‘Maybe’: ‘Outstanding’ Isaac Price states he may still be at Everton if Frank Lampard was still in charge

Former Everton youngster Isaac Price has admitted that he could have stayed at the Toffees had Frank Lampard remained in the Goodison Park dugout.

Lampard handed Price his debut for Everton, in a 2-0 FA Cup win against Boreham Wood, before handing him his first Premier League outing at Arsenal.

Indeed, the ‘outstanding’ 20-year-old midfielder who left the Blues for Belgian side Standard Liege during the summer has revealed that ‘maybe’ he would still be at the club had Lampard’s time at Everton turned out differently.

Speaking with the Belfast Telegraph, Price said: “He (Lampard) was massive for me.

I learnt so much while he was there. I had my debut at the end of one of the seasons at Arsenal and ever since then I felt like he really taught me a lot of stuff.

He was massive. He gave me my debut, he put a bit of trust in me. I was training with them regularly, so I was learning a lot of things.

Had it gone differently at Everton and he’d had the players he needed to get results maybe I’d still be there.”

Everton would have paid heavier price than just losing Isaac had Lampard not been sacked

Price joined Everton’s academy at the age of seven but decided to start a new chapter in Belgium after a 13-year stint with the Toffees.

The 20-year-old recently scored a 90th minute winner for Standard Liege in a 2-1 win over Club Brugge, just weeks after he scored his first international goal for Northern Ireland in a 4-2 defeat to Slovenia.

The young midfielder is clearly grabbing his opportunity with both hands and admitted in a BBC Sport interview earlier this month that his decision to begin a new challenge was ‘the right move’.

Price said: “I feel like I was edging towards a move at the end as I wasn’t getting much of a first-team opportunity at Everton, so I feel like it was the right move.”.