Leighton Baines

[Shukes]

14 minutes ago, Bailey said:

Imagine how much better we would be if all of our players could play to a 6 or above now! 

We would be challenging for top 6. Say what you like about Moyes, but he brought in some hungry players. They might not have had the technical ability to take us higher, but they had heart and fight.

If we could just mix that hunger and ability, our fortunes would change.

Bye Leighton, have a deserved retirement and Live in the history of Everton forever.

[MikeO]

The memories.

1. Two goals at West Ham, one in each corner, Sheedy-esque.

2. Right footed goal at Man City to put us two up on probably the coldest night of the year.

3. (and best) That free kick v Newcastle, we all knew he could curl one in off his instep at will but that off the outside of his boot from such a distance curling the "wrong" way was out of this World, not even Sheeds had that in his locker. One of the finest free kicks I've ever seen.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/28/leighton-baines-everton-retires-unselfish-terms

[Romey 1878]

https://www.evertonfc.com/news/1744564/pienaar-on-baines-he-was-always-there-to-help

[nyblue23]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leighton-baines-david-unsworth-take-18920132

Very happy to stand corrected on his desire to return to the team in a coaching capacity. Fantastic to see him continue being an influence on the club. One of the only worries I'd have with Ancelotti coming and an influx of money and expensive international players is losing the fabric and identity of the club; having Unsworth, Dunc and now Bainesy should prevent that from happening.

[Romey 1878]

https://www.evertonfc.com/news/2285423/baines-takes-up-new-short-term-everton-role

[Shukes]

So many people believed he just wasn’t into football….. yet, he has stayed in football after retirement. He is a true blue!

[dunlopp9987]

When I saw there was a new post in this thread, I expected to see that he was being named in our squad for next weekend due to Digne's injury

[Matt]

16 hours ago, dunlopp9987 said:

When I saw there was a new post in this thread, I expected to see that he was being named in our squad for next weekend due to Digne's injury

I seriously thought the same

[RuffRob]

It would have been worth Baines staying on the playing roster just to Digne sharp. 

Anybody else notice how Digne form has dropped pretty much since Baines is no longer breathing over his shoulder. Goes to show a lot of players do need some sort of competition for there starting place. An out of form Digne gets on the team sheet every time if he is fit.

Definitely need another left back, to get competition as well as cover for injuries!! 

[MikeO]

 

[Goodison Glory]

https://theathletic.com/3414792/2022/07/12/leighton-baines-everton-coach/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983

Leighton Baines: The coach and the mentor with an unflinching commitment to the badge

It is rush-hour in Rishikesh and the traffic is going nowhere fast. In the sweltering heat, a pale foreigner trudges along the pavement clutching what little luggage he has, trying to find shelter.

Amid the hustle and bustle, he elicits barely a second glance from bored motorists who are unaware he is an international footballer and Premier Leaguestar. He is on his way to a silent meditation retreat in the Himalayan foothills, and although he is miles away, he has decided to find a new route minus the congestion.

While team-mates lay on sun loungers in Las Vegas or Ibiza, he has chosen an altogether different summer break.

Leighton Baines has always been prepared to walk his own path.

Whether in his playing days as one of Europe’s best attacking full-backs, coveted by Manchester United and Bayern Munich, or as a highly-rated coach and mentor, the Everton man’s authenticity set him apart.

As unconventional as he was excellent, Baines remains something of an enigma who eschews attention.

Those who know the 37-year-old could recount tales of his originality, but usually decline in deference to his desire for a low profile.

This summer, Baines’ nascent coaching ability saw him become manager of the club’s under-18s. The Athletic spoke to some of those who know him best, for new insight on Everton’s quiet cult hero who seems set for a bright managerial career.

If youth and relatability are currency in contemporary managerial qualities, Everton have doubled down.

At the first-team level, they have Frank Lampard, an arm-round-the-shoulder 44-year-old who prefers to connect with players, many of whom remember his recent and stellar playing career, on a friendly level rather than rant and rave.

For many, the era of authoritarian tea-cup throwers is over. Modern players seem less likely to respond to bawlers. The world has moved on.

Baines, tasked with guiding the club’s crop of rising academy stars, is another case in point.

“I think empathy is one of the most important elements of communication,” says Danny Donachie, Everton’s popular former head of medical services, who has known Baines since he joined Everton aged 22 in 2007. “He’s got that in abundance. I think his style would never be, you know, like an old-fashioned manager who shouts and raves but I think that kind of manager is becoming more and more extinct anyway.

“Leighton has got a more sort of modern, forward-thinking style that will serve him well in the years ahead. He’s very approachable and easy for players to talk to.

“He’s worked with a lot of big managers now, and he is the kind of person that soaks in all of the information from all of them.

“He’s got a huge amount to give to people and to football, and his knowledge is unbelievable.”

Donachie is known as an innovator himself. The man who counts renowned Indian yoga teacher Sadhguru among his friends, and has worked as a private mentality coach to stars ranging from Tony Bellew to Bastian Schweinsteiger, was drawn to Baines as an open-minded kindred spirit.

It was Donachie who accompanied the defender on the silent meditation in India during the twilight of the latter’s playing career in 2017.

“We’d travelled separately and he landed first,” recalls Donachie, who left Everton last season during Rafa Benitez’s ill-fated spell as manager. “As I arrived at the airport he called me and he was in a taxi in rush-hour traffic.

“He says his main luggage hadn’t arrived and he was stuck in this cab in a two-hour jam. The taxi driver didn’t want to wait and he was doing everything he could to make Leighton get out so he could turn around.

“He had wound the window up and he’s smoking and farting and Leighton’s telling me all this and I’m saying ‘Whatever you do stay in the cab’.

“The next call I get he says he’d got out and was walking with his hand luggage along this busy road. Imagine this famous Premier League player trudging on this mad road with nobody having a clue who he was.”

Donachie chuckles at the memory. “It was an amazing experience though,” he says. “It just shows how open-minded he is. He always wanted to grow and know himself better and that’s a quality which I’m sure will be important in being a coach and helping others.

“As a player in the dressing room, he had his voice and it’s not hard for him to communicate.”

Baines seems to inspire loyalty, a devotion even, in many who work alongside him.

Former Goodison starlet Jose Baxter has spent the past year coaching alongside Baines, and says the experience has been hugely positive.

“I’ve learned so much from him,” he tells The Athletic. “He’s a role model for me and even though he’s quite a young coach and new to it himself he seems far more experienced than his short coaching career suggests.

“He’s a massive thinker and he’s always got time for every single player, every single coach and also every department of the club as he wants to understand everything.

“I have no doubt Leighton will become a top coach at a top level without putting any pressure on him. He can be whatever he wants and I’m just so privileged to have worked with him. From a selfish point of view, I want to keep doing that so I learn every day being around him.”

Baines’ work has also involved coaching one-to-one with youngsters, both at the club and out on loan, using video analysis.

He is said to have provided applicable details during the sessions, relating guidance to his own recent playing career. Unsurprisingly, younger full-backs and forwards were particularly gripped by his insight on developing strong partnerships between defenders and attackers, from a player whose relationship with midfielder Steven Pienaar was one of the most potent in the top flight.

Sessions would have a lighter touch sometimes, too. Baines does not constantly intervene to the point where the coaching becomes overly complicated and loses value, often letting the sessions flow.

Some of the loan players Baines has worked with include striker Ellis Simms, while he was at Blackpool, and Anthony Gordon while he was at Preston in early 2021.

Last season, he is believed to have spoken a lot with the highly-rated Isaac Price on the intricacies of the midfield role. He often joins in sessions and some say the former left-back, who regularly embarks on long runs after finishing coaching, would still be fit enough to play now.

“He’s always been in the situations as a defender that you have got to deal with,” 17-year-old defender Jack Tierney told Everton’s website last year.

“He has great advice to give to you. The first bit of advice that he gave us after watching us train was about our body shape.

“Especially for him being a full-back, he had people trying to get past the side of him.

“It’s something with my size that I’ve been trying to work on.

“Being on my toes, side on which gives me a better chance of getting to any loose balls or anything played over the top or forcing the striker one way onto his weaker foot.

“He’s always talking about the back four, how they all need to work together.”

Baines was helping younger players long before he hung up his boots. Left-back Luke Garbutt, once touted as his successor, recalls the England international going out of his way to help him, even during the time he presented a possible threat to his place in the team.

“From a mentoring perspective, Bainesy was just a top-drawer fella,” Garbutt, now at Blackpool, tells The Athletic. “He was great with me and if ever I wanted to ask him things, he’d talk to me.

“It wasn’t as if he was threatened by what I was doing at that time – he just got on with his job and did it to the best of his ability. At that time I based my game around him a lot and it was really good to compete with him.”

Everton’s tendency to appoint former players as coaches has attracted some criticism. Detractors say the ‘old boys’ network is to the detriment of overall standards, and blame sentimentality from above for reinforcing it.

Nobody includes Baines in that bracket. Senior figures in the game tell The Athletic that Baines is the real deal, with ‘elite’ potential who would be coveted by rival clubs if he decided to work elsewhere.

He has never wanted opportunities or headstarts because of his past.

“Leighton is ambitious, but he is also very focused,” adds Donachie. “The work is very important to him. It’s important that he does things the right way. He would never like or expect to get a job because of what he’s done in the past or anything like that. He needs to earn everything that he gets.”

The changes made this summer have been well-received behind the scenes. Paul Tait, who in turn helped develop Baines during his spell as under-18 coach, is also said to deserve his promotion to the under-21s, where he is expected to flourish. An attacking coach, his influence should result in a style of football which is different from what came before.

There is no guarantee that someone as hungry for knowledge and experience as Baines will stay at Everton for the rest of his career, but his understanding of the club, and its fans, makes him an asset Kevin Thelwell would be loathe to lose.

“I think he is probably the most caring player that I ever worked with,” says Donachie. “So in terms of looking out for the future talent of Everton and the future values of the club, there’s no one better-placed than him.

“He’s also in touch with everything that David Moyes put in place in terms of the values that made that team so strong. I think he’s a really good custodian of those values in the club.”

Those values include an unflinching commitment to the badge, still consistently displayed on the pitch by Baines’ former full-back partner Seamus Coleman. The pair’s embrace after the crucial win over Crystal Palace in May was a poignant moment, and also a reminder of their bond – forged on mutual values.

Baines once played an entire season under Moyes with an ankle injury.

“He had that for a big part of his career, to be honest,” recalls Donachie. “But that year he was really struggling and it was when he was one of the most important players, so he played the whole season and then I think he got surgery in the summer. He played in pain every week and people don’t appreciate that. You know, it’s not easy. Some players can do it. Some players can’t.

“I can remember a few times towards the end of his career, he had muscle injuries but he could manage himself and get through the games without even really sprinting.”

From managing himself, with determination and brains, to managing Everton’s next generations — Baines is inspiring those around him.

He is still walking his own path too, exploring the foothills of what promises to be a great managerial career. It will be interesting to see how high up the mountain he climbs.

[Gwlad]

Definitely his own man but a thinker too. Long may he stay. 

[Bailey]

Thanks for posting that @Goodison Glory