Seamus Coleman: “No nonsense, Dyche gets Everton – we know this club is huge”

“I feel good,” says Seamus Coleman with a smile as he prepares for his 16th and perhaps final season as an Everton player.

In June, the Irishman ended speculation about his future – and possible retirement – ​​by extending his contract at Goodison for another year.

It was a popular decision by a popular personality. Talk to many, and Coleman Is Everton, to such an extent that it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the two.

But Coleman is very committed to the club and he would only have chosen to sign a new contract if he felt he still had something to give, especially on the pitch.

Away from hockey, he remains a point of reference; the one who welcomes new arrivals, offers wise advice, sets standards and shouts battle cries. On hockey, he still holds his own, even at 35.

The fact that no long-term successor for the right-back position has yet emerged speaks volumes about his consistency. There are still opportunities.

“I don’t feel like a 24-year-old right-back anymore, but I also don’t feel like people are constantly walking past me in training,” says Coleman at Everton’s pre-season camp in Ireland.

“I feel like I have an impact in certain games or just on the whole pitch. I also like what the manager (Sean Dyche) has done. He’s had a tough job with everything that’s happened and he’s handled it well. He’s boiled it down to the basics: work hard, roll up your sleeves and everyone gets involved.

“That’s my goal too. I don’t want any excuses – just keep going. It’s a good group of guys. Tarky (James Tarkowski), Ashley (Young), Jordan (Pickford) have been great. So, I’m enjoying it.”

Coleman, right, with Jack Harrison and a young fan at Everton’s training camp in Ireland (Tony McArdle/Everton)

Curiously, given his advanced age, the decision to continue playing this time was easier than it was 12 months ago.

With Dyche at the helm, Coleman feels better times are ahead. Points deductions aside, Everton would have been within touching distance of a place in the top half of the table last season.

“I was probably more confident with how we finished the season as a group,” he says. “Because you can’t get away from it: you live and breathe it. It would be tough to be linked with the club being relegated and that was hanging over me a bit as well. The year before was tough – we didn’t know where we were – but last year I was proud of the group.

“We got some recognition but on a wider level we got two points deducted. We did something that no other Everton player had to do.”

Coleman hails from County Donegal in Ireland, having joined from Sligo Rovers for £60,000 in 2009. Today he speaks with the passion of a lifelong Everton fan. He shares the same grievances and frustrations, and the last few seasons battling relegation have taken their toll.

He describes the night of the Crystal Palace game that secured Everton’s place in the 2022/23 season as “horrific”. “Then the Bournemouth game (in 2023/24), we were one kick away from relegation.”

With that in mind, keeping his emotions under control seemed like the hardest task in the world. But he and his teammates had to find a way.

“The last few years have been tough for everyone at Everton,” he says. “There’s frustration… a bit of everything. But you’ve got a job to do and you can’t get carried away by the emotions, the bad feelings or whatever is going on.”

“I can’t turn it off. That’s my character. It’s always there and it’s all or nothing. It’s only in the last two or three years that I’ve realised how big this club is for people. I know it sounds extreme but the people I’ve seen and spoken to live for Everton. It’s important that I can use that emotion when I have to speak to the group because they might not see it the same way I do every day.”

The bonds between Coleman, the fans and the club run deep, but he insists there is no big secret to success other than hard work and the desire to make an impression.

Coleman (right) trains in Ireland with new signing Iliman Ndiaye (left) and Youssef Chermiti (Tony McArdle/Everton)

“It (the reaction) is humiliating, but I would also say to any of the boys: work hard, respect your club and you will get it back,” he says. “It’s not like I’m Leighton Baines and I get 20 assists a season. I just do my best.

“Everton took me in as a 20-year-old and looked after me. In 2017 I broke my leg and the next day I still had a five-year contract with no changes. Not many clubs do that, so it goes both ways. It makes me want to give something back.”

The conversation revolves around the future. Be future and that of the club.

It’s an interesting time for Everton, who are due to move into their new 53,000-capacity waterfront stadium in just over a year, with the takeover process still ongoing and chronically unsuccessful owner Farhad Moshiri looking for a way out.

How it’s going ➡️ How it will be 🤩 pic.twitter.com/Q8pY6pb8X4

— Everton Stadium (@EvertonStadium) July 13, 2024

Finally, after years of stagnation, he feels that the first signs of recovery are beginning to emerge under Dyche’s leadership.

“The new stadium is very exciting,” says Coleman. “This club is huge and is just waiting for everything to fall into place. It needs to work well both on and off the field, but the manager has remained persistent and calm.”

“I just think he gets it. There’s no nonsense there. I’ve been around long enough to know that the fans don’t want to see 100 passes over the defence. They want tackles. They want to make Goodison a terrible place. I think some of that is coming back, maybe like under (David) Moyes.

“He (Dyche) tells it like it is. I have a lot of confidence in him and think we can have a good season.”

The prospect of playing in the new stadium remains a big incentive. However, it is still unclear whether Coleman will make it.

Coleman gives Dwight McNeil (Tony McArdle/Everton) some advice

“When you come to my stadium, it’s almost a week or a day at a time,” he says. “You see where you are next season and if we all feel I’m in a good position then maybe. Right now it’s just about making sure we get there as safely as possible and have a good season. It will be emotional because Goodison is very special and we’ll miss it.”

He definitely wants to stay in football after his active career and is currently exploring the possibility of working as a coach.

Coleman holds UEFA A and B coaching badges and has received an open invitation to attend academy sessions and continue his education alongside Baines, the current manager of Everton’s Under-18 team.

There is hope that Everton will be stable enough this season for him to finally accept his former teammate’s offer.

“Leighton has been great and told me to come and do the training sessions whenever I want,” says Coleman. “But the way the last three seasons have been, I’m not the type of guy who can train until 1pm and then just forget about Saturday’s result.”

“Maybe it’s a weakness because I can’t separate it. So I don’t have as much coaching as I would like. But God willing, this season it can be a little bit quieter and I can go down and Leighton can show me a little bit how it goes.

“I would like to stay at Everton (as manager) if it was the right thing, not because I played for 16 years. It would have to be the right thing for me and the right thing for the club.”

That’s a question for another day. The task is to leave Goodison with a good feeling and to create some momentum before the move to the new stadium.

There, Coleman’s characteristic positive attitude and love for the club once again come to the fore.

“I may be getting a bit older, but I want to feel like I have played my part in weathering the storm and making Everton a giant again at the new stadium,” he says.

“We cannot go to the stadium without ambitions, we have to decide what the next four or five years should look like.

“The club is far too big – of course everything has to be managed properly – not to be successful again. We’ve all had a tough time, but we have to believe that the future is bright. We have to.”

(Top photo: Tony McArdle/Everton FC)