Three players making their Premier League debuts for Everton, the club’s biggest signing of the summer posing for photographs in the Main Stand and the potential of more faces to come suggests it’s not all doom and gloom for the Blues despite their opening day defeat to Chelsea, which also brought a double centre-back blow.
But there’s also another potential change in the pipeline at Goodison Park. For a long time now it’s been observed by many that more leaders are required in this Everton side and strength of character will also have been observed by manager Frank Lampard and director of football Kevin Thelwell when it comes to identifying targets in what is their first transfer window together.
After the Blues last played a competitive match at Goodison, the dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Crystal Palace that secured their top-flight status after a very real battle against what would have been their first relegation in 71 years, Lampard made an emotional dressing room speech in which he hailed captain Seamus Coleman as being “the best man” he’d ever met, saluting the Irishman’s professionalism and tenacity.
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While it would be foolhardy to suggest Coleman’s Premier League days are numbered – he’s seen off several pretenders to his throne, including World Cup winner Djibril Sidibe – it must be acknowledged that his 34th birthday comes before the clocks go back.
Even though the skipper has battled back from an injury that kept him out of Everton’s summer fixtures – turning out as an over-age player for the Under-21s at Southport on Friday night – Nathan Patterson finally got the nod to appear for the club in the Premier League for the first time along with new signings James Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil, who have been given reprieves at the highest level after swapping Turf Moor for Goodison. If possession is nine-tenths of the law, the Scotland international begins the campaign with the upper hand on Coleman, for now at least.
If, for whatever reason, Coleman – the only remaining player from David Moyes’ years in charge – features less often this term, then Everton really are going to have to turn to other leaders. Jordan Pickford, making his 200th appearance for the club, captained the side in his absence against Chelsea and was his usual vocal self, not just instructing those in front of him during the game but also ready to dash out of his area when required to remonstrate with the referee or even make his way to the touchline to discuss matters with Lampard during the break in play caused by Ben Godfrey’s lengthy treatment.
Handing the captaincy to goalkeepers has long been an issue of contention within the game but in terms of personality, seniority and being a regular in the side, Pickford, who is now starting his sixth season at Everton, does in many regards seem a natural choice. Being part of the Goodison furniture is not a prerequisite though.
Tarkowski, who captained Burnley a dozen times last term, including his final seven outings for the club, has made an instant impression at Finch Farm in this respect. Lampard said ahead of the fixture with Chelsea: “Tarkowski has come in and shown himself to be a leader straightaway, but I think if I put an armband or not on James Tarkowski, he's going to be a leader on the pitch and every day on the training ground.”
The more of these type of players the better for Everton. Lampard and Thelwell were already understood to be in for Wolverhampton Wanderers’ out-of-favour captain Conor Coady before Saturday's game and despite his past allegiance to Liverpool, the England international is believed to be eager to make a return to his native Merseyside. Following the injuries to Godfrey and Yerry Mina – yet again – it seems he can’t head back home soon enough. You don’t always have to be a shouter and bawler though and it’s to be hoped that the cavalry that could be just over the horizon in terms of Everton’s midfield reinforcements can lead by example.
Blues already know what Idrissa Gueye is all about from his hugely impressive spell at the club between 2016-19 but while Goodison chiefs are pinning their hopes on the ultra-fit anchorman still being able to replicate those lung-busting displays at almost 33, Amadou Onana represents a glimpse into the future. The Belgian international is virtually the same age as Marouane Fellaini was when he joined in 2008 and will provide the kind of stature the club have not possessed in the engine room since he followed Moyes to Manchester United nine years ago.
Not 21 until later this month Onana is still something of a footballing baby, although at 6ft 5in, a big one at that. While it’s encouraging to see that Everton can attract such a prospect and that they still have the financial means to do so, there glaring absence of an adequate like-for-like replacement for Dominic Calvert-Lewin was obvious here… maybe the Blues could throw their latest man mountain up top over the next few weeks?
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