The English heartbeat of Everton
KOEMAN KIDS ARE JOY TO WATCH FOR THE NEUTRAL FAN
THE images Tom Davies posts online seem to encapsulate what he represents to those Everton fans who are seeing a side with a young English core materialise in front of their eyes.
Davies wears bandanas, visits music festivals, discusses animal cruelty and, on one occasion this summer, prepared to carry a surfboard down to the sea, commenting: ‘It’s fun if you don’t see a fin.’
He’d probably be a backpacker if he wasn’t a footballer.
He’s also a throwback on the field of play, with rolled-down socks reminiscent of Dave Thomas, a much-loved Evertonian of the mid-1970s, and family connections which have given him an intuitive sense of the place. Alan Whittle, who broke into the side as a 17-year- old in 1967, is his great uncle.
There were times during the 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Monday when we saw the purest expression of what a band of Englishmen — with Davies at its core — can do on a football field, propelled by the fearlessness of youth.
Davies supplied from wide. The 20-yearold Dominic Calvert-Lewin led the line impressively while Mason Holgate, just five months older, began the move that put Everton ahead. Michael Keane recovered from a challenging start against David Silva to contribute to a monumental defensive effort. Behind them all, Jordan Pickford looked rock-solid again.
And a picture of watchfulness throughout was Wayne Rooney, an individualal fairly well qualified to provide advice on how to forge a teenage path at Everton. It was the club’s former manager Colin Harvey who said before this season that Rooney’s ‘influence’ might be vastly more significant than his ‘edge’.
That quality was evident in the small details of the match in east Manchester. The quiet word Rooney had with Davies when hee was booked for diving; the image of f the two wrapped in conversationn just before the second half.
With Phil Jagielka, Leightonn Baines and England-born Waless defender Ashley Williams alsoo piloting things, the team cannot be e characterised as the English young g bloods (their average age was 26.4 years; City’s 26.6).
Yet we are seeing the nascent signs that English players — younger and older — can flourish in the Premier League, and that makes es Everton a side for the neutrals to look out for and cheer from thehe rafters in the months ahead. Theireir net transfer spend has been £36m, to City’s £145m this summer. Two of the three big purchases have ve been English.
The young components have certainly ertainly had to seize their own chances because manager Ronald Koeman did not seem entirely convinced that youth could deliver when he arrived a year ago. His first signings — Williams, now 32, and Yannick Bolasie, 28 — were older.
He talked publicly about a ‘project’ and a ‘ two- year’ job. He hardly seemed consumed with optimism about the youngsters, even though some wise heads at the club were expressing more excitement about the next generation than about Ross Barkley.
They know all about Everton’s commitment to English talent in the nation’s lower leagues, which pre-dates Koeman. Holgate arrived in 2015 for £2m from Barnsley, the same club which had provided John Stones, while Calvert-Lewin arrived from Sheffield United for £1.5m a year later. The big Premier League teams all knew about Charlton Athletic’s Ademola Lookman 12 months ago but it was Everton who put up the money — £11m — to sign arguably the most exciting teenager outside the top two tiers.
Barkley is the one Englishman Koeman does not have time for, due to a combination of form and salary demands. But the advent of new players has left few fans unhappy about this. Barkley, 23, has never had the same relationship with Goodison’s supporters as the teenage Rooney.
Some around Goodison Park will tell you that Koeman could have committed even more to his young English brigade than he has. The arrival of Dutch defender Cuco Martina from Southampton this summer has put a hurdle before 20-year-old Jonjoe Kenny, who made a good contribution last season before helping England’s Under 20s lift the World Cup in the summer.
Kieran Dowell, Davies’s great friend, was also expected to feature this season, after scoring a beautiful goal on tour in Malaysia which was overshadowed by Rooney’s first strike back at the club.
Some were disappointed to see Dowell loaned out to Nottingham Forest, where he is well known to Liverpudlian Frank McParland, a key member of Forest manager Mark Warburton’s management team. He has started superbly at the City Ground. Even without this pair, though, Everton’s English component is to be savoured and the consistent talk from the dressing room is of Rooney binding them together.
‘He is the one talking before we go out, geeing the lads up, giving bits of advice,’ said Keane yesterday. ‘Just little tactical things for the team.’
As the club prepared yesterday for their Europa League journey to Hajduk Split, with a visit to Stamford Bridge beyond that, it seemed fitting that they should announce a benefit match in remembrance of World Cup winner Alan Ball.
He was one of their finest Englishmen and 21 years old when he first pulled on an Everton shirt.