The Everton winger said he wants to do enough this season to convince Everton to trigger the option to make his move from Napoli permanent
Jesper Lindstrom has been at Everton for four tough months but has already seen enough to know he wants to stay. The winger, signed on loan from Napoli in the summer, is aware he will need to do more to convince the Blues to trigger the option the club has to make his move permanent.
But his desire to remain at a club he feels has embraced him as he attempts to rebuild his career is clear – he has seen enough of Everton, of the fanbase, and of Liverpool to know his heart is set on a career on Merseyside.
Speaking ahead of Everton’s trip to Manchester United, the Denmark international said: “I will do everything I can for them to buy me because I like it here. I like the training… I like the life here. So hopefully they will buy me.”
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He is under no illusions, however. In the region of £20m, the clause Everton could enact in the summer is not cheap and he knows he will need to start producing in order to make the club, expected to be under new ownership well before this becomes a priority, willing to include him in the change that will sweep through the club next summer.
Transition will happen in the boardroom, in the dressing room and with the move to the waterfront from Goodison Park. There could be further changes too, with manager Sean Dyche and director of football Kevin Thelwell both currently out of contract at the end of the season.
For Lindstrom to achieve his ambition he will have to make a statement on the pitch. He knows this, adding: “I have to show them that I’m good enough for them. It is a lot of money so I need to make some goals and I need to make some assists and this is what I’m fighting for. If at the end they don’t take the option then that is how it is, I will still have taken something out of it because I feel like I’m training hard and I’m learning a lot this year.”
Lindstrom is growing into this season. The 24-year-old has now played eight times in the Premier League and started the last three matches.
He has had chances but while his wait for a first goal continues he does believe he is getting better as he settles in a new competition and country after a torrid year in Italy, when a big money move to Naples from Eintracht Frankfurt – who he won the Europa League with – did not work out.
Lindstrom reflected: “As the games go on and with the more game time I get, the more rhythm I will have – I don’t get cramp 60 minutes anymore, so I feel like I’m getting the rhythm again and I just need the last moment. I had the chances at Leicester and I had the chances in the cup against Southampton. So I think I have had chances to score the goals, I just need to put it in. Sometimes you just need the first goal. It is coming and coming and coming, I feel like I’m close.”
It has not been plain sailing at Everton, and Lindstrom admits he would have liked to have played more than he has this season. He understands he has competition though, most notably from Jack Harrison.
And he feels he is winning the backing of Blues manager Sean Dyche. He explained: “I had a tough year at Napoli where I didn’t play many games. I came here to play after a tough year and was a bit frustrated because I only got 10 minutes here and there, that’s how it is being a footballer.
“You want to play every game but there are 25 players in a squad and it’s not possible to play every game. In the end he [Dyche] told me to ‘stay humble, fight and run and I don’t want to see any attitude’. That’s what I’m doing now. I think he likes how I help the team. I have good running stats and fight for the team.”
Everton appealed to Lindstrom because the club’s interest had been longstanding. He knew the Blues liked him when he moved to Napoli and the club’s willingness to overlook last season’s disappointment to offer him a new opportunity meant a lot to him.
He also hoped the Premier League might be better suited to his game than Serie A, explaining: “That’s also why I chose the Premier League, because I feel like the games are very open. Where in Italy it’s a bit locked, like you have the ball a lot but you’re playing like side-to-side, in the Premier League it’s up and down like in the Bundesliga, so there are more goals.
“That’s why I chose the Premier League, because it’s similar to the Bundesliga, where I did well – I scored goals, I made assists, I played a lot, I was creative and this is what I want to bring to the Premier League. But after a year where you don’t play games it is difficult, but I have no excuses. I feel like I can do something here.”
Lindstrom and Everton begin a tough December with a difficult trip to Old Trafford, where new boss Ruben Amorim will be seeking his first league win. It is a challenge Lindstrom is looking forward to – not least because it will bring him up against two friends, Denmark teammates Christian Eriksen and Rasmus Hojlund.
Both have had an influence on him. Lindstrom was at his brother’s wedding when Eriksen collapsed while playing in the Euros in 2021, a day he still remembers vividly, recalling how the reception paused as the news filtered around the room.
He said: “It totally stopped with everybody wanting to know what happened. Luckily, he’s alive. He is such a good person and a very good player. I am happy for him and his family. I can imagine it was tough for all of them. He wouldn’t know what happened because he ‘died’ – he was not there. Everybody in Denmark was thinking about him.”
His relationship goes further back with Hojlund, to the age of 10 – when he says the striker’s future in the game was uncertain until he developed his pace.
Lindstrom messaged him on Thursday after his brace in the Europa League win over Bodo Glimt.
He said: “What is very good about him is that he’s always hungry and wants to score goals, even though he might not have a good game he can score goals. He’s on fire. I texted him after the game congratulating him on his two goals but told him not to score at the weekend. He said he will try his best to score goals.”
