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Jordan Pickford Focussing on Top Six Finish With Everton Despite Ongoing Rumours Over Chelsea Move

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​Jordan Pickford is aiming for a top six finish with ​Everton this season, with the goalkeeper seemingly keen to remain at Goodison Park.

The England goalkeeper has been given additional time off to recuperate from his World Cup heroics, but Pickford insists that he is ready to begin his preparations for the new season.

The 24-year-old told MailOnline Sport in an interview that he was ready for a swift return to action, citing his passion for the game as a major factor.

"It is a quick turnaround but I am still fresh and raring to go. I couldn't go straight back into it so I had a little break and I will go back in on Friday and get cracking and see how I feel - maybe see if the gaffer will let me have a bit of game time on Saturday. I just love playing football. I'm a football lad.

"I will go in on Friday and the first thing I will do is ask for some game-time on Saturday, hopefully to get the chance to play against ​Wolves the following week. I know myself that I will be more than ready so I can't wait," the goalkeeper added.

The Toffees endured a difficult start to last season, but finished strongly under Sam Allardyce following the dismissal of Ronald Koeman as manager.

Pickford is now hoping that the club are able to build on their good form at the tail end of last season, and challenge for a top six finish this season.

"The club is only going in the right direction. We want to do better. We finished eighth last season and so we want to get better than seventh, get into the top six.

"The ​Premier League is a hard league and it is hard to get a win in any game, but we want to please the fans and make the fans happy and the way to do that is win games."

"The form at the back end of the season was very good and I think we were a top-six side. It takes a bit of time to bed in and get used to each other but hopefully this season it is going to be a lot better."

Pickford's comments about the upcoming season would certainly suggest that the goalkeeper is planning on staying at Goodison Park, despite reported interest from ​Chelsea. The Blues are likely to be in the market for a new goalkeeper to replace Thibaut Courtois, with a move to ​Real Madrid looking more and more likely.