Another player who left Everton and rapidly improved in the lower leagues, Adam Forshaw is one sale that the Blues may live to regret should he continue to develop rapidly. He joined Everton aged seven and made his competitive debut against Bate Borisov in December 2009. He would mostly feature for the reserves, winning the Reserve Player of the Year Award in 2012. By May that year he had joined Brentford on a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee, and would be flourishing at the Bees soon after. Though they would eventually lose to Yeovil Town in the play-off final, Forshaw scored the winning penalty that put them there. Last season would prove to be his most fruitful so far as he would go on to make 24 consecutive league starts helping to push forward his development. Such were the level of his performances; he was soon named on the three-man shortlist for the League One Player of the Year, eventually beating Wolverhampton Wanderers Kevin McDonald and Swindon Towns Alex Pritchard to the award. He would unfortunately get injured and miss out on the clubs eventual play-off success, but had managed to get eight goals in 40 appearances in the league, being named in the 2013/14 League One team of the year. He joined former manager Uwe Rosler at Wigan Athletic this summer for a fee of £4 million, with Everton making a nice profit as a result of a sell of clause, but again wondering what could have been.
