Even at PSG I never stopped caring for Everton. I watched their games on my phone with Kylian Mbappe
IDRISSA GUEYE EXCLUSIVE
IT was not uncommon for Kylian Mbappe to be aware of Everton’s struggles in recent years.
The Paris Saint-germaine superstar only had to check the mood of his previous team-mate Idrissa Gana Gueye to know how the Toffees were getting on. Julian Draxler would also keep an eye out on Everton’s results, if only for his own amusement. Gueye, 34, never lost his love for the blue half of Merseyside when he left for PSG in 2019 and was rubbing shoulders with the world’s best players while competing in the Champions League.
So when Everton were battling relegation in the 2021-22 campaign, they had an avid supporter in Paris. “It was difficult in the last year, we keep supporting, we believed,” said the Senegal midfielder, who rejoined Everton in 2022.
“I remember Draxler every time we lose, he would go ‘you see your team, they are not good!’ and I would say, ‘we will survive’. So the day we survived against Crystal Palace he said ‘you were lucky’ and I said ‘I told you’.
“I told him to come to Everton but he hasn’t listened!”
Everton games would be regularly on Gueye’s phone while he was in team hotels.
“Mbappe, yeah he would watch,” said Gueye. “He liked to watch every game. Messi, no. It was difficult for me because we were losing a lot and he would say, ‘Bro come on you see your team is losing and playing like this?’ but it was funny.
“I used to send Seamus Coleman, Mason Holgate and Jordan Pickford messages ‘Bro, please do it!’.
“It was important for me to support and show I was there for them.”
So even though he was well aware of Everton’s struggles to beat the drop, it didn’t stop him swapping playing in the latter stages of the Champions League with PSG to being down the bottom of the Premier League.
Gueye couldn’t resist the call when it came from then-boss Frank Lampard and director of football Kevin Thelwell.
“They called me because they needed me and I said ‘I will come and help’,” said Gueye.
“It would be easy if they were up at
the top or even in the middle of the table but if you love the club, then you have to come in the bad moments.
“Lampard called me, Seamus sent me a message, Jordan too and I was part of this team even if I was in Paris.
“They asked me to come help and I said ‘let’s go!’.
“At first I was like ‘why have you called, I want to stay here!’.
“But they said ‘Yeah but we need you’ and the only club I could leave PSG for now was Everton so we made the deal.”
Gueye helped Everton beat the drop again last season but just as they were looking like they wouldn’t be scrapping for survival this term, they were hit with a 10-point deduction.
The Toffees haven’t won a league game since he picked up a calf injury in the 2-1 defeat by Tottenham in December and he was also absent due to the Africa Cup of Nations.
But he returned earlier this month and put in an impressive showing to help Sean Dyche’s side get a hard-earned point against Tottenham in their battle to beat the drop.
They head into tonight’s clash with fellow strugglers Crystal Palace, desperately needing three points as they fight for safety.
“I prefer really being at Everton playing at the top of the table rather than fighting to survive,” Gueye added.
“Everton has to be fighting for the Champions League or Europa League.
“It hurts to see the club at the bottom of the table.
“If they give something back on the points then good, if not then we just have to do our job on the pitch.”