There were 13 players between Jack Harrison and the Bournemouth goal when he guided Neto’s punched clearance back over a packed penalty area to open his Everton account in audacious style before the international break. “Everyone keeps asking me: ‘What were you thinking?’” he says. The answer is nothing, instinct kicked in, and not for the first time Harrison took an unorthodox route towards a Premier League goal.
Harrison’s pathway to becoming a Premier League fixture started routinely enough with brief spells at Liverpool’s and Bolton’s academies before he joined Manchester United aged eight. From there, however, it diverged in a bold, life-changing direction when, at 14, he moved to a boarding school in Massachusetts. If the decision to relocate alone was tough for the teenager from Stoke it was harder for the person who presented him with the opportunity: Harrison’s mum, Debbie.
After extensive research she concluded that life experience and education in the United States, along with a “soccer” career through the college system, would be most beneficial for her only child. Harrison flourished at Berkshire School and for their affiliated USL team Black Rock, then for Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He was picked in the MLS SuperDraft by Chicago Fire and traded to New York City, where Harrison’s professional career began with a two-year spell in the MLS and he earned a green card. Mums know best.
“At that point I was really thankful to my mum because there were a lot of people saying: ‘Oh, why didn’t you stay at Man United?’” says Harrison, who joined Everton on loan from Leeds in August. “I’d always had that in the back of my mind because I’d seen the likes of Scott McTominay come up and absolutely smash it with the first team. I did think: ‘What could have happened if I’d stayed at United?’ But as soon as I made it to New York and saw where I was – even a lot of people in England were saying it was so cool that I was in New York – it gave me a different perspective. And playing with the likes of Frank Lampard, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo, being managed by Patrick Vieira, being in an incredible city where I was able to thrive; at that point I thought it doesn’t matter what would have happened, this is my path now and I have to continue looking forward.”
The 26-year-old adds: “If I could narrow it [his career] down to one thing it would be my mum. She likes to say she opened the door and then it was up to me as to whether I went through it or not. I wanted to do everything I could to repay her for that, be it a house or a car or she doesn’t have to work any more. It wasn’t easy for her. I was an only child and she was a single mother at the time as well. I have to give all the credit to my mum and I am doing everything I can to repay her now. Just seeing her face after the goal against Bournemouth was gratifying and makes it all worth it.”
Harrison says it was “an honour” to be a teammate of Lampard, Pirlo and Villa and play for Vieira in New York. The winger struck up a lasting friendship with the former Everton manager and Chelsea legend, who messaged “Of course you’re joining them after I leave!” when Harrison chose Goodison Park over Villa Park. Lampard’s approach was a lesson that Harrison absorbed.
“I always wanted to listen if there was any advice they had for me,” he says. “I remember going to Frank’s room one time, knocking on his door asking for advice on having a certain mentality. I sat in his room and just chatted for half an hour about confidence. It was something I always had, not an issue with, but maybe it’s been challenging to me because I had been brought up to be humble by my mum. Having that ego and confidence on the pitch was something that maybe challenged me a bit. But after talking to Frank, it was something he applied to himself. When he stepped out on to a pitch he would tell himself that he was the best player on the pitch. You have to have that little bit of ego about you to make it to the top level. It doesn’t have to be in a nasty way or anything, but that confidence is really important.”
Marcelo Bielsa, Lampard’s former adversary, was another major influence during their three and a half years together at Leeds, albeit in more demanding ways. Harrison is reluctant to go into detail about what went wrong at Elland Road last season – “There was a lot of stuff behind the scenes that people didn’t see and affected things on the pitch” – but he is open about the regret he feels at not fully embracing the good times under Bielsa.
“It was really tough, probably the toughest time I had during my career,” he says. “Looking back, because everything was so regimented and we were working so hard, the three years flew by. He put a lot of emphasis on analysis. You’d come off a game and might have won but he would be straight back to work saying: ‘We could have done this better, we could have done that better’ and we would have a bunch of meetings about it through all of that week before we trained.
“I don’t think in all of that time I took a step back to really enjoy playing with him. That being said, working with him made me the player I am today. Even on a day off I’ll have in the back of my mind: ‘I need to do something today.’ So I’ll do something and some of the guys here will say: ‘Bielsa has drilled you so much!’ We had a lot of amazing moments with him. I just wish I’d enjoyed it a little bit more in the moment but I’m super grateful now looking back on it, even watching videos of him hugging Kalvin [Phillips]. Everyone talks about him being so hard working but he had a nice side to him as well.”
Harrison delayed hip surgery last season to help Leeds’s ultimately unsuccessful fight against relegation. The knock-on effect was a delayed start to his Everton career. His two starts have culminated in two wins for Sean Dyche’s team, including the first home victory of the campaign against Bournemouth. The tide will really have turned for Dyche and Everton should they deliver again in the Merseyside derby at Liverpool on Saturday.
“I’ve no doubt in my mind I will not be relegated again but it is something that will always stick with me after last year,” Harrison says. “I never want it to happen again and it’s a motivator for me to make sure it doesn’t. Everton has a solid foundation and there’s a lot of quality on the team. I know it is a loan deal but I am going to give it all I have got and see what happens.”