t work out. Ultimately, this is a player who was developed under Everton and is making a nice living in the Championship. I’m not sure Lavery will ever be a Premier League player but has shown he can produce in the Championship and is still 23 years old. While he didn’t generate a profit for the club, showing you can develop talent never hurts. Overall, a logical miss for the club. We still wish Shayne and his former Everton mates at Blackpool, luck!
Now for some useless information: I signed Lavery in for Football Manager. I took over Boston United intending to get them promoted up. Lavery won the golden boot in League One helping guide Boston United to the title. He then helped keep Boston United in the Championship, along with current Everton academy player Mackenzie Hunt. I saw no way of getting them to the Premier League and I jumped ship for Everton. Thank you for humoring me here.
