Just when Jake O’Brien thought his month had peaked, he found himself stretched out on a sun lounger at the Ritz-Carlton in Abu Dhabi.
February 2025 was particularly kind to Everton’s towering Irish defender.
The 23-year-old discovered he is to become a father for the first time, while he started each of the club’s five Premier League games and was named man of the match after scoring his first goal in the 1-1 draw at Brentford.
The one negative was an FA Cup exit at the hands of Bournemouth, but that result cleared the schedule for a “bonding trip” to the UAE capital.
“It's been an exciting few weeks,” O’Brien told The National at the team hotel. “Great news back home and a really exciting year ahead. It's all come together, all at the same time, and it's been a really good few weeks for me.
“I try to have a spring in my step the whole time, but when you get news like that it obviously helps. There's been a lot of positive news the last few weeks, and then some warm weather to cap it all off.
“It's good to come over and get away on a bonding trip as such, but obviously get the training in as well, in the heat.”
O’Brien and his teammates earned their week in the sun.
Since David Moyes returned to the club in January they have soared away from relegation trouble, ditching the despondency of the late Sean Dyche era and banking 15 points from 24 available with brisk, energetic and adventurous football.
“The team spirit has been building,” said O’Brien. “The more wins the better, obviously. That's seven unbeaten now and it is credit to David Moyes coming in.
“He's brought a really positive vibe around the place, and more of an attacking style of football, and I think we've seen that over the last few games.”
Improved results ensured the Everton squad met the warm breeze at Zayed International Airport with a smile last week, and the relaxed atmosphere at the team hotel hinted at a group of players now unencumbered by the crippling anxiety so apparent in a grim conclusion to 2024.
They chatted with fans, posed for pictures and signed autographs, while the trip was extra special for the club’s Muslim contingent, with them able to celebrate the start of Ramadan in an Islamic country.
Once they had finished training in the shadow of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, they would go there to pray.
Senegal teammates Idrissa Gueye and Iliman N’Diaye even ventured to Dubai to enjoy Iftar at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel.
Although this was O'Brien's first visit to Abu Dhabi, like so many of his countrymen and women, he is no stranger to the UAE.
“We’ve been on holidays to Dubai. Over with my family before, and then with my missus as well. You're guaranteed good weather here and have a bit of everything, so it's a great place,” he said.
“There’s a lot of Irish here. A lot come over to work. I think you meet the Irish all over the world, but especially here.”
Another place where the Irish have typically felt right at home is Goodison Park.
O’Brien is the latest in a long line of Irishmen to have worn the royal blue shirt of Liverpool's original football club.
His captain Seamus Coleman followed the likes of Lee Carsley and Kevin Kilbane in the modern era, while Kevin Sheedy, regarded as one of Everton’s finest ever players, won two league titles, the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup in the space of three years in the 1980s.
You can go back further, through former player and manager Billy Bingham, to an illustrious list of pre-war club legends. It's a rich heritage – and one O’Brien is proud to continue.
“The most obvious one for me is Seamus,” he said. “But I know there's been a good list of Irish players who have played for Everton and I suppose I am next really.
“Seamus is still here, but I am just happy to keep the Irish tradition going. I think there's always been an Irish player at Everton and happily I am here as well.
“There are a lot of Everton fans back home. You always meet some fans, and also back in the town where I am from as well. I get messages and I think it's nice for them to have someone from there playing at the club.
“There have been some really good Irish players at Everton and hopefully I can play as many games as Seamus. He's the captain and been here for all of his career and hopefully I can replicate something close to that.
“The Irish are always hardworking people, so you know what you get when you get someone from Ireland. They always give 100 per cent and that's something that I do, and I think it's something that all the Irish players that have played for Everton have done as well.
“There are a lot of similarities to back in Ireland, in Liverpool, and in the club as well. So hopefully it's somewhere I can settle down and play for many years.”
Should he build upon his recent form, there’s every chance O’Brien – usually a centre-half but enjoying a run of games at right-back – can follow in the footsteps of Coleman and keep the Irish flag flying.
Bafflingly overlooked by Dyche, he is unbeaten in seven league starts under Moyes, who immediately appreciated his rare blend of size, athleticism and poise on the ball, and found a place for him in his side.
The 61-year-old Scot, who previously managed the club between 2002 and 2013, is by all accounts a more mellow character than the often combustible individual once hand-picked to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
“I mean, yeah, he could be a strict figure, but he's also a person you could talk to and get good advice from. He's very experienced, and I think you can see from the games we have played that he's implemented his style of football and everyone has really bought into it,” said O'Brien of Moyes.
“I don't know exactly how it was back in the day, obviously, but Seamus and others would have played under him and they say he's slightly different, but it's all the same characteristics really.
“For me it's been very positive since he's come in, and I'm very grateful that he's given me my chance, albeit in a new role, but as long as I'm playing, I'm happy.
“Obviously when you're winning there's a good vibe around the club, and we haven't lost, well, I suppose we've lost one game [in the cup], but we've been on a good run and the vibe has just been getting better and better every day.”
Whatever Moyes is doing, it is working, and O’Brien is delighted to be part of what is finally building into a rousing farewell to the club’s beloved Goodison Park home.
That has included febrile atmospheres during a pair of 2-2 draws in the past month.
One, against Manchester United, might have been another victory but for controversial officiating, and another, against city rivals Liverpool, sealed by a 98th minute volley from James Tarkowski, incited scenes perhaps best described as ‘peak Goodison’.
It left the usually unflappable visiting manager Arne Slot spitting expletives at the referee, and O’Brien admits it was satisfying to see the runaway league leaders so visibly rattled.
“Yeah, it was great,” he said. “When we played Liverpool you could hear the noise, and then obviously when we scored in the last minute it was a great feeling and I suppose you won't hear a noise like that anywhere else.
“And hopefully when we play them again, and go [to Anfield] in a few weeks we can grab something from there as well.”
With Everton now financially stable following a takeover by The Friedkin Group, and a summer switch to their stunning new waterside home at Bramley-Moore Dock on the horizon, O’Brien says all the ingredients are there for the club to leave behind the anguish of recent seasons.
“It's an exciting few months, playing the last few games at Goodison, so hopefully we can get as many wins as we can and take that into the new stadium,” he said.
“The new stadium will be one of the best in the league, so it will be good to bring the atmosphere from Goodison and play good football.”
Asked where the club might be in 12 months, O'Brien added: “As high up the table as we can. We have great players and I think we're starting to show that now.
“I think we can play an attacking style of football, exciting football, and be in the new stadium with great backing from the fans like we always have, and just challenge as high up the table as possible.”
And for himself, aside from the impending sleepless nights and nappy changes?
“I just want to keep playing,” he said. “Keep growing and keep believing in myself. There are exciting times ahead and I am looking forward to it.”
