Didier Who?

Some centre halves newly promoted to the Premier League might have a few sleepless nights over their summer holidays as their mind tries to comprehend the fact that they’re going to be marking the likes of Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres. Not Ian Evatt. For him reputations mean nothing.

Speaking to the Blackpool Gazette, the centre half said that if the ‘Pool players go into games thinking that they’re inferior then they’ll made to look like it. Like the famous banner says, they have to ‘BELIEVE’.

Evatt said:

‘People in the street keep stopping me and ask how I’m sleeping at night, saying you’ve got to play against players like Rooney, Defoe and Drogba.

‘But they’ve got two legs just the same as anyone else.

‘If you go into a match judging people on their reputation then you’re going to struggle.

‘So what we need to do is go out on the pitch and play the way we have always played – and I have no doubt that with the fantastic team spirit we’ve got, we’ll do ourselves justice.’

Like myself, Evatt was not too disappointed at not getting one of the big four on the opening day of the season and instead getting Wigan at home – like me, he thinks it presents a great chance for the Seasiders to get three points on the board at the first possible opportunity.

‘The missus had asked me who I’d like, Manchester United or Arsenal or someone like that, but I said I wanted a game that we saw as winnable.

‘We’ve got that because if we’re going to stay in the league, we have to be beating teams like Wigan at home.

‘So it’s an opportunity to get off the mark points-wise … and then we’ve got a nice trip away to the Emirates in our second game.

‘If you can’t get excited about those sorts of fixtures there’s something wrong with you.’