Seamus Coleman: Everton defender on believing ‘future is bright’

Coleman signed a one-year contract extension last month and said there has never been a time when he wanted to leave the club. After breaking his leg in 2017, the offer of a new five-year deal remained on the table without any changes.

This will be Everton’s final season at their Goodison Park home before moving to Bramley-Moore Dock for the start of the 2025-26 campaign.

Coleman says: “This club is massive and it’s just waiting for things to click into place. It has to be right off the pitch too as well as on it, but the gaffer has been steady, solid and calm.

“I’m getting a bit older but I want to feel that I’ve played a part in weathering the storm and Everton kicking on to the new stadium and being a giant of the club again.”

New owners are also on the horizon, with the Friedkin Group agreeing to buy the club from Farhad Moshiri and Coleman is hoping it can kick-start a period of success.

“I was lucky enough to play in some European nights under Roberto [Martinez],” he says. “We went to Kiev and we lost a game we probably should not have lost.

“But you don’t realise how lucky you have it until it is gone and you are watching the West Hams in Europe and thinking: ‘Oh, that was us. Were we taking that for granted?’ Yeah, we probably did.

“So we need to make sure that when we get these times back – and I fully believe we will – and if we get things run properly then the football club is too big not to be successful again.

“We have all had a tough time being Evertonians, but we have got to believe that the future’s bright. We have to.”