Seamus Coleman candid interview on Everton’s new stadium, European return and contract dilemma

“It wasn’t until I had the last two or three years that I fully realized and understood how massive this football club is for people. For certain families and people, no matter what they’re going through, this is massive for their lives. I know it sounds extreme, but the people I’ve seen and spoken to live for Everton. That gets them out of bed one morning. It’s important to feel that, and when I have to talk to the group, I can use that emotion and let them feel it because they might not see it every day like I do.”

Seamus Coleman doesn’t know the point at which he became more than just a player at Everton. He is aware that he occupies a unique position, that he is seen as a bridge between the dressing room and the stands. But as five years on Merseyside turned into 10, and now 15, he can’t quite pinpoint when or why, a relationship that helped protect Everton turned into something so rare and so special in the game modern.

He’s too humble to think it has anything to do with his ability on the field. “It’s not like I’m Leighton Baines and I’m getting 20 assists a season,” he said in a moment of reflection in the lobby of the hotel used by Everton in their pre-season camp in Ireland, adding: “It’s not like and how I was the most talented player to put on an Everton shirt, I worked really hard, I respected my managers, I respected my Everton badge and in return I think Evertonians respect that and, you know, they just want to see people giving. all theirs.”

What he believes was important is his decision to stay at Liverpool during his Everton career. Instead of putting distance between the house and the intensity of the city’s love affair with its football clubs, he embraced it. The consequence was an insight into the world in which supporters live. It’s an insight he has used to great effect during the hardships the Everton fan base has endured as the club has been hit by off-the-field problems and three successive relegation battles. This one. He said: “It’s a special club full of hardworking and honest people like the fans. There are times when it’s hard and I tell you the home truths. But don’t we all need that sometimes?”

When hope threatened to turn to despair, it was these experiences that the club captain drew on for the emotional speeches that unlocked the extra strength needed to maintain Everton’s top-flight status.

Such a role did not come naturally to him, but cemented his status as a legend both in the dressing room and in the stands. “I think we all dipped into whatever powers we could use,” he said. “And I go back to the last three years because they were the toughest. And mine was what I touched, I used to live in the city and I’d get, just going out – to a play park on a Sunday or going to get milk on a Monday – I’d bump into Evertonians and they’d screw up. their messages and it felt natural then to do it, whether I had done it calmly or emotionally or whatever, and it just fell into place. I don’t actively seek any recognition for it, for them things that came naturally to me. And I wouldn’t say there is any moment. I think, you know, as club captain, those are things you’re going to have to do.”

That influence was as crucial to Frank Lampard’s declaration Coleman is one of the best men he’s ever met as it was to the huge banner unfurled at Goodison honoring his presence. Football icons and football fans alike can attest to its value. The margins were so slim – the late comeback in the final week of the season against Crystal Palace, Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal against Bournemouth on the final day of the following season – that there is credence to the idea that Coleman’s ‘superpower’ could have been. the difference between survival and relegation. He felt the weight of this responsibility. He said: “I go back to Palace night, it was horrible. Then the Bournemouth game, we were one shot away from relegation. It’s a lot of pressure. But I can’t park. This is my character. It’s always there and it’s all or nothing.”

That has always been the case for the player who in January overtook Tim Howard as Everton’s most capped Premier League player. Although his public appearances are far from regular, it is not uncommon to hear him say that his family and the club are “his world”.

This week, those worlds will converge on the west coast of Ireland, where Coleman grew up and began his football career. His club will be traveling to his family’s domain for the first time and emotions are expected to run high when Everton take to the pitch at Sligo Rovers – the club that received the infamous ’60k’ transfer fee now regarded as one of the most good deals from the Premier League era. While he’s not one for the limelight, he thinks he’s lucky that so many people who have been so important to his development will have a shared experience on their doorstep.

He said: “It’s very special. When I left Sligo Rovers to go to Everton, I was a young, shy, reserved, out of my depth player. I return as club captain, someone who has played over 400 games for the club. I’m not one to stop and look at what I’ve done, because if you do that you lose your appetite and hunger, but it gave me some time to reflect on a crazy trip. The people of Sligo, Killybegs and Donegal are so excited about it. It’s an opportunity we won’t get again and we handled it brilliantly. I’m lucky he did.” Before the dust settles on his return, the release of a club documentary about his career will thrust the protagonists of his development back into the spotlight. A poignant, classy production oozes respect for Coleman – much of which is based on his own humility and respect for the people who have supported his journey.

This journey and that journey will continue for at least another year after the 35-year-old signed a new contract with the club last month, one that will take him into a 16th year on Merseyside. When he wrote an extension 12 months ago, he spoke of the difficulty he had in deciding what to do. He watched his grueling second relegation battle from the stands after picking up a horrific knee injury in the draw at Leicester City in the closing weeks of the campaign. As he was carried off the pitch in agony, attention turned to the fans, Coleman pumping his fist to galvanize the away end at a crucial moment.

The decision to stay on seems to have been easier this year though. He explained: “I probably felt more confident about how we ended the season as a group. Because there’s no escaping it. You live it and breathe it, it’s your life. So it would be difficult to be associated with the relegation of the club and that was hanging over me a bit. The year before was tough – we didn’t know where we were – but I felt proud of the group last year. I felt I got credit from some, but on a wider level, I got two a lot of deductions and the group of players and the manager did something that no other player at Everton had to do. It’s a lot of pressure and I understand that. Maybe because we got the points back so quickly, people thought it wasn’t a talking point, but I was really proud of the group.”

To some extent, then, the condition of the club is as important as the strength of his body when it comes to considering his future. He said: “I’m getting a bit old but I want to feel I’ve played a part in weathering the storm and Everton going into the new stadium and being a giant of a club again.” Playing in the new stadium is “not a burning ambition”, he added: “When you get on my stage, it’s almost a week or a day at a time. See where you are next season and if we all feel like I’m in a good place then maybe. But for now it’s just about making sure we get there as safe as possible and have a good season. It will be an emotional season because Goodison is very special and will be missed.”

He has done his coaching badges and would consider following friend and former team-mate Baines into the backroom staff at Finch Farm, but insists he would only want to be there if he was there on merit and not on feelings. And for now, his thoughts are on the future of his club rather than his career, with the Republic of Ireland hero adamant that the new stadium should be a gateway to a bright new future. He said: “I’ve been lucky enough to play on some European nights… You don’t realize how lucky you are until it’s gone and you’re watching West Hams in Europe and you think, oh, that was us , do we take this for granted? Yes, I probably did. So we have to make sure that when we come back in these times, and I fully believe we will, the football club is much too big – of course things have to be run right – but if we make things work right , then the football club is too big to stop being successful. We have all had a difficult time being Evertonians but we have to believe that the future is bright. We have to.”

• SEAMUS – The documentary will be launched on the Everton FC YouTube channel at 12pm on Sunday 21st July