James Garner admits it was something of a culture shock being plunged straight into a relegation battle with Everton, after more than a decade at Manchester United where winning was the only currency.
In his first proper season as a first team squad member, the England U21 star reached three semi-finals, and also tasted play-off success with both Watford and Nottingham Forest, during successful loan periods. So he could be forgiven for wondering what the hell has happened after spending much of his time at Goodison so far in the bottom three. Garner though, is still adamant he made the right decision.
“Yeah a massive culture shock in a way,” he admits with a rueful smile. “Ever since I was six or seven when I’ve been playing football, always at a club and a team with United that’s been winning.
“From the youth team, me going into the first team, breaking through, winning, getting into finals, three semi finals when I started in the squad. Even when I went on loan I was at teams that got promoted.”
So a season at the relegation coal face, and another start in the bottom three is hardly the best beginning to his Everton career. Yet for Garner, there are still only positives.
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“My mindset has always been to play football. I did it when I went to Forest (on loan) - the second time (I went there) they had seven matches and hadn’t won a game, and were bottom of the league,” he explains. “But my attitude was that I wanted to play football and that was the best place to do it.
“We ended up turning it around and getting promoted into the Premier League. It was no different with (my decision to go to) Everton - the mindset was clear, to go and play games, and try to change the pattern of the last few years, and hopefully turn the team around.
“It doesn’t just take me of course, it takes the 11 players, the subs that are coming on and it takes a good group of staff. And we have those things.” Garner certainly helped do that at the weekend, when he played a significant role in Everton’s first Premier League victory of the campaign, a resounding 3-1 win at Brentford which took the Blues out of the bottom three.
Garner joined Manchester United's academy at the age of eight, before completing a permanent move to Everton last summer (PA)And with a Carabao Cup run to aim for as Everton travel to Villa on Wednesday, he believes things are slowly changing at Everton: “I feel like we are only going in the right direction now.
“From when the manager came in we were playing the same football, but I feel like we are much better adapted to it now. We are starting to adapt his style of play and players are a bit more switched on too.
“And you know, hopefully now the ball starts flying in the back of the net, which is the only thing that has been missing. We’ve created a helluva lot of chances, and just not put the ball in the net.
“That’s the missing piece of the jigsaw, but now we’ve got Dom (Calvert-Lewin) back fit and Beto here, hopefully the ball does start going in.”
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