"He used you as a reference point."
Former
Everton boss
Frank Lampard has revealed how Seamus Coleman reacted to
Jamie Carragher's dig at the team on
Monday Night Football.
Coleman was captain of the club when Lampard was in charge, and played a huge role in helping the team avoid relegation in the season that the Englishman took over.
Speaking on the latest episode of Stick to Football, the ex-England midfielder was waxing lyrical about the Irishman, and how he even used Carragher's comments on one occasion to motivate the team.
Lampard and Keane praise Coleman.
“Seamus [Coleman] was amazing. I remember playing against him, and I didn’t really appreciate it until I worked with him – at that point he was 33," said Lampard.
"It wasn’t just what he did on the pitch – it was his standards, his humility, everything about him. There’s not a bit of him that isn’t genuine, and he wore it on his face when we were struggling – he’d speak in front of the players on his own.
“We spoke about you [Jamie Carragher] at one point because you had a dig on Monday Night Football and said we’re not good enough – he used you as a reference point. He was saying ‘Don’t accept that’, as players and managers we have to take some stick – but the only way to deal with it was to react to it.
"It was a bit of a turning point for us – he was always the man to do that.”
Roy Keane was in full agreement, saying that Coleman was "a great player, a great leader."
https://twitter.com/MarkLTighe/status/1527713927496355842
It's not the first time that the Chelsea legend spoke so highly of the skipper - when they avoided relegation on the last day in 2022, Lampard stood up in the Everton changing room with Coleman around his shoulder and sang his praises to the rest of the team, in a video that then went viral.
"This fella is, to say in front of everyone, one of the best people I have ever met as a man and as a player," the former Chelsea manager said in a video that captured scenes from the changing room."
Although it was a moment borne from emotion, he meant every word of it, and clarified his comments when speaking to EvertonTV.
“On day one [of Lampard's tenure], Seamus came to me, sat in my office and was honest about the Club," said Lampard.
“Things that will remain private. But he was honest about the situation and the size of the situation. I could see straight away the burden Seamus was carrying, in a good way, because he cares so much, and he just wanted to change it.
https://twitter.com/WeAreTheOverlap/status/1750210590360957064
“From then on, after those words, his actions have been something else: speaking, training, standards every day, performances in games. I have never seen humility like it, in my time in football.
“I heard a lot of good things about Seamus before I came to the Club. He has gone there and beyond.
“I was being honest [when declaring Coleman one of the best people I’ve met], I have never met anyone who has his morals and standards and he is an incredible player.
“You talk about legends of football clubs and he is certainly one of those.”
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