ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley, who has been reporting on the Blues throughout their USA trip, brings you his tour diary from Atlanta
ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley has covered Everton and Liverpool both in the Premier League and abroad since 2005. He cut his teeth in professional sports journalism at the Ellesmere Port Pioneer and then the Welsh edition of the Daily Post, where he also covered Manchester United. Prior to that he worked on the student newspaper Pluto at the University of Central Lancashire, a role in which he first encountered David Moyes. Chris is well-known for his sartorial elegance and the aforementioned Scottish manager once enquired of him at a press conference: "Is that your dad's suit you've got on?" while the tradition continued in 2023 with new Blues boss Sean Dyche complimenting him on his smart appearance.
Charly Alcaraz and Vitalii Mykolenko during an Everton training session in Atlanta
Charly Alcaraz and Vitalii Mykolenko during an Everton training session in Atlanta on the club's US tour
(Image: Tony McArdle/Everton FC Official Photography Library/SmartFrame)
It doesn’t matter where you travel to, seemingly wherever you go in the world, you are likely to bump into a Scouser.
On this trip, with Everton touring the USA, it happens all the time. When chatting to this correspondent, a high-ranking member of the Blues staff – and he meant this as a major compliment, told me that Evertonians “are always there.”
The unofficial capital of the south, training in Atlanta is enabling Everton to pick up the Pace – literally – ahead of their final fixture in the Premier League Summer Series. After starting out at Icahn Stadium on New York City’s Randalls Island, the Blues – who just flew into Chicago for the West Ham United game – have been based down in Georgia.
Their sessions have been taking place at Walsh Field, a sports facility located at Pace Academy's Riverview Sports Complex, which is some 10 miles out from downtown Atlanta, a similar distance that Everton’s Finch Farm is from Liverpool city centre. Pace Academy itself, a private school, is located eight miles down the road and Walsh Field opened in August 2014, after a capital campaign for a new upper school exceeded $35 million, and they used the extra funds to build a new stadium and track.
“They’re all billionaires,” claimed one of the USA-based Evertonian observers. There were certainly plenty of blue bloods present, but they weren’t necessarily the high society type.
Plenty of them were chatty and the nature of modern journalism and podcast exposure ensures that this correspondent was already recognisable to many and several casual conversations sprang up in between me recording a Facebook live video of the session that lasted for over an hour. One of the biggest characters I came across was Paul Cushion, who hails from L4, just a Jordan Pickford punt from Goodison Park, having grown up on Roxburgh Street.
Given his accent, I thought he’d come over from there last week for the trip like so many other Merseyside-based Blues, but it turns out he’s lived in the USA for around 40 years, is now settled in Atlanta, and I got to meet his American children, daughter Kendall – named after Everton’s most-successful manager, who Paul told me wrote him a lovely letter when informed of the decision – and son Graeme, after legendary striker Sharp, who is second only to Dixie Dean when it came to the number of goals he scored for the club.
As we all know, David Moyes’ men have been unable to give their large and loyal travelling fanbase much to cheer about on matchdays while taking part in the Premier League Summer Series, but as well as the games, these passionate supporters are also turning out in droves when access is granted for these sessions and they’re enthusiastic and good humoured about meeting their heroes, who have been generous with the time when it comes to going down the lines, signing autographs and posing for selfies, which is a great sign.
Although training started around 10am, temperatures were already north of the 30-degree mark and several of the squad took advantage of using the on-site ice baths after they had finished. Everton are never going to give away any footballing ‘state secrets’ when it comes to tactics on these occasions when the public are let in but several of their players looked particularly sharp, with young Isaac Heath capturing the eye in particular with some clinical finishing while Adam Aznou, the club’s latest signing, took part having now joined up with his new team-mates.
When the Blues got back to their hotel afterwards, they were given some down time and looking resplendent in his golf attire, England number one Jordan Pickford chose to go out and brave the by now sweltering conditions to go play a round – after all we are in the state that each year hosts the US Masters. Such breaks are only fair for the players who have been taking part in various initiatives with local communities throughout the trip, but the same also goes for Everton’s travelling staff who have been working hard throughout.
As mentioned in my last tour diary, more than 15 volunteers – including fans from Chicago Evertonians and across the US as well as visiting staff from various departments at Everton – came together at the city’s largest food bank to help pack boxes for distribution through food assistance programmes that support low-income families.
This was no mere photo opportunity to merely appear to be helping out and making a token effort as figures calculating the tangible difference that Blues employees made have become available.
Their repack session saw them handle some 14,400 lbs of apples, which is 4,320 households served and means they each served 87 households per volunteer. They also processed 1,850 lbs of beans and 2,550lbs of pasta, which is 1,891 households served, and means they each served 53 households per volunteer.
Moyes was right back in 2002. That truly is “The People’s Club.”