You have to feel some sympathy for Seamus Coleman.
Turning 35 in October – often an age that a professional footballer starts to slip down the divisions, the Irish ace is recuperating from a serious knee injury and has no guarantees that he will be staying at his current club Everton; his contract runs out in the summer.
Much will depend on whether the Toffees secure Premier League survival against Bournemouth in their final game of the campaign, so few will be watching on with more adrenaline pumping than Coleman.
End of an era? − will Coleman have his swansong for Everton?
The good news for the Irishman is that Everton is expected to avoid the dreaded drop – notable for those who like to place a football bet or two.
The Merseyside club are priced at 3/1 to suffer relegation, with the only other two clubs blighted by the predicament, Leicester City and Leeds United, at 1/10 and 1/16, respectively.
Those betting on Premier League football will notice that Everton are odds-on favourites to defeat Bournemouth on the final day of the season, largely thanks to their home advantage and the fact that the Cherries have lost three games on the bounce.
Leicester and Leeds face more difficult assignments against West Ham and Tottenham. So there are plenty of positives for Everton supporters, which is a lot more than they had prior to Sean Dyche’s arrival at Goodison Park.
The former Burnley boss, while not completely revolutionising the way that the team plays, has at least made them more difficult to beat – the Toffees have only come unstuck against the champions Manchester City and Newcastle United since mid-April.
Coleman is very much a Dyche-style player: professional, experienced, and heart-on-sleeve. But will that be enough to secure him a new contract ahead of a possible Premier League swansong in 2023/24?
On the teamsheet − a crucial player
It’s interesting to note that Coleman has barely missed a minute of action since Dyche brought him in from the cold in February.
The right back played the full 90 minutes in six of Dyche’s seven games in charge before starting the next four as well – the latter in which he suffered a cruel knee injury against Leicester, which has required reconstructive surgery.
The manner in which Coleman recovers from that injury will perhaps go some way to determine whether he is offered a new contract or not at Everton.
He has become a beloved fan favourite of the club since joining from the Sligo Rovers in 2009 for the princely sum of €69,000. The division in which they are playing will also be a factor.
Some clubs that have been relegated from the Premier League in the past have had to slash their player wage bill by as much as 50%; such is the drop-off in revenue while playing in the Championship.
Clearly, a nearly 35-year-old recovering from a serious injury would be a likely candidate for any such cost-cutting exercise.
His former Republic of Ireland teammate, Shay Given, has gone to bat for his former international colleague, revealing that Coleman is a ‘crucial player’ for Everton whose personality ‘means a lot to the team.’
The man from County Donegal will be hoping that Dyche and the Everton hierarchy agree with that assertion.
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