 Welcome to Toffy TV today. I am joined by a man who scored one of Everton's most important goals ever. A horrible day, but his goal was an absolute wealthy. It is of course Gareth Farrelly. Gareth, lovely to have you on Toffy TV mate. No, thank you. It's good to be here. Slightly strange circumstances but still. I wish we were in the studio to be honest. That would be much nicer but obviously at the moment with the social distance and I think more than three metres apart it will be okay. Annie, any interview you have to start with saying that are we following the social distancing guidelines? Exact. I think we're all right. I think we're just about good with that. We'll be okay with this one won't we? Let's talk about Everton and you because I didn't realise at the timing you signed that you were already in Evertonian. I think just with you coming from Aston Villa and things like that you don't really get to know. It was only after you were at Everton people said oh no he was at Evertonian as a boy I didn't realise that. So when did that start over in Ireland was it? Yeah, yeah, yeah absolutely. I think it was, I speak about it quite a lot now even still. But the point was obviously in Ireland at that time everybody was naturally gravitating towards Manchester United or Liverpool. Obviously in Ireland everybody's second club would always have been Celtic but the point for me was I started to see Everton and I started supporting them in probably 1983 now which sounds surreal when you have to do the mental maths to figure out how long that is. But one of the big things was that was as Everton's team was starting to kick on to the team that the greatest Everton team if you like. But also something as simple as what's sat behind you there is I love the kit. We had the half knee of the Le Coqsport's deep kit and that was something as well that at the time was fabulous. So I remember one of my, sounds funny now saying it but one of my Christmas requests was I wanted the Everton kit and I specified in the letter to Father Christmas at that time that I had to be the Le Coqsport's... Outstanding and I suppose Ireland was a big red following in Ireland and Manchester United but there is a real strong core of Everton, fan groups and Evertonians from Ireland as well. So sorry my connections are unstable at the time. I'll edit this out to talk. I'll go again. I was going to say obviously Ireland is a big Liverpool following in Manchester United but there is a big Everton following as well amongst Irish trophies isn't it? No very much so and I think they've got a lot stronger over the last few years as well if you look at some of the Irish players that have played for Everton so it's definitely a strong... Yeah definitely and obviously at that time was Kevin Sheedy one of your idols at that time them at that left foot. Do you know what Baz is funny because someone asked me about it recently and I think he could still rename the whole team. Yeah Kevin Sheedy was massive Trevor Steven all of them all of them. I think it's probably unprecedented that again going back to when you were young and when you were a fan is that you knew everything about everybody. Yeah definitely and the glory for me Baz now being one of them things is that to still get to see some of them now is still incredible got massive respect for them and I think from a club point of view you have to hold those people close because we haven't come remotely close to what those guys achieved. No no no. I had the pleasure of interviewing Nathan Eath earlier this week and he was like my boy-od idol so to speak and that was great and just talking back through some of those games and I know he was a coach wasn't he when you were at Everton as well so massive times for us at Nathan Eath. Incredible players you worked through with Gary Stevens, Derek Mounfield Kevin Ratcliffe, still around, legends Pat Vandenhau, then you go Kevin Sheedy, Peter Reid, Paul Brace, Will Trevor Steven, Andy Gray, Gary Linnaker coming in after all of the people I idolised. Outstanding. So what happened with it? I finished in Baz but then the irony was like people saying some people possibly didn't know and I possibly wasn't very good at promoting it or talking about it but the point was to get to play for the team we supported as a boy from the start of it was incredible. You should have been bang in that room. Honestly you should have been bang in that room at the time you really should have been like it's done now. No no no listen you just wasted on the young. I laugh about it now obviously I signed the day that Howard came back for his third spell and obviously they had the press conference and then I had come up to Goddison to meet him and we spoke about the club with the irony being that I signed a blank contract, we hadn't finished negotiating but I knew I was going to sign for Everton I flew back to Dublin that night knowing that it would be released over the weekend that all I wanted to do was play for Everton so it was like I was fulfilling what would have been a dream when I was a kid. It obviously did not play out like the perfect dream but that was the thought behind it. That's incredible. What happened? Did you go from Ireland over to Aston Villa or did that come about? The school boy club I played for in Ireland was a club called Home Farm which developed lots of really really top players and continued to do so for quite a while. Ronnie Whalen played there and yeah the scouting system and then went across to Aston Villa and Aston Villa at the time was the club that I thought I would settle at the best and hopefully be able to develop so different times. Different times yeah different times indeed and then so how did Everton come about then because I think you played eight games for Villa or something like that? Yeah Villa was difficult because I had a different relationship with some of the coaching staff there and as I say I knew I had at one point I had more senior caps for Ireland than I had appearances for Aston Villa so I knew when my contract came to an end that I was going to be leaving it would have been very unlikely that I was going to stay and at that time there was lots of interest and lots of clubs that wanted to speak to me and the opportunity of signing for clubs but then as we say you come back to when Everton were interested and when Howard came back in it was I didn't speak to anybody else. Incredible. So I guess that was quite exciting when you were there Everton and him for you like you just said you're thinking boy your dream and everything else that's the club I want to go to and remember you coming in and how it had been brilliant at this in his first spell of Everton and bringing players through who people wouldn't really know about and I wonder if that added to the pressure not for you from a personal level but from supporters who were thinking who's this GM that Howard Kendall signed and that you come into a team unfortunately for yourself that was just all over the place really it was unsettled because even Howard got there himself almost by accident really because that summer had been I remember Peter Johnson was there and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the whale class manatee we get in the summer and we were linked with Andy Gray and another villa in Everton and there was Wim Van Hanagham I don't know whether you remember him a Dutch coach and then all of a sudden it was Howard Kendall and we were like oh ok and then Gareth Farrelly's coming as well and it was a bit of a strange time I think for the club so it mustn't have been you could have come in at a better time I think I was trying to say in a convoluted way there I like how diplomatic you are there even with your use of the word gem I'm just saying No no no listen no no no we laugh at these things and the big thing is obviously the end of this story is incredible but the point is within that I've given no thought to how difficult the previous few years have been at Everton I wasn't sat and calculating setting out at pros and cons the fundamental reality for me was my heart ruled my head at the time there was an opportunity to play for Everton and I wanted to do it so then the next point like you say is you actually come into a situation that was really really alien to me because my appearances if you like at villa or breaking through was into a team that was in the top 6 was competing was very very strong and you were in an environment that was possibly a little bit different also I probably didn't really even though I was a fan understand the intensity of playing for Everton and again that's only something you kind of get used to because of how demanding it was and that's like one of the things I still see with some of the players now be it young players you come in or be it players that come to Everton is that there's a degree of weakening with regard to the expectation and what it really really means and for players sometimes people can step up to that and sometimes it takes them a little bit longer to get used to it in some cases people won't and that's obviously back to the history of Everton the expectation and how big the club is so for me that was just part of that learning curve I was 21 I knew nothing you know what I mean so for me the point was that again people measure performance and bravery different ways so as a footballer you want the ball if you don't have the ball you're not contributing Everton had been at the dogs of war which again people perceived bravery as being if you kick someone into the stands that means you must care and you're bothered about the team it wasn't necessarily that so there was a huge amount of learning done that year to obviously not as it would have been expected or not as it was presented to me at the start is that come and play for the team your support and love and then you're going to be in a relegation battle all year and as a young player you're going to be one of the ones most heavily involved in that so it wasn't easy by any means and there was other young players in a similar position at that time but also some of the senior players who were at different stages of their career that it wasn't an easy environment in any way no so on that were you surprised by how difficult it was given in terms of with the supporters we know what we can be like we are demanding unforgiving at times and that's what I was trying to say before I think you might have got more leeway with some fans as you've been saying I'm a massive Evertonian I love this club but it was such a difficult time being a fan at that time we had our moments there was times when it looked like things were starting to get a bit better we beat Liverpool in the Derby which was a big thing yeah yeah yeah and then obviously we didn't lose to Liverpool that year but yeah for me as a young player it was just a massive learning experience some of which was good some of which wasn't because like you say it was a different challenging very diplomatically put there no no no it's funny because like you say through the course of the year say you as a creative player as a footballer you wanted to create goals you wanted to try and score goals I made goalkeepers look great I hit people in the stand I hit people but you keep trying to do the right things and as I say for people now is that what an outcome it would be very very easy to disappear and not try and continue to do those things and then you just disappear without a trace so in bringing the story together if you look at how difficult that season had been stories that things that went on that year that I would have never encountered or seen in my life at that point and probably never saw again but to have the outcome we did is probably the only reason why we're having the conversation today and I'm very very grateful and respectful of that I remember you scoring against Gunthor in the league cup so yeah that's me gag that's the gag when people say you only scored one goal and he was there ah you never it was two I mean worry your obviously we'll get onto the the great bit in a minute worry your overriding memories of that games that stuck out that season for you which were you know it was a difficult season but like I say we did have some good moments we had a Derby win three days after one of the most horrific event and performances I've ever seen against Coventry in the league cup and obviously Howard was having a few issues with the crates your finger wagging and all of that went on but we also beat Chelsea around that year we beat Bolton with Duncan Fagus Matthew over Christmas and stuff like that so there was some good performances and victories within not a great season if I can put it like that yeah again diplomatic to the end yeah there was a lot of challenging times yeah but this is the fascinating thing about football and people's history because I obviously signed for Bolton after my time at Everton and the Bolton fans obviously let me know in no one's certain terms that they considered the goal I scored to be the goal that got them relegated one of the other key issues that season was we obviously played in the first game at the Reebok stadium which is where Terry feeling head of the ball off the line that their position was if there had been goal line technology it would have been a goal and that would have had an impact on different things like that so that's the thing isn't it but the nice part is everybody remembers a certain part of those things and everybody kind of has their memories associated with that but fundamentally for us the most important point and that is that Everton stayed in the Premier League just to come back to Bolton fans with two things first of all Nathan Blech fouled Neville Southall he had his arm in his face which stopped Neve getting the ball before feeling head of the from behind the line he did it, it did go in but it was a foul and secondly they got a goal down a filler which didn't cross the line and they'd be filler I think 3-1 2-1 or 3-1 a filler par and the ball didn't go over the line you got given so I'm just knocking a couple of them back at Bolton there by the way ha ha ha ha ha going in I spoke to it like you mentioned before I spoke to Adrian if the other day and he was talking about that the drive to the stadium that day he said you'd stayed on the whittle I think he said and coming through the tunnel and there was Everton we've stayed in Parkgate okay did you have an ice cream yeah we trained no no we were kept clear of the ice creams but we trained on this Saturday as normal but unusually for a home game we all went and stayed in the hotel so that whole weekend I'd be interested like you say to what Adrian had to say but it was a it was a surreal weekend he said it was weird I think the build up to it what was really mad about this was that it was the only game I missed I was in we'd had a holiday booked to Florida and I was thinking when it was booked I was thinking have and see by then last game of the season we'll be in Europe or something by then and I'll enjoy it from afar and anyway I went we were in Florida and obviously this is 1998 so we've barely got internet there's no phones, there's no streams there's nothing you know and exactly I could have watched it now quite comfortable but we were staying we were in Orlando gone up to see a friend he was working he works for NASA now so there you go but he was up there and he put his internet put his computer on and he was sure enough face 10 minutes he comes up fairly 1-0 so I'm dancing around you know and then we were going to Clearwater Beach so I got in the car with us winning 1-0 drove about 3 hours to this beach seeing a phone phoned home and my mum thought it was my brother so I'm going what happened with Everton and she's going you've just come back from the match really on about and I'm like mum it's barely on 5000 miles tell me the results you went well we're winning 1-0 and we get a penalty a Nicky Barnbyd and I'm going you know and then Thomas Mayer threw one in his net and I'm like oh my god are we up and eventually she said yeah but that was my story what was it like for you as a player going into that weekend what was the build up like the week before because obviously we were struggling with me to say the least no no no it had been an incredible week because scarily we'd obviously played Arsenal away on the Sunday and got beaten 4-0 watching them receive the Premier League trophy and then on the Monday it was quite interesting because there was a corporate day arranged because remember if you go back to 1-1 being the sponsor at the time and there was I'd played the second half against Arsenal but there was a lot of the players who had asked to play in a mini derby on the Monday we wanted match time we wanted like game time so I think they went to Pontifat races and there was a group of us played in the game and we beat Liverpool and then we were keen to train throughout the week so I think there was a day off midweek but the players wanted to be in the players wanted to train and then we trained on the Saturday and the decision had been made to all stay together on the Saturday night and again for me at that time in Furnish given the people that had been put forward to do the press that week I was still waiting to see whether you were going to play or not so for me obviously on the Sunday then when the team was named it was a big thing in the first place but I think everybody's memories again of that day was that the drive to Goodison was incredible because of the people out on the street you get to the ground and you could feel it was something special and so for me with regards to that it wasn't we all knew the significance of the game but there was something kind of exciting about the atmosphere and the environment and one of the funny things was I think the FAU team had won the FAU cup they were on the pitch, the women had won their league they were on the pitch beforehand Goodison was nearly full for the warm-up and I think you had that feeling which again happens quite a lot and it's quite interesting given where we are at the moment with the pandemic is that it was like everything that had gone before became irrelevant and the most important thing on that day was to get a positive result and that's why it was it was a fabulous thing to be a part of and then you have a situation where to score my first goal at Goodison in that way on that day was a huge thing so we can talk about Nicky Barnby Thomas Martin had been magnificent that year in fairness to him and I always felt that his season was not determined by that mistake because the point is true he had been one of the players that had been absolutely stand out but then fundamentally to have that outcome and you talk about your story from Clearwater but there's still people that would come up to me today now and say I was on the pitch at the end their story around how that day was for them so for me as a blue having had the life I've had it's still humbling to be a part of something like that especially given the fact that thankfully we've never been in a position like that again now and you're at it with your swinger yeah listen all the big ones went in off the swinger play off final a few years later went in off the swinger as well so I don't care I left or right as I say I think you probably don't think about these things at all or the significance of them it's only when you finish playing but I took my son to Goodison probably four or five years ago and he hadn't been he was probably eight at the time and again you walk into the main stand and before the game they obviously were showing some of the the goals and the highlights from the club and he's there eight and that's he's looking at that goal on the big screen so you kind of see it through the child's eyes and a fan again and you kind of think well wow that's something to be proud of I would listen and now it didn't work out probably the way you wanted it to but he scored one of the most important goals in evidence history and no one could ever take it away from you and I guess if if someone said play for Everton essentially for a season score one of the most important goals ever in their history when you were a kid with nothing at this year if someone would have offered you that I'm sure you'd have took it wouldn't you No completely but you see this is how football works and it's a crazy game because the irony for that is having had a difficult year that year you get to what you consider to be the top of the summit I met Howard Kendall the next week and we had a conversation about how that season had gone and it was an open frank conversation and then discussing the future and what's going to happen and then he was sacked at the end of that week and then you come back to pre-season looking forward to it because of what you've come through and like you say knowing that you would have possibly got some leeway based on what had happened and then you have a manager who turns around and says to you, I don't want you you can go so you go from that outcome to playing 8 minutes football that year I played in the Cardiw equivalent cup in a game against Oxford which we were poor we hadn't played any games, we lost 1-0 and then I played 8 minutes football that year so yeah devastating having to think through what we'd come through but again that's part and parcel of the game and that's the bit now so like you say, when you look at the scenario would you take it? Absolutely but equally I say you just wasted on the young there was decisions I made at that time looking back now with a bit more maturity I would have done things slightly differently because that was the first season and then the second season we were still there and there was an incredibly talented group but the club wanted rid of us so we had a situation where pre-season started on the 7th of July on the 14th of June running around Crockie Park so it was hilarious now obviously there was no social distancing provisions in place at that time but people out walking their dogs in Crockie Park and there's a group of seven or eight Everton players running around Crockie Park three weeks before everybody else returned because the manager and the club wanted to get rid of us I mean that's mad no listen it's part of the game but I'm saying that it's not how it's portrayed sometimes and like there are the things that within that pre-season then I did incredibly well and the manager actually pulled me in and said you've done incredibly well we're going to Italy I want to bring you and I like I told him I didn't want to go in different terms but back to having a bit more maturity if I had done that things may have possibly been a little bit different but the point is I had no relationship within at that time as a young player having spent 12 to 15 months not playing football again he just wanted to play and so you were not so I guess it wasn't a difficult decision to leave Everton then for Bolton because no no no because again irrespective of how much you love the club you wanted to play and you're always weighing things up and at the time you're obviously looking at that manager and you're going well they're not going to get rid of him so the likelihood is he's going to be able to outlive me you can take on power and you can take on the establishment but realistically you're never going to win no no speaking about Don Huttish we were speaking to Don Huttish obviously you'd play with Don wouldn't you because he'd come in at that time and then went on to be Everton's captain but Walter Smith let him go as well when he was absolutely flying for us so there was some I won't say too much about Walter but he's not one of my favour to Everton managers let's put it there no no no but the only thing I'll say for him is like you say part of that situation was my own mistakes and that's the point again that you talk about when you're in the eye of the storm your decision making is possibly different to what it would be depending on the people you have around you to take a different view on these things and that's one of the things that it wasn't all down to him no no fair enough for you to say but I'm talking from a fan's perspective now with him no no no from a fan's perspective you've absolutely nailed it because when I look over your right shoulder that jersey and the point you said about would I take it absolutely exactly that's the standard for me but that's where it is obviously you still went on and played for Bolton you had a great career like you say scored in the playoffs like that and then you've struck the very unusual route of not staying in football for modern day footballers you know a lot of people will coach or try to be a pundit or whatever but you've decided to become a lawyer which is no no no listen I did all of those things I just did them earlier I know you were managing in Ireland you managed in Ireland you go back to bad decisions and I fell out with Sam at 28 okay and I'd have my fill of it I'd have my fill of it dealing with people like that and I got offered a player manager's job and I thought here was an opportunity to try and mould something and do build my own sort of not legacy or club or different things I had very very strong ideas about that but as a player you have to deal with a manager whereas when you become a manager you have to deal with a board of directors so I kind of learnt my lessons very early with regards to that and that's why coaching and management I still have a small interest but I didn't want to follow on with that and then I got sick I got sick 12 years ago this month and again it ties into well a life changing experience for me and I'm only here now because of the quality compassion and skill of the NHS and I'm a huge ambassador and advocate for that and my heart beats for them every day because of how they looked after me I had a stomach aneurysm long story short and part of 10% that lived from that so when I say these people are true heroes that is absolutely my position and will never change and that's why every opportunity I get is to highlight the quality and the strength of these people especially with where we're at now I only have a gent today just going through some stuff it's the first time I've even heard that you've been on well but it's incredible you're looking fantastic by the way and the NHS are they're absolutely amazing they're unbelievable they're the heroes forget about anything else and we love our club and we love everything else but no one in my opinion comes close to those doctors, nurses even cleaners in the hospital who are putting their lives at risk every single day to keep people safe so for me they're my mum's still alive because of the lump in the throat but my mum's still alive because of the NHS and what they're able to do and it is to give untold credit as far as I'm concerned and like you've just said, they're unbelievable and that's the nice thing about dudes they're doing these things as we can talk about the football which is great but also it gives me an opportunity to be able to try and shine a light on those people and out of everything for today like that's where there isn't a day that I don't think of them and I have constant admiration for them and there shouldn't even be a conversation political or not about these people being resourced properly because they're compromising themselves for others every day and I think that Everton because of the position we hold is a responsibility to shine that light and also show how grateful we are to them absolutely agree spot on me one thing I wanted to ask you about obviously you just mentioned within unprecedented times and we are in it at the moment it's such a strange world we're living in it at the moment with lockdowns and things like that and all we can do is follow the guidelines and try to help the NHS by not putting them a bigger strain on them but in terms of a football perspective in our lifetimes this is the strangest time isn't it that there's no football the last time it stopped I think was the second world war so there's no football and you being obviously involved in the legal aspects and everything else what are the real challenges Garth because we know that we keep seeing the Premier League coming back in June and it's going to be easy to do this and that but when you actually break it all down it's such a complex thing to try to put these games on and you know I know there's nine games left and money will always play a factor but there's so much to consider isn't it being able to bring it back while these lockdown measures are in place oh god and listen, that's why sports lawyers at the moment are becoming ever more popular and ever more present in the media but the fundamental reality is nobody can really answer those questions yet and I think that's what makes it so people like certainty and the reality is that nobody can actually talk about that and the biggest thing for me at the moment with some colleagues and friends is that it's not just here, that's on a European level so you have people who are lawyers within clubs you have people who work within the leagues and the federations and you've got not even legal actual footballing staff so you can talk about now about trying to keep people fit and them having their programmes and we talk about what we didn't know before all of this started even Zoom so like we're in a whole new territory but there has been some guidance from FIFA over the last couple of days with regard to extending the contracts and what that will bring and what ramifications there will be for new seasons new transfer windows new contracts or pre contracts that were signed so I think football have dealt with it quite well given some of the given how some of the leaders if you like in politics have dealt with things I think football have sought to deal with it and be proactive and I think that's to their credit I think the reality no matter what way we speak about it is I think the season has to finish and I think that I can't see any other way but for that to be the case and nobody can actually predict when that will be I think you look at some of the bigger German clubs returning to training yesterday and again Germany appear to have dealt with it as they do in a very very collective proactive collegiate way and I think sometimes there's interesting parts around that because we're all in it together until we're not and I think in times of crisis that's when you start to see the true value of people and where they're really at so there's been huge media focus on particular points some that have been done to distract from real issues and that's still ongoing on a daily basis but I think you can't risk people's health you can't speculate when the reality at the moment unfortunately is we don't know the answers to these things yeah I mean you put it a lot more eloquently than me did but yeah it is it's such a mad one the football league have said something today that the planning on finishing the games it'll take 56 days it'll be behind closed doors the players due to return to training on May the 16th I think that they're trying to think ahead of guests to try to get these games played out but we're all guessing at the moment at me they have to be proactive the administrators are in a very difficult position but the point is we don't know where we started our conversation we don't know if we're at the top of the curve yet and obviously people are having to process a huge amount of information the reality at the moment is there's nearly a thousand people digested and whilst we all love our football and again you go back to having an opportunity to talk about things Everton in the community is a shining light with regards to the work they've done and again I can sit and talk to you but a lot of the people that people may not know who do incredible work and I have the pleasure of doing and being invited to a lot of the stuff that Everton in the community do again it's humbling and it's fabulous to be asked to still be involved they're the important things for me football will get to it ramifications and technical issues and lots to play out over time but fundamentally it will only be achieved by universal decision making as I say and that's quite fascinating at the moment because given the excesses of media and sky sports and their absolute reliance on football it's quite interesting now because they've got nothing to talk about that other things have come into the spotlight and again politics the players came out yesterday and did something awesome having been one of the groups that were picked out and identified for criticism which again I don't think was warranted so we live in unprecedented times but I think you have to fundamentally we have to have a return to some compassion and caring about people 100% and you're absolutely vital to highlight Everton in the community is who we know and she's fantastic green is incredible I know you've climbed Snowden in the dark for Everton in the community but we were to do it again we were to do it again that fell foul of the virus so hopefully we'll get to it again later in the year it's an incredible thing and it's something to be as an Evertonian it's something to be proud of the blue family stuff they're doing at the moment phoning people at home pet sister is recovering from cancer got a phone call from Moise Keane and things like that it really makes a big difference seeing Carlo and things like that You had Duncan the other day far too often now we live in a sanitised pure world where everything is put in place not for the right reasons whereas there's always something nice being done that makes you proud to have that association Yeah definitely Very much so I've took enough of your time today I know you're an incredibly busy man and you've probably got players phoning you're saying What's happening with my contract if I've got a play into your life when it runs out in June but listen thank you so much for taking the time out to speak to us today and hopefully in a few weeks when there's a little bit more clarity we'll be able to have another chat about the legal side and where we're at maybe More than happy to do that and stay safe and stay home It's been brilliant to speak to you Look after yourselves And you listen, take care of yourself Gareth lovely to speak to you All the best So a big thanks there to Gareth Farry man who scored one of Everton's most important goals certainly in the Premier League era Big thanks to him for taking time out of his day to join us there Fantastic chat Very very insightful and when you see things through his eyes or was a very different place Make sure you subscribe, get the video a thumbs up and if you want more great videos join us over on Patreon Like Gareth said, stay safe See you soon