 Hello, everyone, and welcome to the very first edition of Toffee TV USA. My name is James Boyman. I am joined by my associate and co-host Ryan Williams. We are coming to you first show. We are going to be bringing you stateside opinions on Everton FC, of course, the reason that everyone is here. Ryan, exciting times, first time on video. Yeah, legally. Yeah, I'm thrilled to be here. We've talked about this a lot. You know, we have a really good relationship with the guys at Toffee TV, Baz in particular. We're just happy to be here. You know, hopefully we'll be able to pride a little different perspective on things than what's typically out there. Certainly, we'll do our best to try and bring content that's befitting of what people have come to expect at Toffee TV for those that are familiar with the stuff we already do with the American Toffee podcast. You know, we do tend to be prepared, bring our American takes, and we'll try and continue to do that. I do think it's important, though, for people to know that this is not. This is not a place for hot takes, shall I say? Yes. No, this is a this is I think both Ryan and I, if nothing else are reasonable guys with sometimes you may not know that if you've ever interacted with Ryan on Twitter, pretty well reasoned, well spoken. We try to try to be very authentic with our takes and our opinions. So you'll never catch us saying something just to be provocative or stir the pot. So we do try to give the best analysis we can. We do bring a lot of stats to the conversation. So if you are a big proponent of the proverbial eye test, you may find some of your perceptions challenged in listening to us. You may become frustrated, but we hope you give us a chance. We hope you enjoy the show. Yeah, and we appreciate feedback, too. You know, we want to deliver content that's a little different and unique, but valuable, so please don't hesitate to ping us. I think you know where to find us, at least on Twitter. Otherwise, hit us down below and let us know what you guys think. And we'll adjust accordingly. We're new to this as well. So this week at least we're going to try and get into some news again from our across the pond viewpoint. It's the week after Newcastle. And while that was a tough result and certainly an interesting experiment with the Christmas tree, of course, we had a lot of players out. So arguably that was maybe the bigger root cause. It would be hard to not consider maybe Everton thinking about doing some business in January. I'm sure Carla wasn't particularly satisfied with everyone coming in there. And there's definitely a big drop off from from the starting eleven in certain places. So James Hommes, we have a very interesting rumor that has hit us this week. I think some were a little bit surprised by and the mirror appears to have broken and linked us with none other than Isco midfielder Ray Almadrid. Again, I understand Everton simply becoming, you know, Ray Almadrid being a feeder club for Everton at this point is how it should be. Right. I guess. Yeah. I mean, the reports are that he's sounding out suitors. I believe is I think his parents are actually his dad is his agent. The rumored arrangement would be alone in January and an obligation to buy in the summer for 18 million at minimum, I think. So what do we think about this one, James? I mean, unfortunately, America has been subjected from a media standpoint to wild rumors and speculation recently. I know the English tabloids are definitely no stranger to that type of thing, especially in transfer rumors. Do we think this one has legs or not? It seems reasonable to me to think that that Carlo is a player who's complimented him in the past. He recently called him a fantastic player, said he has fantastic memories of him, but not currently thinking about it, which is a typical Carlo response downplaying, not really a denial, though. No, it's not. It's not. It's definitely not the conditions that he would come under. I think obviously signing players from Real Madrid and he is a quality player. Do we need another attacking midfielder that seems to have been like our primary transfer target over the last three or four seasons? But he is certainly better quality than what we currently have in the squad bar, maybe one or two players. I mean, you're talking about bringing in players from Real Madrid. It's hard to hard to turn someone like that down. But for the price and the age, I do have some pretty legitimate concerns. We talk about Everton's long term transfer strategy and what we want to what we want to be able to build. And that's a sustainable process by which you bring players and grow them and sell them at a profit. That's what the best clubs do. That's what Everton need to do. He's certainly not that. And as our summer business largely was this year, older players that can immediately improve us, but the long term prospects maybe not as good. Yeah, you've heard my take on this before on the pot. I'm always talking about investment and I have a little bit of a finance background, so I can't avoid it. But truly, if you're going to invest in, I don't have it. Do I? That's that's yeah. But it doesn't matter if you're going to spend money, much like Everton is to investment in stocks or whatever. It's no real different than necessarily player recruitment and that is spend wisely. So either you're going to look for a basic growth strategy or value strategy this summer. I think we got a lot of value for our money. And clearly, Carlo said, we need some leaders. We need some more experienced players. You know, a lot of these clubs that are buying young already have that experienced core. Maybe Carlo feels the need for more of these guys. Then again, I can't help but think some of this may just kind of be speculation. I mean, we noted that a report came out. I think it was last week from Spanish Channel Movistar before Real's win against Barca. I don't know if you saw this video too, it's been out there. Isco is in the stands sitting there next to, I think, Marcelo. He's talking to Marcelo and his comment is translated in English is if he has to take me off, it's in the 50th or 60th minute of the game, says Isco. Sometimes at halftime, if he has to bring me on, it's in the 80th minute. So Marcelo apparently cracks up about this and Luca Modric is in the back smiling and whatever. So this I don't I don't I think that's a pretty innocent comment. I think it's honest, but I can't help but look at his minutes. I mean, he's really not playing that much. And I don't think that's something he's accustomed to. I mean, he hasn't really gone a lot and he has been pulled at halftime. So, yes, I think it makes sense. Clearly, Carlo likes the player too, but I can't help but thinking if this were to happen logistically, we'd have to move some players on. Don't you think? I mean, I think his wage is what we looked at was two hundred and ten thousand pounds a week. And that may be on the low end. We saw some higher estimates that would make him by far most expensive player. I don't know, James, what do you think? It just seems to me some other people would have to move. He can't play some different roles. So I don't know what your take is on that. Yeah, I mean, he seems like a versatile player. And to your point, Ryan, the wages, I mean, that'd be almost double. But I mean, rumored Hamas on what? One hundred thirty five. Yeah, so something like that. So he'd have to take a wage cut that that goes without saying. But for a player at his age, who's who's days are effectively numbered at the top level, you'd have to think he'd be willing to compromise to some extent the same way Hamas did. And, you know, I don't think anyone's looking back and saying there were the concerns about Hamas before he came in. No one's thinking about that now. He's far and away, our best player. So I think this goes to the type of player that has that same ceiling and can potentially have that same impact. But moving players along is something we definitely have to do, because although we are thin in quality at the central mid position, we are not thin in depth where we have all these players that can theoretically play there, but clearly based on last weekend and weekends past, Andre Gomez has we have a lot of concerns about what he actually contributes in a positive manner on either side of the ball. And of course, Guilfee Sigurdson, the proverbial scapegoat of the Everton fan base running down his contract, he'll be gone. Hopefully sooner rather than later. So I can see there being a plan there and I can see it coming off and he undoubtedly improve us. But for the cost, it's a decision I'd ultimately leave up to Marcel Brands. But if the logistics work out, I would be extremely happy to have a player of his quality to the team. If you think about it, we're going to have to make a decision this summer, summer on Bernard and Guilfee. I know Guilfee is playing a lot and he can play in a lot of different places. But I don't think he's been particularly effective. I think maybe he's just not just lost a step, but we've talked about his lack of agility. He just doesn't receive the ball well in dangerous spots. So so let's say in theory that those two guys both had offers, too. I think that's worth noting in the summer. Bernard had an offer that Carlo turned down by all accounts. Robo wanted him. It wasn't a massive fee, but, you know, he's in essence came for free, but he's on big wages. Guilfee had an offer from Saudi Arabia from Al-Halal, which it doesn't sound like he's entirely ready to leave Europe yet. I get that. I'm sure he'd be making a pretty penny down there, though. One of these guys would have to move, you would think. I could see Bernard going. Rome is kind of sitting the table, maybe he'd come back. And I can't help but thinking Andre Gomes has just not been. People say it's the injury, but I still think him, how effective he was in the past. He's very good at linking play and helping with buildup. But he's not a good defensive player. He's an active defensive player, but he's too easily dribbled past. He's not positionally disciplined. And ultimately in the final 30, he's not particularly creative. I don't know why Carlo thought this weekend, the Christmas tree with those two guys sitting behind Dom, we're going to be the people that could either feed to Dom or feed it to Enkunku or, you know, John Joe Kenny on the wings who seemed reluctant to go forward. So thinking of that, if any of those guys moved out, they all kind of play a little different roles. It seems to me, Isko might be able to play in a couple of those different roles. The question is, can he deliver value for the buy beyond what those guys produce? Because look, he's going to be expensive. Say he's even on a higher wage than those guys, even if you can move them out. How much better is he from those guys? What are your thoughts? I think he's an immediate step up over someone like Andre Gomes. I mean, you look at the, we have the comparative stats on the, on the notes here. And I mean, Pat, he, he is an incredibly accurate forward passer of the ball. He's, he's substantially better than everyone besides Hama is essentially moving the ball forward, a really good long passer of the ball, better than, better than any, actually Andre Gomes and Hama's both lead are midfielders there. So not quite as good as them, but passes into the final third. He's off the charts up there with again, stats that Andre Gomes is actually on paper looks really good at, but hasn't quite delivered so far the season needless to say. Again, his stats do jump out at you, but it's not at the level that you might expect. And part of that's down to playing time. Again, if you're not given the opportunity to play, it becomes really difficult to make an impact. And of course, it on is really picky about the personnel that he, that he employs. And he's been known to freeze players out. I mean, there's so many examples over the past few years. So it's, it's almost unfair to try to predict what he'd be able to do at Everton, but in a midfield that has sufficient legs behind him, like Decoray and Alan, I really think that would, that would give him the ability to unlock his true creative potential. And you think playing him and Hama's didn't play too frequently together at Madrid, but perhaps that could be a partnership that would be really impactful in that type of Christmas tree formation that we saw. And we know that Carlo has historically liked Hama's and Isco over Sigurdsson and Gomez. Oh, that is, far, far, far. Come on, give me that. I'll take that all day. Yeah, I think what's exciting about it for me is, you know, so I did take some time to look at him this year because we all know the player. He's a fairly well-known player, just to see if it was the same guy. And look, he's not the paciest guy. And anytime you see a guy that's maybe not, doesn't seem like a superior athlete, I think it's worth questioning going into the Premier League. It is a fast athletic league, but the guy is still so strong on the ball. He can't get knocked off. His vision is there and his technique is unbelievable. And he can dribble. He can move. He's shifty. He could change pace. He can get away from people. He does a lot of the things that we see Andre do at his best, roaming in his own zone, linking play, but the difference is, when he gets into the final third, he can do damage too. He can play more as an attacking mid. So I did watch him play his first 45 minutes with Cadiz. That's my Spanish-speaking self right there. Or Kediz, you know, if you're just going to be all English and boring about it. But in all seriousness, he did look about the same player to me. The movement was there. He's great at finding space too. I just see if he's going to play as that third midfielder that we've seen early with kind of on the left side, sitting deeper in the half space. I think he'd be fantastic in that position. He'd be a massive upgrade over Andre. No, he's not as active defensively, but he's not a wimp either. I mean, he's got some strength to him as well. And he's so good at taking care of the ball. If he played up instead of Guilfee, where I know Guilfee's been playing deeper, but ideally you want someone who's more of an attacker. Much like we said with Hamas, when we went through the massive recording we did in the Toffee podcast about him, Isco can receive the ball in space in advanced positions and take care of it. I know he'd be expensive. I wouldn't want to keep getting older guys too. But I mean, God, you look at this guys, offensive duels are off the chart. He dribbles all over the place. 45% success rate, but dribbles. He can make passes under pressure. I don't know. I love his receiving percentage. That for me is such an important stat. I think it's kind of the next generation to focus his statistical analysis. It's not just the passer. It's the ability of someone to receive it. Guilfee is awful at it truly. You have to put it right on his feet. It's so difficult for him to find space and receive it. Now you give the ball to Guilfee on his feet in a dangerous spot. He's excellent. But is that value a skill? I don't know. Anyway, I think we acknowledge that this would be very expensive. It would be curious. When I watched him, he was playing kind of in a roaming midfield position in a 4-2-3-1. He had great liberty. I don't know if that's exactly how we would play here. Bernard's a little different. Bernard's pace, he kind of attacks off the wing, but Isco has played on the wing as well, too, and been rather effective. I can't help but think he'd be a pretty significant upgrade. But man, I also can't help but thinking that's a big wage. Can we make it work? And I would be very concerned if we continued to buy the aging players. We just don't have the same level of revenues at the top six, but 18 million might be significant value. I don't know. Final take on Isco? Yeah. The only concern I have is that you talk about, no, he's not the Pacis. His technique is unbelievable. Yes. Is he too similar to Hamez where if you were to play Hamez on the wing, maybe Isco on the other wing outside, does that limit our ability? The Premier League is a fast league. There's a lot of Paci outside players. Yes, we know Hamez has the quality shines through. He doesn't need to sprint. He doesn't need to be Paci. But if you have too many players like that in your squad, I mean, at some point, you do need the Richarlison on the opposite flank to be able to get in behind players. So would he really fit in a lineup? And you think we're not going to buy him if we're not planning to play him at week in, week out. So what does Carlo make that fit? And frankly, the Christmas tree seems like the most obvious solution to that. But you can never have too many quality players in the squad. And I think another player with his pedigree coming in, again, just lifts the level at the club that much more, improves other players around him. And we could see bigger things from the rest of the squad as well. But we definitely need legs around him. There's no question. And I can't help but see how bad our right side was this weekend and think those are obvious areas of improvement. But look, hey, we still got a ways to go as a club. I know we're happy at our start so far. And it'll be interesting to see what happens when we get some people back this weekend. All right, transitioning to our next item of news. I know it's not the most busy week, but I would be remiss, James, if I didn't bring up an incident that happened earlier this week from Alexis Nunez and none other than our favorite ESPN individual personnel. Does he have personality? Mark Ogden. And I don't know if people all saw this, but he was on Twitter. Apparently he claimed and apologized. It was off camera. But he, in essence, was telling he's bored with Harry Kane and making fun of the way Harry Kane speaks. I know you saw it. I'm sure your reaction was same to me. Obviously, this is the individual that brought us our lovely story on how the best Everton can do is not Carlo Ancelotti. There's no way we could get him. There's no way we could get Carlo Ancelotti. David Moyes is about it, James. And thankfully, he was very wrong. So as I say, if you're going to be a jerk and give a hot take, you better be right. And oh, he was very wrong. In this instance, I thought this was, I don't care if it's not being recorded or not. Incredibly unprofessional. I don't know what your thought is, but obviously we don't subscribe to that. Maybe that's the bigger point. Yeah, I mean, firstly, I think ESPNFC, the standard of their analysis is generally quite poor. Gabriel, let's back up, Gabriel. Mark, he's all right. Yeah, true. Good, but it's a thin, it's a thin roster. And I mean, poor Mark Ogden in some ways, because that take on David Moyes being the best ever drink and get is going to haunt him. I'm surprised he hasn't deleted the tweet or just like purge the article into oblivion because it is one of the worst age takes I think I've seen. He doubled down on it later. Remember he said in the next tweet, I still think six months later, David Moyes would be a better pick. I don't care about the take is stupid, but what I care most about is, I mean, there was some, I didn't like the tone of that article. I mean, some of the language in there was just, I mean, some of the lines like the painful reality is that they are currently only an appealing option to the likes of boys or Mark Hughes out of work, old school managers who will take on a difficult job simply to get themselves back in the game. I mean, I mean, come on, it's so, it's not necessary. It's spiteful intentionally. High and mighty and it just reflects, I think the overall media landscape, football media landscapes attitude towards Everton or any team that isn't one of the big six starlings. It is so condescending. It is disrespectful to say that we're incapable of signing a coach of his caliber. To be fair, I was not totally sold when the rumors started breaking up. You bring in Ancelotti. Yeah. But you look at the project, you look at bringing in someone like Marcel Brands and like the foundation is there for a positive project. For him to seemingly just dismiss all of that as out of hand, the new stadium on the way, all of these things that I think are quite a compelling pitch for a manager like Carlo Ancelotti, even though he's managed at the top for a long time. And then the thing about Harry Kane again, it's not supposed to be recorded. It gets released. So he has egg on his face. And he of course comes out with a profuse apology and because he doesn't want to never have be able to speak to anyone associated with Spurs ever again, but it never really felt authentic. I mean, it was, it's the type of conversation that you would over here and like a break room at a workplace and because we're in this weird virtual world, it gets overheard and gets released to millions of people to be ridiculed. So in some ways I feel for him, but you have to be more, more conscious, conscientious of what you're saying than that. And he wasn't. Would you ever really say that? I still struggle to think what he said, like, could I see myself almost mocking that? I don't know. And maybe I think, I think probably the biggest message here, I think for us is, and maybe this is, this works the toffee TV too. I mean, you're just not gonna hear hot takes from us. Like to me, if that's how you genuinely feel, maybe that's how this guy is, but I know I don't feel that way. I never feel compelled to genuinely give some sort of crazy opinion on things. And I think that's important. I hope the audience knows, and I know this is a big responsibility for us joining toffee TV and representing the US, which we take seriously. But I'm telling you, you will get honest takes from us, you will not get hot takes like this. If we give insight, we'll hopefully back it up with something. And that's what, that's what I don't understand about this. I mean, this is all speculative junk. The only reason why you write this, I think, is either that elitist standpoint that you mentioned, or you're just, I don't know, you just want to irritate people. I just, I don't understand what good can come from that personally. Stir the pot, stir it up good. All right, well, the less said about Mark Ogden, the better, but I do hope to continue to see that tweet, retweeted onto my timeline and quote tweeted until the end of the world. Bookmark it. Yes. Yeah, save it. Now the last little bit of news we did want to talk about was the announcement for regarding Everton in the community. Obviously any Everton fan, regardless of where you are geographically in the world takes great pride in the work that EITC does in the Liverpool community and everywhere else. And as a result of that work, they have been shortlisted for a total of 14 awards at the upcoming Northwest football awards, the sports biz awards and HR magazine awards. I mean, this is Everton to a T, right, Ryan? The work in the community is runs in parallel and it is sometimes, I wouldn't say it's the focal point, but it is very, very important to the identity of the club and the spirit of the club and something that every fan takes great pride in and respects. Yeah, it's such a critical part of the club too. I think it's the people that are reflective of this type of care of the community too, at least for me personally, that really attracted me to the club and what made me fall in love with it. It's really the individuals you meet and how warm they make you feel, I think. For us, so we've always, and this is probably interesting for the audience or at least a different angle, it's different being an American. We didn't grow up necessarily with the club as little kids like we did maybe some of our own hometown sports, but we do recognize how important this is to the ethos of the club and we talk with a lot of different people, a lot of obviously local Liverpool folks or people that grew up there and talk a lot about what's important in terms of the identity of the club. I know you feel the same way I do. We feel like, look, if we're gonna talk and represent the American Toffee fan base at all, and it's a massive community, we're a very small part of it, but we are part of it and we are talking, it's something we like to do. I know at the American Toffee Podcast, we always recognized our responsibility to continue to convey those things. I just think, and let's be honest, I mean, I've gotten grilled on Twitter in other ways from Scousers and other people that are skeptical of foreign fans and I know some people are very defensive about that too and immediately have our back and stuff, but I think it's something worth talking about because I know I would be fearful a little bit, you know, at least in the back of my head if I saw a bunch of carpet-bagging Americans jumping on the bandwagon and here we are purchasing international stars with 50 million Instagram followers. I know we talked about that at length. I know that's something in social media and followers and stuff that you're definitely right on the edge of more so than me. I don't know, I mean, I think there's an important point here and a responsibility that we have. Don't you agree? I completely agree. And I think with Everton being such a historically massive club, but obviously recent times have not met the standards and they'll set an easy optimum that the fans all expect nothing but the best is good enough. I think that there's a large contingent of existing American fans that obviously didn't hop on the bandwagon that have been for fans, excuse me, for years, decades, and they really buy into what the club is all about and that's no one, no one, no American fan of Everton is a bandwagon fan. But what's important, agree. Yeah, but it's important to recognize that if the club do go on to achieve the success that we all want and desire, that there will be new fans taking notice, paying attention, and we have a responsibility as newer fans ourselves to be able to communicate the core values of the club and make sure that they recognize that this isn't Glory Hunter FC. This is a very authentic true to its roots English club and you need to be conscientious of that when speaking and I do think that with Liverpool, I hate to say their name on the show, but having achieved so much success and achieved this global fan base, there is this undercurrent of pride amongst Everton fans that they have the local authentic, largely local fan base. And it can be a little scary to start to see people, tourists come in. I mean, we made, Alex and I was no longer on the show, made the trip over in March and it was quite expensive. It was a dream of mine to have gone over and the people there couldn't have been nicer and everyone that I met was a little taken aback by the fact that we were there to see Everton rather than Liverpool, which is fair, but then you start to talk to them and they recognize that you're not there to glory hunt. You do pay attention and it is, again, then you're welcomed into the community with open arms. You're at the brick, you're at the Winslow, having a few pints before the match and it's one big family. And I think that is so encouraging, inspiring and what I believe to be the most appealing part about being an Evertonian outside of anything that goes on on the pitch. Yeah, I think the key is really foreign fans and increase in global following of the club is perfectly fine as long as it's the same core values and those are the people that really following it. And it's not truly tourist FC. I mean, you're gonna get a little bit of that, but yeah, so it's important. I mean, we need to continue a toll of, extoll the virtues of caring about the fans and the community and their wellbeing, combating things like mental health with the Blue Family campaign, which is really cool, celebrating diversity all together now, we know about that. And look, let's be honest, the whole discrimination take on the kick it out, the third kit launch was totally awesome. Amazing, amazing. Yeah, totally great and it's a sweet kit, but beyond that, and we try and have an appreciation for the history of the club. I'm not the youngest guy in the world, but maybe my history of the club goes back a little farther than your average American, but still, I mean, it's nothing compared to some of the people that we've had on the American Toffee Podcast and talk to when we've been over there and I've been over there too. And it's really special in what makes it neat. So we promised you viewers at Toffee TV that we will do our best to try and continue that ethos and hopefully we'll have more and more opportunities as we go to share some of the special things that are happening in America that I think reflect those as well. We've done it on the American Toffee Podcast, we're gonna continue to do it here on Toffee TV USA. And I think pretty much that's about, that's about wraps for us, James, if you wanna send us out of here. Yeah, that'll do it for us folks. I hope you enjoyed the show, as Ryan said at the beginning. If you did enjoy, subscribe to Toffee TV, the links below. If you would like our content specifically, please check out our podcast, American Toffee Podcast, available on all platforms. Follow us on social media, link tr.ee slash USA Toffee Pod will take you to everything you need to find. And we'll be with you guys weekly from here on out, barring any set packs or anything like that, barring, so we hope you enjoyed. And until next time, up the Toffees.