Michael Keane has shaken off the blues and seen his fortunes turn around

Ahead of England's friendly against USA, the defender opens up on his nightmare start to life at Everton and learning from such an experience

Michael Keane arrived at Everton last summer with a big reputation but there were times during his first season at Goodison Park when things were going so badly he did not even want to leave the house.

It was a disastrous season for Everton, who sacked Ronald Koeman, failed to appoint Marco Silva, got David Unsworth in as caretaker, had to replace him with Sam Allardyce and then finished the season sacking Allardyce too. And it affected Keane too, who lost his way on the pitch, looked out of place in the team, and when the fans started to turn on him he took it to heart. The dream move became a nightmare.

It was only when they finally completed the signing of Silva this summer that the fortunes of Everton – and of Keane – started to turn around. Three months on, he has been a big part of Everton’s success, is justifying his £25m transfer fee and is back in Gareth Southgate’s plans too. That is why he was speaking at St George’s Park on Tuesday afternoon, ahead of a likely return to the team at Wembley on Thursday night.

It is some way from the darker moments of last season when Keane was in and out of a failing side, not wanting to face Everton fans, and needing chairman Bill Kenwright to phone him up to encourage him to keep the faith.

“There were a few months when things were going really badly, and I did not want to go and do things out of the house,” Keane revealed. “Only on a couple of occasions, when you’ve had a bad game you don’t want to go out for dinner. But I’ve never been out when people have shouted abuse at me.”

Keane is clearly a thoughtful, sensitive person, tuned in to the struggles of those around him. It hurt him to see Koeman, Unsworth and Allardyce all lose their jobs because of the failure of the players. Not many Premier League players speak about their sense of responsibility and empathy like this.

“It is really sad when managers get sacked, and they talk to you for the last time, and you see how visibly upset they are,” Keane said. “That gets to you and makes you feel guilty, and you want to make sure it does not happen again.”

Keane admits that amid all the defeats and dismissals, he started to get down on himself. “At times I did,” he said. “I think that’s normal, probably a lot of the team did. You feel guilty, you feel to blame for people losing their job, for the fans being unhappy. We spent a lot of money last year and signed good players, but it takes time to gel. But people expected us to do better than what we did.”

At Burnley Keane had three years of stability under one manager, Sean Dyche. At Everton he is into his fourth manager already. That takes some getting used to. “We had three managers in the end and it was difficult,” he said. “All the change constantly happening. You could not settle and get used to a style of football. But hopefully now we are getting the consistency with Marco Silva and are playing for him. All the lads love him.”

Keane's fortunes have started to turn around under Marco Silva (AFP/Getty Images)

As hard as it was last year, culminating in Keane being overtaken by Harry Maguire in the England set-up, he feels stronger for having come through it. It was a new type of challenge but he has preserved and now looks like a different player. Which is credit to Marco Silva but also to Keane himself. “The turning point was the end of last season, I wanted to put it behind me. I had a tough year. I just wanted to forget about that and come into pre-season as if I was a new player. There was a new manager to impress and that is what I did. I feel much fitter and sharper than I did last year and that is helping me.”

Sensitivity and empathy are admirable personal qualities, but Keane has learned that he does not always have to take everything to heart. Sometimes in football it is better to develop a shell.

“Although it wasn't a great year I took a lot from it,” Keane says. “I learnt a lot about myself, and I’m probably mentally stronger, and developed that thick skin. Because a lot gets said about you when things aren't going well. You’ve just got to learn to deal with and try to not let it affect you. That is something I can take from it. Now I can sit here in the England camp and says I’ve come through that. If anything goes wrong in the future I can look back at that, think I’ve dealt with this before and hopefully it won’t get as bad as that again.”