Luke Garbutt joined Blackpool after ending an 11-year stay at Everton. The 27-year-old has signed a one-year deal with the Tangerines after being a free agent for nearly three months and will compete with James Husband, Jordan Thorniley and Demetri Mitchell for a starting place this season.
What went wrong at Everton?
Garbutt joined us from Leeds United in 2009 and went on to make only 12 appearances in all competitions with one assist. The left-back’s last outing for Everton came all the way back in 2015, so he’s been on the periphery at Goodison Park for some time.
Garbutt was unable to oust Leighton Baines and Lucas Digne out of the side and opted for loan moves away to get playing time. He failed to do enough to earn himself a permanent deal, however, and ended up being stuck at Everton without much hope of a reprieve.
The 27-year-old stayed at Goodison five years after making his last appearance and has seen his stock fall considerably in that time. Blackpool are a League One club who finished mid-table last season, so they’re a far-cry to what Everton are. It remains to be seen whether he’ll work his way up the Football League again.
Blackpool are the ninth club of Garbutt’s career
Despite spending 11 years at Everton, Garbutt has led a nomadic career due to his multiple loan moves.
He scored two goals and made eight assists in 37 appearances for Cheltenham Town (September 29, 2011 – May 31, 2012), scored three goals and made seven assists in 20 appearances for Colchester United (September 13, 2013 – January 28, 2014), scored one goal and made two assists in 26 games for Fulham (July 25, 2015 – May 31, 2016), made eight appearances for Wigan Athletic (August 16, 2016 – January 2, 2017), scored four goals and made eight assists in 36 games for Oxford United (July 2, 2018 – May 31, 2019) and scored six goals with three assists in 30 games for Ipswich Town (July 12, 2019 – May 31, 2020).
Garbutt began his career at Leeds and is now at Blackpool, so that’s nine clubs he’s featured for. His deal at Bloomfield Road is up in 2021, so he needs to impress if he wants a long-term stay.