Bill Kenwright admits that he is excited about Everton's immediate future with less than two weeks to go before the start of the new Premier League season.

A number of Everton's most influential players from last season signed long-term deals at Goodison Park during the past couple of months.

The likes of Romelu Lukaku and Gareth Barry were brought in on loan last year and Kenwright says that he is more than happy to have these players secured on his side. The younger players, on the other hand, signed a new deal as well to extend the duration of their contracts with the club. To this date, defender John Stones is the latest Everton signee.

"We had a number of objectives at the start of the summer. The first was to get manager Roberto (Martinez) on a long-term deal because that was paramount and once we'd done that we knew the rest would follow." Kenwright said.

The club chairman added that the likings of John Stones, Ross Barkley and Seamus Coleman are the hottest young priorities in the Premier League at the moment and they would want to secure long-term deals with these athletes since there are other clubs who are interested with them just as well.

"John was awesome. The lad is a complete footballer as are Seamus and Ross.

"It's great we have a manager who wants to bring the good times back to Goodison - and he's doing it via youth. I have phone conversations at one o'clock in the morning with Roberto, talking things through."

Getting Lukaku to agree a permanent deal was rather an immense moment for the club, Kenwright admitted.

"The deal had to go on hold for four weeks because he was off to the World Cup."

"But it was mega when we signed him because most Evertonians will tell you that our turnaround in our season was that extraordinary day at the end of the transfer window last August when we signed Rom, Gareth Barry, James McCarthy all in the space of about 40 minutes at the end of the window."

"It's more than a signing, it's a statement. We've signed Gareth Barry this year too. We do it for our fans and why else would you be in football for."