 That's it. OK, lad. Yeah. Just give you that. Yeah. You and me on your field. Yeah. Good much for you, sir. You there, right? Yeah. Have you got something to say? Have you not? Nice. What would you like? Theo, first of all, why Everton and why now? Everton, you know, after speaking to the gaffer and particularly Wayne as well, I felt like the club was, you know, on the up. I felt that with the manager seemed to get the best out of players, especially when first coming in. And just the plans for the future of the club, and I felt like I want to be part of that fantastic history. And I want to make that history present. I want this club to push on and, you know, try and reach those levels that, you know, I feel like it can with the players, particularly coming in. You can get a sense that it's a club that, you know, financially can, you know, attract, you know, big players. And for me, that was, you know, main attraction and getting a chance to, you know, obviously have a brief spell with the manager, with England. And I just felt like I wanted more of that. And, you know, I wanted to be part of his plans and, you know, part of something. And this felt right. And so I'm so pleased, really pleased. How did that conversation go with Wayne then? What did he say to you? How did he persuade you? He said all the golf courses are great, so he should come up from there. A bit colder, though. Yeah. No, well, obviously I played a lot of football with Wayne. No, he's not great at golf. He said he was, but he's not. And I just wanted to get a structure of how the club worked and, you know, what the players are like. And because obviously when you're used to something for so long, it's a big, you know, decision to change things. But I felt it was right for me to do that. And I just got a sense from Wayne that, you know, he was hungry and the club was eager to push on. And that's why he wanted to join. Like, I'm sure he would have had, you know, other decisions to make. But he felt like this was the right place. And I totally agree with him. And I was, yeah, it was a long, long process, but we're in the end now, yeah. You say long process. Was it right that you were stood in the canteen and training gear, watching training on Wednesday? Yeah, yeah, that was right. I wanted to be part of it all. You know, I couldn't as yet. Things weren't properly signed off as yet. But, you know, I got to see how it all worked from there. And yeah, I just wanted to go out there and train. My first training session was on Monday, but it wasn't the last one. And I trained yesterday on my own. And today will be the first time I train with the team. And yeah, but I know quite a few of the players there. I'll settle in really fine. Yeah. In terms of the personal motivations in coming here as well, at times you feel that you don't necessarily get the credit you deserve. You look at last season, for instance, 19 goals, 29 starts. Yeah, I think, you know, I'll be judged on goals. And I was very pleased, obviously, last season with the goals that I scored, continued the minutes played as well. And that's, you know, that's what I want to bring into this team. I want to bring, you know, the goals and the system, that threat. And, you know, even that unselfish play when you can drag other players away, attract other players. But yeah, I was very pleased with, you know, that goal tally. Obviously, you know, just being behind, you know, Harry, obviously he's on a new level completely and obviously Deli as well. So being the third player there, I was, like I say, I can't ask for more. But yeah, I want to push on and, you know, still quite a long season ahead. I want to be part of, you know, pushing everything out that table because it's all about points in the end and anything I can contribute to the end of the season you know, I'm going to be pleased to, definitely. So I suppose that threat that Theo speaks about there is a big factor in your decision to bring in here as well. There's no doubt about that at all. I think that once you're the fresh start, I think that, you know, when you've got a player that has been at one club for a long period of time and decides that he wants to move on and forges way into a new career and you know him over many, many years and you look at his record and say to yourself if that's an opportunity for you to move forward then it would be very nice if he would consider joining Everton Football Club and that's always been very positive from when we first started negotiations. I think that for us, if he repeats what he did even this year with his short appearances he's got goals and last year's appearances is exceptionally good from a player from a wide position that may occasionally have played up front but for us that's a very important ingredient where we are short in terms of creating and scoring goals at the moment and it adds great firepower hopefully to our squad. A relatively good price in this transfer window. Time will tell, yeah, with every signing. I think every signing, you know, you have the key performance indicators which are very good, the experience of the Premier League, you know, at this league, unlike Cenk who's only just getting here which may be more difficult for him. There's a settling in period for everybody whether you move in this country or whether you move from abroad and hopefully settles very quickly and enjoys his time here and we're here to support him, all the staff are here to support him to achieve as much as he possibly can while he's with us. More to come in this window? I think that we would be more in the terms of where we are at the moment with moving players on. I think that the squad is too big. There's 33 players here at the moment and I think that from my point of view that means that reducing that squad, although squad numbers is important for me and the football club and the players that may leave, we don't know who they are because you're waiting for other clubs to come and show an interest but certainly I think moving a few players on now is the order for us. Keeping players fit then, keeping Seamus Coleman as close to coming back, he's back in training. I think that's another bonus for us and Michael Keane's back. So the squad is getting stronger, hopefully getting bigger and certainly we need to turn our results around starting Saturday and it would be interesting to see the reaction from the players after the poor 44 minutes they played in the second half at Tottenham. In terms of moving players on, we're hearing that Aaron Lennon's been linked with the likes of Newcastle and Burnley has there been anything in that? I don't know. We'll probably find out at some stage or other but obviously that lies in the hands of the chairman and Steve, the director of football and they handle all that side of it and all those negotiations if and when they go on. Theo, are you ready to start on Saturday? Do you know what the first thing I want to do is get to know my teammates today, train for the first time and I haven't been on the pitch for them yet and I'm excited to do that. I can't thank obviously enough the support I've had here, it's been so good everyone's been so good to me straight away and it's so nice and all the messages I've had from the Arsenal fans and it's particularly been there for 12 years it was massive for me it was quite emotional and the reception I've had from Everton fans and I'm really looking forward to going to Goodison Park it's got a lot of history, it's a great football club it's like I say, that's why I want to be part of it but first priority is first training session today for me Just on Arsenal though, I just wonder what kind of mistakes do you feel that you've left the club in? Well when I found that I was coming here I had to go there at night just to pick up all my stuff in all bin bags it was quite honestly so surreal As well before you did I've had a few of those Thanks for your service I'm sure I'll get some time to go down I've had so many messages to try and catch up with people and it's been very overwhelming but slowly but surely getting through those messages but I will at some point go back there and do my proper goodbyes because I feel like that would be the right way to do it but we do play in very soon as well which I'm looking forward to What kind of reception will you expect there then? I've always had so much time for the fans and they've been great to me from start to finish for all the ups and downs and I can't obviously thank them enough and I'm sure it was part of my family in Arsenal so now I'm here but I'm pretty sure it'll be fine How do you feel about Arsenal and Wenger now? Obviously I had a lot of nice things to say about yesterday but is that kind of the frustration of not getting as much game time as you wanted does that kind of affect the relationship between the two? No look I've always had so much respect for the manager there's always any player if you're not playing you're going to be upset but you need to try and dig deep and try and push to get into their position for whatever reason it didn't happen this year you know that's why obviously I've moved on but I want to just work hard for this team as simple as that you know I've got so much respect and you know I've known this since I was 16 and to bring the young player in and have belief in him I can say I can't thank him enough for that but now obviously I've got a new challenge and you know new manager I want to impress and get the ball rolling definitely. And have you left behind a club that's in difficulty? Do you want? You know what I'm like every week isn't it? So I've got a train at 11 o'clock you know what I mean? Just with the Sanchez situation I wonder what you make of that? Obviously I'm not being there at the moment so I'm not really going to it'll be unfair to me to comment on anything not knowing what's going on so yeah I'm sure Arsenal will get it all resolved I'm like say I'm an Everton player now so my main focus is today training and preparing properly for the first game which fun enough could be against Kieran Gibbs I've got to throw in there World Cup as a motivating factor as well Again it's one thing that's not on my concerns at the moment in time I feel like if I perform well for Everton that's just my main target that's what I want this club to push on I want them to win points and contribute that we're across that bridge when we come to it but I want to be here first that's my main target I don't want to look too far ahead I won't achieve anything if I do that We've had Mark's attack as the 1000th game of his managerial career It's a great achievement obviously and to be part of hopefully a winning team for that is something special for personally for the manager and I'm sure you can celebrate but it's going to be a tough job we need to work hard but I think if you're on the club it just needs to get into all the players and hopefully with like myself and Cenk coming in it's going to be a great reception and hopefully just give that extra boost Sam what does that milestone mean to you? Well obviously I wasn't thinking that we're going to get there like it being so I actually thought I was already there when I left Crystal Palace because if you counted Limerick I was well past those Limerick games were unfortunately there those Limerick games were not added because it wasn't a full-time professional football club so having to come back and now got the nod last week that this was going to be a 1000th game I'm absolutely delighted that I've hit that milestone of course and mainly all in the Premier League you know the ambition to play at the top level when you're a footballer which I managed to do but then to manage at the top level in the Premier League Experiencing so many different cultures so many different cultures has been a great journey for me and like I've said many many times I've never worked since I've left school so this is just another continuation of what's been for me a lovely way to spend my time and work in this industry so I look forward to the lads making sure we win tomorrow and and I can celebrate that a little bit more if we get those three points What's your advice to those starting out in management now? Those starting out in management survival it's the first thing on your mind and survival is about understanding what's needed at that football club with the players you have at your disposal you may have many theories and many thoughts about how you might want to play may want to consider your football but the biggest asset you can have is judging whether those players can play that way and if they can't quite play the way that you want they play to their strengths to get results results of what keeps you in a job and then results give you the experience results get you in the limelight and results allow you to move up the league and get a bigger job Has it changed you? Yeah, not the same person I was when I first started I've done many many things over the years to modify and adjust as a manager to stay ahead of the game it's always been one of my main priorities and what the next level is and where is it coming from and we want to not follow anybody else we want to be at the forefront of what it is and I think everybody is in that field now more than ever before so it's always very interesting what new ideas come along and implementing those ideas into your club and will they help and that is not for me it's always been outside of football a lot of the stuff I've implemented in the game has come outside of it's in the world of sport outside of football you know so I think we can all go around football clubs and see what they do and do this and we all do similar but somewhere outside of there in some other sport maybe something that can take you forward So obviously it's been a frustrating time for you so far this season but do you feel this is perhaps the right the right stage of your career and what are your ambitions? Yeah no it's like I said before it was obviously a very difficult decision at this moment in time I obviously have a young family as well and I need to take in the count but being still only 28 I feel fit as I ever have done and I just want to be playing football and working hard and making this club be where I think I believe it can be with the development of the stadium the plans, the players coming in I felt like I want to be part of something part of something that's going forward and like I said before I had a chance to work with the manager again I know I had that brief spell and I've really enjoyed it and I want to be part of that and that belief the manager had bringing me in made my decision very easy Do you feel that there's pressure on you but pressure in a good way that you might not have had to watch it at all? I feel like every day is pressure anyway it's just how you deal with it I'm sort of someone I like to be better than I was the day before I'm sure everyone believes that in any job they do and I feel like this place will get even more out of me and I'm just hunger to get going again because obviously like you say it's been frustrating but it is what it is and it's a new challenge for me and I'm ready to go and I just think there's no point dwelling on the past anymore it's all about looking forward and that's why I believe this club can push on like the manager said I know results, the last couple haven't been great but I believe that still the team can progress up the league and I can contribute to help Sam, this is your second attacking sign in the month of this year but that's clearly where you felt this was happening Well, it's easy to see that over the season what you need to achieve and the amount of goals that you need to score I think that mathematical equations tell us that if you look over the last five or six years if you're scoring this amount of goals you would finish around or can finish around in this position there's obviously a lot of other factors that have to be taken into consideration and how many goals you concede or how many clean sheets you keep but I think in the main we would fall behind goals scored to finish in ninth or eighth so we then have to improve our clean sheet record massively to then achieve that position like I mean so adding goal power and creativity is obviously very important not forgetting that we all have to defend when we lose the ball as well as create when we've got it so that's not a happy balance for us at the moment you know, having expanded a little bit on our creative opportunities which were obviously difficult to come by but we were still getting results having tried to create that we've slumped on the defensive side so I've still got to try and strike that balance up starting on Saturday hopefully I expect a very tough match I think that West Brom have been performing far greater than the results suggested even when we went down there to play them just a few weeks ago it was a really tough match for us to dig out with a 0-0 and excuse me, I'm not going to dig out a 0-0 and we had a little bit of luck to be honest with you so I think I'm expecting a really tough football match like every game at this level and particularly this time of the season once you've got through the Christmas period and coming out the other end it gets even more and more difficult mentally for the players as well as physically and those with the strongest mentally and physically come through in the end so hopefully we've built up our resilience and we're more determined and dogged to push on through to the end of the season now you've spoken about how difficult it was to leave Arsenal, I'm just wondering when did the realisation dawn on you that you probably had to leave you know since from this season when you look at the minutes that I've played considering obviously the season before scoring 19 goals it was a fact I wasn't part of it and it was just getting the timing right and when I could go like I say I had a young family I had to think about that as well but as a personal football career and decision I felt it was time now and yeah that's what it was really and it happened so quickly as well like I say the way it all sort of developed and not really been able to say my bubuys yet but I'm pleased it's all dealt with and I can just get to know teammates and get going really yeah just last one here Cyril I was mentioning in my programme notes of course and I think that I played against Cyril many times in my year of course but for me it was such a shock because I'd seen him in his wife at West Brom just a few weeks ago and he looked so well you know and obviously it was a great shock that I heard that he died and died so suddenly so obviously my sympathies go to his wife and all the family and all the relatives