Former Everton man Jose Baxter has revealed his long-term goal to become manager of the club he ‘adores’.
The 29-year-old is currently a coach of a youth team within the Merseyside club, a few months after announcing his retirement from playing.
His last club was Memphis 901 in the United States – who are partially owned by his former team-mate Tim Howard.
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Baxter joined the Toffees as a six-year-old and went on to become one of the youngest players to play in the Premier League, making his debut at the age of 16.
And in an open interview with The Athletic, the former forward has emphasised his dream to manage Everton and has revealed he considered suicide whilst at Sheffield United in 2016.
“My long-term goal is to be the manager,” he said.
“I’ll say this to you now – it didn’t quite work out at Everton for me as a player because something good is going to come for me as a manager or a coach. I’m not saying that’ll be first-team manager anytime soon but it’s my dream and I have to set my goal high.
“It drives me on. I adore Everton.”
The Englishman admitted to being frustrated at a lack of game time as a youngster at Goodison Park, saying: “I’d be training out of my skin and there are internationals who trained with me saying I was doing great, then come the Saturday, with all due respect, the likes of (Apostolos) Vellios would be on the bench.
“I’d be looking at it wondering what more I needed to do.
“But you’d go into training with a big brave face on. But I was low. I was down.”
After a difficult spell at Sheff Utd where he failed two drug tests, Baxter said his mental health plummeted and he began to contemplate suicide.
He said: “I had some really good days and some lonely days looking back at my life when football was suspended.”
Elsewhere, Raheem Sterling says the England squad “want to make history” following their Euro 2020 heartache in the summer.
“You still have people saying congratulations or something and it’s like… there’s not much to congratulate as we didn’t win,” he told Sky Sports.
“It was class, we went to the (Euro 2020) final but we want to win, we want to make history, and I think that’s the message since day one when Gareth (Southgate) came in.”