Everton coach Stone: Young qualities exactly what we want

Everton coach Steve Stone has no doubts what Ashley Young will give them.

The veteran has joined Everton in a free transfer from Aston Villa.

Stone told the Liverpool Echo: "I met him in the corridors when he was doing some testing and immediately you could tell from his body language, the way he went about his business and the way he shook my hand and he spoke, you just thought 'yeah, you've been around a bit.' I spoke to him this morning and I said: 'Have you fitted in ok?' and he went: 'Yeah, perfect,' so I thought there's no shock there.

He's been around the Premier League and he's been around top clubs. From what I've seen as a younger boy where he had loads of talent in the wide areas, he seemed to develop more into a captain's role and I never actually thought he'd have that about him when he was younger and a wide man.

He looks like he's got that real ability to drive people around him. Not just by his footballing ability but his actions around the building. At Newcastle United they talk about Kieran Trippier coming in from Atletico Madrid and doing a very similar thing, to drive other people on by his actions, his behaviour and his professionalism, and I think Ashley will do all of that by upping the ante in the professionalism stakes."

Stone also said: Let's be honest, he's 38 years of age but he looks like a spring chicken doesn't he? He played over 30 games for Aston Villa last year and you don't get to play that amount of games without having something about you.

They're a good Villa team by the way with Unai Emery coming into the Premier League and he must have thought: 'He can drive this team on' and that's exactly what he did.

I'm delighted we've got him. He's someone with real experience, real quality and real professionalism that's exactly what we want."