EVERTON STAR MAKES A SHOCKING EMOTIONAL STANCE ON DECISION TO LEAVE EVERTON IN THE SUMMER

Exclusive: Everton academy graduate Lewis Warrington speaks to the ECHO about his rise through the ranks of the club he loves, winning over Frank Lampard AND Sean Dyche, and the difficult decision to leave in the summer

It was a feel-good moment that ended a season of torment on a high. With the sun shining down on Goodison Park, and Everton on course for a fifth consecutive home win, a wave of applause greeted Lewis Warrington onto the pitch.

His Premier League debut had been coming for a long time. Even before his first senior outing in the Carabao Cup more than 18 months earlier, excitement was growing around the boyhood Blue who had been in the club’s ranks since the age of six.

Yet while a fanbase savoured one of their own enjoying their big moment, for Lewis it was all about business. Recalling when he got the nod late in the home win over Sheffield United last May, he smiled and said: “The game was going on and I was like, ‘I hope he brings me on here’, because it was perfect. We were winning and I was just staying ready and then, when I got on, I just went numb.

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“I thought, you know what, just get on the ball and make your first pass. And that was it really. I got on the ball a couple of times and didn’t give it away.”

It was a poignant experience for the then 21-year-old, though one he struggles to remember given the emotions at play. He can recall looking for his dad in the Main Stand, and the comfort he felt seeing senior pros James Tarkowski and Idrissa Gueye around him on the pitch. Much of the rest is a blur.

He told the ECHO: “It is hard to put into words. I’ve been a Blue all my life and you work towards moments like those but when I was growing up I didn’t really think about it. Then at the back of last year I thought I might make my debut because I was training well and the gaffer took a liking to me.

“When I came on the pitch it almost felt… numb. I can’t really remember it very well but I got off and I was overwhelmed. I was just shattered in the night. My mates were like, ‘go out and celebrate and all that’. I just needed my bed! I think I was in bed by 9pm that night. I had just made my Premier League debut but I was just worn out.”

Lewis had sensed his opportunity was coming – he had a good relationship with then boss Sean Dyche and had been part of the first team squad since recovering from the injury that cut short his loan spell in the Championship with Plymouth Argyle. When Chris Wilder’s side visited Goodison though, time was running out. It was the penultimate match of the season and only a trip to Arsenal would follow the narrow victory over the relegated Blades.

The midfielder had been on the bench for five of the six previous matches – though was grateful his league debut did not come a few weeks earlier in the 6-0 hammering at Chelsea.

He reflects: “I was training well and I think the gaffer liked me. All the staff were like: ‘Lew, just be ready.’ I remember we went to Chelsea and I was on the bench when we got battered. I don’t like to bring it up but I thought I might have got on there. I’m probably glad I didn’t. I’m happy I got on when I did. It was in the sunshine, Goodison, we were winning, you can’t ask for more, really, can you?

“And everyone was there – not just my family but all my best mates and people I grew up going to the match with, as well.”

It was the crowning moment of a childhood spent with Everton but there were plenty of other highlights. Frank Lampard gave Lewis, then 19, his senior debut in a cup win at Fleetwood Town. The former England and Chelsea star had taken a shine to the teenager and had included him in the squad that travelled to the USA for the tour in the build up to the 2022/23 season – giving him minutes against both Arsenal and Minnesota United.

After his debut against Fleetwood he moved on loan to the Cod Army and became a vital cog in the midfield of the League One side.

He still remembers going to see Lampard on transfer deadline day to speak to him about the offer. “It was tough”, he says, speaking to the ECHO after finishing training at his current club Salford City. “It was the last day of the window and Frank was like: ‘Lew, we really like you, you can stick around, you’d be a squad player and that.’ But I went to his office on deadline day and was like: ‘Frank, we’ve got Fleetwood, I’ve played League Two, I want to take a step up, what are your thoughts on it?’”

Lampard told him that there was Championship interest if he wanted to look higher up the Football League. For Lewis, Fleetwood felt like the natural progression from his six month spell at Tranmere Rovers in League Two at the end of the previous season. It was also an opportunity to learn under another midfield giant, Celtic legend Scott Brown.

The maturity of his decision-making has defined his career to date. While several of his academy teammates remained in the club’s ranks, he sought to leave his comfort zone and try to play as much football as possible.

When he returned from Tranmere he said he felt capable of handling himself around the seasoned figures who surrounded him on the USA trip. And when he returned from Fleetwood to the Everton of Dyche, he again felt his experience gave him a foothold in the dressing room.

Lewis said: “I’d always been told to just go out and play as much as you can and try and get experience. I came back from Fleetwood when I was 20 and I think I had played about 65 senior games by then. It felt like Dyche respected me straight away because he had been there.”

Lewis sought to make his next step up at the start of last season when he was offered the chance for a stint in the Championship with Plymouth Argyle under another former Everton academy starlet, Steven Schumacher. That move did not go how he hoped and, on reflection, Lewis believes he may have jumped a step too quickly considering the gulf between mid-table in League One and the second tier: “It was a good learning curve. And I really enjoyed it. I have enormous respect for all the staff and players and fans at Plymouth. But it was tough, because you just want to go and play football, don’t you?”

The injury that ended that loan spell prematurely had its positive knock-on effects – the most notable being that afternoon in the early summer sunshine against Sheffield United. He did not let the highlight of a blossoming career let him get carried away, however, and the maturity that is such a strong characteristic of his once again shone in the summer, when he was offered the chance to stay at Everton.

Looking back on an emotional call, he said: “I did want to leave in the summer, but it was tough because I’d been here my whole life. It was a bit emotional, saying bye to everyone. But I felt like it was a step I needed to take. I just felt like a fresh challenge, because it was alright being at Everton and training with them every day, but I always knew I wasn’t going to become a Premier League player because they’ve got lads there who’ve played 400 Premier League games. I needed to get out of my comfort zone a little bit because Everton was very much like a comfort zone for me.”

In mid-July, Lewis signed for League One side Leyton Orient, but after a challenging start to life in the capital – during which he thinks he placed too much pressure on himself to become an immediate hit – he secured a loan move back north, to Salford. He is regaining his confidence at a club that has helped him to settle quickly.

He said: “I’m at home now, which helps. And all the lads are boss here. I like it here. It’s got a homely feel to it, the club, it’s very similar to Fleetwood. I’m enjoying it.”

Lewis played the full 90 minutes at the weekend as Salford revived their play-off hopes with a win at Grimsby Town, one of the clubs they are hunting down in the fight for a top-seven finish. Right now, his hopes are firmly set on repaying the club’s faith by helping them mount a late promotion push.

Do not think he has forgotten about Everton though – the boyhood supporter who graced the hallowed turf of Goodison for his Premier League debut just under 12 months ago already has his season ticket for the first campaign in the club’s stunning new waterfront home.