Jonny Evans - the way he plays . . .

The transfer market. It’s a difficult beast to handle, one fraught with danger, however good your research, however smartly you approach it. There’s always another club looking to steal a player from under your nose, or the player who looks a sure fire winner only to fail once a move is made. You can bring ten new faces in and watch them queue up to flop, or place your eggs in a solitary basket and still be crossing your fingers as the contract is inked.

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Or, alternatively, you can do what we did 18 months ago and buy yourselves Jonny Evans.

No, nothing in football is ever certain, but investing in the Northern Irish international, a veteran of a string of huge nights and big trophies at Manchester United and yet a man only just coming into his footballing prime was about as close as you’re going to get to backing an absolute cert.

And so it has proved with Evans now an admirably consistent 55 games into what could go on to be a hugely significant Albion career. In spite of this, it’s the first opportunity Albion News has really had to grill him on his life and times, so come with us, all the way back to his childhood as a Belfast boy.

“As a boy back home, I was just playing in local football and when I was nine, a scout from Manchester United, Eddie Coulter, approached my parents. I first went across to England when I was ten and had a trial at United and that was it really, it all sounds very simple!

“From there, it was back and forward every school holiday, every chance that I got, training at United as often as I could and getting to know the place, the people and coming through the various age groups.

“United have a big following back home, they always have had, and I grew up as a United fan so to have them come and ask me to go over and play for them, it was a no brainer, there was no decision to make. I had a little bit of interest from other clubs about going on trial but I always had it in my mind that I wanted to go to Manchester United, so I never went anywhere else.