High praise for Everton’s Dowell from Forest boss

Kieran Dowell spent the season on loan with Championship side Nottingham Forest who had an up-and-down season before finishing up 17th out of 24 sides. The 20-year-old spent most of his time with the Reds in an attacking midfield role featuring in 43 games scoring ten times with five assists.

After a hot start to the season, he faded away for most of the latter part of the season, and seemed to not take well the coaching change at Forest from Mark Warburton to Aitor Karanka. Eight of his goals came for Warburton, with one for interim manager Gary Brazil and the last for the Spaniard Karanka who took over with the club in free-fall in January.

However, the manager did reserve some praise for the youngster, insisting he had a strong future ahead of him - (via the Nottingham Post)

“The Championship is tough and he did start really well. I do not know what happened.

“I don’t know if he started to feel pressure from other players who had signed, but he lost his confidence. He looked a different player.

“But I am still sure that he will be an amazing player in the future, because he has everything. He is powerful, he has technique, he is a good kid.”

Karanka was reluctant to say if Forest would make another approach to take the player on loan again next season.

“He did really well. He needs to take another step forward now.

“I hope he can take another step forward next season, because he has a bright future.”

Dowell is in the England Under-21 squad to the Toulon Tournament that starts today, and his future in the Everton senior squad for the coming season remains unclear with no manager appointed as yet.