EVERTON v SWANSEA TOUGH AT THE TOP!
Calvert-Lewin enjoyed school of hard knocks Why Clem said no’ to Sam’s England
THOSE who predicted a big future for Dominic CalvertLewin never doubted he would make it to the top.
Certainly not those who were at Hyde United for their Conference North derby clash with Stalybridge Celtic on Boxing Day three years ago.
Calvert-Lewin was in the Stalybridge team, having completed a loan move from Sheffield United’s Academy on Christmas Eve.
It is a game forever etched in the youngster’s memory – and it explains everything about why the 20-year-old England World Cup winner and Everton striker has just had the kind of week every football-mad kid dreams about.
Bash
Winning the penalty that gave Everton a draw in the Merseyside derby against Liverpool at Anfield last Sunday was good enough.
But he followed that with a bumper new five-and-a-half-year contract that will keep him at Goodison Park until 2023.
That night at Hyde, though, was perhaps the catalyst for it all, as the youngster explains: “It came at a crucial time in my development. I went there aged 17 and it was my first bash at men’s football, competitive football.
“It was massive in making me toughen up and enabling me to produce what I’m capable of now. It was an enjoyable time. I signed two days before my debut.
“And within 20 minutes I’d been smashed in the face with an elbow.
“I had a big black eye and ended up in A&E that night. That was my first taste of it and at half-time the lads in the dressing room said to me ‘welcome to non-league football’.
“I could hardly see but I played the full 90 minutes, scored two and set one up. From that moment on I knew I was going to enjoy it. I could have turned around and said ‘this ain’t for me’ but I rose to it.
“As soon as I got smashed in the face I wanted to smash the player that did it. That’s just the way I’ve been brought up.” Little wonder then that it was water off a duck’s back when Calvert-Lewin was booed and jeered at Anfield after going down under Dejan Lovren’s push to enable Wayne Rooney to equalise from the spot.
“That’s football,” he said. “I’m playing at the top level now so I’m bound to be put under the microscope. I don’t react to what’s going on outside the game.
“I just focus on what’s happening on the pitch. Whether it’s soft or not, it’s a penalty. I’ve felt contact in the box and that’s that. In terms of the reaction, I can’t do much about that.”
Bubbling
Bumping into Jamie Carragher the following day kept the controversy bubbling with the former Liverpool star tweeting a picture of the pair with a fabricated caption saying the youngster admitted he had dived. “It wasn’t ideal, I didn’t expect to see him and of all the people you’d choose to see at that time it wouldn’t have been him!” said Calvert- Lewin. “But it was all light-hearted. He asked me for the picture and it would have been rude to say no!” Calvert-Lewin has played in all but one of Everton’s 29 games so far this season, but with new manager Sam Allardyce seeking attacking reinforcements in January and the summer, is the youngster worried? “There is only one answer to that question and that is to rise to the challenge.” PAUL CLEMENT is desperate to leave Sam Allardyce empty-handed again tomorrow night – for the third time in little more than a year. The Swansea City manager has made a habit of denying Big Sam his little heart’s desire. Now, he can make it a hattrick of disappointments for the Everton gaffer by earning priceless points at Goodison Park for the Premier League’s bottom club. It was 18 months ago that Allardyce was left holding nothing after he made a grab for then Bayern Munich assistant Clement to join him with England. “Sam had asked me to join him as assistant with the England national team,” Clement recalls. “We were so close to working with each other, but Bayern said ‘no’. So Sam appointed Craig Shakespeare. “That lasted one game and now Craig has got back working again with Sam. It just shows how the path of football travels sometimes. But I don’t see it as dodging a bullet. “It was always only going to be a part-time role. I was not going to leave Bayern. “I was disappointed, but I understood. Bayern wanted me to concentrate solely on them and rightly so with a club of that size. “But I was disappointed because it would have been a great honour to work with the national team.” The pair next met in Clement’s first game in charge of the Swans last season – just after Allardyce had taken over at Crystal Palace. The Swans won 2-1 at Selhurst Park, sparking the kind of revival Clement now needs to inspire all over again to avoid the drop.