 Welcome to ToffeeTV, we are joined by Hit Radio's Dave Fitty, Massive Blue, Comedy Dave, anything? Brocast Legends! Brocast Legends! Good to see you boys! Direct there, everything, Phil, TV, everything. I watch this all the time, I kid you not, I watch this as my guilty pleasure, when my missus... Why does this have to be a guilty pleasure? Because, because my missus isn't into football. I've taken it to goodness in a couple of times but she's not into football. She's not into football! In recent times, you can understand how it's turned her off. But often, if she's having an early night and she's gone to bed, right, and we've finished watching the couple of things like First Dates and whatever, and Masterchef and all these other things that we watched together, I will then use this as my chance to catch up on ToffeeTV. So actually to be here genuinely in the studio is weird and quite exciting. Made up to have it? Can we cut that down for an habit? Cut that habit, cut that out to get habits! That's what I'm saying! Game 50, should we put that on the poster? Dave Vee says it's quite exciting! It's exciting! After a Watch First date, I've watched ToffeeTV! After Masterchef, it's my favourite! It's one of my third favourite things to watch on a Tuesday night! That's right, only on Tuesdays. Dave Everton, why Everton? How Everton? Family. My dad, who's sadly not around anymore, was a massive blue. He was from the other side of the water. He was from a family from Trenton originally. He moved out to Easton. And so he was a big blue. He used to go and see Everton whenever he could. And then when he couldn't go and watch Everton, he also used to go and watch Tramir as well. He used to go and see his local sign. Through my dad, through other family, I had a season ticket for about five years in the paddock, along with my cousin Paul, which I sadly had to give up two years ago just because I wasn't getting to enough games. And there was a time when I used to try and make it work and I used to come up and down from London where I was working more often, but it just got to the point where each game was costing me about £200. And I just thought, this just isn't feasible and I now need to sort of go on a pay-as-you-play basis. But yeah, it's one of those. It was a family thing. It was passed down. And me and my dad used to go to a lot of games. We used to go to Goodison together, but we'd also go and see a lot of games in London as well and go and see the Ways with a group of people that I met through work 20-odd years ago. A load of exiled scousers down in London. And so we just take it in terms to get the tickets and it'd be like, right, well, you sort out West Ham, I'll do the Chelsea ones. Anyone fancy Southampton away or whatever? Or Leicester? Yeah, we'll do that because that's doable as a day thing. And we just go around and we disperse away, West Ham away, Arsenal away, the lot. And so it's been a huge part of my life and something that's very enjoyable and very special. Can you give them a first game? First game was with my dad and I think it was something like 1981, 1982, something like that and it was Stoke. But I can't remember anything about what happened. I just know that it was evident Stoke. And it was, I'll be honest with you, it was one of those things that, because my dad moved out to Hong Kong in 1969, he got a job, he worked in telecoms and he got off of the job in Hong Kong and he didn't even know where Hong Kong was. And anyway, him and my mum off, they went on this two-year contract and they went out there for 25 years. So I was born there and I was brought up there and it was only when, it was really when I came over to college in Warrington. I did a media course in Warrington just down the road and that was when I could start going to the games regularly and I think that's for me where it became really, really special because it was a tangible thing then and I could just go with cousin Paul to a game on a Monday night or we could go on a Saturday or we could do whatever and then you suddenly feel this real sense of, I mean I don't need to tell you, but you know the real sense of belonging and the reason why this club is special because once you're there it is a family and you're sucked in and things never change. It must be difficult to make you sound old now. In those times when it was black and white, no. In those times when obviously... You should know. Thank you, Elvis. When you're exiled so to speak because obviously nowadays it's very, very easy to get access. You know, watch games, see a lot of highlight packages then. Obviously it was a world service for your dad and that kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely. I remember watching The Cut finally in 84 on the TV in Hong Kong with my dad and a couple of friends of my dad who'd come over and I was watching that and I felt sort of quite grown up watching it with the dads and things. But yeah, there was plenty of football coverage in Hong Kong and as you say, radio and TV and whatnot but for me going the game is just the whole day it's the whole day out. And if I go to a game and I haven't gone to the Spello for a pint beforehand, it's not the same. You know, everyone's got their routine and where they drink, where they park, where they go and get fish and chips or a butty beforehand or whatever it is. And as I say, for me you're following what you've been taught so we're always drunk in the Spello, we still do. We're always standing in the same place, normally just outside the side by the steps or whatever like that unless it's pouring with rain and you have to go stuck in the back. And yeah, if you don't do that part of it it doesn't feel like the day is complete because you haven't done the normal routine. I feel a little bit cheated if we don't do that. Incomplete. Yeah, because that's it, isn't it? It's going to matter. This is the thing, I think this is the difference between people, maybe all the fans, like you. No, like all of us. Like Ghostbath. Don't let this shit. Don't even touch that here. There's like, I think there's a modern thing where it's just like what people have a sense of going the game. It's just about the game where there's... You've been going the game for years, to be honest. Going to watch ever and the last bit is the game. It's the whole day. You might, it's the only time you might see certain people. Yeah, well no, it could completely be the only time I see certain people. There's members of my family that I only see at the game. Right, okay. And there'll be, you know, my cousin Alison, who I never see at the game. And I'll either arrange to see her outside this bellow at about quarter three, or if she can't make it in, she normally goes for cup of tea in the church. I might see her on the church, on the way past, you know, on the corner of Gladyspree and Goodison Road. And have a quick chat. How are you? Yeah, all right. Yeah, mom and dad are all right. Yeah, all good. Right, okay, see you later. And that's it. Yeah, it's true. And you do and you run into, you know, that you've met going to Goodison, and then suddenly you'll see them in the pub at West Ammanway or wherever it might be. Yeah, it's a complete thing from waking up in the morning and being excited and, I don't know, you know, what are you going to eat for breakfast? What time are you going to set off? Who are you going to meet beforehand? Because it does it last from the moment you wake up until you get back, and then arguably even longer because depending on what the result is, whether you do or you don't want to watch a match of the day or something, you know, sometimes, sometimes that day is ended a lot earlier. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Then there's other times when you do genuinely want to stay up and actually see how it was covered on match the day, not that often in the last season, but, you know, in days gone by. Isn't it amazing that still now with all the football coverage we can get and we can have and we can have on our phone, you still want to see how much of the day cover your game if you've had to go get you, how you want to see, not only a cover, but how they speak about your... Exactly. It's mad, isn't it? Exactly, because you want to see... Because that's still the platform, isn't it? Yeah. That's still the show, above all else, and even when you've got things that you can watch when you want on Sky, et cetera, et cetera, and you can choose different feeds. But how you're described on match the day by the likes of Linnaker or Shearer or Righty or whoever it might be is really important. And when they start saying things like Evan are in trouble or Evan are in a mess or whatever, it hurts. Doesn't feel the same when Tony Gale says it. It only starts making sense when they say it. Oh, we are in trouble, yeah, we are. But also, you know, when there's been so many games recently, or certainly in my head where we've been on TV a lot and we've been on TV a lot and played really badly, and you think that this is the advert for people who... I like myself and I do it as well. You know, I'll go and watch on the telly in the pub, I'll go and watch Spurs Man United, I'll go and watch Leicester versus here, whatever, because I know it'll be a good game, because I like watching football generally, not just Evan. And so you know that the same way around that if these Spurs fans, and they might watch us, again, City or whatever it is, and you're just there and you're thinking we haven't given a good account of ourselves and what they've seen for that 90 minutes is frankly shit, you know. Basically, yeah. And it's not a decent enough advert for... I do feel, oh, when that happens though, you do feel like you get the sympathy of those fans, though, which has happened a lot more recently, which is even worse when they start going, how do you watch this, everywhere? I do, I feel like that, I suppose it's like your pride getting dented, because it's your club, and then you're like why aren't we, I always feel like that when we play. The other side of this. You know, we could be playing really well and we'd play against Liverpool, I'm feeling, we don't look like we've ever kicked the football and you're going... No. You know, or if it's on live, you're thinking this game's going, it's on live. It just looks like Deja Vu again the whole time because you just think that we've been here before, we've seen it so many times, and you go into every derby with that optimism, even if it's going massively against the run of play in terms of the form over the last few weeks, but you think derby form goes out of the window, all the other cliches, and you think this might be the time, and then it's just not again. Doesn't seem to go through the window recently. Anyway, so Brighton, you've done. It is, but before we talk about that, right, when you were on the Radio 1 breakfast show, what did it feel like when obviously it was a massive show, I used to love that show, I used to love listening to you, the same way that I like listening. The way that I love listening now to Andy Bush, or he brings up everything, he's brilliant the way he does it, but for a while now, you become ever really tapped in to you, and I remember when they give you a season ticket for your birthday, and I think Sharpie came down, and if you ever got anything off any of the people on the show, it was always like ever related, and you were... Can I just say, by the way, I only had the season ticket once. I wasn't living there on a freebie for year on year. If you were, it doesn't matter. But no, but joking aside for me, it's important that I spoke to him and I said, I want to get a season ticket and nowhere my cousin Paul sits, I want to be round there somewhere, and they got back and they go, you won't believe this, they go, there's a free seat, the row in front and one to the side of him, so he's literally there and I was like, right, I love it, and they very kindly sorted it out for one season. What did that feel like going from being a fan to suddenly, like, you know, a focal point for Evan and actually driving conversations at that, because I tell you what, one of the best ones ever, it was when Evan beat Leeds, and I think it might have been the Rooney one, actually. It was probably the only one. That was Rooney and Milner as the two, was that not the one? No, but I'm sure when we beat them one, one nil, right? It was a Sunday night, wasn't it? And I remember the next day, putting it on, was it the mornings? That was the afternoons, because when you were on afternoons, oh my god, you couldn't shut you up about Evan, but when you went on to breakfast, you couldn't shut the whole show about football, but obviously when you went to breakfast, there was obviously this more stricter rules about what you can talk about. But it might have been the afternoon, actually, when it was a lot more playful, I thought. We did that afternoon show from 98 three to two thousand, back in the two thousand and three. We started the breakfast show January 2004, so it was somewhere within there. I can remember being, I remember being at Ellen Road, and both Rooney and Milner were the two youngest players, they were both 16, and wasn't it one each? Do you think they score each? And I remember also being at Ellen Road, where we beat them four nil, I think, and Dave Watson. Steve Watson. Steve Watson. That's when Rocky Dream's share was destroyed by Duncan. But I just remember that one, because I remember the next day, I was going into I think I was on a late shift in work, and I just remember, like, I think the show might have started with Z-Cars, and I was just like, this is amazing, this is radio one, and they're like proper hype and everything. The thing was we didn't, we could pretty much do what we wanted to then. And that was the beauty, and things have changed a lot, you know, and there's nothing to do with me, it's to do with the restrictions on radio, et cetera, et cetera, and compliance, and blah, blah, blah. You can't just go, oh, we'll start the show with that now, because it's got to go through various different committees of people, but genuinely in those days it was as simple as that, you know, if Leeds had won or whatever, and Mauls might start the show with the Leeds United song, and I might kind of go, I want to start with Z-Cars with my birthday, so we'll have the Z-Cars or whatever it may be, and you could, you know, we all did that, and Dom on the show was a big Liverpool fan, so we used to share it out, but it was, I guess there's never been that many people in the media who are famous Evertones, I suppose, you know, and yes, there are a few and Andy Bush, as you said before, on Absolute and me, and, you know, Porky, and stuff like that, you know, on Talksport, but I suppose we're a small group, you know, there's loads of many United fans everywhere, there's loads of Arsenal fans everywhere, there's always Liverpool fans, but to me, though, that was the thing though, wasn't it, because I would have to put it on just to where you'd talk about it. And that was the point, because the biggest radio show everywhere, it was a proper time as well, because obviously that time was, you know, late 90s coming into the 2000s, everything was happy in the country. It was a really buoyant time, you know, without sounding too sort of, you know, culture-tour about it, but it was, you know, in terms of football and music and everything, when you think back to who we were and where we were in the late 90s, I certainly do. I think of it as a really, really happy time. You know, I started a radio one in 1996 age 22. So those times, sort of 22, 23, 24 years old was really, it was really good. Obviously with Rooney, you know, especially for that game, it just seemed like we were such on and up and up, and then to where it was being spoke about on Radio One and on the Breakfast Show you know, when you, it was just, it just felt like it was for so long. I was in the middle of our 6-1-0 wins, wasn't it? Yeah. It was like the third one. But for Evan, not having that media presence and for everyone else, and then to suddenly be plonked into Radio One, you know... It was always, in that respect and in every respect, it was a real it was a real privilege to do what I did, and I've always said, you know, I've been a very lucky boy, you get opportunities in life, and I got an opportunity, I joined the BBC, I managed to sort of through the back door, and I managed again through another back door to get to Radio One and that was a dream come true. I never ever wanted to be on the radio. I just wanted to, I wanted to write. I just wanted to write for the radio and writing has always been the thing that has given me the most pleasure, you know. I suppose I'm a writer first, and anything else second, and the broadcasting thing which sounds very grand for basically talking rubbish on the radio but... So we've done it, right? But you know, that side just came about because of the nature of the show with Miles and the fact that everybody was kind of a character to a certain extent and that's the way it was, but for me and I can genuinely say this, like one of the proudest moments above all else having been sort of getting away with doing this for like the last 20 years is when I had my first article published in When Skies Are Great and I used to write to When Skies Are Great a lot, you know, and me and my dad would be there and we'd be talking about what was going on and who we should be buying or whatever you know, and this is sort of in the mid 90s and it was an outlet potentially for me to write, you know and I used to write these letters, I used to write them under pseudonyms because I suppose I was too embarrassed of possible rejection so I used to write under awful pseudonyms, I think one of them was like Roger Andouch or something like that and there was probably Filippo Fish or some, you know, just really really awful things and I remember because you didn't know whether it was published until you literally you buy it outside the ground and you'd go for a pint and it'd be there in your arse pocket and I remember queuing up in the pub for a pint and there was this big six foot kind of like, you know, a shaved head like big shittles was there and he was there and he was reading my article and as I was there and I looked over and I saw it and I just, for me that was really special and I'll never forget that and actually amongst all the things that I've been lucky enough to do over the years, that's still up there with the best of the best. My Mrs is in the in the Winscashers Whatsapp group so there you go, she gets published in there quite a lot so you can write for our website if you want whatever you want but I just thought that was a brilliant sign as you say, it was a brilliant sign well I felt like a lot of us were more it was nice and you know the reaction and I've been again, been really lucky touch wood is that you know, I've never I've never got any negative stuff when I've seen people out and about, you know I don't get the certain people that are divisive in terms of you know, love or hate type of thing and whenever I've seen anybody got a few in there man whenever I've seen anybody though at the game at Goodison or a ways or anything like that it's always been really nice and been really friendly and if anything, the only, I used to find it a little embarrassing only because I've just never really been a kind of like look at me sort of person I go to the match and I sort of want to be is what's the word I don't want to stand out, I want to stick my coat on like everybody else and be there and just watch the game and then to on occasion get recognised in the away end at Upton Park or somewhere like that and then of course once somebody does and they all start nudging like who is it over there and then you're almost just thinking because then that's the other problem sometimes people will really politely kind of come up and say kind of a photo with you so you do but then you kind of think I look like such a knobhead here you know as if like sort of standing in the away end but as you get to that in the in the urinal it does genuinely all the time not all the time it is at service station though I haven't had that for a few times the greatest swarms in the disney world really? yeah I had one in Alcatraz literally somebody recognised you from toffee tv in Hollywood Boulevard as well it's just like this is you have no idea how how your presence is spreading around the world so have you ever as anyone from the club or have you had any ambitions to sort of take what you're doing and go you know I'll go into football or I'll go and wait forever and you know become the next DJ Spoonie essentially hello Spoonie if you're watching a lot of Reds do a lot of Reds do you watch jealous of what we're about yeah I've I've quite fancied in the past being involved in the club in some capacity but just never really necessarily been the right thing because when Chappers was on Radio 1 I know he is a proper broadcast journalist but when he was on with Scott Mills he was essentially almost what you were doing he was brilliant and he still is brilliant and I think where he's gone with the NFL stuff he's brilliant as well but you never seen that for yourself because obviously that wasn't you you know where he's gone you never thought well you know what I could do because again Colin Murray again he's another one when he was on Radio 1 brilliant and then the next minute he's into the sport and I can't understand why he's gone into it because it's his passion do you never feel like well I want to follow my passion rather I think you know as you say Chappers is a good case we used to do stuff together on Radio 1 and you know we met whenever it was 20 years ago no 18 years ago whatever just before Euro 2000 in Holland and Belgium and he was doing the sport for our show and we were going back and forth doing that and that's how we got to know each other and subsequently we did various different comic relief challenges and just become mates and we still are I was babysitting for his kids two nights ago because I live in Manchester for hits radio and I know that he's going to Russia next week so I'd said to him I said listen I'm up all week I'm kicking around in a hotel like Alan Parcher you know I said if you and Sarah your wife one night out before you go off to Russia for six weeks I said I'm more than happy to come and look after the kids so I did you know we've always been close and still are and I see him sort of more now than I ever did but anyway he was always somebody his first and foremost you know before he came to Radio 1 I started messing around with Scott Mills he was a decent BBC trained journalist and he's got an encyclopedic knowledge of all sports not just football but his cricket knowledge is amazing and everything you know he knows something about and he was always destined for good things and the opportunity to move to 5 Live came up and he went for it and he's proven beyond all doubt that he's he's just a quality broadcast but you know what I'm not massively into NFL but I'll watch it when he's on it and I'm not either I don't fully understand it but you do you watch it because he's good he simplifies it as well and that's what's really good about him because he keeps both audiences the people who are hardcore that hate things being explained to them as we do as football imagine watching a sport and having it explained to you every five minutes and you watch the football and you're like and this is how the offside rule is done and yet he has to do that getting that balance right is difficult but now he's done really really well TV and radio I don't see any reason why he won't be doing what he's doing in 20 years time which is fantastic and he should be he's really good and Colin's really good as well again coming with you used to do him a day either radio once knowledge is amazing it's better than mine I've been lucky enough to work with Colin as well recently we've a production company that I work for we've been making a weekly football show and I had to sort of cast it in terms of the presenters and Colin Murray and Dion Dublin who are both quality presenters made some mine I've worked with before and actually at the time we got Colin I think at a good because everyone knows how good he is and actually he was sort of between things at the time because obviously he'd left talk sport with the takeover etc etc he was doing he was just a really nice podcast series podcast on his own but we just sort of got him before the Channel 5 show as well so we just got him at a good point and sort of said do you fancy doing it so it was great for us to I think get a really quality broadcaster that we ordinarily perhaps couldn't have got at the time him and Dion were great together so yeah it's just it's nice working with it's nice working with people that you know and trust and you get to a certain age where you can't be bothered with any of the nonsense to be honest I love the way it's gone though because I love that normal people who seem like normal and there's no stiff over there talking I love Colin at the last year some of the stuff he did for Northern Ireland like it was just amazing he's so enthusiastic and you just know you can just literally press go on the camera and you know that he's going to perform and he's going to give you something but yeah I just I've just got the point where I can't be you just get too old and too jaded to be messing around with working with people that aren't nice or good and the one thing I think the only the only upside of getting older as I can understand it is that you actually have better contacts and you know good people in every department and when you put together a show whether it's this or something else you kind of know that there's certain people you can go to yeah so did you enjoy putting that together? I loved it and again back to the whole thing of never ever sought to be in front of the camera or in front of the microphone or anything like that I was always really happy doing stuff behind the scenes to actually to be sort of producing it and putting it all together and doing everything from organising people's trains or hotels or whatever like that or to booking all the guests and things and yeah it was I thoroughly enjoyed it and hopefully if the opportunity arises that we can actually bring that show back on the right platform with a sponsor as well to obviously pay for it would be great and if I can couple that with what I'm doing at the moment for HITS Radio as well which is a great opportunity which I never saw coming in terms of going back to getting up at breakfast radio times but I am but what stands your back? I never said never to anything people always said for the last six years nearly since the Radio 1 show finished September 2012 people said are you going to get back into radio and I said well I never left really you know the show came to a natural end and it was the right time to go because of our ages etc and the fact that Radio 1 was having to appeal to a younger audience in order to justify share of the licence fee there's no secret of that so it was the right time to go we'd had a good run there I did 16 years at Radio 1 we'd done 9 years nearly on the breakfast show we'd done 5 years on drive before then so it was a really really good innings and it came to a natural end there was no obvious place to go to next there's no obvious door to walk straight into so I did other things and sort of you know behind the scenes type things and you just sort of you graft don't you you know it's what you do I think everyone thinks it's dead glamorous though don't do when in real life but you can both testify same as me that it's not you know yes there are certain things back on you kind of go that was pretty special but for the most part yeah there's a lot of stuff that isn't glamorous in there the last 5 or 6 years have been anything but glamorous but yeah this opportunity arose sort of earlier on this year and I was offered to audition for a new show how to audition for the radio well it's about kind of auditioning with people it's just about that because obviously certain people will or won't work together and I suppose it was just that it's just a chemistry thing it's just a combination thing and so that was the audition process and yeah we launched on Monday of this week so 4 days in 4am is very early unforgiving but no that said I'm thoroughly enjoying it and it's very exciting to actually be on that side of things and obviously coming off the back of the tough season forever but like you said before we're looking forward now aren't we we are you know and when I turned up here today it's like how are you and it's like everyone's of the same opinion much better than we were a couple of weeks ago or a couple of months ago because last season couldn't end quick enough the Aladise regime was never right from start to finish we're in a predicament that none of us saw coming this time last year none of us saw that the Kuman situation was going to unravel the way that it did and none of us ever thought that we'd be then ending the season with Sam Aladise you couldn't be couldn't be a worse fit arguably for the club than anybody but it had to be done panic measures came into effect because we were in trouble there was a time when you were looking and you kind of go I'm not sure that there are three teams worse than us in the league at the moment and that's the reality I still thought that last game of the season but that's the reality isn't it because you were looking and you were kind of going whoever it may be whether it was the likes of Swansea or Palace for a while or whatever and you kind of thought but they're all in their own way they've all potentially got more to them than we have as a club and a squad at the moment you know we've got we've got talented players on paper but they're just not performing and they're not gelling and it's just not happening and it was a worry but now yeah it's let's hope here we go again Bright New Dawn and the appointment of Silver is exciting it's not as exciting as the appointment of Marcel Brands who for me is the most important addition, signing whatever you want to call it to the football club because he for me provides the backbone to everything and the structure that will hopefully run throughout this for time to come Silver we know is talented Silver we know plays exciting football he has a slightly goofy reputation in terms of the time that he spent at clubs before and also the tendency for the wheels to potentially come off at times but that said I think the prospect of him and Brands together as a partnership is something that is very exciting and certainly coming off the back of the allodised football that we close the season with then it can only be a breath of fresh air I mean I think when I look at it with Marco Silva you've said this before you've been successful in your you come here and speaking to Andy Gray do the day and he was like well he took hold but I don't such great at that they were in trouble already they were gone and at least he gave them a fighting chance and I remember talking to somebody recently I can't remember who it was but they were talking about Michael Dawson at Hull who was saying such great things about him as a coach and just said he's like no one else I've you know the Watford situation well arguably it was us that was it his head was turned his eye went off the ball and it all collapsed and the other thing with the Watford thing as well as he had six or seven injuries they haven't got with all due respect to them they've seen their chance to sack him as well they didn't really want to be there I think it was I think it was the right decision for the club probably more so than it was for him I think you're right I mean it's all being played out but obviously they were the injured party and whatnot and yes don't get away from the fact that Everton did turn his head and actually took the wheels off the campaign there but I think they also as you say they thought now's the chance for us to get out of it and also get out of this situation with our integrity intact as well it left them in control rather than him walking away from them which would have embarrassed them so he's not really if you think about it you know in this country at least as you say he went to Hull who were finished anyway he at least put a bit of fight into them and gave them a chance at the end he went to Watford he did good things there for a while a small squad in a small club massively punching above its weight and getting some really really good results that all then went wrong he's been out of football since then this is the first big job and let's assume that he's going to be there for the decision it would be nice to but genuinely for him and for us it would be really nice to see how him we are rated over 38 games I think for him he was asked with the written press the other day asked them the question about the fact he doesn't stay anywhere very long and I thought he answered it very well it's time for me to put down some roots now and this is the club that I feel I can do it with because of the ambition and the money and that's the thing evident an attractive proposition for a lot of managers for a lot of years and in my mind the only thing really that's held them back recently has been the ground because if you think about because for a long long time we were the only big club really that hadn't been invested and the only reason I could see for that was the fact that there wasn't the potential for growth with Goodison you just can't do anything with it as we all know and then obviously with the prospect of Brownlee more and then the investment that that's attracted is that now people know that there's no reason why this club can't be built and compete with the big boys whether that be City or United or whoever it can be and so for a manager like Silver potentially this is a really really exciting opportunity to sleep in giants the wrong term that's putting too heavy a thing on it of a club with real potential for growth we just need to become self sufficient really and that's dealing with a lot of that I don't think anyone can compete with the City in terms of finance or just don't think it can happen but everyone's reigning a little bit you don't have to look at the models of Chelsea starting to reigning Tottenham, Liverpool they have almost like a sell to buy mentality but by getting better that's attracted big sponsors which has helped them kick on what's all we're waiting for I think it's got to be run sensibly as a business and one of the things that Marcel Brands has said in the last couple of days since his press was the fact that don't be expecting reckless spending and reckless is the word because that's what they did before they literally went out and they just spent a colossal amount of money not necessarily on the right well it's clearly not on the right people and it was just all a bit flashed and a bit like oh look at us oh we haven't got money 30 million here and 30 million there and whatever and I like the fact that Brands has said that's not going to happen again yes we are going to spend money and we're going to restructure but again back to the sell before you can buy they've got to have a huge clear out and all of those decisions in terms of players out and players in has got to make sensible it's got to make financial sense it's got to be a business decision because you can't just go and blow another 150 million for example this summer and expect it all to be right and also the wages are the biggest thing you've got to get those wages off and I think just for a value for a principle start saying to people no you'll be paid what you deserve and there will be a hierarchy and the best players will earn the best whereas at the moment there's far too many average players and far too much money not doing anything in what other industry would you have 10, 11, 12 employees without doing nothing in an absolute fortune but it's also the length of the contracts as well and this is a situation where it's not just so and so it's sitting there on 80 grand a week 90 grand a week, 120 grand a week whatever it is it's the fact that they've got 3 years left on their contract 2 years left on their contract in the real world you can't even fathom that amount of money that is literally going out the door every week because they're either not playing or not contributing well it shows with people I know Wayne Rooney is a case in point not for us but for Man United Man United is still paying a big chunk of Wayne Rooney's wages and will when he goes to America but that's how desperate they are to not have him at the club because of all the it is incredible and I think that's the thing that he needs which he will get and sort it out what did you make of Rooney return for the most part I personally wanted it and was quite happy with it in a nostalgic and slightly romantic way of course I'm a football fan and I think anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves I've actually sat here let's see what we're doing obviously we're doing shows on it I just want to sign them to see what happens because if we don't sign them you'll always be sitting there going but what if we should have always brought them back I think there's got to be room for that in football if there's not then the sports will just become like any other sport you know boring and it needs to be unpredictable and the unpredictability comes from nostalgia at times and I think that's got to be part of it for me anyway it was exciting to see him come back and I think we were all of the same mentality it is a romantic blue tinted look on things and we're all remembering back to you know when he broke through and this incredible kid he comes through the youth and then suddenly he just blasted onto the stage but you can now see I think why Marino was quite happy to see him go because he's he's not got the same legs that he had he's still got the footballing brain but his legs can't keep up with that unfortunately you know and the game has just moved on and yes he scored a few goals and he did play a part in the season for sure and there were times where his experience in football brain were a real asset but it was clear from the presser the other day that there's no consideration from brands or for silver to the fact that he may or may not stay to DC United by all accounts I believe he's already had his medical there so it's a done deal it's just a case of actually it's actually I think it's just a case of they can't shine until it's it's not only that window needs to I think it's also that case of him accepting it as well I think he needs because he I don't think he wants to go and I think he wanted another year because he still feels like he's got it in him but it's almost that I suppose it's it's anything in life business being told you're not good enough to do something anymore to fight that as long and it's that acceptance that it is going to happen and I think I think as fans it's not quite retirement but everybody knows that it's it's the waiting room isn't it when you go when you play in either America or you go and play and a lot of players are going to play in India these days or playing in China or whatever it is it's it's the waiting room isn't it it's the last stage before the next year I think the thing for me I'm glad he came back he wanted to score Nadabi he achieved that he wanted to score a Hasik for Everton he achieved that so I'm glad from that aspect and like you said there was games that he pulled us through there was other games that he didn't and I think that's the things that he was good for last season there's a new manager coming in with a new identity and hungry fit plays like him going around high press and he doesn't fit into that that's not Wayne's game and if someone's on don't get me wrong if he stays quite happy for him to stay but I understand the reason and why Everton are looking and going and I think to be honest I think Silver and Brands have been talking for a while I think clearly because now we knew a while ago that it was quite obvious what had happened that Silver knew that he was coming to Everton in the summer it's like go and make yourself scare somewhere but Brands and Silver have clearly been talking for long with them the last week or so there's been a plan put into place there I thought that their language was quite telling the other day during the press conference with regards to Wayne Rooney who they spoke about with very high praise and regard quite rightly but I think Silver referred to him twice in that one press conference as a legend and legend to me is very much a past tense term and while the announcement hasn't been made that he is officially leaving Everton and joining DC United or wherever they obviously know that it's done and he won't be he won't be figuring in their plans for the squad but Marco Silver even kind of said it was done before I got here which you know when we know that I think probably the only thing I'm sad about is I still don't think commercially they use them as well as they could they've got as much attention funnily enough the other day I was looking at a few Nike adverts and the old well cut ones and featured in all of them and prominently on them and that was only four years ago it was on every cover of FIFA and so but do you not think that perhaps his off the field situation didn't help much the problem was that any pedestal that they were going to put him on in terms of the prodigal son returning was then somewhat undermined by what happened unfortunately there was like two stages of it there was like when he signed there was the reluctance to make him almost make him the face of Everton because they still had to convince a large section of the Everton fans who were still angry at him and I think it might have been a case of as the season went on and as more fans got used to them increase the use of them in commercial and things like that I mean I'm reliably informed that overseas he was heavily used as the face of Everton so that's good so maybe that was curtailed by him being in the press for the wrong reasons at the end of August so we don't need just yeah exactly and that was it it was the timing of it before any campaign and momentum could have could have been gathered already he was there for all the wrong reasons and it was just like and as a club commercially and in terms of the perception to the fans and especially the young fans as well can you do you want to be putting that person up in light so I think that was the issue with it backfired and wasn't it it was you know on a commercial a commercial aspect it's a shame though it is a shame but you know you got the chance and that's what I was saying last year I just wanted to see and get the chance because we'd spoken to funny we'd interviewed Duncan Ferguson a couple of years ago and we were talking to him off camera and he just said every day I'm asking him to come back because we were talking about we were doing something to do with his testimony it was after his testimony and you know he had still had a few things knocking about when we talked about him playing he loved it he loved being back and he said every day I speak to him and every day I'm asking him and we knew from then we just knew that he'd come back because you could tell by Duncan's enthusiasm for it and the hope he thought he'll definitely come back Testimony was a turning point wasn't it because as you say that was a chance for him to put the shirt on again and actually play at Goodison again and feel what it was like because obviously he's been back to Goodison umpteen times but in the United Church and it's not the same and he got it really he got it and I think that was the day that he kind of went yeah I want to come back and I think we just went financially in a position to bring him back we nearly had them a few seasons ago when moist um but then there was a problem with those two as well you know there was all that mither as well from the book from years ago so then that was never a particularly comfortable situation I like you though I'm pleased that from his point of view more so than our point of view the fact that as a sportsman he was able to actually come back to where it all began and give it one last go because I think that had that not happened for whatever reason and there's every reason why it might not have happened this last season he'd have regretted that yeah yeah for and we will have always said what if and I think that so is there some things that just have to happen don't be and if they don't happen if they don't if it's not a massive success but at least you've seen it wasn't a failure though either it wasn't a failure it was it wasn't it wasn't score yeah it was yeah absolutely it wasn't quite what he or us would have dreamt about in terms of his return but it was far from a failure um and you know in many ways as you say goals goals especially he was one of the few shining lights in a in an otherwise very disappointing season it essentially summed up our season yeah it started off all rosy and then by the time we got to the end of August it was really that was basically our season well like middle of September yeah really basically encapsulated our season again he was a victim of you know too many number 10s I'm not as big as he is that had nothing to do with what happened he's got an old his hand off too many something else and it wasn't number 10 old his hand off he couldn't even walk in a straight line let's move let's leave it there so obviously looking ahead then you know what what would you this is obviously a difficult one because we're still very early into the summer but what what do you think successful for Marco Silver and Marcel Brans this season and what do you want to see as an editor is a funny one isn't it because um in many ways the league position that we finished in flatters the performance of everything that we had in this last season under Sam Allardyce so for me you see you would automatically think that you would need a dramatic improvement upon that therefore you'd be looking at top six now top six for the first season with a new manager and a new structure in place and also seemingly an entirely new squad who have all got a bed in I think is unrealistic so I would personally be happy with seventh eighth ninth again for the first season you know don't rush it let's get everything right let's get the club right let's get the squad right let's get the balance right and and and you know there's a huge amount of sorting out once doing and I don't want people to kind of think oh well you know we finished eighth under eighth under Allardyce and we end up finishing I don't know let's say ninth under silver however we all know it could be a much brighter ninth than does that make sense? there's also a lot of those players who bedded in this season or attempted to bed in we might get the benefit of that next season but you just fall into the trap that I always fall into when someone asks me no one ever says let's win a trophy it's never does it I got asked the other week about the same thing I was like what do you expect now that they've come in they're like oh yeah we're going to sign you no one ever says let's sign win and the league cup and you're right because that's something that can that's a separate campaign which doesn't so you're right but automatically you don't think of it and I don't think of it all I'm thinking about is that particular league campaign and the cups I guess are a bonus but no you're right if we could pick up some silverware just to restore some pride and almost a statement of intent in terms of what silver and brands are all about then that would be a good thing but I just want stability I want them to build a good platform that we can then move onwards and I want to feel that even if we don't progress in terms of league positions this season hopefully this time next year when we're sat here again having a brew we'll look at don't leave it that long Dave I'll be back before then when we're sat here next summer is it we'll be able to say that things are going to fall apart I think you're right I think you're right for me it's a case of just going in the right direction and getting to the end of a season and going this is exciting this is going the place I wanted to go instead of going instead of like every year although last summer we were in but every year going we're starting again we're starting again we are again but let's hope that next summer we're not we're starting again that was a great first season it's about progress isn't it for me this season is about how we play how entertaining I mean to us I'm not bothered about the rest of the country I mean to us as Evertonians we want to enjoy watching our football team I want to see 20 shots again not 4 what you've just said we may end up 8th again but it'll be a very different 8th if we played nice attacking football and like you've just said you can look and go you know what this team is going somewhere because you know using Liverpool as an example because they're in the same city and all that and Jürgen Klopp came in when they finished 8th it's first now we come in after after 8 games so we had 30 games that's a lot of matches to play Liverpool finished 8th they got the 2-quat fans he lost them both but they finished 8th they got there and you could see that he knew exactly how we wanted this team to be so he just got to that summer and went right we need 1, 2, 3 and this will make us a bit better he got them next season he was 4th and that's how it needs to be rather than going every summer we need 8 players to do it right means it sometimes takes time and I think that no club in the history of the Premier League has demonstrated more grossly than us last summer that a huge outlay financially doesn't necessarily bring you a huge return in terms of points or whatever because that was just a colossal waste of money and it was just throwing money around and now look at us we've now got to try and sell most of those players for probably a fraction of what we paid for them and we've still got their contracts to pay up and it's just got to be done and I'm just hopeful that now we might have some sensible, rational long term thinking coming in the form of brands and ideally ideally hope that Silver is able to finally demonstrate the potential that I think we all know that he has with the right environment around him and hopefully we will be the right environment and create the right club to really shine in. That's what I want for him. There's a lot on us as fans I think as well, as fans we've got to have a little bit of patience and understand the process, hopefully we will because there's far too much in EJ action it comes from it all over the place comes from us at times, comes from everything because we are such a reactive everything's now, now, now, now It's the nature of the league as well though when you look at the way that clubs panic over managers in the form and we've seen it so many times with managers this season, last season, season before where suddenly a good side has a different form and then suddenly the manager's out the window Hopefully maybe that may be another thing they've learned from this season is although maybe it was required this season just to, if there is a bit of a bad spell not to panic because the league is the way it is if you win three games in a row suddenly you've gone from one place to six or seven up the league because of the way it is so hopefully hopefully we'll learn from that as well it's crossed it's got to start somewhere it's David anyway big thanks to Dave for coming into the show he's going to be a regular now because he's in Manchester so he's going to be a regular I'm going to hold him to that and make sure he's part of the league she knows once a week she doesn't watch this tour anyway she'll be in bed or she'll be watching first day catch Dave, catch Dave on hit radio Rackinson's on it as well I don't even know who that is but Jim Rackinson's on it as well and some other fella he's in blue by the way oh it's Gephen, yeah Gephen Jones Gephen in next time you know what genuinely next time because he said today he goes where you going I'm going off to do toffee TV and he's like so Gephen Jones knows toffee TV is like the Welsh so next time he and Gephen will both come over we'll make it a blue if we don't we'll just make it a blue, she'll have a blue I don't know where to go there I'm finishing right now thanks to Dave we'll see you later