Old friends with sights fixed on a fresh start will reunite today on Merseyside.
‘He’s like a brother to me,’ Philippe Coutinho told Sportsmail when Allan signed for Everton in 2020. ‘We are the same age, we played together in the youth teams at Vasco, we were both nervous in our first match as professionals and we played together in the national teams.’
They collide at Goodison Park with Coutinho back in the city of Liverpool, for Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa, and with Allan preparing for life after Rafa Benitez and Duncan Ferguson back in caretaker charge of Everton.