“I feel good,” says Seamus Coleman with a smile, as he gears up for his 16th and perhaps last season as an Everton player.
In June, the Irishman ended speculation over his future — and potential retirement — by extending his contract at Goodison for a further year.
It was a popular decision from a popular figure. Speak to many, and Coleman is Everton to the extent where the two are increasingly hard to disentangle.
But such is his affiliation to the club, Coleman would only have chosen to sign a new deal if he felt he had something left to give, particularly on the pitch.
Off it, he remains a reference point; the one that welcomes new signings, gives sage-like advice, sets standards and delivers rallying cries. On it, he is still keeping pace, even at 35.
It says a great deal about his consistency that a long-term successor at right-back is still to emerge. Opportunities are still there.
“I don’t feel like a 24-year-old flying right-back anymore but I don’t feel as though people are skipping past me in training all the time,” Coleman says at Everton’s pre-season training camp in Ireland.
“I feel like I have an influence in certain games or just around the place. I also enjoy what the gaffer (Sean Dyche) has brought. He’s had a tough job with everything that’s gone on and he’s dealt with it well. He’s stripped it back: work hard, roll your sleeves up and everyone buys in.
“That’s what I’m about as well. I don’t want any excuses — just crack on. It’s a good bunch of lads. Tarky (James Tarkowski), Ashley (Young), Jordan (Pickford) have been great. So I’m enjoying it.”
Coleman, right, with Jack Harrison and a young fan at Everton’s training camp in Ireland (Tony McArdle/Everton)
Bizarrely, given his advancing years, the decision to play on was easier this time than it was 12 months ago.
With Dyche at the helm, Coleman feels better times are just around the corner. Points deductions aside, Everton would have finished within touching distance of a top-half finish last season.
“I probably felt more confident in how we finished the season as a group,” he says. “Because there’s no getting away with it: you live and breathe it. It’d be tough to be associated with the club getting relegated and that was hanging over me a bit too. The year before was tough — we didn’t know where we were — but I felt proud of the group last year.
“We got credit from some but on a wider level, we got two points deductions. We’ve done something that no other Everton players have had to do.”
Hailing from County Donegal in Ireland and signed for £60,000 from Sligo Rovers in 2009, Coleman now speaks with the passion of a lifelong Everton fan. He shares the same gripes and frustrations, and the last couple of seasons battling relegation have taken their toll.
He describes the night of the Crystal Palace game that secured Everton’s survival in the 2022-23 season as “horrible”. “Then the Bournemouth game (in 2023-24), we were a kick away from being relegated.”
In that context, keeping a check on the emotion seemed like the hardest task in the world. But he and his team-mates had to find a way through.
“The last few years have been tough for everyone around Everton,” he says. “There’s frustration… bits of everything. But you’ve got a job to do and can’t get sucked in by the emotion, ill feeling, whatever is going on.
“I can’t park it. That’s my character. It’s always there and it’s all in or nothing. It wasn’t until we had the last two or three years that I fully realised how massive this club is to people. I know it sounds extreme but the people I have seen and talked to live for Everton. It’s important when I need to speak to the group, I can use that emotion and because they may not see it every day like I do.”
The bonds between Coleman, the fans and the club run deep. Yet he is keen to point out there is no great secret to his success other than hard work and a desire to impress.
Coleman, right, training in Ireland with new signing Iliman Ndiaye, left, and Youssef Chermiti (Tony McArdle/Everton)
“It (the response) is humbling, but I would also say for any of the lads: work hard, respect your club and you get that in return,” he says. “It is not like I am Leighton Baines and I am getting 20 assists a season. I just give it my all.
“Everton took me as a 20-year-old lad and looked after me. I broke my leg in 2017 and a five-year contract with no changes was still in front of me the next day. Not many clubs do that, so it goes both ways. It makes me want to give back.”
Talk turns to the future. His future and that of the club.
These are interesting times for Everton, who are scheduled to move into their new 53,000-capacity waterfront stadium in just over a year. The takeover process remains unresolved, with the chronically unsuccessful owner Farhad Moshiri seeking a way out.
How it’s going ➡️ How it’s going to be 🤩 pic.twitter.com/Q8pY6pb8X4
— Everton Stadium (@EvertonStadium) July 13, 2024
Finally, after years in the doldrums, he senses green shoots of recovery are tangible under Dyche’s leadership.
“It’s very exciting with the new stadium,” Coleman says. “This club is massive and it’s just waiting for things to click into place. It has to be right off the pitch too as well as on it, but the gaffer has been steady and calm.
“I just think he gets it. There’s no bull****. I’ve been around long enough to know the fans don’t want to see 100 passes across the back. They want tackles. They want to make Goodison horrible to come to. I do think some of that is coming back, maybe like times under (David) Moyes.
“He (Dyche) says it how it is. I’m very confident in him and I think we can have a good season.”
The prospect of playing in the new stadium, too, remains a significant draw. Though whether Coleman gets there is still unclear.
Coleman passes on some words of advice to Dwight McNeil (Tony McArdle/Everton)
“When you get to my stage, it’s nearly one week or one day at a time,” he says. “You see where you are next season and if we all feel I’m in a good place then possibly. For now, it’s just making sure we get there as safely as possible and have a good season. It’s going to be emotional because Goodison is very special and will be missed.”
He is keen to remain in the game once he finishes playing, with a move into coaching one avenue being explored.
Coleman holds the UEFA A and B coaching badges and has an open invitation to join Baines, now manager of Everton Under-18s, to take in academy sessions and continue his tutelage.
The hope is that Everton are stable enough this season for him to finally take up his former team-mate’s offer.
“Leighton has been great and said to come and do sessions whenever I want,” Coleman says. “But the way the last three seasons have been, I’m not one that can train until 1pm and then just forget that result that happened on Saturday.
“Maybe it’s a weakness because I can’t separate it. So I’ve not got as much coaching as I’d like. But, please God, things can be a bit more settled this season and I can go down and Leighton can show me the ropes a little bit.
“I would like to stay at Everton (as a coach) if it was right, not because I’ve played for 16 years. It would have to be right for me and right for the club.”
That is for another day. The task at hand is to try to bow out from Goodison on a high and help create a sense of momentum before the move into the new stadium.
There, Coleman’s characteristic positivity and love for the club shine through once again.
“I’m getting a bit older but I want to feel that I’ve played a part in weathering the storm and Everton kicking on to the new stadium and being a giant of a club again,” he says.
“We can’t just go into the stadium with no ambition, we need to decide what the next four or five years are going to look like.
“The club is far too big — of course, things have to be run properly — not to be successful again. We’ve all had a tough time, but we have got to believe that the future’s bright. We have to.”
(Top photo: Tony McArdle/Everton FC)