A Star Is Born

Okay he might not look old enough to be able to earn money doing a paper round but Freddie Sears certainly looked good enough when making his debut against Blackburn yesterday. Following in the (equally tiny) footsteps of Tony Cottee and Jermain Defoe, Sears has made his way up through the club ranks from the age of eleven and finally made a goal scoring debut at Upton Park, his goal enough to earn us a 2-1 home win.

He is quite a goal machine at the level below the first team, he's already scored 25 in 24 games this season and has made his way into the England Under 19's team. By coincidence there was a small article in the papers this week about him signing a new contract and Alan Curbishley was quoted as saying that he had made big strides during the last twelve months and he would get a chance before the end of the season. Well, he got the chance and he took it, and not a moment too soon either as the season that had begun so well was beginning to fade quicker than last summers tan.

If he goes on to have half the career that TC and Defoe had he will be some player. He's only just 18 so we will at least have half a dozen good years out of him before he goes off to join Man.United.

On the subject of Tony Cottee, still for me the best finisher I have ever seen, it was good to hear him mentioned on the radio this week during a discussion on the best ever finishers in English football. TC scored on his debut back on New Years Day 1983 against Spuds. By the time Everton broke the British transfer record in 1988 by paying West Ham £2.2 million for his services, TC had scored 98 goals in 212 games, some record. I think that but for the FA reaction to him being sent off in an England Under-21 game he would have gone to both Mexico in 1986 and Italia 90, certainly when you compare him to Kerry Dixon (Mexico) and Steve Bull (Italy) you have to say that seven caps was a poor return for somebody with such talent.