Luke Garbutt goes to Fulham on season-long loan

Luke Garbutt has been in the news a lot this summer. Towards the end of the 2014-15 season speculation was rife that he would be leaving Everton - Leighton Baines had just gone under the knife for a persistent ankle issue, second-choice Bryan Oviedo was also out recuperating from surgery, and instead of Garbutt playing the last two games of the season, new signing Brendan Galloway got both starts and played quite decently on debut.

Then newly-promoted Bournemouth said they would be interested in signing the player. Not just once, but again a month or so later too, but this time on loan. In between all that, Everton finally got Garbutt to put pen to the paper and sign a five-year contract. And then Bournemouth decided to sign Ipswich left back Tyrone Mings for a club-record £8m, so the chance of Garbutt getting some Premier League experience this season took a big knock.

Now Everton have announced that Fulham have taken the youngster on a season-long loan in the Championship. The 22-year-old has been capped multiple times for different England youth teams, and while a spell in the Premier League would be invaluable, the rough-and-tumble of the Championship might work out just as well for the player as the Cottagers attempt to gain Premier League promotion.

Roberto Martinez has predicted that Garbutt will quickly become an integral part of Kit Symons’ side, before returning to Goodison Park.

"We all very excited about this agreement," Martinez told evertontv. "Luke Garbutt had a real impressive impact last season with his 10 games with the first team at the highest level - both in the Euroupa League and in the Premier League - and now he is in the phase of his career where he needs to play minutes.

"We are blessed with the quality we have at left-back and Luke Garbutt is in a key moment of his development.

"Luke is ready. He will be a match-winner, he will be an important player in this project and we are looking forward to seeing him benefit from the experience and get him back to Finch Farm in 10 months time stronger, wiser and ready for a massive impact on our football club."

He added: "With Fulham as a team, we have gone into detail over the environment he is going to work in, the football club he is going to work with and the footballing project he is going to be joining. In every aspect, it is very impressive.

"Fulham are under pressure to win games, they have to get back into the Premier League, they want to get back into the Premier League they have got a real brave and attractive style of football and the manager knows the football club inside out.

"Their desire to have Luke in their squad was the big turning point in the whole agreement."