Use your head and sign up now for the Everton FC newsletter Sign up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Jordan Pickford has to be considered a bit of a throwback.

His manager says he's mature beyond his years - “23 going on 30” - and he speaks with the experience of someone much older.

But then Everton's No.1 has already played for eight different clubs, under a host of different managers in a variety of leagues and at a host of levels.

After coming through the ranks at Sunderland, the goalkeeper was chucked in at the deep end by being sent out on loan into the no-holds barred world of non-league football.

Pickford loved it.

“You've got to be ready for the challenge. It was brilliant, I thrived off it,” the Everton keeper said.

“There was one game, in the Conference, and we played Wrexham away, the first corner came in and there were six of their players on top of me so I'm thinking: 'What do I do here?'

(Image: Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

“I couldn't get the first one because it was a good delivery but when when the second one came I wasn't shy at coming to get the ball because it's about decision making as a goalkeeper, I've come and collected the ball.

“That was an enjoyment really because knowing they'd come to try and bully me and I didn't let that affect me.”

Pickford's assignment on Tuesday afternoon was to visit The People's Hub with Cuco Martina to visit participants from Everton's Safe Hands and Breathing Space programmes – two of over 40 they provide - to find out more about the work Everton in the Community does with young offenders and children at risk of entering the care system.

The goalkeeper took part in a short circuit session before offering nutritional advice to the participants and answering question.

Pickford's career has been fed on a diet of loan moves the first of which was at then crisis club Darlington in 2012 - “I went and helped out” he says modestly – before he stepped up to the Conference with Alfreton Town.

“We wanted to go a bit higher, we wanted to go to League Two but there were no gaps, so we went to Alfreton and I played 17 games there and that was another quality experience,” he recalls with fondness.

“I then went to Burton and that was a big challenge because I moved away from home for a little bit, I was still a kid so that was a big change.

“Gary Rowett took me there and is showing how a good a manager he is with the job he's doing at Derby. I saw him a couple of seasons later in the off season, in Dubai, and was talking to him.

“He said: “Do you want to come back and help us?”. But I needed to start playing higher.”

(Image: Photo credit should read David Davies/PA Wire.)

Pickford was, by this stage, on a clear path to the highest level but his grounding much further down the pyramid is what has helped make him.

It's as if the young goalkeeper sees it as a rite of passage for players in his position.

“You get a lot of stick, you still get stick today,” he says with a wry smile.

“At non-league grounds the fans are close and you can hear them because there are not that many fans there. You can hear that one person shouting abuse at you but it's all part of growing up and being a keeper.”

“As a goalkeeper, your mindset has got to be strong and you can't let anything effect on the pitch or off the pitch,” he added.

“That is one strong side of me, mentally I don't let anything affect me. It's the same size goal, the same size pitch each week. It's great playing in these big stadiums and growing up you want to play at Old Trafford and you thrive off that but I don't get nervous.

“I just want to become the best I can be and, hopefully, help the team win the game on the Saturday.”

(Image: Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)

Pickford is unflappable and not even criticism from the greatest goalkeeper in Everton's history can see him lose his cool.

Not even close.

In an interview with the Times last weekend, Neville Southall said: “He kicks the miles and really hard all the time. Why? You have to vary your service. Play it into feet sometimes.”

Pickford was happy to put the record straight.

“I've got a few tools in my locker,” he said.

“I can play short if I want to play short, I can kick as far as I can kick it.

“With Arsenal we knew what they were like and what we were trying to get the gains in their half as deep as we could because we knew what a threat they were.

(Image: Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)

“But if the gaffer comes to me and says we're going to play out and he wants me to hit areas like Ederson is doing at Man City then I'm capable of doing that.

“With his manager, Pep, that is the way they like to play and we have our own style. We don't take risks. If we can play out, we play out but we're not going to put ourselves under too much pressure and make mistakes that are not needed.

“Ederson is doing it with a lot of freedom but every manager is different and plays differently. But a lot of goalkeepers can do it now, it's part of the job.”

Pickford's CV already reads like a journeyman's but this is a young goalkeeper with his eyes on playing on the greatest stage of all – in Russia this summer.