Patterson gets Everton squad number of much-loved player

Everton have announced the signing of defender Nathan Patterson today to make the right back their second signing of the January transfer window. The player has joined from Glasgow Rangers on a five-and-a-half year contract and will be wearing the #3 shirt for the Toffees. The Scotland international has worn #16 and #63 at Rangers before.

Patterson will serve as the understudy for club captain and veteran Seamus Coleman, a role that the 20-year-old is familiar with having done the same for James Tavernier at Rangers too. The youngster is considered to have a lot of potential and will be looking to make the nest step in his career with the Toffees. The transfer fee is rumoured to be about £12 million, rising to around £16m with performance and appearance based add-ons.

The Toffees are expected to be busy during the January transfer window with Benitez indicating on Friday that he thought “2-3 signings” could happen. With Vitaliy Mykolenko and now Patterson in, it’ll be interesting to see what position(s) Rafa Benitez targets next.

The #3 shirt at Everton has had a long history especially before the Premier League era when mostly numbers between 1-11 were used. Veteran Leighton Baines was the last to use the number in the Everton squad and it has been idle since his retirement.

On his reasoning why he chose the customarily left-back’s number, Patterson explained -

“Obviously the number three is for a left back, I took the lowest number I could. It’s my mum’s birthday as well so there’s some significance there.”

Before him, it was also worn by Gary Naysmith (05/06), Alessandro Pistone (03/04 - 04/05), Alessandro Pistone (00/01 - 01/02), Michael Ball (98/99 - 99/00), Andy Hinchcliffe (93/94 - 97/98), Kenny Sansom (92/93), David Unsworth (91/92), Gary Ablett (91/92), Raymond Atteveld (91/92), Alan Harper (91/92), Andy Hinchcliffe (90/91 - 91/92), Iain Jenkins (90/91 - 91/92), John Ebbrell (90/91 - 91/92), Martin Keown (90/91), Kevin Ratcliffe (90/91 - 91/92), Neil McDonald (89/90), Ian Wilson (88/89), Paul Power (86/87 - 87/88), Neil Pointon (85/86 - 89/90), Alan Harper (85/86), Pat van den Hauwe (84/85 - 88/89), Alan Harper (83/84), Darren Hughes (83/84), Mike Walsh (81/82 - 82/83), Kevin Ratcliffe (80/81 - 83/84), John Bailey (79/80 - 85/86), Pat Heard (78/79), Roger Kenyon (78/79), Mark Higgins (78/79), Dave Jones (78/79), Terry Darracott (78/79), Mike Pejic (76/77 - 78/79), Mark Higgins (76/77), Dave Jones (75/76 - 76/77), Dave Clements (75/76), Terry Darracott (75/76), John Hurst (73/74), Steve Seargeant (73/74 - 76/77), Peter Scott (72/73), Archie Styles (72/73 - 73/74), Tommy Wright (72/73), Henry Newton (72/73 - 73/74), Terry Darracott (72/73 - 73/74), John McLaughlin (71/72 - 73/74), Henry Newton (70/71), Keith Newton (69/70 - 71/72), Colin Harvey (67/68), Terry Darracott (67/68), Frank D’Arcy (67/68), Frank D’Arcy (65/66), Ray Wilson (64/65 - 68/69), Brian Harris (63/64 - 64/65), Sandy Brown (63/64 - 70/71), Mick Meagan (62/63 - 63/64), George Thomson (62/63), Colin Green (61/62), Jimmy Tansey (57/58).