Seamus Coleman departs an Everton icon. A one-off. So this is farewell - for now

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There is, to be frank, much sadness in that. For many associated with the club, Coleman has come to be seen as the living, breathing embodiment of modern Everton. The conduit between players and fans. As such, it has become increasingly hard to detach one from the other; to imagine an Everton without Coleman. While most of his team-mates choose to live further away in a glitzy Cheshire bubble, he has remained in Liverpool’s southern suburbs — first in Aigburth, then Woolton. It has been common to see the Irishman and his young family in cafes and restaurants around the city’s Sefton Park, and with his kids clad in either Everton or Ireland shirts. The reasoning behind it all was two-fold. After 17 years, Coleman is an adopted Scouser. But he has also wanted to stay close enough to check the pulse of supporters and communicate that message back to the dressing room. During Carlo Ancelotti’s time at the club around the start of this decade, he showed the squad Howard’s Way, the documentary depicting Everton’s successes under legendary boss Howard Kendall in the 1980s, in an attempt to help his fellow players understand the history and traditions of the club they were representing. This announcement that he will depart at the end of his contract next month does not come as a surprise. It has been a long time coming, with Coleman weighing up for at least the two previous summers whether he still had enough to give Everton on the pitch. Successive managers, including the incumbent David Moyes, have been aware that the 37-year-old’s body is creaking, but also seen enough of his impact behind the scenes to want to keep him around. This was very much Coleman’s decision; one made on his terms. He always said he would leave Everton when he felt he had nothing left to offer on the field. Attempts were made to keep him around, including the offers of various coaching and off-field roles, but the Irishman is expected to continue playing for the Republic of Ireland through their matches this summer. He will decide his club future after that, but helping his national team build towards a 2028 European Championship their country will co-host with England, Scotland and Wales remains a possibility. Beyond that, a role at Everton will still be there for him if he wants it, and he has already completed his UEFA A and B coaching badges. “Losing Seamus is a big blow,” Moyes, the manager who brought Coleman to Merseyside 17 years ago during his first spell in charge, said in Friday’s press conference. “We’ve offered him every job there is. But the thing I admire is that he wants to keep playing, keep playing for his country. There will always be a desk here for him when the time comes. “For me, he’s right up there (in terms of value signings). He’s been a great servant to the club. Recently, he’s been the glue that has kept an awful lot together behind the scenes. When it was difficult, he stood up and galvanised the players.” There are two sides to the Coleman story that need to be stressed. The first is of the young player from Killybegs, County Donegal, on Ireland’s Atlantic coast, who defied the odds to become a household name in the Premier League and Everton’s captain. That, by itself, was remarkable enough. Mick Doherty, the scout who recommended him to Moyes, described him upon arrival as “very raw”. Speaking to The Athletic in 2020, the club’s current assistant manager Alan Irvine said Coleman had “maximised everything” in his game and it had been a “magnificent achievement to have played for Everton at all”. Pathways like his scarcely exist anymore. It has been a fairytale; a case of everything clicking in the most unlikely of ways for one of the league’s biggest bargains. Coleman toyed with a career in Gaelic football and had no real academy background, but developed into one of the Premier League’s best full-backs, being voted into its 2013-14 team of the season by his fellow Professional Footballers’ Association members. Even in recent years, with his legs fading, there have been moments when Everton managers turned to him to lock down tricky wingers. He never let them down. Then there was the recent public declaration, one shared privately by many current and past colleagues, from team-mate and fellow defender Michael Keane on Ben Foster’s recent Fozcast show that he felt Everton would not have avoided the relegation they’d flirted with repeatedly in recent seasons without Coleman. When times were toughest during the end of former owner Farhad Moshiri’s reign, Coleman often filled important leadership vacuums. He was normally the galvanising force around the squad as they successfully battled relegation. Late in the 2021-22 season, with a Frank Lampard-managed Everton struggling to beat the drop, he gave a rousing speech that has stayed with many in the room. Raising his voice alongside their director of football at that time Kevin Thelwell, he told the squad they would not be the ones to send Everton down. He would not allow it, and nor should they. Trailing 2-0 at half-time in the penultimate game of that season at home to Crystal Palace, he made another key intervention. “Seamus reminded them how much this club means to people,” their then goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly told The Athletic. “Bringing the reality of what losing means to the club, the fans and people who worked there long-term. It was, ‘Do you want to look in the eyes of someone in the ground and know you’ve let them down?’.” Everton won that match 3-2, confirming their survival. As captain, Coleman welcomed new players to the club. He would offer advice to young players and signings. He did due diligence on at least one potential signing with a view to mentoring them if they joined the club. Those familiar with his communication style believed that he was capable both of stripping paint off the dressing room walls when things were going wrong, and providing a more personal touch when needed. He commanded respect inside the club like few others. Ancelotti called him one of the best captains he had worked with. Former Everton goalkeeper Asmir Begovic labelled him “the ultimate leader” who “epitomises Everton and everything the club can be”. Underpinning it all was a deep-rooted affection for the club who gave him a chance, and had become his adopted home. “The passion he has for this club, you’ll never see it anywhere else,” goalkeeper Jordan Pickford told the BBC. Coleman is a dying breed. A one-club man in Premier League terms, steeped in old-school values and those of the institution he represented. An outlier. A one-off. How do Everton replace that? Can they, even? Finding his long-term successor at right-back has been challenging enough, with the search set to continue this summer. They may yet find a new, improved model of player more fit for the everyday hustle and bustle of the Premier League but replicating his influence behind the scenes, and the sage pieces of advice and rousing rallying cries, will be much tougher. Posting on Instagram after the announcement of Coleman’s exit, Everton midfielder James Garner said: “They don’t make them like him anymore.” He is right. Farewell to an Everton icon, for now. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms