View: Everton player to surely regret January exit snub if worrying trend continues

Everton decided to keep hold of Harrison Armstrong in the winter, but may now stunt his development.

The 19-year-old spent the first half of the season on loan at Preston and made a seriously positive impression on Paul Heckinbottom’s side.

In his second Championship stint, the midfielder proved that his experience with Derby County had done him plenty of good.

That prompted David Moyes to bring the teenager back to the Hill Dickinson Stadium before deciding to keep hold of him for the rest of the season.

That may not be beneficial to the starlet and may leave Harrison regretting that he didn’t leave Everton when he had the chance.

Harrison Armstrong minutes dropping at Everton

The Finch Farm academy ace was brought back to Merseyside in the winter window to feature regularly in the starting XI.

That was the case to begin with, as Armstrong acted as a direct replacement for Idrissa Gueye while he was away with Senegal at AFCON.

Obviously, the 36-year-old went all the way to win the tournament with his nation, leaving the Toffees without a key player for many weeks.

He has since returned and has come straight back into the side alongside James Garner in the middle of the park.

That has seen Armstrong’s gametime fall off in the past two games, with a combined nine minutes in clashes with Newcastle United and Burnley.

The Englishman won’t have returned with that in mind, and it could leave him to regret the decision for Armstrong not to make a Preston return at the end of January.

Armstrong could have returned to Preston

Although his minutes could soon pick up, the current trend could be a concern for the talented midfielder.

The past two games have seen his opportunities drop, and if it continues, there will be calls back to the January window and the prospect of an exit.

The Englishman was doing well at Preston, and if he was going to be brought back, he needed his game time to be kept at a constant.

Heckingbottom was getting the most out of him and would have continued to do so throughout the rest of the campaign.

Moyes now has questions to answer as he risks ruining the development of a massively bright prospect on Merseyside.

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