Jack Rodwell signs pro contract for Everton

Mar 18 2008

EVERTON youngster Jack Rodwell has signed his first professional contract with the club.

The Birkdale- born defender became Everton’s youngest-ever player in Europe with a substitute appearance in the 3-2 UEFA Cup victory over AZ in December and followed it up with his Premier League debut at Sunderland this month.

Rodwell turned 17 on March 10 and Everton have moved swiftly to award him with a two-year contract – the maximum period allowed for a player of his age – just a week after his birthday.

After penning his deal, Rodwell said: “I’m really pleased to get it signed, I have just been waiting for my 17th birthday.

“It was a really good week, making my debut then signing the contract – and there was my birthday as well!

“It’s been good being around the first team recently, they are all top quality players and it’s great to be involved.

“I just want to stay around (the first team) as much as I can and play if I am needed. Then hopefully I’ll have a good pre-season and go from there next season.”

Rodwell will head out to Israel between March 25-30 to represent England in the UEFA Under-17s Elite Round tournament.

Meanwhile, Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta admitted that Andrew Johnson’s team- mates are desperate to see the striker back in a royal blue jersey as the pressure to secure fourth place intensifies.

England international Johnson, whose 10th goal of the campaign secured Everton a 1-0 victory in their previous Premier League match at Sunderland a week earlier, hobbled out of Sunday’s match at Fulham after just 13 minutes with a groin injury.

The former Crystal Palace man’s injury leaves Everton with just one fit striker in Ayegbeni Yakubu and with four defenders making up their outfield contingent on the bench at Craven Cottage, manager David Moyes was forced to change from a 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 formation.

Everton went on to lose the game 1-0 through a goal from former Goodison Park striker Brian McBride – their first Premier League defeat of the year – and the loss leaves them trailing neighbours Liverpool by three points.

The game finished with Joleon Lescott operating as a makeshift centre-forward in a far cry from earlier in the season when Moyes enjoyed an embarrassment of riches up front with Yakubu, Johnson, James Vaughan, Victor Anichebe and the now departed James McFadden, plus goalscoring midfielder Tim Cahill, all available.

Everton are waiting on the results of a scan Johnson underwent yesterday afternoon and Arteta admits the sooner the £8.6million striker is available for action again, the better. He said: “We lost AJ (on Sunday) and he is very important for us to have him in the team but we need to get back now and get the next three points.

“We are very short at the moment (with injuries to James Vaughan, Tim Cahill and Victor Anichebe) and the lads were tired on Sunday. But we can’t really say we didn’t put the effort in because we did everything we could but they had a chance, they scored and we didn’t.”

Arteta acknowledges the pressure is on to finish fourth. Everton’s previous Premier League defeat came in the 4-1 reversal against Arsenal at Goodison Park on December 29 and since then Moyes’s side had won seven and drawn two of their games.

With an inferior goal difference to Liverpool, Everton know that they cannot overhaul their neighbours until after the derby game on March 30 at the earliest and even then they would have to beat both West Ham and Liverpool and hope that Benitez’s side also slip up at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Arteta is determined to get back on track as soon as possible – starting against West Ham on Saturday.

He added: “It was a tough game (against Fulham). We wanted to win to make the gap bigger between us and the other teams that are after us like Portsmouth and Villa. We knew how hard it was going to be and to be honest it was a very equal game. We made a mistake, they made a goal and it’s very disappointing.

“We need to go about it game by game. We have a difficult game at West Ham and we have eight finals left now and we have pressure because we want to get as high as possible. But we need to get back now.”

He added: “We’ve been on an unbelievable run, we’ve been playing fantastically well but we couldn’t do it, so that’s it.

“We lost AJ and is very important for us to have him on the team but we need to get back now and get the next three points.

“We are very short at the moment and the lads were tired. But we can’t really say we didn’t put the effort in because we did everything we could but they had a chance, they scored and we haven’t.”