Carlo Ancelotti says he is in no rush to hand Everton captain Seamus Coleman a new deal because the Irishman’s contract with the club is “forever”.
Coleman has spent over 12 years at Goodison Park since joining in a £60,000 transfer from Sligo Rovers and made his 345th Everton appearance in Friday’s 1-0 Premier League win at Arsenal.
Everton director of football Marcel Brands told the club’s USA Live event last week he hopes to persuade the 32-year-old Republic of Ireland full-back to stay beyond his current terms, which expire at the end of next season.
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But manager Ancelotti told evertontv: “I don’t think we have to talk about the contract.
“The contract that Seamus has with the club and this team is forever.
“It doesn’t mean one-year long or two years long. Seamus’ contract with Everton is forever.”
Everton’s win at Arsenal, their first at the Emirates Stadium, rekindled hopes of Champions League qualification on the blue half of Merseyside after a run of five games without a win.
Ancelotti’s side are six points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea with a game in hand.
“For two or three games, we have been playing better,” Ancelotti said.
“We are more solid and have more options in the squad.
“Against Crystal Palace and Tottenham and Brighton we were not able to win, but I said to the players to keep fighting because we still had possibilities (to qualify for Europe) and we still have possibilities.”
Ancelotti last week revealed his reaction to the proposed European Super League plan.
“My immediate reaction was they are joking, ‘Is it a joke?’,” Ancelotti said.
“For every supporter of football it was a strange day, a surprise. We heard about the Super League in the past few months but I was sure it was not going to happen. What can I say? They were wrong.
“The clubs were wrong because they didn’t take into consideration the players, managers and supporters.
“They wanted to build a competition without sporting merit. This is not acceptable because in our culture, we were brought up to have sporting merit. They were wrong – full stop.”
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