Antony Evans has become Huddersfield Town’s fourth summer signing after his arrival from Bristol Rovers for an undisclosed fee (believed to be £450,000). He joins Lasse Sorensen, Mickel Miller and Herbie Kane as the club continue to build a squad that they hope will give Michael Duff the tools he needs to mount a promotion tilt in the coming campaign. And, it has to be said, the quality of the signings and fact they’re coming in relatively early in preseason, bodes well for Town.
Evans is Bristol Rovers reigning Player of the Season and is highly rated by their fans. So it seems like we’ve got a very promising player on our hands. In this article I’ll dig a little bit deeper on our newboy.
What is Antony Evans’ history?
Evans came up through Everton’s youth ranks, playing in the Under 21s at just 16, before signing his first professional contract with them. His first taste of men’s football came on loan at Morecambe in January 2017, when he played 13 games in League Two in the final half of the season. Then in January 2019 he spent the second half of the season on loan at Blackpool in League One where he played 12 games (and at least one Blackpool fan thought he was a bit rubbish back then, according to a post I saw on Twitter).
He then made the slightly unusual move from Everton’s academy to SC Paderborn in January 2020. He wasn’t getting chances to play games at Everton so it seems he took the chance to go and play regular football for a relegation-threatened Bundesliga team instead. It didn’t work out for him, as he only played 7 games for them, with them shipping him out on loan to Crewe in League One in January 2021 before terminating his contract a year early in the summer of 2021.
His career picked up when he joined Bristol Rovers on a free transfer in August 2021, scoring ten and assisting 12 goals in 35 games in their promotion season out of League Two. The next season he scored five and assisted three in 43 games in Bristol Rovers’ first year back in League One. In the season just gone he played 43 games in League One again, scoring five and assisting five as well as picking up the player of the season award along the way.
What do Bristol Rovers fans think of Antony Evans?
After digging about a bit online, it seems that nearly all fans of Bristol Rovers are sad to see Evans leave and see the rumoured £450k fee as a bargain for Town, though they’re pleased to get something for a player entering the final year of his contract. From the comments I read about him, it sounds like he’s a midfielder that can do a little bit of everything, in terms of passing, tackling, shooting and taking free kicks. He’s not blessed with pace but he did get good reports for covering plenty of ground with his running. While he is an all-rounder, it seems like he’s naturally more attack minded and will most likely play in front of a defensive midfielder.
On the GasChat forums there was an interesting post on there from a fan that said they sat near Evans’ family for home games and it’s likely that moving closer to Merseyside was probably a large part in making Huddersfield Town an attractive option. Alongside working for Michael Duff, “The Project” and, obviously, the fact we’ll have offered him a decent wage too. But after playing in Germany for a while and then a few years in Bristol, I can see how moving a relatively short drive from the area you call your home would be appealing regardless of other factors.
After all the talk about character and bad eggs in the dressing room, it’s reassuring that no Bristol Rovers fans that I saw commenting about Evans had anything negative to say about him as a person. He seems like a likable and hard-working young man. The only noticeable negative was a comment that he can sometimes get lost in games and get caught in possession. These commenters were contradicted by others that suggested that it was the teammates around him not giving him options that resulted in him getting closed down before he could release the ball. And I doubt he got lost in too many games if he was their Player of the Season.
How does Antony Evans fit into Huddersfield Town’s current squad?
Yesterday I wrote about how Town didn’t have any midfield creativity until Herbie Kane signed but now, like London buses, we’ve got two creative maestros to pick from with Evans coming into the squad. The big issue for Michael Duff will be trying to get Evans and Kane playing alongside each other in a way that works for the team and gets the best out of both of them. Because both are new to the club, it’s a bit early to say what this will look like but I’m confident that this issue has been thought about already and there will be a plan in place.
The other midfield options, aside from Herbie Kane and Anthony Evans, are all slightly different. David Kasumu and Jonathan Hogg are either defensive midfielders or buzzy bees that press, tackle but don’t create much as they push forward. Scott High and Josh Austerfield are players that are not yet proven and may end up going out on loan unless they impress in preseason. Tom Iorpenda has less experience than the last two but far more potential, so may be a good option but it will be better for his development to be eased in gently rather than chucked in to every game because we need him. Ben Wiles should provide genuine competition to both Evans and Kane if he stays fit and finds form. The “if” was the important part of that sentence, so for now, he’s backup at best and our two newboys should be the first choices until there is a reason to rotate.
So based on this quick run through our midfield options, I think Evans should be likely to play plenty of games as one of the two more advanced midfield options ahead of a more defensive-minded players in the three-man midfield. Assuming that’s the system that Duff goes with. With our other newboy, Herbie Kane likely to be the first choice pairing with Evans, it leaves Wiles and Iorpenda as the backup options. So providing Duff sees that quartet as good enough for those roles, and Kasumu and Hogg as decent options for defensive midfield – we may actually have a decent midfield for the system he wants to play.
TerrierSpirit.com opinion of Antony Evans signing
Like with Lasse Sorensen, we’ve signed the Player of the Season from one of the other teams in our league, so this feels like an unquestionably good bit of business. The rumoured transfer fee seems like a decent price to pay for a player that is approaching his prime but still has room for improvement and could either provide many years of service for Town or be sold for a profit if he does really well.
Like with Herbie Kane, it’s nice to sign a midfielder that can pass the ball and make things happen in the final third. I’m not concerned at all that he shares qualities with Kane, as there’s room for two creative players in a three-man midfield and we’ve been so short in this area for so long, having two good attacking midfielders seems like a good option. Even if I’m wrong about them playing together, competition and insurance against injury or poor form seems sensible given how important it will be to have a midfielder who supplies ammunition to our forwards and chips in with goals themselves.
It’s nice to see how many goals Evans has contributed himself throughout his career too, with many of them being spectacular blasts from outside the box. I’ve read that Michael Duff’s system often creates shooting opportunities for midfielders by pushing back defenders with the forward line, and then working the ball back to the midfielders to get shots away. So having a system of play that creates these sorts of opportunities and players like Kane and Evans that can take advantage of them seems clever and thought through. In theory at least. We’ll have to see if it happens on the grass against opponents that don’t want us to score against them.
At 25, Evans is a signing that works for today and hopefully tomorrow too. By this I mean that he’s a proven performer at League One level and should help us with our aspiration to bounce straight back up to the Championship but he’s also got the potential to make that step up with us too if we are back in the second tier soon. I feel like all four of Town’s summer signings have been brought in with half an eye on whether they are capable of doing a job in the Championship as well as helping us in League One. While it would be daft to think that getting back to the Championship will be easy, at least we currently seem to be approaching the challenge the right way and building a decent squad.
Is it time to drop the vitriol and applaud our administration on the excellent signings they’ve achieved.
Or will some fans still find reason to criticise
I’m more inclined to believe these signings are instigated by Duff and although those above him are uninspiring they have not been foolish enough to deny him.
Cartwright and and Edward are presumably here because of their USA connection with Nagle, I would not have said their work here up to now has been successful.
Honestly, I hope Duff has been driving the discussions on signings as I’ve never loved the recruitment panel approach. I think the indecision and failure to close deals last summer was because Warnock and the suits couldn’t agree on the kind of player we needed. It seems that things are a lot more lined up this summer.
Even if Duff named the players, Cartwright and Edwards (or one of them) have to land the deals so still deserve credit. It might be better to hold back to the end of the window before getting to overboard though. Things look good now but there will most likely be quite a few leaving before the start of September.
Surely recruitment has to be a team effort. Obviously the head coach should have a major say, and probably a veto, but the scouting and other reports are produced by and rely in the judgement of other team members. Then the team discuss the options and agree priorities. The days of the manager just producing a name and someone else signing them up are long gone thankfully!
I agree, but I think we’ve had a model in the past where the head coach gets players thrown at them and is told to make the best they can out of the squad they’re given. So giving the person who picks the team a lead role in deciding transfer makes sense. But you’re right that it can’t be just the manager any more. I think a middle ground between these extremes is sensible.
We seem to have a fair few fringe and also ran players around . High being one to let go in my view .Austerfield loan for example . Hope some of the players paying in the last formation at Emley are given more game time against better teams . U T T
I wonder why you would be so inclined? Do you not think that some of the players we’ve signed, and others that we haven’t, would have been targeted before Duff arrived? No doubt when he came into the club they compared notes and came up with a revised and agreed target list. Then they’ve worked as a team to try and get them in. The recruitment team were not fully in place until well into last summer and Warnock was complicating factor as he was only a temporary head coach. Then January is a very difficult window, particularly if the team are struggling. Looks to me like they’re getting into their stride now and doing a good job.
We do not have the definitive answer to his but as Duff has first hand knowledge, as an opposition manager, of these players, an educated assumption is not unreasonable.
It’s clearly an assumption, but I wouldn’t call it educated. Do you think that Kevin became a successful businessman by just giving his mates jobs? He will have seen them at work in the US and also checked out their CVs. I also made an argument for why judging the recruitment team’s performance up to this summer was unfair, which you have not addressed.
Mark Cartwright made similar remarks about those first two windows having circumstances that made them particularly challenging. It’s probably a factor in why he kept his job despite his first year in his role ending in relegation even if it sounds a bit like excuses.
Answering your rhetorical question, I don’t think Kevin Nagle just chucked jobs at his mates but I think it was very attractive to him to install people he knew but also knew the English game. I don’t see a problem with that really. Though I’ve written on the blog in the past about misgivings about Cartwright.
Looking at the current window though, it feels a lot more like a club that’s functioning. I’d say everyone involved looks to be pulling in the same direction and it seems like our signings fit with how the head coach wants to play. Everyone, including Mark Cartwrigh, deserves credit for that.
I never suggested Nagle gave his mates jobs, he maybe didn’t have a big enough net for recruitment purposes. Three retrospectively poor management appointments including NW’s second go, player recruitment that has not impacted positively on the field, some might say a negative impact and relegation to League 1 would not want any of these on my CV, let alone all three!
But as TS says we should now be pulling in the same direction, I for one am looking forward to the new season.
I had a mciu longer reply written but the website just ate it. But yep, I agree, these signings look good. Hopefully they’ll prove it on the pitch when the season comes around but regardless, we’re showing ambition and getting our business down early.
In terms of reasons to criticise, if I was going to moan about anything it would be the gaps in our preseason schedule. After being so critical of Neil Warnock’s approach we had to get this one right. We’re still waiting for matches to be confirmed on the Austria tour and I think there should be a home friendly when they come back too but there’s been no announcement about it. Still plenty of time to sort it but feels like we’ve struggled to get the right opponents booked.
From having practically no midfielders suddenly there are loads of them. Where are we going to put them all especially if Hogg remains a fixture.?
If we’re playing a three-man midfield we’ll need a first choice and a backup for each slot with maybe academy kids as extra cover. Any players beyond that are probably best to be either sold or leaned out. We’ve got to stick to the squad number rules and more importantly, it’s bad for morale to have too many senior players languishing in the reserves without a prospect of playing. I’d guess Austerfield and High are most at risk of leaving on loan with Iorpenda being a maybe depending on how his preseason goes.
Seems on paper at least ,the new signings look good . Plus 2 are Free bees . I feel we still require a top Central defender for Helicks departure plus a goalie and winger . So far , so good thou .
I agree Greg, these new signings look very positive. My wishlist would be a new striker and then just to replace any quality player that leaves with a player ready for the starting eleven.
Good read as again TS. In the mind’s eye signings often flatter reality but I feel collectively these midfielders are just what we needed. Creativity has been missing from that part of the team and the momentum these lads bring too will hopefully feed the forwards Town signed last season.
It’s a fair point that its easy to get a bit giddy about a player before a ball is kicked and then they don’t live up to the hype but these new guys at least are tries and tested at this level. I suppose the benefit of being in League One means we’re one of the big boys at this level and our budget means we can afford players that are proven in this league. In the Championship the only experienced players we ever signed were the old timers coming for one last payday.
As a Bristol Rovers fan and long time ST holder I would like to say your article is pretty spot on. Evo is a quality player who is very quiet off the pitch but plays with passion and pride. Find a video of our 7-0 win over Scunthorpe and see his contribution, on and off the ball. Scores worldie’s, can be tricky with his feet and loves to slot one through the channels. There are plenty of examples of his static ball skills and he always makes a free kick on or around the box feel like a pen. You will need a strong DCM to play with him though or you will get played through. Take care of our boy, see you soon and good luck for the season (except us that is!)
Thanks for your comment. Good to know we’ve signed a decent player and that I’ve managed to get a reasonable accurate fans’ view of him. I think he’s been bought as an attacking midfielder, so should be paired with at least one other defensive minded midfielder.