Coleman is the antidote to football’s problems
CArLo Ancelotti once said seamus Coleman should be invited to stay at everton for life, which was rich coming from a bloke who disappeared to spain after 18 months at Goodison park.
Nevertheless, Ancelotti had a point.
Coleman was there in the thick of it at everton on saturday, sticking his head in to score a goal he would probably agree sums up the latter stages of his career. Dogged, determined, a bit ugly but important nevertheless.
The irishman is 33 now. Five years ago he broke his leg terribly. everton have since spent a lot of money on players, some of them defenders. Coleman should not really still be in the team. Last year, under Ancelotti, he started only half of everton’s premier League games.
But players like Coleman are often the kind to hang around because they know that experience, consistency and professionalism is still needed at the heart of every dressing room.
That may sound like faint praise but isn’t. Liverpool have those qualities in James Milner while Manchester City have them in Fernandinho.
Take these players out of a group and it weakens. premier League squads can be disparate in terms of age and especially nationality. so they need holding together by what the great Liverpool servant roy evans used to call ‘glue players’. Coleman is everton’s glue player at a time they really need one.
i was fortunate to sit with Coleman for an hour five and a half years ago and the things he said probably resonate even louder today than they did then. They do so because they pointed to an unhealthy culture among
CONGRATULATIONS to Chelsea on their Club World Cup win and sorry we didn’t pay closer attention. We were too busy watching the Premier League and the stuff that matters. And, yes, I said the same when Liverpool won it, too.
some of our young players that has still not been addressed.
‘it’s easy for a young footballer to be sucked into a certain life,’ he told me.
‘if you are the only lad in the changing room without a Louis Vuitton wash bag then you feel pressure to get one.
‘it’s wrong. Your job is to train well and play well. But they think they need to look good on their instagram pictures. They are just kids.
‘They need protecting, good people looking after them.’
They were nice words that made a nice headline but Coleman actually meant them. Having spent a lonely few weeks on his own in a hotel room when first arriving at everton as an immature 20-year-old in 2009, Coleman has never forgotten what it felt like.
so, as he grew older and wiser and began to appreciate his role as a senior player, he invited young team-mates to his flat for dinner with himself and wife rachel. it is these things that go unseen at a football club, these things that can make the important marginal differences.
it is not that difficult to guess what someone like Coleman will have thought as some highprofile players passed in and out of his football club in recent years. equally, it is hard to imagine he will not now find some kind of kindred spirit in current manager Frank Lampard.
Lampard was blessed with more natural ability than Coleman but also knows what a winning dressing room should feel and sound like. He will be able to look players in the eye and know instinctively how many reliable ones he sees staring back.
Coleman is not finished playing yet. He has a contract until the end of next season. But even he cannot go on for ever. He told this newspaper three years ago he would like to manage and his club should listen to that. At the very least, a role should be made for him going forward.
Ancelotti was right, Coleman should be invited to stick around at everton. Among all the smoke and mirrors and nonsense of the current game, there should always be room for the anti-footballers.
Ian.Ladyman@dailymail.co.uk