Everton sign young goalkeeper to new long term contract

Everton’s locally-born 20 year old goalkeeper Harry Tyrer has committed himself to a long term contract through to June 2025.

I’m certain that all the paperwork was ready waiting for a signature and all details agreed between the club and the player but if there was even a tiny question mark over securing his signature it must surely have evaporated in the dying minutes of the Under 23 game against Crystal Palace on the night before he signed.

A ball was swung dangerously from the Eagles’ right wing into the middle of the Everton goalmouth and in that moment we knew we had a top prospect on our hands. Tyrer confidently moved off his line and punched double-fisted to way outside of his penalty area and in the process legitimately wiped out a Palace forward and Blues defender Eli Campbell. It was a show of command Under-23 regular viewers will have seen many times, and one that we don’t see the senior team incumbent Jordan Pickford doing too often.

It’s not all about bravery or confidence with Everton’s latest contract renewal. Tyrer is 6’4” and has now developed physically to enable him to command his area comfortably as well as display his agility, movement, judgement and handling. All of those characteristics will further develop over time as he gets more experience.

Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images

It often follows that when we see contract renewals such as this the next step is for a player to be sent out on loan to experience the “real” world outside of the Under 23s. It can be a daunting step for a young goalkeeper especially as they will undoubtedly have a bigger crowd immediately behind them either cheering them on or praying for a mistake. It’s pressure they will not have encountered. Just ask Joao Virginia who endured a miserable time at Reading in the Championship two years ago when a few high profile errors undoubtedly rocked his self-belief before he was rescued early from his season long loan.

If Tyrer is not going to get immediate first team opportunities because of Jordan Pickford and the veterans on the squad Asmir Begovic and Andy Lonergan, then a move to a League One or Championship club would be really good as long as he gets some quality game time.

My own opinion, and I have seen a lot of Tyrer, is that he is the most exciting locally-born goalkeeping prospect since Andy Rankin who served the club during the mid 1960s to the early 1970s! Rankin famously became the first English goalkeeper to save a penalty in a European Cup shoot out. It was November 1970 and I was there as we beat Borussia Monchengladbach thanks to his save.

Like Tyrer he had come through the Everton youth set up. It’s been that long a wait to have a true “Scouse” goalkeeper come right through the ranks to the first team! We’ve had young “imported” goalkeepers (most notably the great Neville Southall) who have gone on to grace the Goodison nets but “one of our own” would be something special!

Tyrer has grown up in Crosby and Rankin, before him, 3 miles away in Bootle. Those were my two home-towns on Merseyside. Maybe there’s something in the North Mersey air? We (and Harry) can dare to dream that he can one day soon actually take the next step up into Everton’s first team. Good luck Harry!