Rovers have today confirmed the permanent acquisition of Crewe Alexandra left-back, Harry Pickering, who has joined the squad at Ewood Park for an undisclosed fee rumoured to be between £650,000-£750,000, plus future incentives.
The 22-year old, who has swapped Cheshire for Lancashire, has signed on the dotted line with Rovers until 2025, however he will see out the rest of the current campaign back at Gresty Road, as Alex hope to continue their late push towards possibly achieving back-to-back promotions.
Rovers’ move for Pickering has seen Tony Mowbray and his recruitment department fight off a number of rival bids to secure the full-back, who is moving onto pastures new for the first time in his career, having emerged from the highly-rated Alex youth academy. Despite not securing a loan deal earlier on in his career as most young prospects do, the 6’1” full-back was deemed good enough to be thrown in straight into the Crewe side at 18-years of age and made his debut in the penultimate home game of Crewe’s 2016-17 campaign.
Since the arrival of David Artell at Crewe in January 2017, Pickering went from strength to strength as he made the left-back position his own, whilst also showcasing his talents in playing further up the pitch at both left-wing-back and, on brief occasions, left-midfield. Pickering’s consistent performances for The Railwaymen not only helped them finally achieve a much awaited promoted at the end of the tumultuous 2019-20 campaign, but also saw the new Rover be appointed club captain at the start of January 2021, after previous skipper Perry Ng departed to Cardiff City. Whilst it shows Rovers fans the level of player they are getting, it undoubtedly also asserts the trust that Artell had in his starting full-back, given how desperate the manager was to keep one of his prize assets, earlier on in the window.
Despite only recently turning 22 at the backend of December, Pickering has amassed a healthy number of games over the course of his young career. Up until his departure from Gresty Road, today, Pickering had made 146 first-team appearances in the red of Crewe, which date back to his aforementioned first cameo appearance in 2016-17. Alongside his consistent game time, Pickering has recently shown that he has an eye for goal, having already netted three goals for the League One side in the 23 league games he has played thus far, this campaign. Whilst goals are a sort of collector’s item for the full-back, he has shown his lethality from set-pieces, with his first ever senior goal – at 19 – coming from a free-kick, which he scored against Lincoln City in an eventual 4-1 win. Although this campaign was his first ever in the third tier of English football, his stats show how quickly he was able to adapt to a slightly higher quality league which will no doubt put him in good stead next season, once he returns to Ewood Park to battle for a spot within Rovers’ starting side. Alongside his rather rare exploits in-front of goal, he has proved to be a solid option in providing assists for his side, as he made five goals during last season’s promotion campaign, in which The Railwaymen finished 2nd in League One, on points per game, following the suspension of League 2.
Pickering’s individual stats from last season’s promotion winning team bring some optimism for Rovers fans wanting to learn more about the defender. According to whoscored.com, in the 35 appearances he made for Crewe, last season, he averaged a match rating of 7.22 over the course of the season. Further to that, of the 91 attempted tackles he made over the course of the campaign, 76 of those were successful, giving him a very impressive 83.5% success ratio. Of the left-backs that made more than 20 league appearances last campaign, Pickering made the second-highest number of clearances with 33, only two behind the chart topper. In terms of his more known attacking quality, Pickering was head and shoulders above his counterparts in-terms of number of passes made over the course of the interrupted campaign. The new acquisition made 2075 total passes, which dwarfs the runner-up in the chart, who ‘only’ made 999 passes. Pickering’s quality to pick out a pass can also be seen in the ‘Key Passes’ chart, where he made 89 in total, which was more than double his closest competitor. His natural knack to attack also shone through in 2019-20, as he topped the charts for most shots made by a left-back for the whole division, with 43, with an impressive 18 of those coming from within the penalty area.
Speaking to Rovers’ media team, the young defender admitted his delight at moving to such a ‘prestigious and historic club’, whilst also revealing the positive conversations he had with manager, Tony Mowbray.
“I’m over the moon and absolutely buzzing to join a massive club. I can’t wait to get started. Since I heard of the interest, I’ve been excited by the opportunity to come to Rovers. As soon as I heard of the interest it was something that I really wanted to happen. It’s all come around now and I’m happy to be here.
“I spoke to the manager and he’s really excited for me to be here. He wants me to be a part of the journey of getting us back to where we want to be, and I’m really excited by that prospect.
“It’s such a big opportunity to come to a huge club with a big history and lots of really good players. Coming to a Championship club, a big club such as Rovers, it’s a big step up for me. I’m going to take the opportunity to learn from the manager, the players, all the staff and take everything in to learn as much as possible.”
ReadRovers would like to wish Harry good luck in the rest of his time at Crewe Alexandra as he continues to showcase his skills at Gresty Road, before returning to Ewood Park in the summer, fit and raring to lay down a marker in Rovers’ side!
