Jordan Pickford remains settled at Everton and talks over a new contract have not stalled over his salary demands.
Pickford's current deal expires in the summer of 2024 and reports this weekend claimed that there is a pay dispute between him and Goodison Park chiefs but club insiders insist this is categorically not true and the ECHO understands that talks have simply been deferred while Everton’s Premier League status is uncertain.
Pickford joined the Blues from his local club Sunderland for £25million in 2017 following the Black Cats’ relegation. After establishing himself as England’s number one and starring at the World Cup finals during his first campaign on Merseyside, in which he was also named Everton’s Player of the Season, Players’ Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season, he was rewarded with improved terms and a bumper new six-year deal in September 2018.
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Now 28 and vice-captain to Seamus Coleman, Pickford is one of Everton’s most-senior players plus influential voices within the dressing room and is a well-liked and much-respected figure among his team-mates. New manager Sean Dyche has admitted that he hasn’t had the chance to discuss contracts yet after a busy start to his tenure at Finch Farm but back in December his predecessor Frank Lampard spoke about how he believed that Pickford could fulfil his ambitions while at Everton.
Being at the Blues has not stopped him from winning a record 50 England caps while at the club and in stating that an agreement to a new contract for Pickford was “close” prior to the home game against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Boxing Day, Lampard said: “Jordan feels very happy being at this club, I don’t want to speak for him but that’s the impression I get from him.
“So I don’t think it’s as simple as that, I like to think he’s very happy here. We’re a huge club with a huge history and big ambition and he’s a big part of that.
“Having been a player myself, maybe I was fortunate to play Champions League a lot, when I felt comfortable at a club, I came in with a smile on my face every day and I looked forward to every game that came up whether it be Premier League, Carabao Cup or Champions League, whatever. If Jordan feels like that, we can match each other’s ambitions and in terms of getting him to stay longer, I don’t see that as a problem.”
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