'My client should have had a chance at Everton - Carlo Ancelotti said this kid is going nowhere'

Everton face Ipswich Town in the Premier League and a Blues academy graduate will be hoping to feature in the penultimate fixture that takes place at Goodison Park.

It may be the final time that several supporters take in the Grand Old Lady. Everton play their penultimate match at Goodison Park and those lucky enough to have a ticket will look to savour the experience. Some will know they'll not be back watching the Toffees. They'll want to see a victory delivered against Ipswich Town on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

And there may be a member of the Tractor Boys' squad also desperate to be involved. Ipswich have little more than pride to play for, having been relegated from the Premier League. Still, it's a chance for many of their squad to play at Goodison for the first time in their respective careers. It might also be an opportunity for Nathan Broadhead to say goodbye.

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The forward is one of several Everton academy products who have not made it at L4 but are plying their trade at an impressive level. Players such as Lewis Gibson Tom Cannon, Ellis Simms and Lewis Dobbin are doing similar.

Broadhead joined Everton from Wrexham as a 10-year-old and made his way through the age groups. He was handed his debut in a 3-0 Europa League win at Cypriot side Apollon Limassol in December 2017 when he was aged 19.

A loan spell at League One side Burton Albion in 2019-20 followed but that was curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the following campaign, he was kept at Everton under Carlo Ancelotti and was given a Premier League bow during a 0-0 draw at Brighton in April 2021.

That was to be his final competitive game for the Blues, though. Broadhead was loaned to Sunderland the following campaign where he thrived. He fired 13 goals in 27 appearances to help the Black Cats finally remove their League One shackles. But that was still not enough for Broadhead to break into Everton's plan. He completed another temporary move to Wigan Athletic for the first half of 2022-23. Then Ipswich came knocking. The Tractor Boys were in the race for third-tier promotion and splashed out a £1.5 million fee.

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At the time, it made sense. Everton were struggling financially and a sale of academy product went down as pure profit when it came to Premier League profit and sustainability rules. Broadhead, meanwhile, got the chance to settle at a regular home. And he would be part of Ipswich's scintillating rise from the third tier to the Promised Land in successive campaigns. In the Championship, as Ipswich beat Leeds United and Southampton to automatic promotion, the Wales international plundered 13 goals and five assists.

While the Tractor Boys had a fairly sizeable squad overhaul as they prepared for life back in the Premier League for the first time in 23 years. They splashed out more than £100 million for the likes of Liam Delap, Jack Clarke, Sammie Szmodics and Omari Hutchinson, although Broadhead was kept at Portman Road.

Injuries ruled the 27-year-old out of the first few months of the campaign, although he has featured fairly regularly since. Broadhead has made 19 outings, scoring once and creating another.

However, he has missed the past two games because of injury. Ipswich have a plethora of players who could be absent for the Everton clash, with Broadhead one. How he would relish to feature at Goodison, though, and fulfil a lifelong dream.

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“I’m from Bangor - my grandad used to play for Bangor City and he’s a bit of a club legend there,” said Broadhead to Burton’s website during his previous loan spell. I used to play for Wrexham when I was about 10, then I got scouted from there. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do since I was young - play at Goodison Park - and I have played there in the Sportpesa Cup, and scored! I just want to play in front of fans at the highest level possible.”

Perhaps things could well have been different for Broadhead had a change of Everton manager not occurred in the summer of 2021. Ancelotti made the decision to leave the Blues and return to Real Madrid. Speaking to LiverpoolWorld at the launch of ChopValue UK last summer, his agent, Neil Sang, said: “We had a laugh. Some of the Ipswich guys posted on their socials 'back-to-back'. Broady posted 'back-to-back-to-back' because the season before, he had a promotion with Sunderland.

“In football, we all make decisions that work for us or they don't and you learn from them. Everton, I think, have lost a really good player there and a really good kid. But he's gone to Ipswich and found a home like you'll never believe. They get him, they love him, they play him, they work and develop him and now to see him in the Prem is madness - and also deserved.

“When Nathan signed, I remember asking Kieran McKenna: 'Why do you think you'll get out of League One?' He was already in the Championship (at Wigan). It was brave from the wider world looking in but when you listened to what Kieran McKenna said and what Ipswich's hierarchy said about their plan and vision, it was dead easy.

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“On the outside, people might have thought: 'Why would you drop down?' Now we go, this is why. We talk extensively about pros and cons and ultimately it's about the manager. Kieran said to me: 'We'll get up from League One and go again, I watch Championship football every week, I know the best teams, the best players and how we can work against that and beat it'. He had this unbelievable plan and fair play, he's done it.

“I sort of look it at a bit of regret for him because I felt he should have had a chance at Everton. I used to go and meet them and say: 'Come on, give him his chance' but it wasn't meant to be. What I always found amusing was that the best manager Everton have had in a long time, Carlo Ancelotti, he was the one who gave him his Premier League debut. Now it was only for a blink of an eye, a couple of minutes at Brighton but he got on the pitch, was around the squad and trained every day. Ancelotti said this kid is going nowhere but then Ancelotti left and the new team came in, which was a big change and he's surplus [to requirements].

“He was a late bloomer and I always said if you give him a chance and he's no good, you know and we know. But if you don't, you'll never know and we'll see down the line if he could have done it. It is what it is. I believe in fate and look where he is now. Had he stayed, he might not be in the Premier League now. He might have had a struggle at Everton and been lower than this. You make your choices, take your chance and boy has he made a good one.”

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