 Welcome to Toffy TV. James Tarkowski is an Everton player arriving on a free transfer from Burnley. It's our big marky summer signing badge. How excited are you for this one? Good signer. Good signer, free transfer, centre back we needed. What's the not to love? He's a good defender. You know he's a good defender cos he's a defender that you hate when you play against and they're normally the ones that you think are decent. Everton had massive issues last season at the heart of the defence trying to keep people fit and keeping the ball out of the net and I think in general he's been really, really good for Burnley. I remember him scoring for Oldham against Liverpool in the FA Cup years ago. Liverpool 3-2 scored one of the goals and Burnley got him not long after that and he's been an excellent signer for Burnley. You know we mustn't forget Leicester off at £40 million for him. You know that long ago so you know Frank Lampard has wanted a centre back who's going to come in and play games and be tough and lead really. You know you go off and go on about a leader at the back well he seems to be that kind of character. No absolutely I think it's something we was apparent last season how much we missed the consistency of someone playing centre back week in week out and I think you see this with most centre back partnerships or most teams defences that they will have one centre back that very rarely is left out and the other maybe one or two for different games depending on what they are will be brought in and are elevated immediately. By the presence of having that leader at the back someone who tells people when to come, when to go, you know constantly talking and that kind of thing and that's what he strikes me as and I think you know obviously the likes of Ben Godfrey and the likes of Mason Hallgate I think they've struggled in their development when they don't have that consistency and I think what we saw last season and what we have seen is when yeti meaners in our side it's so noticeable how better we are defensively and how he makes other players better around them. They know what their job is. There's no uncertainty I think with a leader. I think you know that a leader at the back is going to go for a ball or going to you know or knows who his man is or or whatever I think when you have two players who are or don't have those characteristics they tend to get and we've seen this. They tend to get in each other's way. They tend to go for the same balls. They tend to do just silly things which as professional footballers should never do and that leads to the mistakes and we've seen that. We've seen that over the last couple of seasons how many goals have come from individual mistakes at the back and I think that's why I think for Frank Llanpad it's so important to bring someone in like him, someone who is a lead and I think straight away he's going to make us a little bit more, well not a little bit, I think he's going to make us a lot more solid because that's where that's as I said when we see me in a play you know what you're going to get and when he plays on that we know how good he is so I think this fella is going to come in and hopefully do similar things and something that we probably haven't had consistently since Phil Jagielka was at the club someone that you know you stick anyone next to them and they're going to be alright and everything I've had through my life I've always had these players you know Derek Mounfield, Dave Watson you know obviously all the way through the 90s and then you've got the likes of Weir and Stubbs and then Jagielka came into it and hopefully this fella becomes another one of the success stories. I hope so, I mean it's what we need you know we think it was 12 errors leading directly to goals last season it was way more than anybody else which is one of the reasons why I haven't struggled so badly so you've got to cut them out again we've said it many times when mean is in the side it's evidence is so much better they don't you know the win ratio jumps massively but last season he had his way season in terms of fitness he could never really get fit and Frank Llanpard and Kevin Tellwell have obviously looked at that and thought you can make it in who plays a lot of games naturally likes to defend we'll help us do that and Tarkovsky's there and he's on a free transfer you know it's we know that we're often talking about we want to bring younger players in and you know I'm very much in that school of thinking now bring the young players in get them as you know sell on value or develop them so that they become big players but sometimes you have to bring these types of players in and get them as you know sell on value or develop them so that they become big players. But sometimes you have to bring these type of people in as well and he's massively experienced centre back you know Jack Elkhub is still playing for us at 37 or whatever it was wasn't he and doing really well 36 37 still performing still performing now. And so you know he's 29 so why not. I mean obviously there are question marks over the over the age and obviously there's been rumoured you know we see the things that are bandied about about his wages and stuff like that and I understand that we are trying to get away from that kind of way of doing things obviously all the players on big wages and you know he's just had to we've just had to let you know we're going to do that. But we've just seen players leave on free transfers you've been at the club for you know three to five years in and a good wage. I think with the difference with this lad is that he has played a lot of Premier League football he's someone who's very consistent he knows the Premier League already and for me he's just someone who goes straight into the team and there's no there's no messing about there's no you know what you're going to get from him and of course you know people will look at the age and the wages and all that kind of thing. What really is the alternative? Yes you could go and get a young up and coming centre back but haven't we already got at least one of them in Ben Godfrey? I've got three there now. With Mason Hoggate, with Branthwaite, haven't we already got that those kind of plays isn't that isn't what we need is a little bit of leadership and a little bit of experience at the back to see these plays through. Well we're talking there about consistency we're talking about playing regularly let's just have a look at his games for Burnley this is all in the Premier League so 198 games for Burnley in the Premier League average games played per season 32 overall and his average for the last five seasons is 35 games a season. The 32 thing for 32 is his first season after he joined from Oldham he played 19 games because he was just coming into the side he played half a season and that's dropped his average standard 35 games a season and last season was a hamstring into the end of the season and of course he plays for it he's come from a side that was obviously a no-nonsense team that understood how to defend and he understands how to defend and as I said you know now and again I for me I'd have them all the time you need these plays you need defenders who can defend you need defenders who don't wait for things to happen they react straight away you know there are the odd things and for me he's that kind of defender he is that kind of defender he's a defender Felly yn defnyddio, hefyd yn defnyddio, mae'n blynyddoedd yn gweithio'n llyth. A'n oes, mae'n bryd o'r bai oherwydd mae'n gweithio. Oherwydd, mae'n gweithio, ond mae'n cyfnod, oherwydd, y bywyr gyrhau ein bod y'n gweithio'n gweithio, mae'n gweithio'n gweithio er mwyn ffantastig. Mae'n gwneud hynny mae'n gweithio'n gweithio. Ynny, mae'n gweithio'n gweithio y byddwn ni'n cyfnod,sizedwn i'r borgylerydd. The problem with Michael Keane was is that Michael Keane is not really a leader. He's a defender and he wants to defend but he's not a leaadada and I think we've seen Michael Keane's performance, elevated when he's been next to Jeri Mene. For me it doesn't matter. Y fan yna defending there's always an alpha, there's always the fella who calls the shot, the organisor. The main fella and that's what this fella is. Michael Keane isn't, he just oes ydynt? Mae'n gennych i gyda, maen nhw'n nhw, ac ben gofflu i'n ffliwyd, kerthos'u ben gofflu'n ffrind wave ond yn y position, ac mae'n ddweud, dylwyddu'n roi'r bhwylio'r hynny, dylwyddu phaith yn ffrind wahanol i'n wneud. Dyna'r hanes, neu rwy'n gofio y byddai多 i'r danoedd, a phos o'n bwysig oherwydd rai'r hanes. Dyna y gallai ddweud gan'a hoffa, yna sydd am rywbeth sydd yn ei ffansiol, Maid y tafwnt ondwn i iddyn nhw e wedi cydwyddei. Os oeddwn i wneud roedd o gwneudio'r nifer o'i yw gwneud yn nhw o'r ben ingredients yng Nghymru. Yr El Dwyl 153, mae'n i gwrs. El Dwyl 142, i gwrs yn ddwylanwm. Llock 58, i gwrs yn ddwylanwm. Clarencers 183, i gwrs yn ddwylanwm. I gwrs yn ddwylanwm. It's got the best numbers, you know. Three out of five categories we put up in a second in the other two show. That was for the team that got relegated. It will do more work. Of course it will if you play for Liverpool or Manchester City wouldn't have asked that stuff to do, but Everton were near the bottom. You need your defenders. If you can play and Everton can get 33', 34', 35 games out of them, it allows you to try to build a partnership at the back, We've got England's number one behind them, he's going to benefit from having someone too full-back, too young full-back, you know, hopefully Paterson hasn't kicked the ball yet, haven't he? You've got Michel Enco, who's laying in the gate. So if you've got that behind you, like you've just mentioned he could develop Ben Goffrey, you'd have his aerial ability, Ben Goffrey's pace, that kind of thing. We've mentioned twice to young centre-backs, Rhys Welch, he's a big lad in the 18-19, Gerard Branthwaite, what's he doing, what kind, how does he hold himself? Who knows what he gets out of Hullgate? What I find really interesting is what I haven't done with Hullgate and Keane are they staying? What's happening with Jerry Mina? There's still uncertainty with them, I think Ben Goffrey, I think Frank Lampard's gone on about Ben Goffrey quite a few times as if he's one of his friends. So that centre-back thing's going to be really interesting, but I think he just makes us a lot stronger. He's not a bells and whistles centre-back, he's not. Although I've seen a couple of people put things up a bar when he was playing for Oldham and bringing the ball off from the back. He had a job what they want him to do, if they want him to do it, if they want him to be a no-nonsense defender and the fellow nexums bring in the ball, that's what you need to do. For me, that's what we need. At times there's a lot said about defenders and bringing the ball out from the back. You know what? I like defenders who can defend. I want them to do that. I want to stop conceding goals off set pieces. I want to see his defend properly and I think that's the most important thing. And I think in the last few years, I think we've missed out on some targets with the same age category and people have looked at them and made them on their minds. People have gone, ah, two old passers-by-all, they've gone into the teams and they've just got that organisation sorted and suddenly those teams look defensively better. Of course, not Western. I feel like I'm laughing at my mwys. He's had a great season. West has played most of the season. He got to the semi-finals of the Europa League. He's had a great season. He's an uncompromising centre back. So, you know, we concede too many goals, so if you're getting someone in who likes to stop the ball going in the back of the net, then that's all good by me. Then you put the other stuff into the team, hopefully elsewhere. It's the basis to build off, isn't it? Stop conceding goals and it gives you an opportunity. What did we say so many times last season? If we'd have got draws in all of the games, we didn't draw enough games. If we'd have drawn another four or five games, we'd have never been in trouble, but we were losing games by the odd goal. Who knows, having a defender like him, we might have got draws in some of them games. In some games we drew, we might have won. We'd have better defenders, so if you've got someone who likes to keep the ball off the net, makes the defence stronger. It gives you the basis to build off. Like I said, he's not fair to Van Dijk or people like Riben Dias, but he's a no-nonsense centre back and he's cost us no money apart from obviously wages, so. You've got to pay people. Yeah, he's got to be paid. He's got to be paid, you know. For me, decent start. No, I think it's a good, sensible signing to get us going. So there you go. Let us know your thoughts in the comments on the signing of James Tarkowski on a free transfer. Let us know whether you are in favour or not and what you're hoping to see from him and what you think he will give the side. 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