The financial cost of suffering relegation from the Premier League is estimated to be over £100million so in that respect, Everton stopping the rot with a 3-0 victory over Leeds United could prove to be priceless if it becomes a watershed moment in what so far has been a deeply troubled season.
There were many players in the home side who upped their game to deliver a long-overdue three points for the Blues in Frank Lampard’s first Premier League fixture at Goodison Park but a couple heroes came from particularly unlikely sources.
One of the initial changes the former Derby County and Chelsea boss made following his appointment was to switch to a 3-4-3 formation but injuries to centre-backs in both of Lampard’s first two games in charge – Ben Godfrey against Brentford and Yerry Mina at Newcastle United – forced him into a tactical reshuffled for Leeds’ visit and a return to a flat back four.
This meant of course the deployment of a couple of full-backs in more orthodox roles.
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Two of predecessor Rafa Benitez’s final acts as Everton manager before he was sacked following the 2-1 defeat to bottom club Norwich City last month was to splash out almost £30million on full-back pair Vitalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson.
Although both fees with officially undisclosed, the Ukrainian international’s move from Dynamo Kyiv is understood to have been £18million while the Blues are reported to have paid Rangers £11.5million, potentially rising to £16million for their Scottish international.
Going forward, Mykolenko and Patterson may well prove to be Everton’s long-term options in their respective positions but right now others are doing the job and carrying it out with great efficiency.
While 20-year-old Patterson is yet to make his debut – Lampard said of him in his pre-match press conference to preview the Leeds United game: “The club have signed him for the future as well as the now” – Mykolenko’s absence at the weekend ensured at least one of the Blues’ naturally right-sided full-backs was going to have to switch flanks.
Seamus Coleman had drawn the short straw in that respect at home to Brighton & Hove Albion in the first fixture of the calendar year – a game in which Benitez chose to leave the ultimately Aston Villa-bound Lucas Digne on the bench – with Jonjoe Kenny on the opposite side against the Seagulls.
That proved a difficult afternoon for both the team as a whole and their captain in particular as he was asked to reprise an auxiliary role that brought back painful memories of his baptism of fire debut in the position when Everton suffered a club record European defeat 5-0 at Benfica back in 2009.
This time around it was Kenny who moved over and despite being a square peg in a round hole, the Finch Farm Academy graduate coped admirably.
Hailing a mere Jordan Pickford punt from Goodison, here is a player who those in the stand recognise as one of their own.
Back in 2016, when Kenny was first breaking through, he told the ECHO : “It’s over the road from mine so to play here it’s a dream come true.”
Loan spells with Schalke and Celtic have been and gone and turning 25 next month, Kenny can no longer be considered a youthful prospect, indeed he’s older than captain Kevin Ratcliffe was when he lifted the League Championship and European Cup-Winners’ Cup trophies in 1985.
Some five-and-a-half years on it might be more ‘end of the road’ for him at Everton as he enters the final few months of a contract that expires in the summer but the player dubbed ‘The Kirkdale Cafu’ not entirely tongue-in-cheek in the press box on Saturday given his encouraging display, isn’t going to give up without a fight.
When it comes to that ‘never-say-die’ spirit, skipper Coleman has always led the Blues by example.
Lampard himself said last week of his captain that he: “has been so impressive since I’ve been here, and obviously for a long time at the club.”
Still going strong in his 34th year, the man whose bargain price tag from Sligo Rovers is immortalised through Everton fans’ “Sixty Grand” song, is now back on the goal trail some 1017 days after he previously hit the net against Burnley on May 3, 2019.
The way Coleman flung his head out among the flying boots to nod across the line against Leeds United was reminiscent of some of Goodison’s bravest centre-forwards like Dixie Dean, Tommy Lawton, Dave Hickson, Joe Royle, Bob Latchford and Andy Gray, never mind a ‘mere’ full-back.
The long-term successor to the famously goalless Tony Hibbert, the man Killybegs, County Donegal revolutionised the position at the Blues and would chip in regularly during his pomp, including seven in Roberto Martinez’s first season in 2013/14.
Those days may now be behind him but Coleman has seen off more than his fair share of pretenders to his throne – including Djibril Sidibe who possesses a World Cup winners’ medal – so you’d be foolish to write him off just yet.
