Everton manager Frank Lampard remains tight-lipped about the prospect of signing Conor Coady on a permanent basis but insists the on-loan Wolverhampton Wanderers defender “knows how I feel about him.” Despite being club captain at Molineux for the past five years, the former Liverpool defender was allowed to return to his native Merseyside in August in a season-long loan.
Everton are understood to have an option to buy the 29-year-old England international at the end of the current campaign with reports suggesting the fee could be as low as £4.5million. Asked whether he’d requested to sign Coady permanently, Lampard said: “It’s not probably a question for now, it’s so far away, a lot can happen.
"Conor has been really, really good to maybe understate it since he’s been here. He’s been amazing in terms of his own performances and in terms of his influence on the team, on and off the pitch. I think that’s really visible.
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“There’s a long season to go and Conor knows how I feel about him and I think Conor knows how the club feels about him and he’s said a lot himself but I don’t think it’s time for that, I think it’s just good that we’re working together. He’s settled in really quickly, I know what my feeling is, and we’ll see.”
Coady is credited with being one of the new recruits who have improved the character within Everton’s squad this season but while Lampard is encouraged with the progress that has been made, he insisted there was still a long way to go. He said: “I think it’s good to understand it. I think there were times when I came in that people were very negative about some of the recruitment situations.
“Now it’s really positive that people are feeling good about it. There are so many small parts to that and it’s too simplistic to say ‘oh, great recruitment now’, I think it’s making sure that we brought the right people in and I suppose that’s a part of the good recruitment but also the work on the training ground to improve.
“Last year we came in during a very tense situation and had to fight our way out of a relegation fight and now we’ve maybe had some time to work with more confidence, less tension in a positive direction and the players have bought into that. There are lots of nice parts to it but it’s still very early, we’ve got two wins on the board and we’ve still got more to do so I feel bad when I talk too much, it’s just some good work that we want to continue.”
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