Small: An honour to be here

Small became Everton’s youngest-ever player after making his senior debut in January aged just 16, and arrives on the south coast with the same fearless attitude.

I’ll put one hundred and ten percent in for this club.

thierry small
on signing for southampton

“I’ll put one hundred and ten percent in for this club,” he began. “It’s a huge honour for me to be here so that’s the least I can do is hard work.

“I like to show a little bit of flair so hopefully I can get a few fans off their seats and entertain them if I do play. That’s what they should expect from me, speed, flair and hard work.

“That’s the plan, to get my head down and work as hard as I can. It’s important for me to stay grounded, stay focused, take every step as it comes and try my best in every training session to hopefully get into the first team and create a big impact.

“I’d say as a person I’m a person that likes to take risks and if there’s no risk there’s no reward.

“I was at Everton for six years. I was there from the age of 11 with a host family and had to move away from home, so that was a big, big step for me.

“It made me who I am today in terms of my attitude and I had to grow up quickly, so when it comes to change, I embrace change and I like it."

Attracting attention from elsewhere in the Premier League and across Europe, the 17-year-old is hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow summer recruit Tino Livramento in terms of quickly making his mark.

“Tino has come in, done unbelievable and hit the ground running straight away, so it just motivates me that there’s opportunities here.

“It shows that Ralph, if you’re playing well, he’s not scared to play young players, so it’s really reassuring to see Tino playing as he deserves to play.

“I know how he’s been preforming in training and in games, so it’s really reassuring for me to know if I’m doing well, doing the right things on the training pitch then hopefully that will warrant an opportunity to play.

“I’m going to work hard in training and hopefully the manager will have faith in me to do a job for the team and help the team win games and get results.”