Everton Notebook: Blues correspondent Joe Thomas with the latest news from around the club
Seamus Coleman of Everton goes off for Ashley Young during the Premier League match between Everton and Southampton. Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images
Seamus Coleman of Everton goes off for Ashley Young during the Premier League match between Everton and Southampton. Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images
David Moyes faces one of the toughest challenges of his managerial career with Everton this summer. The club enters this summer with hopes that new ownership will provide stability behind-the-scenes while the move to the Hill Dickinson Stadium should boost the Blues’ reputation, revenue and appeal to the new signings Moyes will need to strengthen his squad in line with the ambitions of The Friedkin Group and supporters.
With that expectation - intensified after his transformative impact on a squad that looked destined for a relegation fight when he took over in January - comes additional pressure though.
For Moyes, the test over the coming months is to protect the characteristics that enabled Everton to surge away from trouble and finish with three consecutive wins, while making room for players who will improve what his squad is capable of.
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Key to his mindset this summer is leadership. Moyes is aware he will need strong characters in the dressing room, not just to set standards but also to impress the responsibility of wearing Royal Blue on new recruits and to help the move from Goodison to the banks of the Mersey - something he is concerned could prove tough.
This is one of the reasons he is keen for Seamus Coleman to stay on as a player next season. Moyes is not naive, he is aware the defender will turn 37 this year and that his body has prevented him from sustained availability yet again this season. After starting the Boxing Day draw at Manchester City, Coleman was unavailable for weeks. Twenty minutes into the Goodison farewell against Southampton that he had been protected for, he had to be withdrawn.
But manager after manager has spoken of the value of Coleman off the pitch and several, most notably Frank Lampard, have stressed the importance of his influence as a bridge between the stands and the squad. Amid a miserable start to this season it was Coleman’s words in the dressing room that prompted the second half comeback against Crystal Palace, Everton’s first win of the campaign.
Moyes has been impressed with the leadership within the squad he inherited from Sean Dyche. But a complex summer that began with 15 senior players on expiring deals has seen the departure of two of the stars whose impact Moyes was grateful for - Ashley Young and Asmir Begovic.
For some time it has been clear Coleman will have the chance to extend his stay at Everton for another year, but with the defender having supported former teammate Leighton Baines in the dugout after Dyche’s exit and already boasting his coaching qualifications, it was unclear in what capacity he would stay, should he choose to remain.
Coleman is one of several players whose future the club is yet to confirm, but Moyes has already made his personal preference clear.
“The plan is to keep him on a playing contract”, he said before the win over Southampton. “But we'll decide when we need to use him and when we won't. It might change, obviously Seamus is getting much further down the road and he's picked up a lot of injuries, so we'll see what fits, but generally he'll be staying next season.”
Moyes added: “We'll need people who understand the characteristics and culture, but we're also going to have to change as well. We have to move forward and we have to find ways of becoming a better side and being a better team. That's part of football. But we don't want to lose good people, we don't want to lose good characters and we want to retain the good things if we can.”
Jordan Pickford: “We’re going to lose some great servants”
With Coleman absent through injury at Newcastle United on Sunday, it was Jordan Pickford who took the armband at the ground where he is subject to the greatest attention. Speaking after another impressive clean sheet, he also alluded to the loss of leaders that will come with the squad overhaul this summer.
He told club media: “We're going to lose some great servants of the club, great leaders in the team, but it's about, like the manager said, the other lads picking it up, picking the pieces and moving on… It’s always an honour to captain Everton,” he continued. “And, you know, when Seamus is not available and Tarks isn’t, you've got to step up and it's something I'm really proud of and I know I've always been a leader. Everyone leads in different ways.
“But as well, there wasn't much of a team talk before the game. It was more the gaffer just said to show character. And I think that's what we did.”
Like Moyes in his post-match press conference, Pickford hopes the momentum gained in recent weeks can be carried through the summer. Players and staff are well aware of the need to start life at the new stadium well.
He said: “There was no pressure on the game, but that's not the level. The level was what we went out and showed today. And as a team performance, it was a great one to finish on.
“That is the standard and it's about continuing next season and it's about starting well – not getting the results at Christmas through to May.
"It’s about sustaining that momentum throughout the season. And when we take hits, it's how we bounce back as a team. And that's what the manager will be driving next season.”
James Tarkowski earns European recognition
Pickford was handed the captaincy not just in the absence of Coleman but also of centre back James Tarkowski as he continues his recovery from hamstring surgery. The talismanic defender - responsible for the sensational stoppage time equaliser in the last Goodison derby this season - may have missed the last month of the campaign but that has not stopped him from joining some impressive company in the Who Scored? team of the year - for the whole of Europe.
Based on the average ratings collated by the statistics site, which has almost one million followers on X alone, Tarkowski ended up in a back three of RB Leipzig’s Willi Orban and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk. The 32-year-old’s average rating trumped both of those and landed Tarkowski in a star-studded team that included Barcelona’s teen prodigy Lamine Yamal as well as Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe.
‘Contract Dave’ set to leave Manchester United
Former Everton director of football operations David Harrison - fondly known as ‘Contract Dave’ - is leaving Manchester United amid restructuring behind-the-scenes at the club. Harrison spent 27 years at the Blues, finishing in the role he went to take at Old Trafford back in February 2023.
He was based at the Carrington Training Centre and took responsibility for football operations for the men’s, women’s and academy teams.
But he is now one of several senior figures set to depart, according to the Training Ground Guru website.
Harrison’s face became familiar to generations of Blues with him typically being the club official sat next to players in the photographs distributed to announce new signings and contract extensions.