Pushing To Be Centre Stage

Mason Holgate tells Everton’s matchday programme about a transformative conversation with Marco Silva, reveals the real story behind the televised spat which became a social media hit and explains how he’s changed since coming to Goodison Park as a callow 18-year-old from Barnsley.

- Paul McNamara

Mason Holgate is feeling tired and old – but matters aren’t as stark as they seem.

The defender’s weariness is explained away easily enough, Holgate ambling into the room for this interview directly after 90 minutes tearing around the training field at USM Finch Farm.

His advancing years? All things are relative. Holgate turned 23 the day before this conversation. He joined Everton aged 18 in 2015 and the intervening four years have whistled past.

Has he changed in that period?

“Massively,” starts Holgate, grabbing a bottle of apple juice and cautiously folding himself into a chair.

“As a player and a person.

“You are still a kid at 18. “I was never quiet. I have never been quiet in my life.

“But if I wanted to say something, I would probably keep it to myself.

“Now I am much more open, I tell people what I think. “I have matured as a person.”

It was Holgate’s readiness to speak up which led him to sit down with Marco Silva last month for what would prove a reinvigorating conversation.

This season had reached its first international break with unseemly haste and Holgate was keen to get back out on the pitch.

His Carabao Cup appearance against Lincoln City and 17 minutes from the bench in Everton’s Premier League victory over Watford was a contrast to the player’s pivotal role on loan at West Bromwich Albion for the second half of last season.

“I went to talk to the gaffer because I’d gone from playing every game to coming back and not playing,” says Holgate.

“We had a really good conversation and he told me what I had to work on.

“Since that day my focus has been much more ‘on’. “I’ve been working on different parts of my game and I think that is starting to show.