Excerpts from Kurt Zouma’s exclusive Everton interview

Everton are often called the People’s Club for good reason, as their stellar work in the community shows. However, on the football side of the operation they occasionally do something puzzling that leaves the fans fuming.

New on-loan signing Kurt Zouma spoke to evertontv in an exclusive interview that was only published in the ‘Members Only’ section, causing a bit of an uproar since it was the first time the player was being interviewed after joining the Toffees. That part of the website is only accessible for season ticket holders and official club members.

Below are a couple of excerpts from that interview, click here to watch the full video (restricted access).

On when he spoke to Marco Silva and what he thought of him -

“I spoke to the manager for the first time about two weeks ago and I was interested in the project. He told me he was going to bring in some new players, which he did, a lot of them! But I’m looking forward to the season.

“Yeah he’s a good manager, he’s good in training, I’ve trained twice or thrice with him and he’s very good. He wants us to play, and is really close to the players. He wants to put more strength in the team, and I can be another option for him, and get enough game time.”

This is not unique - one of the most common things we’ve heard from the Everton players is how hands-on Silva has been, and how he’s been a big part in convincing the new players to join the club.

On how he felt about the competition, and his fellow new signing Yerry Mina -

“There’s a lot of players in every position, that could be good for everybody because competition is always good in a team. Your target is to win games, so hopefully we win as many as we can. Lot of quality in every position. Defensively, in the midfield and offensively too, more options for the manager.

“I watched him (Mina) play in the World Cup, he scored a few goals. He’s a good player, there’s a lot of good players here, you can see it in the dressing room. The thing now is for us is to play together and get to know each other, and I think we’ll be great, we can have a great season.”

With Zouma and Mina now onboard, Everton finally have centrehalf depth to match the top six sides.

On club captain Phil Jagielka’s influence -

“He’s the captain of the team, he’s a leader. Like I used to have John Terry at Chelsea, it’s the same thing here, Jagielka is a legend. To learn from him that will be good for us, for me, for Yerry, for the other guys. We need to watch him play and speak to him a lot.”

He went on to add that he was a big fan of Didier Drogba and Terry’s growing up.

On how he has been settling in at the side -

“Yeah there are some French-speaking guys here, Idrissa Gueye and Oumar Niasse too, we have a little squad here, so it’s good. Of course it helps, but I know English, I’ve been here four years.”

On how he would describe himself to Everton fans -

“A defender who always wants to win, who is determined to defend the colours I’m wearing. Who is willing to learn, to work in training, and to give 100% in games.”

That’s about all we ask for as supporters of every player to pull on the royal blue shirt.