Sean Dyche believes Harrison Armstrong has "every chance" of becoming a top player as he delivered his verdict on Nottingham Forest's shock bid for the Everton starlet.
Armstrong has started every Premier League game and earned rave reviews from current manager David Moyes. His performances have been even more impressive given they have come against proposals to sell him.
Those plans were met with widescale protest from Blues supporters and the outrage ended talks over a move that would have taken the teenager to Forest.
Dyche on Armstrong's potential
Now his former manager at Everton - the man who gave Armstrong his senior debut - has become the latest personality to heap praise on the midfielder.
Dyche first introduced the 19-year-old to the senior team in a pre-season friendly at Salford City in the summer of 2024. Weeks later, in the first away match of the Premier League campaign, the then Blues boss handed the England youth international his senior debut in an away defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. Armstrong was just 17.
Loan spells at Derby County and Preston North End saw the player's reputation grow before he was recalled from Preston North End in January of last season.
Armstrong was on the periphery of Moyes' plans once Everton overcame a selection crisis but, amid injuries for Christian Norgaard, James Garner and Merlin Rohl, has been central to the first team this season.
Fan protest and Forest interest
His popularity, and the hope his progress sparked among supporters, was key to the revolt in the away end at Bournemouth after it emerged that owners The Friedkin Group (TFG) were considering his sale to Forest. The following day, TFG pulled out of those talks.
For Dyche, who started his career at Forest and managed them after leaving the Blues, the reasons for Oliver Glasner's interest in Armstrong were clear.
He said: "He's a good player; I gave him his debut. I think he's got a really strong chance of becoming a real top player.
"It's still early, but I can see why clubs were sniffing, and why Forest made the cheeky approach."
PSR and homegrown talent
Dyche, who stewarded Everton through the points deductions that followed two breaches of the league's Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR), suggested the positive impact the sale of a homegrown player can have on those calculations might have been behind the willingness to listen to Forest.
He told The Overlap Fan Debate, sponsored by Sky Bet: "Maybe, because of PSR and the history of Everton's homegrown talent, they thought it was a bundle of money for PSR and all that. I'm not saying they were never going to get him, by the way, with Forest being the club chasing him, but he's got every chance.
"I'm pleased he stayed there. He's got every chance of being a top player, certainly."
Dyche on his Everton tenure
Dyche also discussed his time in charge of the Blues, which came during one of the most tumultuous periods in the club's history.
He said: "I took it (the club) at probably its lowest depth, so it was difficult, period, and I'm very proud of it, in a funny kind of way. As you know, I've spoken openly about it. It was probably the hardest job I've done and, in a way, the most rewarding, because it was so much heavy lifting, all the time, every week.
"At every week's press conference it was: 'Right, what are they waiting for me to trip up on now?' It felt like that every single week.
"But there were periods where we won games. We beat Liverpool, of course, and that lifts everything. We got beat 6-0 by Chelsea, and all the press couldn't wait to get me in the room, and then we won the next week and it all looked different."
