Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas brings you his latest tour diary from Hamburg as the Blues continue their preparations for the new season
Everton beat Hamburg on Saturday evening
Everton beat Hamburg on Saturday evening
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Everton will leave Hamburg for their week-long training camp with spirits lifted after a useful win on a positive weekend for the club.
Results do not matter in pre-season but that cliche, while holding some truth, was beginning to wear thin after the failure to score against either Bolton Wanderers or Stoke City and the calm that had followed the flurry of transfer activity that had greeted the arrival of July and the new football financial year.
Everton made progress on both fronts to end an entertaining weekend with some much-needed momentum ahead of more fitness work before a friendly in Stuttgart.
There was a dose of fortune about how victory was achieved by David Moyes’ side, with Braiden Graham pouncing on a loose pass from the back before watching as his stoppage time cross was steered into his own net by Jordan Torunarigha.
Patson Daka had levelled at the start of the second half as his arrival off the bench was the catalyst for several good chances for the hosts, who had been behind at the break due to Thierno Barry’s good work and a neat finish by Merlin Rohl.
Both players are having good summers and their combination after 40 minutes is the only goal of Everton’s six during pre-season that has not come from an opposition mistake or a hefty deflection. That being said, the offside call that ruled out Barry’s finish from Rohl’s cross at Bolton was contentious.
Aside from the impact of Rohl and Barry, there were other positives. This was Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s best game of the off-season while Hayden Hackney and Jarrad Branthwaite continued their progress towards full fitness after difficult injuries.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in action for Everton against Hamburg
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in action for Everton against Hamburg
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The mood after the final whistle was, therefore, a positive one as Everton’s men and women’s teams posed together for a photo in front of the away end. Scott Phelan’s side had earlier overcome Hamburg Women, Ornello Vignola’s second half strike the difference in a good performance in the team’s first friendly of the summer.
The game marked the return to the squad of captain Megan Finnigan after the ACL injury that decimated last season for a popular figure whose presence in the dressing room will be welcomed by Phelan and his team. Several of the seven new signings made positive contributions, including Noemie Mouchon, the striker signed from Leicester City.
That Foxes connection was apparent in the mixed zone after the football had finished, with Daka and Dewsbury-Hall enjoying a long conversation. The pair played together at Leicester and Daka, a new signing for HSV, had this week told local journalists how the pair had become close at the King Power Stadium. Among those reporters was an Everton supporter whose phone case carried the iconic Prince Rupert’s Tower in the press box at the Volksparkstadion, where Saturday’s game was the centre of a fan festival and the release of the club’s new away kit - the reason Hamburg played in blue, not white - though the stadium also paused for reflection as both sides paid tribute to Kevin Keegan following his death last month.
There was applause around the ground as “Mighty Mouse”, a Liverpool legend who won the Ballon d’Or twice at Hamburg, was honoured on big screens inside the stadium. Before kick-off, former Everton players Graham Stuart and Phil Jagielka laid an Everton shirt dedicated to him among tributes outside the ground.
Kevin Keegan at Hamburg
Kevin Keegan during his time at Hamburg(Image: Action Images )
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During the pause between games, the chief reporter told me he had fallen in love with the Blues while watching them win the 1984 FA Cup final - and was in Rotterdam the following year for the European Cup Winners’ Cup win. His first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium was the collapse against Sunderland that has since cast a shadow over the summer, however.
This win might not salve the hangover caused by the club’s seven-game winless run at the end of last season, a streak that cost Everton a place in Europe. But the news that broke during it has improved morale, with the advancing move for Christian Norgaard greeted with general positivity.
The Arsenal player may not be the biggest name nor, at 32, the type of young, dynamic, emerging enforcer craved by supporters but there is widespread recognition his addition would be a shrewd addition. Norgaard, sent off for a challenge on Jordan Pickford when Brentford visited Goodison Park in her final season - though that was later rescinded, is an experienced international who was part of the Premier League-winning squad and at £7m looks a cost-effective, low-risk solution to a problem that was again clear on Saturday as the Bundesliga side exploited a fragility in Everton’s midfield.
Christian Norgaard
Christian Norgaard (Image: (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images))
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The hope is that more arrivals will follow and the pursuit of Norgaard and confirmation Everton had enquired with Celtic about right back Alistair Johnston suggests the coming weeks could be busy as the new season fast approaches, with Everton expected to explore the sales of fringe players. The club will also have to deal with any developments over Iliman Ndiaye, who the club does not want to lose but accept is the subject of interest from Al-Hilal and others.
For now, the priority remains a right back and that much was clear as Everton supporters filled a courtyard bar near the famous St Pauli fish market on the city’s waterfront on Friday night.
While the delayed addition of a player to end a years-long problem was a talking point, the late arrival of special guest speakers Stuart and Jagielka for Das Toffeefest was greeted with approval given the wait was the catalyst for two free rounds of beer for everyone in attendance - on top of the free welcome pint.
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The delay was filled by a typically surreal and madcap edition of Bongos Bingo as Jonny Bongo delivered a frantic show that saw Blues win, amongst other things, a blue Henry Hoover vacuum, signed Everton shirts, a space hopper and cardboard cutouts of Moyes, Jagielka, Seamus Coleman, Jordan Pickford and Just Stop Oil activist Louis McKechnie, who was jailed for tying himself to a goalpost at Goodison during the match with Newcastle United in 2022.
The party atmosphere became a focal point as passers-by stopped to film the Blues as they erupted in full voice throughout proceedings at UberQuell. When Stuart and Jagielka arrived they proved popular guests but the show was stolen by former Hamburg goalkeeper Richard Golz.
Golz, who had been enjoying the festivities from the start-time, reflected on what he had seen over previous hours and declared: “I have to say I am completely and deeply impressed about the atmosphere here. I have been sitting here since 6.30pm, I have had several beers and I have enjoyed this crowd get lost in bingo, I don’t know why, but this is f***ing great.”