Everton News

Official: Sunderland sign Everton youngster

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Michael Collins has left Everton and joined Sunderland on a free transfer this summer. The Black Cats confirmed that the 18-year-old will go into the u23 side next season and will look to earn himself a spot in the senior team in the future.

Collins failed to make a first-team appearance for Everton, instead featuring for the u18s (47 appearances) and u23s (two appearances). The centre-back, who can also play on the left, made the senior matchday squad on one occasion – against Apollon Limassol in the Europa League on December 7.

With competition from Phil Jagielka, Yerry Mina, Michael Keane and Kurt Zouma last season, it was always going to be difficult for Collins to get any minutes under Marco Silva. The teenager was behind Lucas Digne, Leighton Baines and Brendan Galloway in the left-back pecking order too.

The fact he’s only going into Sunderland’s reserve team highlights that he wasn’t at the level required to play for Everton. Collins made a couple of appearances for the u23s but clearly didn’t do enough for the Toffees to warrant keeping him.

His challenge is now to develop into a first-team player at the Stadium of Light and prove Everton wrong.

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.