Isaac Price has admitted that he could have stayed at Everton if Frank Lampard wasn’t sacked.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Price praised the former Toffees manager who gave him his senior debut.
Born in Yorkshire, the midfielder joined Everton’s academy at seven years old and rose up through the youth ranks before he was handed an opportunity with the first team last year.
A month after Lampard was appointed Everton boss, Price made his professional debut in an FA Cup clash with Boreham Wood. He was then handed his league debut in a 5-1 defeat to Arsenal on the final day of the 2021/22 season.
Price made his final appearance for Everton against Brighton in January 2023, before Lampard was sacked shortly after. The 20-year-old then chose to leave Goodison Park and start a new chapter with Standard Liege.
While Price has enjoyed a positive start to life in Belgium, he has claimed he could have been tempted to stay on Merseyside if Lampard was still there.
“He (Lampard) was massive for me,” Price told the Belfast Telegraph.
“I learnt so much while he was there. I had my debut at the end of one of the seasons at Arsenal and ever since then I felt like he really taught me a lot of stuff.
“He was massive. He gave me my debut, he put a bit of trust in me. I was training with them regularly so I was learning a lot of things. Had it gone differently at Everton and he’d had the players he needed to get results maybe I’d still be there.
“He had a very good coaching staff – Ashley Cole, Joe Edwards, Paul Clement – who had all been around it for so long and worked with top players. When you talk to him you pick up bits of information. If you just watch Lampard on YouTube for 10 minutes you realise how good a player he was so you learn so much about the game. I talked to him regularly and he gave me some information I still use now.”
One of Frank Lampard’s few positives
Frank Lampard did well to keep Everton up but, overall, was a pretty poor manager during his time at Goodison Park. He didn’t exactly lived up to expectations at Chelsea either.
While the former midfielder definitely isn’t capable of taking charge of another Premier League club, one thing we can all agree on that he is very good at spotting talent and developing young players.
Lampard helped kickstart the careers of Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount at Derby County, as well as giving Anthony Gordon his big break.
We will never know whether Isaac Price would have been a success on Merseyside, though it probably wouldn’t have been worth the risk of keeping hold of Lampard.
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