Alan Kelly still remembers the first time he saw Jordan Pickford in action.
Everton’s goalkeeping coach was then working with Preston. England’s number one was with Carlisle. Just 20 back then, Pickford left an impression on his future guru - even though he conceded six.
The best part of a decade later, and in the midst of his second spell coaching him and as Pickford plays a key role in another international tournament, Kelly is once again taking immense pride in the success of the “fearless” talent he first saw on that spring day at Deepdale. To him there was no doubt his apprentice had the ability to reach the top. Now he has reached it, Kelly has no doubts Pickford deserves to be there.
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“It was just the way that he handled himself”, Kelly says as he recalls the League One tie in which he noticed Pickford, “the way he stood up to what occurred on the pitch. I thought yeah, that takes takes a bit of heart, it takes a bit of responsibility. And that's a thread I've seen right all the way through, him accepting responsibility and, with that, that allows him to perform.”
Sixteen months later Pickford came under Kelly’s stewardship at Preston, by then a Championship club. He lasted until the new year, when parent club Sunderland recalled him, but endeared himself with a string of impressive performances that saw him equal the club record for consecutive clean sheets.
Kelly says it was Pickford’s fearlessness that impressed him then, suggesting the precocious talent has always been underpinned by an emotional maturity he is rarely credited with.
He told the ECHO: “You acquire status. So now he’s England’s number one, he’s Everton’s number one, he’s got different areas he has to fulfil. I think as a young lad he just wanted to play and seeing his development, and seeing how he handled it, as a young professional with Preston, and seeing what he's now had to deal with, with social media, and I don't think I've known anybody get as much stick as he does, just to deal with that in itself has showed you he's well rounded.”
Pickford has been excellent for club and country for several years now. While Everton may have underwhelmed, the club’s number one has led England to a World Cup semi-final and Euros final. Last season, he was vital to the Blues’ survival and this season he has again produced a number of crucial saves in big moments.
Those big moments have often been a source of debate among critics of Pickford, who has been accused of being over-emotional on the pitch. He denies this, saying his exaggerated mannerisms are often misinterpreted - that he is in fact organising and instructing - so rather than being a sign he has lost composure his reactions are in fact evidence he is maintaining it.
Kelly said there is a tendency to try and “pigeonhole” players but ultimately performance matters as much as character on the pitch. He said: “Everybody's got their own interpretation of what they’re viewing in front of them. I think, for the team and for the manager, he wants his goalkeeper to do a job. And that includes out of possession. So he’s organising, using his voice and dictating - he’s had the captaincy too. So that would bring a little bit more of that to the fore as well.”
For Kelly, Pickford marries composure, personality and performance well. And for all the critics who try to argue Pickford is erratic there is one fine example of his ability to stay in the moment - the number of back-to-back saves he makes. The most notable was the sensational double stop against Chelsea last season as he kept a clean sheet that was integral to Everton’s Premier League survival.
His incredible reaction save from Cesar Azpilicueta was named the official save of the season and heralded by Frank Lampard as the greatest save of the Premier League era. Almost as impressive was the point blank stop from Antonio Rudiger just seconds later. This season, at Fulham, Pickford produced a brilliant save from Willian and then flew across his goal to deny Aleksandar Mitrovic from the resulting corner. Both were important saves quickly followed up by more magic despite being separated by shows of emotion - showcasing his retention of composure when it matters.
Kelly said: “l don't see a problem in showing the emotional side because it means you are invested in the game. Some people might interpret it as exuberance. I don't have a problem with that. Ultimately, it comes down to whether you are doing your job and making the saves.”
Pickford’s personal attributes have impressed Lampard. His emergence as a leader amid the relegation battle was one of the behind the scenes stories of the survival campaign. Lampard, a veteran of top level dressing rooms, gave Pickford the armband for the first time in his career for the game at Burnley. This season, Pickford has been captain in the absence of Seamus Coleman and a key part of the influential dressing room leadership team.
For Kelly, being awarded the captaincy was the ultimate validation for Pickford and something the player is immensely proud of. He said: “I think it meant a great deal. One, there's not many goalkeeping captains. Two, I think everybody likes an arm around the shoulder, a pat on the back. And I think the captaincy is a validation of what he brings to the team and that standing within the squad and within the dressing room. You don't get that [the armband] if a manager doesn't think you're worthy of it. That’s a real statement of what the club, manager, lads think about him.”
Asked what type of captain Pickford is, Kelly described him as one who “says what needs to be said at the right time”. He added: “He doesn’t go over the top, you know, doesn't put on the show.” Of the perceptions of him from the outside, Kelly said he might celebrate the odd save but beyond that: “He’ll [also] be going around reminding everybody what the job is, what the game plan is, how we need to start the game, what we need to know, what threats we need to look out for. It's all game related. So in some respects it’s less emotion and more function.”
Lampard has often described the role of England number one as one of the most high profile, highly scrutinised positions in football and the debate over Pickford refuses to go away despite his achievements with the national side. Pickford is aware of the talk but his ability to cut out the noise is another sign of his maturity to Kelly.
He explained: “We've had this conversation, that you can only do what you can do. You can only train how you can train, you can only prepare how you should prepare. When you go onto the pitch if you’ve built your training, if you've applied yourself, if you've done all the matrix of performance, nutrition, strength, conditioning, and everything in that circle has been rounded… you can only do what you can do. He's got his past record. He's got what he's done before. He can only concentrate on his performances.”
For Kelly, working with Pickford remains a privilege - and he believes he still has more to come. As Pickford prepares to take England into the knockout stages of another major tournament, he said: “You’ve got to take your hat off to him and say it's been it's been a hell of a journey. And he's only 28. He’s relatively young as a goalkeeper and I think he can be proud of himself, in terms of where he's come from as a young goalkeeper to where he is now, seen as a mature leader and captain of Everton.”
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