COLEMAN: Martinez has given me a licence to thrill... and so far it's going well

Thanks to a series of swashbuckling displays, Seamus Coleman is having the season of his life at Everton. Sportsmail columnist Kevin Kilbane sits down with the young Ireland defender and finds out just why he’s having such an impact.

Kevin Kilbane: You have been doing so well this season and you are clearly enjoying it. I have seen Roberto Martinez say the most impressive thing is your decision-making. What do you think has changed this season from any other season?

Seamus Coleman: I’m not sure. I think last season I got a go at my preferred position, right-back, David Moyes gave me a chance there and I started to enjoy it. As the season went on I got stronger and stronger and then we had a few international games against England and Spain and I did well in them.

Talking a good game: In-form Everton defender Seamus Coleman sits down with Sportsmail's Kevin Kilbane

COLEMAN FACTFILE

1988: Born October 11 and raised in Killybegs. 2006: Sligo Rovers sign the 18-year-old after impressing for his local side St Catherine’s. 2009: Everton beat off competition from Celtic to sign Coleman for just £60,000. 2009: Makes his debut for David Moyes’ side in a 5-0 Europa League defeat to Benfica. 2011: Earns his first call up to the senior Republic of Ireland squad by Giovanni Trapattoni and makes debut against Wales. 2012: Left out of the squad for the European Championships but signs a new five and a half year deal at Goodison Park. 2013/14: Under new boss Roberto Martinez, Coleman has continued his progress with six goals already this season.

I just came back a lot more confident than maybe previous seasons and the new manager has come in and he has been fantastic. He is so positive and he said ‘I want you to score goals as a full-back because you have the physical attributes to get up and down’ — and I have been working every week on the training ground to improve.



It is just confidence, I suppose. Last season when I got in the box I would be looking to make an assist or put a cross in. Now I am not afraid to shoot.

KK: That is not such a bad thing. One thing I have noticed is, you have your five goals already but you are still looking to create as well and you have been the main source of, or equal to, assists with Bainesy (Leighton Baines)

SC: Bainesy has been fantastic and plenty of times he has been there to advise on what runs to make and so on and I have picked up a lot from him. A lot of it is down to confidence and maybe taking on things and having a shot and not be afraid of getting a rollicking from the older lads. I have kind of gone past that stage. Not that I don’t care but I feel comfortable.

In it goes: Coleman scores for Everton as they thrashed QPR in the FA Cup

KK: What difference has Roberto Martinez made to your game?

SC: He likes me to get forward, wants me to score goals. I remember the first game of the season and at half-time he showed me a bit of TV and said ‘you might get in here when Bainesy crosses’ and I scored my goal in the second half because I took a chance and maybe I wouldn’t have done that last season. I feel when I score in one game, I am going to score in the next one, but if I get an assist from crosses to help us win the game I am happy.

KK: Do you feel like you belong and established now? Did you feel like that when you first came over?

SC: Yeah, I feel comfortable in the team. I’ve said before when I first came over I signed a two-and-a-half-year deal and I looked at that as a long trial. I had heard plenty of stories of people coming over and after two years are back home playing in the League of Ireland again. So I didn’t sign for Everton and think ‘that’s it I’ve done it all now’ or whatever. I suppose I still don’t think like that.

Encouragement: Roberto Martinez wants Coleman to get forward and score goals

KK: That has got to be a good thing, having that attitude.

SC: Definitely. You can take nothing for granted and there are plenty of stories of lads going back to Ireland and I don’t want to be one of those stories. Every day that I am in England and playing in the Premier League I strive to make sure I stay there and never rest on what I’ve done.

KK: We did an interview with David Meyler in which he talked about how playing in the League of Ireland had given him such a good grounding by going into a men’s league and playing competitive football. Do you think that has helped you as well because coming over at the age of 21 is a different stage in your development to most lads?

SC: I am very lucky the way I have done it. If I had come over at the age of 15 or 16 I would have been homesick and I still was bad enough at 20, never mind 16.



Playing League of Ireland week in, week out, playing for points, rather than playing in an Academy, I was really playing man’s games at a reasonably young age and that helped me.



But I missed out on a lot of things. When I came over the technical aspect in training was a shock. Lads like Jose Baxter were a couple of years younger than me but I thought they were technically miles ahead and I was always playing catch-up.

Starting out: Coleman began his career playing in Ireland playing for Sligo Rovers

KK: And were you aware of that on the training ground?

SC: Yes. I knew my effort and running were never a problem but as time went by I started to work on technique — confidence came into my game and I could slowly see myself start to stand out in training a bit more.

I try not to lose that rawness when I get the ball. But there was a spell in my second season when I was playing in midfield and my confidence dropped a bit and I wasn’t wanting to take people on. That was a hard time for me.

KK: Why do you think that was?

SC: I don’t know. I had such a great first season. I did get an injury in pre-season and I was playing out of position. I had never played right midfield before and everything was new and going well and then that second season I found out, two people would try to pick me up and I couldn’t pick up position. I felt I had taken a step back but I just try to keep working hard.

Making it in the big time: Coleman moved to England and signed for Everton in 2009

KK: I stepped up through the leagues but mine was a steady progression. You went from the equivalent of a lower league to playing Premier League football so do you ever take stock about the jump you have actually made?

SC: People are probably sick of hearing about this but sometimes I do sit at home watching a Premier League game on TV and still think ‘I was playing for Sligo a couple of years ago’. Not that I don’t feel I belong, I do feel that 100 per cent, but I feel very fortunate and very grateful.

KK: Just going back to Sligo. You almost got released. What’s the story there?

SC: It was a tough day. Sean Connor was the manager who had signed me from my local club St Catherine’s in Donegal at 17 and even moving from Donegal to Sligo was massive for me.



I had gone from playing soccer every Sunday and Gaelic games every Saturday, to make what was a big step to play for Sligo and training every day.

Sean moved on to Bohemians and a new manager came, Robert McDonald. We all met for pre-season in January and he had a meeting with everyone and thank God I had a year left on my contract, otherwise I was out.



Reminiscing: Coleman talks to Kilbane about the early years in Ireland

My dad took me over to the meeting, I went in and he said ‘you are not in my plans’. He had never seen me play but he said ‘we will try and get you on loan to Finn Harps’ who were in the second division.

I had made big sacrifices to leave home and give up the Gaelic team, who were going quite well at the time, and I remember thinking ‘how can I go home?’ I went back out to the car to my dad and he said ‘everything okay?’ and I just said ‘yeah, fine, just back to training next week’.

KK: So you lied to your dad?

SC: Yeah, I couldn’t tell my dad what he’d said.



KK: Isn’t it strange someone can make an opinion of you and he hasn’t even seen you.

SC: He might have been at a game at the end of the season, overlooking it, and maybe saw something he didn’t really like, I don’t know. Fortunately, he didn’t like the way the club was being run or something so he left. Liam Tierney was caretaker manager, the first-team goalkeeper coach, and he played me against Waterford at right back and I had a very good game.

KK: Did you feel you had something to prove?

Taking his chance: Coleman has impressed since signing for Everton

SC: I just wanted to play as well as I could. Then Paul Cook came in and as soon as he came in he made me feel like the best player in the league. I owe him so much.

KK: What did he do?

SC: He was just really impressed with my physical attributes and told me when other players are tiring with 80 minutes gone, you will still be going. I just felt in training I’d started to become better and felt like one of the better players in the league. It just shows that in football one manager doesn’t fancy you and things will be totally different.

KK: So how did the move to Everton come about?

SC: I was hearing stuff about clubs wanting me. I went to Burnley and got injured after ten minutes of a trial game and had to come home.

Then I went to Birmingham, and it wasn’t their fault, I had an absolute stinker in a trial game there.

KK: But I have seen so many lads, especially from Ireland, come in on trial and it is so difficult, in many ways you can be easily overlooked. That must have been disheartening.



SC: You try too hard. At the time, Paul Cook was not massively for me going on trial. He wanted someone to look at me playing for Sligo and take just me. But in a trial you try so hard to impress and do things you would not normally do in a normal game because you want to impress.

I came back and a couple of week after that I got a call to say Everton were interested and then shortly after that the chairman rang me and said Everton want you, we have accepted a bid and there was no word of a trial.

Chance: Coleman was handed his debut when Leighton Baines was injured ahead of a Europa League game with Benfica

It was actually Mick Doherty who saw me, he was Everton scout at the time and his son Sean was playing for Sligo, so maybe he was watching him and just happened to see me. Another bit of luck maybe.

KK: Your debut was against Benfica. So you are stepping up from League of Ireland to play Benfica in the Europa League in the Stadium of Light. What was that like?

SC: I remember Bainesy pulled up on the walk before the match so I thought I had a chance of playing. Dan Gosling played right back that night and I played left back. I hadn’t really played there before and it was a long night but great experience.



I was pinching myself and looking at the calibre of player thinking nine months earlier I was running round the woods in pre-season with Sligo and there I was playing against Benfica in Lisbon.

KK: You must have always had belief in yourself but when did you start to realise you can make it at this club? It can’t have taken you long to realise what a club you had come into. And the respect that every player who has played here, myself included, has for the club and what an incredible place it is.

SC: It is a special club. It is not a cliche, from the kitmen, kitchen staff to the media people, it is a great club. I could not have asked for much more to get in the team and start playing regularly. I know I am very lucky.

KK: You went to Blackpool on loan. Did you feel it was a step backwards or were you told it was more of a learning curve?

SC: I wasn’t sure at the time because I remember I had played against Tottenham and did well and got a couple of FA Cup games and the manager [David Moyes] called me in and said he thought it would be good to go out on loan rather than sit on the bench. I had great respect for him and I would do what he told me and because he was David Moyes, he would be right.



There was talk of QPR and I wasn’t sure about London but thankfully Blackpool came in. I went to play games and enjoy it and we had 11 games, won nine, lost one and drew one and got to the play-off final and that was another massive step in my career. I came back a different player. I did quite well, scored a goal, got a few assists and we won promotion.

Loan star: Coleman got his chance to play first team football on loan at Blackpool

KK: So Ian Hollloway was a big influence on your career then.

SC: He was massive. I sometimes forget about that period but he is another one who every week made me feel like I was the best player in the league. I probably don’t get a chance to say it enough about that and Ian Holloway. But he was a massive influence on my career.

KK: Some people are now talking about you as one of the best in the Premier League. How does that make you feel?

SC: It is flattering to hear, every player wants to hear good stuff about themselves but it is more for other people to say. The way I look on it is that every Saturday I am just trying to play the best I can and if other people say I am one of the best I am delighted but I just try to do the best I can for Everton.

KK: Let’s move on to Ireland. You have 20 caps now. I was still in the squad when you first came into the squad and one thing that impressed me was that you basically just got on with it. We all felt you should have been a regular starter, I know I have said it a lot since. What did you feel at the time about not getting a game?

International honours: Coleman has won 20 caps for Ireland

SC: It was difficult. You say I have 20 caps but . . .

KK: Should you have 40?

SC: I should have had more I think. I was playing quite well here and I was not getting in and I know there were some great players ahead of me at the time but I did feel I should have got more of a chance.

But I am one of those player who doesn’t moan about it, I just get on with it. Eventually I did get a chance and tried to do as well as I could and thankfully kept my place.

KK: But over the years I have seen many players spit the dummy out. You didn’t do that. You kept any frustration private.

SC: That’s not me, not at all. I was disappointed of course and after a game when everyone was buzzing on the bus I’d be disappointed but I tried not to show it. I felt maybe I could have got 20 minutes at the end of games or even starts but it was not to be.

Dream team? Coleman is excited to play under Martin O'Neill and assistant manager Roy Keane with Ireland

But I am not one to spit the dummy out. I just decided to work hard and thankfully the chance at right-back came eventually.



KK: And the Euros. That must have been difficult missing out on that. We all felt you should have been there.

SC: It was difficult. I watched it at home with all my mates. But I’m not so sure I should have been there, to be honest.

That was the season I hadn’t been playing that well and he [Giovanni Trapattoni] was loyal to most of his players. If I had been playing well the previous season I would have been massively disappointed but I had no argument.



I obviously wanted to go but I wouldn’t have had massive complaints. I was playing right wing at the time and James McClean was flying then, there was Duff and McGeady too.



If I was playing full back I felt I might have deserved to go but I was playing right midfield then and really couldn’t complain. I am not bitter at all. My aim now is to get to the next Euros, and hopefully be a part of it.

Season to remember: Coleman is playing some of the best football of his career at Everton this season

KK: So we move on to Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane. What’s your feelings about that?

SC: I was very excited when they got the appointment. They are two massive names in football. Martin has been a fantastic manager and Roy has obviously been a legend in Ireland so it is good for us as players to work with them and hopefully we can have successful time.

KK: What have they done and said in two games so far or have they just let you get on with it?

SC: Everyone has been given a fresh start. You could see in the two games everyone was very eager to impress but I am sure as we get nearer we will see a different mind-set. You can already sense that.

I will always have good things to say about Trapattoni, he gave me my first cap but the language barrier [changing] has helped and you can approach Martin easier than the previous manager.

KK: It was an issue but it is what is.

SC: Absolutely. You get on with it as players. Trapattoni and Marco Tardelli were both great and I know a lot of the public got on Trap’s back in the end but he got you lads to the France play-off. I know the Euros was not the best but he did a great job getting us there. But the pressure he was under in the end, it was the right time for a change.

Donegal pair: Goalkeepers Shay Given and Packie Bonner both come from the same part of Ireland as Coleman

KK: So what do you think for the next campaign. Will Ireland qualify for the Euro finals?

SC: That’s the aim and I am sure we will play some good football under the two managers, which is important and hopefully all the players will come back and we can have a good successful time.

KK: Finally, obviously you’re from Donegal, a county that has produced two of our best in Packie Bonner and Shay Given. Do you feel any extra pressure trying to emulate those two?