Ricketts , Jeffers , Brent ... there’s been a couple
- Status
Ricketts , Jeffers , Brent ... there’s been a couple
So you don’t think Dunc would have decided himself to adjust to the system he knows best after playing in a 4-4-2 for basically his entire career ?
Dominic Calvert-Lewin exclusive interview: 'There have been tears in the past but now I can't stop smiling'
The in-form striker on his England call-up, the power of Carlo Ancelotti and targeting Champions League football next season
www.telegraph.co.uk
Leylo
Player Valuation: £35m
Got to say I said just give him a chance with the right service, him and richarlison been living off scraps, I know it's early days imagine if we had sold him on we would have been devastated. Penny's dropping like holgate the answer to some of our issues are already here ,I'm excited arnt we all
Can anybody cut and paste this please?Dominic Calvert-Lewin exclusive interview: 'There have been tears in the past but now I can't stop smiling'
The in-form striker on his England call-up, the power of Carlo Ancelotti and targeting Champions League football next season
“I can’t help it. I have just been called up for England,” says Dominic Calvert-Lewin, laughing when he is told it is good to see someone who smiles so much.
And Calvert-Lewin smiles a lot. As we start this interview he is even asked to lower his voice because he is so loud and animated, it is carrying into the next room. “I am just enjoying life, trying to be in the moment,” he says.
And what a moment it is. His eight goals this season - including two hat-tricks – have ensured Everton have won their first six games for the first time since 1938 and now have propelled him into the England squad for the first time for this month's matches against Wales, Belgium and Denmark.
Life since that call-up on Thursday has been a blur, starting with tears from his mother and a scream of joy from his father as he relayed the news to them on FaceTime.
“It’s been a long process and has come with happy tears and sad tears at times for me and my family. It’s been a tough road to get here but hopefully I have earned my spo
Calvert-Lewin had not got to sleep until around 2.30am after Wednesday night’s 4-1 League Cup victory over West Ham in which he scored three times. After he took the match-ball – which he will have framed – he tweeted: “No hatty no sleep”. But sleep did not come, so he ate some food, had a cup of tea, watched TV and then read.
“It’s the thing I do to relax, it helps me chill and settle down,” Calvert-Lewin says. “I read a lot when I was quite young and have been through phases when I have read less but it helps me stay in the zone when there is so much going on. I would recommend it to anybody.”
His favourite book is “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman - an account of spiritual discovery, personal development and mindfulness. It is billed as a book that “changes lives” and certainly has had an effect on Calvert-Lewin, who has undergone “a big transition from boy to man”.
“I’m just absorbing everything that is around me," he adds, warming to his theme. "Whether that be how we play or reading books and how I can deal with and put myself into the best mental state I can possibly be in so that I am right to score goals. It’s a human aspect of being able to manage your own brain.”
The confidence is obvious. A quick flick through Calvert-Lewin's social media offerings provides ample evidence of a man happy in his own skin - his amateur modelling poses alongside his Everton team-mate Tom Davies at New York Fashion Week in February were something of a viral sensation - but it is his football which has been the main beneficiary of his maturing mindset.
“I think I am just trying to be in that moment," Calvert-Lewin says. "There’s a difference between setting goals and trying to live in the future before it even happens. I think I’ve been guilty of wanting to be places before I recognise where I am now. It’s very clichéd but that is what I’m focussing on at the moment: day-by-day, game-by-game and being happy."
Calvert-Lewin is 23 now, so no longer a callow youth, and admits his journey - which took him to Everton from Sheffield United for £1.5million in 2016 - has not been entirely straightforward. His first three seasons in the Premier League yielded just 11 goals and there were sceptics who wondered whether he would ever crack the elite level.
“It has taken time," he says. "There’s no hiding that there’s been many ups and downs. You can’t play for Everton if you can’t handle the expectation because the fans love the club so much and I have played in some tough European away nights at a young age when things have not gone very well. My experiences over the past few years have 100 per cent helped me get to this point. You learn probably more from the lows than the highs because when you are high everything is good. It’s about how you cope with the dips and how you bounce back.”
Calvert-Lewin has certainly done that, as has the team. Carlo Ancelotti's arrival last December is widely seen as the catalyst for Everton's revival but Calvert-Lewin points to the temporary appointment of Duncan Ferguson, following Marco Silva's sacking, as the moment things began to shift. Ferguson oversaw a memorable 3-1 win over Chelsea at a raucous Goodson Park, with Calvert-Lewin scoring twice, and a draw at Manchester United to allow Ancelotti to harness momentum in his first few weeks.
“We had hit a tough patch and it took its toll on us,” Calvert-Lewin admits. “We were still the same players but there was a bit of a cloud over us. For whatever reason we weren’t performing but then Dunc came in and it was a new lease of life. He put belief in me straight away - I was stepping on the pitch feeling a foot taller.”
The summer before Calvin-Lewin had decided to take the vacant No9 shirt, once worn by Ferguson. “It was a statement of intent. To show I want to be the main man. It was a recognition that the club believed in me. To give me that shirt and the importance that comes with it. It was in line with my thoughts and it was nice to get it because it showed it was in line with their thoughts as well.”
Ancelotti also believes in Calvert-Lewin and, on arrival, deflected questions about whether he was looking for a new striker by declaring he had tried to sign him for Napoli. “That was one of the first things he said. He recognised that I was in good form and was in a good flow and he gave me that little push to say, ‘You’re my man and I want you to continue to score goals.' It was a subtle confidence-booster which I think he’s very good at and it definitely helped me to continue the momentum.”
As, indeed, was the more recent comparison with the former AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi. “He mentioned that to me two weeks before he said it publicly,” Calvert-Lewin says. “As a young centre-forward to be compared to a player like that who is a history-maker in football, who scored so many goals, it’s a nice feeling and, again, sub-consciously it does give you that boost.
“With the manager I am his number nine now and that is what he has planned for me. I need to see it as a challenge because he believes I can reach certain heights and I believe that myself. It’s about keep learning, be a sponge and take everything in.”
In public, Ancelotti has set Calvert-Lewin a target of 20 goals this season, and has drilled into him the need for so-called ‘one-touch’ finishes in order to achieve it. In private, however, his sights are being set rather higher.
“I think he wants a few more from me, to be honest!” he says. “And rightly so. It’s been a great start and he told me he was going to bring players in to create chances for me. Even that is a confidence-boost, letting me know I am going to be there and there are going to be players around me with quality and it’s down to me then.”
And what of the one-touch finishes? “It’s kind of a figure of speech. It’s not like I am 30 yards out and I am trying to shoot off one touch. To score off one touch you have to be in certain areas; that’s in the six-yard box; in the 18-yard box; on the move. The emphasis is on being in the right place to be the man to put the chances away.
I would say over the past 12 months it’s been a big learning curve. It’s not just working hard in training, it’s being a student of the game, studying the game, learning my position, getting in better positions, scoring more goals. It’s not technically, tactically because I have learnt that since I was a kid. It’s been more about the mental side of things. It’s something that I carry with pride – the Everton number nine – so I am exactly where I want to be.”
And where do Everton want to be? It is 14 years since Everton last played a Champions League game (and that was a third qualifying round defeat), and 25 since the club's last trophy, when Ferguson spearheaded Joe Royle's 'dogs of war' to an FA Cup triumph over Manchester United at Wembley.
Goodison Park has seen too many false dawns to mention in the interim but it does feel like something is stirring at the club, whose new stadium plans are accelerating and another summer spending splurge on high-calibre talents such as James Rodriguez and Allan has lifted the squad to a new level.
“I believe we can achieve big things,” Calvert-Lewin states. “You have to look at the way we are playing now in comparison to this time last year. We want to bring silverware back to Everton, we want to get into the Champions League. Hopefully that is this season and if it is not then inevitably it will be in the near future if we continue on this path. I am pretty confident of that.
“There has been a momentum shift and a mentality shift. There is now a belief that we can achieve and can compete against anybody."
There is one last smile. "I can’t wait to get out there and play.”
And Calvert-Lewin smiles a lot. As we start this interview he is even asked to lower his voice because he is so loud and animated, it is carrying into the next room. “I am just enjoying life, trying to be in the moment,” he says.
And what a moment it is. His eight goals this season - including two hat-tricks – have ensured Everton have won their first six games for the first time since 1938 and now have propelled him into the England squad for the first time for this month's matches against Wales, Belgium and Denmark.
Life since that call-up on Thursday has been a blur, starting with tears from his mother and a scream of joy from his father as he relayed the news to them on FaceTime.
“It’s been a long process and has come with happy tears and sad tears at times for me and my family. It’s been a tough road to get here but hopefully I have earned my spo
Calvert-Lewin had not got to sleep until around 2.30am after Wednesday night’s 4-1 League Cup victory over West Ham in which he scored three times. After he took the match-ball – which he will have framed – he tweeted: “No hatty no sleep”. But sleep did not come, so he ate some food, had a cup of tea, watched TV and then read.
“It’s the thing I do to relax, it helps me chill and settle down,” Calvert-Lewin says. “I read a lot when I was quite young and have been through phases when I have read less but it helps me stay in the zone when there is so much going on. I would recommend it to anybody.”
His favourite book is “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman - an account of spiritual discovery, personal development and mindfulness. It is billed as a book that “changes lives” and certainly has had an effect on Calvert-Lewin, who has undergone “a big transition from boy to man”.
“I’m just absorbing everything that is around me," he adds, warming to his theme. "Whether that be how we play or reading books and how I can deal with and put myself into the best mental state I can possibly be in so that I am right to score goals. It’s a human aspect of being able to manage your own brain.”
The confidence is obvious. A quick flick through Calvert-Lewin's social media offerings provides ample evidence of a man happy in his own skin - his amateur modelling poses alongside his Everton team-mate Tom Davies at New York Fashion Week in February were something of a viral sensation - but it is his football which has been the main beneficiary of his maturing mindset.
“I think I am just trying to be in that moment," Calvert-Lewin says. "There’s a difference between setting goals and trying to live in the future before it even happens. I think I’ve been guilty of wanting to be places before I recognise where I am now. It’s very clichéd but that is what I’m focussing on at the moment: day-by-day, game-by-game and being happy."
Calvert-Lewin is 23 now, so no longer a callow youth, and admits his journey - which took him to Everton from Sheffield United for £1.5million in 2016 - has not been entirely straightforward. His first three seasons in the Premier League yielded just 11 goals and there were sceptics who wondered whether he would ever crack the elite level.
“It has taken time," he says. "There’s no hiding that there’s been many ups and downs. You can’t play for Everton if you can’t handle the expectation because the fans love the club so much and I have played in some tough European away nights at a young age when things have not gone very well. My experiences over the past few years have 100 per cent helped me get to this point. You learn probably more from the lows than the highs because when you are high everything is good. It’s about how you cope with the dips and how you bounce back.”
Calvert-Lewin has certainly done that, as has the team. Carlo Ancelotti's arrival last December is widely seen as the catalyst for Everton's revival but Calvert-Lewin points to the temporary appointment of Duncan Ferguson, following Marco Silva's sacking, as the moment things began to shift. Ferguson oversaw a memorable 3-1 win over Chelsea at a raucous Goodson Park, with Calvert-Lewin scoring twice, and a draw at Manchester United to allow Ancelotti to harness momentum in his first few weeks.
“We had hit a tough patch and it took its toll on us,” Calvert-Lewin admits. “We were still the same players but there was a bit of a cloud over us. For whatever reason we weren’t performing but then Dunc came in and it was a new lease of life. He put belief in me straight away - I was stepping on the pitch feeling a foot taller.”
The summer before Calvin-Lewin had decided to take the vacant No9 shirt, once worn by Ferguson. “It was a statement of intent. To show I want to be the main man. It was a recognition that the club believed in me. To give me that shirt and the importance that comes with it. It was in line with my thoughts and it was nice to get it because it showed it was in line with their thoughts as well.”
Ancelotti also believes in Calvert-Lewin and, on arrival, deflected questions about whether he was looking for a new striker by declaring he had tried to sign him for Napoli. “That was one of the first things he said. He recognised that I was in good form and was in a good flow and he gave me that little push to say, ‘You’re my man and I want you to continue to score goals.' It was a subtle confidence-booster which I think he’s very good at and it definitely helped me to continue the momentum.”
As, indeed, was the more recent comparison with the former AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi. “He mentioned that to me two weeks before he said it publicly,” Calvert-Lewin says. “As a young centre-forward to be compared to a player like that who is a history-maker in football, who scored so many goals, it’s a nice feeling and, again, sub-consciously it does give you that boost.
“With the manager I am his number nine now and that is what he has planned for me. I need to see it as a challenge because he believes I can reach certain heights and I believe that myself. It’s about keep learning, be a sponge and take everything in.”
In public, Ancelotti has set Calvert-Lewin a target of 20 goals this season, and has drilled into him the need for so-called ‘one-touch’ finishes in order to achieve it. In private, however, his sights are being set rather higher.
“I think he wants a few more from me, to be honest!” he says. “And rightly so. It’s been a great start and he told me he was going to bring players in to create chances for me. Even that is a confidence-boost, letting me know I am going to be there and there are going to be players around me with quality and it’s down to me then.”
And what of the one-touch finishes? “It’s kind of a figure of speech. It’s not like I am 30 yards out and I am trying to shoot off one touch. To score off one touch you have to be in certain areas; that’s in the six-yard box; in the 18-yard box; on the move. The emphasis is on being in the right place to be the man to put the chances away.
I would say over the past 12 months it’s been a big learning curve. It’s not just working hard in training, it’s being a student of the game, studying the game, learning my position, getting in better positions, scoring more goals. It’s not technically, tactically because I have learnt that since I was a kid. It’s been more about the mental side of things. It’s something that I carry with pride – the Everton number nine – so I am exactly where I want to be.”
And where do Everton want to be? It is 14 years since Everton last played a Champions League game (and that was a third qualifying round defeat), and 25 since the club's last trophy, when Ferguson spearheaded Joe Royle's 'dogs of war' to an FA Cup triumph over Manchester United at Wembley.
Goodison Park has seen too many false dawns to mention in the interim but it does feel like something is stirring at the club, whose new stadium plans are accelerating and another summer spending splurge on high-calibre talents such as James Rodriguez and Allan has lifted the squad to a new level.
“I believe we can achieve big things,” Calvert-Lewin states. “You have to look at the way we are playing now in comparison to this time last year. We want to bring silverware back to Everton, we want to get into the Champions League. Hopefully that is this season and if it is not then inevitably it will be in the near future if we continue on this path. I am pretty confident of that.
“There has been a momentum shift and a mentality shift. There is now a belief that we can achieve and can compete against anybody."
There is one last smile. "I can’t wait to get out there and play.”
Done mate.
Nope Garth crooks still holds that title but I feel he will be toppled shortly by most if not all the female ones coming in
Nugent
grandjoeblue
Player Valuation: £35m
His attitudes fantastic, that's a good interview. Hopefully he will be at the club scoring goals for a very long time.
DownOnTheUpside
Player Valuation: £30m
‘How about another hattrick Moysey?’
‘I think we’ve had enough of your hattricks!’
‘what do you get when you cross a proper aids defense with a striker in red hot form’
‘call Yakubu!’
‘I’ll tell you what you get, you get what you ******* deserve!’
‘I think we’ve had enough of your hattricks!’
‘what do you get when you cross a proper aids defense with a striker in red hot form’
‘call Yakubu!’
‘I’ll tell you what you get, you get what you ******* deserve!’
Brownie
Player Valuation: £70m
Possibly a tiny bit massively misguided and overtly sexist there pal
Blue Shoes
Player Valuation: £10m
well said, just look at how much coleman has improved this season too, that's what great coaches do. Everyone was writing these lads off, me included as not being good enough to take us where we want to be, but get a couple of good players in and the right manager and everyone raises their level.
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