Seamus Coleman has opened up on the primary motivating factor driving him on at Everton and conceded that the number of managers the club has had in recent years is a reflection on the players.
The long-serving defender, who joined Everton from Sligo Rovers in January 2009 for £60,000, has made 385 appearances for the club since his arrival from Ireland. Coleman was appointed captain in 2019 and is also skipper for the Republic of Ireland.
Despite winning numerous individual honours during his time with the Blues, Coleman is yet to pick up any silverware for the club. And the full-back has explained how he is desperate to complete the one missing piece of his Everton jigsaw in order to write his name into the Goodison Park history books.
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“We all want to be winners in sport and if I get to the end of my time at Everton and haven’t won anything, I’ve not achieved what I wanted in this sport,” he told Planet Football.
“You start out in football with small targets. To get into the first team, to try and hang on to your place and then when you get to that point, you start to think of more.
“For a long time now, I want to be on the list of players who have won a trophy for Everton and that desire is massive for me.
“When you are part of a great club like Everton for as long as I have been, you understand what the club means. Then you want to be part of that history.
“The videos are always of players from our great teams, and the images of Everton players lifting trophies in the 1980s are all around you. It reminds you how big the football club is.
“When some players sign for Everton, they don’t realise how big the football club is and how successful it was. Yes, those trophy wins were a long time ago, but they helped to build Everton into what they are now.
“That’s what we have to aspire to. You don’t want to be remembered as someone who played 400 games for Everton and won nothing. I want to win a trophy at the club and I will keep trying to do that for as long as I’m here.”
Signed by David Moyes, Coleman has been managed by Roberto Martinez, Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva, Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez and Frank Lampard during his career with the Blues. He has also been managed by David Unsowrth and Duncan Ferguson during their two separate spells in caretaker charge.
The defender was out singled by Lampard after Everton came from 2-0 down to secure a 3-2 win over Crystal Palace and sealed their survival in the Premier League in their penultimate game of the season back in May.
In the video, which went viral, Lampard put his arm around the Blues’ skipper and described the right-back as 'one of the best people I have ever met'. And while Coleman is desperate to do all he can to support his boss, he also acknowledges that the managerial turnover at Goodison in recent years is the fault of him and his team-mates.
He said: “What’s disappointing for me is we’ve had so many managers and change over the years. Frank is here now and he is doing a great job, so the players have to do everything we can to give him the support he needs.
“Ultimately that’s a reflection on the players when a manager loses his job. Players are responsible for bringing success to a club and maybe we haven’t done that enough over the years.
“Everyone here wants that success and we’ve not got that recipe yet for whatever reason. I do believe that the club will win a trophy very soon.
“We will be going into a new stadium very soon and when we get there, we want Everton to be in a place where they are challenging at the top of the game. That’s what we are all fighting for here.”
Coleman has previously spoken about how he takes 'great pride' in helping young players and new signings adjust to life in the Everton first-team squad. And the full-back admits he has no problem in pulling members of the Blues’ squad to one side if he feels they are starting to develop the wrong 'mentality'.
“Anyone who goes out on a football pitch thinking about the more they are earning has the wrong mentality and if I ever see a kid at Everton and think he needs a bit of guidance in this area, I will take him aside and have a word,” he said.
“I got into football because I have a love for the game, not because I wanted to make lots of money. Luckily for me, the desire has never been affected by the money you might get and anyone who wants to succeed in this sport needs to have that attitude.”
Coleman, who clearly still has big ambitions in football, is still unsure whether he will make the move into coaching or management when he decides to hang up his boots.
He said: “I see a lot of players saying life after football can be a scary thought, but it doesn’t frighten me at all. My life has always been focused on family and football and when the second one of those goes, I won’t need the daily acknowledgement from people or the applause of the fans.
“I don’t need that in my life. I’m not going to miss the feeling of being a footballer, that’s how I feel now. Will I go into management? I don’t know. When you have worked under so many managers as I have, you do take a lot from each one.
“If I went into coaching and management, I’d take what I have seen from them with me into that job, but it is a tough job. You never really switch off.”
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