Everton new boy Ashley Young has already made a positive impression with his team-mates and club staff on his first day at the Blues’ pre-season training camp by the shores of Lake Geneva. Everton’s squad flew out on Monday but after completing the deal to make him Sean Dyche’s first signing on Wednesday and posing for photographs at the club’s Finch Farm training complex in Halewood where he met Seamus Coleman, Young followed them out to their Alpine base ahead of his transfer being announced on Thursday. Even before the switch became public though, the former England international was making his presence felt in his new surroundings.
First team coach Steve Stone said: “I met him in the corridors when he was doing some testing and immediately you could tell from his body language, the way he went about his business and the way he shook my hand and he spoke, you just thought ‘yeah, you’ve been around a bit.’ I spoke to him this morning and I said: ‘Have you fitted in ok?’ and he went: ‘Yeah, perfect,’ so I thought there’s no shock there. He’s been around the Premier League and he’s been around top clubs. From what I’ve seen as a younger boy where he had loads of talent in the wide areas, he seemed to develop more into a captain’s role and I never actually thought he’d have that about him when he was younger and a wide man. He looks like he’s got that real ability to drive people around him. Not just by his footballing ability but his actions around the building. At Newcastle United they talk about Kieran Trippier coming in from Atletico Madrid and doing a very similar thing, to drive other people on by his actions, his behaviour and his professionalism, and I think Ashley will do all of that by upping the ante in the professionalism stakes.”
Young is set to become Everton’s oldest ever outfield debutant but despite his relatively advanced years for a Premier League footballer, Stone believes the veteran players is still in top condition.
Steve Stone said: “Let’s be honest, he’s 38 years of age but he looks like a spring chicken doesn’t he? He played over 30 games for Aston Villa last year and you don’t get to play that amount of games without having something about you. They’re a good Villa team by the way with Unai Emery coming into the Premier League and he must have thought: ‘He can drive this team on’ and that’s exactly what he did. I’m delighted we’ve got him. He’s someone with real experience, real quality and real professionalism – that’s exactly what we want.”
Young is a former team-mate of Everton’s 52-year-old manager Dyche, who lined up alongside him for his senior debut with Watford almost two decades ago in 2003. Although Stone never directly faced him on the pitch, he was an opponent in a high profile encounter.
Steve Stone said: “I think I was only up against him once. It was the Championship play-off final when Leeds United played Watford at the Millennium Stadium and they beat us 3-0. I was coming back from injury and was sub on the day and they battered us. He was just a young kid at the time, 20 years old and make his way through but they were a very experienced Watford side at the time, he’ll have learned a lot from them but he’s the one who had the quality, the tricks and the delivery from wide areas.”
