“You (Gabriel Agbonlahor) are not the only one who tells him he needs to chill. We all say it as well” – Ashley Young says £30m Everton player gets ignored by his teammates during matches

Everton had a comfortable end to the season, despite occasionally hovering around the relegation zone. Their drop in the Premier League table wasn’t primarily due to poor form, even though they experienced their worst-ever winless streak mid-season.

Instead, it was the result of two separate points deductions that pushed them back into the relegation zone.

When others might have wilted, Sean Dyche instead managed to provoke a reaction from his squad, and a whole host of heroes stood up.

Some introduced themselves to Goodison Park for the first time, but others have been consistently starring now for far too long.  

Ashley Young began his summer stint as a pundit on talkSPORT yesterday afternoon (21/05, 5:11 pm). He has agreed to work for the broadcaster throughout a summer packed with European Championships action.

With 39 appearances for England, Ashley Young is well-positioned to weigh in on debates about the national team. However, on this occasion, his focus was on club football.

While he praised Jordan Pickford, Young also admitted that many of Pickford’s teammates often ignore the £30m goalkeeper’s instructions on the pitch.

He revealed: ‘You (Gabriel Agbonlahor) are not the only one who tells him he needs to chill. We all say it as well. He is one of them where he gets into the game and he is like at times he is shouting and many times we hear him and we are like, you alright, Picks? People just ignore him. He is just in game mode.

‘His distribution, at times his talking, his shot-saving, he is a shot-stopper. He has been fantastic, and the clean sheets he has had this season have been great. Obviously, it is down to the goalkeeper and the defenders, but when it comes to shot-stopping, he’s been great for us.’

Despite Pickford having come under scrutiny for the manner in which he often reacts to being forced into action, screaming at his teammates and gesticulating wildly, few can argue with the quality that Young outlines.

After all, were he to struggle to do his job, often letting his team down with huge errors and an inability to make simple saves whilst also shouting, it would be justified.

But the 30-year-old is one of the Premier League’s finest goalkeepers, and any way he can bring the best form out of himself should be celebrated, not lambasted.

He is one of few footballers nowadays who is bursting with personality, and in a game so watered-down by media training, he bucks the trend.

So, if it’s not people’s cup of tea, then so be it. But for Evertonians, he is deservedly a hero, and could edge himself towards legendary status with a few more years of sparkling service.