Joey Barton has described the Covid-19 regulations that his Fleetwood Town squad have been subject to in the build-up to their clash with Everton.
And the lifelong Everton fan has explained his admiration for Carlo Ancelotti, as well as his hopes for the Toffees after the game.
The Blues make the trip to Highbury Stadium on Wednesday evening to face the League One club in the third round of the Carabao Cup, with a home tie against West Ham or Hull City up for grabs in the next stage of the competition.
Elsewhere Tottenham Hotspur's scheduled clash with Leyton Orient, originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday, was cancelled in the hours leading up to the game after the Premier League side paid for tests for the lower league club.
Barton revealed that has not been the case for Everton's upcoming clash, and went into more detail over the procedures each of his players have been following.
The Fleetwood boss said: “We don't get tested as regularly as the Premier League, we are tested quite a bit but not every game.
"I think we had two positives when we first came back after the lockdown but from that everyone has tested negative.
"We've worked hard as a club to make sure procedures are in pace because the last thing we want is to get shut down or lose players as we have a small squad.
"We haven't been tested in the build-up to this – I think they (PL players) get tested every week, we get tested every three weeks.
"From our perspective we wouldn't want to test someone if we didn't have to because it costs us a lot to do it and we don't have 40 grand to pay for testing every week, it's a waste."
Barton will be on the touchline with Ancelotti on Wednesday evening looking to stop what has been a brilliant start to the season for Everton.
Optimism is high around the club after three wins in as many matches to begin the campaign, most recently securing a 5-2 victory over West Brom at Goodison this weekend.
And the Fleetwood boss believes just being able to observe what the Italian does on the touchline will be able to teach him a huge amount.
“I'd be a bit more confident if I had his players and he had mine," he added.
"I was lucky enough when I was in Marseille, he was PSG coach; he is someone who I have admired – I think everyone in football has enormous respect for him – he was a European Cup winner as a player with that great AC Milan side and a European Cup winner as a manager.
"He is someone who as a young aspiring coach I look up to. There are lot of times in the last couple of years you think how other managers would have dealt with it and you think 'How would Ancelotti have dealt with that?' with his quiet leadership and how he sees the game.
"For me just to watching him on the sideline and watching what he does will be a huge eye-opener and I think I will learn a lot from it and he is one of the best in the business and in a short period at Everton, with one window of recruitment, it has been on the money.
"As an Evertonian for the first time in a long time they are being taken seriously again and he's the person that changed that. For us I hope we can beat them and then after that I want Everton to win every game."
