‘He will be a match-winner’

Roberto Martinez believes Luke Garbutt will return from his season long loan with Fulham ready to have a massive impact on Everton’s first team.

The 22-year-old will spend the entire 2015/16 campaign with the Championship side after sealing a loan move to the Cottagers this weekend.

Martinez is predicting that Garbutt will quickly become an integral part of Kit Symons’ side, before returning to Goodison Park to challenge for a starting spot next season.

Martinez told evertontv: “We all very excited about this agreement. Luke Garbutt had a real impressive impact last season with his 10 games with the first team at the highest level – both in the Euroupa League and in the Premier League – and now he is in the phase of his career where he needs to play minutes.

“We are blessed with the quality we have at left-back and Luke Garbutt is in a key moment of his development.

“Luke is ready. He will be a match-winner, he will be an important player in this project and we are looking forward to seeing him benefit from the experience and get him back to Finch Farm in 10 months time stronger, wiser and ready for a massive impact on our football club.”

The boss also says the Garbutt is in the perfect environment to gain valuable experience as Fulham look to chase promotion to the Premier League.

He added: “With Fulham as a team, we have gone into detail over the environment he is going to work in, the football club he is going to work with and the footballing project he is going to be joining. In every aspect, it is very impressive.

“Fulham are under pressure to win games, they have to get back into the Premier League, they want to get back into the Premier League they have got a real brave and attractive style of football and the manager knows the football club inside out.

“Their desire to have Luke in their squad was the big turning point in the whole agreement.”