Seamus Coleman is widely regarded as one of the best signings in Premier League history.
£60,000 is all Everton paid Sligo Rovers for Seamus Coleman back in 2009 and he’s gone on to become one of the best right-backs in top-flight history.
Coleman, now aged 36, has the seventh-most appearances for the Toffees, racking up a whopping 427 in all competitions.
The Republic of Ireland international is out of contract at the end of the season and may call time on his career.
There has been a suggestion that Coleman will retire and perhaps move into a coaching position. David Moyes certainly wants to keep him around, anyhow.
“You don’t just keep people for the sake of keeping them because if you did every club would have hundreds of old players,” Moyes explained. “But if we had our way we would try and keep Seamus around definitely. Or give him the opportunity to be around, but he may have something else on.”
Coleman has been reflecting on his Everton career on a recent podcast with the Royal Blue and actually pushed back a little bit on one suggestion the reporter made.
Seamus Coleman defends former Everton player
Speaking on the Royal Blue podcast, Coleman was quick to defend Tony Hibbert when the reporter appeared to suggest that he wasn’t that good, or at least, not close to Coleman’s level.
Reporter: “Obviously very different than Tony Hibbert had gone before you, he was a great stalwart of the club, he was obviously memorable for never scoring a goal, you kind of revolutionised that position, but it was part of a growing trend within the game, the way that full backs were changing and evolving in that respect.”
Coleman replied: “Yeah, listen, I’ll speak about Tony for a second, because Tony Hibbert was incredible, incredible with me, an incredible defender, tough as anything, and he could deliver a cross, and he, like, I looked up to these lads when I came over, like I took as much as I could from them, Tony Hibbert, Phil Neville, Leighton Baines, I just looked at them and just wanted to get to their level, wanted to get as good as I could.”
Hibbert was very underrated
Hibbert, whilst not a flashy player, was a consistent performer for Everton and as Coleman alluded to, he was excellent at crossing.
Speaking in an interview last year, Phil Jagielka also waxed lyrical about Hibbert’s crossing ability.
“I think another thing to note is Hibbo with the cross,” Jagielka explained. “I think people didn’t appreciate how good Tony Hibbert was at delivering a ball.
“He was in the team, majority of the time, because he was so good defensively, but I think Ossie will back me on that, his crossing ability was second-to-none.”
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