Michael Ball shares what he’s been told about James Tarkowski at Everton
Michael Ball has shared that James Tarkowski played through the pain barrier and took injections for Everton despite safety being secured already.
The Toffees defender was a key part of the squad that preserved the club’s Premier League status for next season with three games to spare, as the team finished 15th in the top flight despite having eight points deducted from their total.
But despite securing safety with games to spare, Ball wrote in his Liverpool Echo column (21 May) that he was told the vice-captain took injections to play in the final games for the team and that was why he has him as the player of the season over Jordan Pickford.
“I think James Tarkowski has taken on the role of Seamus Coleman as the team’s leader on the pitch. He’s told us to keep professional after we stayed up and we’ve done that,” he wrote.
“He had a child just a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been told he’s been playing with injections to put his body on the line.
“He could have easily put his flip-flops on three weeks ago and rested ahead of next season but he continues to do everything and has struck up a great centre-back partnership with Jarrad Branthwaite so I think he just pips it for me if we look at the bigger picture and what he’s had to deal with himself personally.
“Even though the games didn’t really matter at the end of the season, it mattered to him. That tips him ahead of Pickford for me.”
James Tarkowski is an Everton fans dream player
If you gathered all the Everton fans together and asked the to pick a player’s mentality to instill into the rest of the squad, then it’s hard to think it wouldn’t be unanimous in Tarkowski’s favour.
Joining from Burnley on a free transfer two summers ago, there were some question marks about the deal at the time because he had just been relegated.
But then Sean Dyche took over the following January and it started to look much better, because he was capable of helping the rest of the squad adapt to the manager’s demands and wishes.
This season he has taken over as captain in the absence of Seamus Coleman and led the team to an excellent season.
The fact he has done it in a period where he didn’t need to either makes it even better, and he now deserves to have the summer off to rest, recover and go again next year as a key player in the squad.
In other Everton news, Amadou Onana looks set to leave Goodison Park as he doesn’t fit Dyche’s style.
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