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Explained: Who is the other 16 y/o striker Everton are interested in?

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Everton have recently been linked with Anthony Weston, but they’ve also shown interest in another 16-year-old – Joe Hugill. The Toffees sent scouts to watch the Sunderland striker in action earlier this month and may have to battle Tottenham Hotspur for his signature.

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Hugill has already represented Sunderland’s U23s on multiple occasions and has been tipped for a bright future by the Black Cats’ reserve-team coach Elliot Dickman. He told the Sunderland Echo in January: “Joe is still young and he still has a lot to learn. But he has done really well in our under-16s and he has done really well in our under-18s too.

“So for us, the natural progression was to see him with us for tonight’s game. He is showing good progress and I think he will be back with the under-18s for now, but I am sure he will be with us again. If he keeps doing what he is doing, he will definitely get a taste of under-23s football again.”

In November 2019, Hugill bagged a hat-trick in the U18s’ 5-2 Youth Cup win over Shrewsbury Town. In February 2020, he notched a brace in the u23s’ 4-2 defeat to West Ham United. The striker has stayed in the reserve-team this month too, starting in Sunderland’s 3-0 defeat to Fulham, so he’s very advanced in his development.

With Mason Holgate (aged 23), Tom Davies (21), Alex Iwobi (23), Anthony Gordon (19), Richarlison (22), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (23) and Moise Kean (20) being handed 11,223 minutes of football in all competitions this season, there’s a clear pathway for youngsters to reach the Everton first-team.

Tottenham’s interest could be a stumbling block, however. Spurs have been leading the race for Hugill’s signature all season and have had Ian Broomfield monitoring his progress recently. Manchester United and Liverpool have also been linked with the 16-year-old, so Everton may have their work cut out luring Hugill to Goodison Park.

Read Crippy Cooke’s previous article

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.