 Welcome to Toffy TV, the pre-season. We love a pre-season, don't we? We want it all to be confirmed nice and early so we can get out of these. We don't do that at Evan. We don't do that. Evan, keep your own your toes. Keep your own your toes. You don't know when to throw those all of these in. The good news is, after confirming trips to Berry and Blackburn, Evan have now confirmed they're playing in the Algarve Cup. They will face Leal and Porto on the Saturday and Sunday of July 21st, 22nd. It's a three team tournament over the three days Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Porto and Leal play on Friday, we play on the Saturday and the Sunday. I mean, from a sort of getting away point of view, it's sound pretty much, I can literally, I could probably hear the noise of people getting on the Al easy jet. Well it was 105 quid yesterday and it's 308 today. If only we'd known yesterday. No, anyway. We're driving there. We've got a van. We'll take the van. We'll be there at the 18. But a lovely weekend. The pre-season is starting to come together now. And yes, listen, it hasn't got any big shiny fixtures in it so far. There isn't a big trip away, commercial trip away. But on balance, it's got a nice sort of trajectory. We start with Barry, then we go to Blackburn, then we've got these two games and we finish off at home. He's in the middle of the Blackburn. Oh yeah, yeah, sorry. Barry, this one with Blackburn and then obviously got Valencia and hopefully another European trip, maybe Jamie or something like that. But they obviously start in Austria pre-season and then they'll do a week and then probably at the end of the week they'll probably just play maybe a local side in a, you know, like they've done before, almost just like get the cobwebs off is your reward for the tough week is a game of 40, which none of our fans will take enough for, cos they never do. Last year or the year before it was wasn't it? Yeah. You just ate them on the street. Tim, do you want what you want? What you want? It was like a field surrounded with a thing and then a picture surrounded with like a thing and like a little bar, like a few, like diabloos, just one another one and people go, Darren, do you want one? Snotch, do you want one? Do you want it? Do you want it? And the ass fellow it. He did on a step over and fellow it. That's when Cumin made his man up in Foulton. He did the post out as well, didn't he? Yeah. And then Brandon Galloway got the gold in it, me one won that. It's, again, it's, you like you say it, it's an upward trajectory, I suppose. I appreciate, listen, be lovely to go and have an American tournament and a glit and glamour. Please be awesome next year. But again, it's the whole Europa League thing kind of complicated for Everton, I think, because if we'd have finished 7th and dropped by on these routes, you know, in a month's time we'd be kicking off or something. Well, we would have, we'd have played, wouldn't we? So I suppose that has to come into the thinking a little bit of what you can book. Because everything's contractual stuff now, so the minute you agree, that's it, you're tied to that, you know what I mean? So I don't know how much that plays into it, but I'm pretty sure it does. I suppose it does because pre-season house, it's, like, I mean, it's getting big, it's becoming big business at the high end and that's what we want to be involved in. And I've said this loads of times, you know, pre-season is commercially a fantastic opportunity to go to places and play against teams that you normally wouldn't in a more relaxed sort of surrounding where you can go to places and camp out and make yourself known. And these are the things we'd ever do and it disappoints me, but I understand because every year for, you know, the last few years we've been in a bit of a mess going into pre-season. So then pre-season for whatever reason is being thrown up in the air, whether it be like last season with the Europa League, the season before, Cooman coming in, or just a mess by our own hand, Roberto Manez, who just didn't seem to appreciate the importance of pre-season, like he didn't seem to appreciate the importance of defending. But I just hope, yeah, I hope next season, I hope we get it right. I hope, you know, everything's, we're all settled as a club and we can plan for something good because, you know what, we scoff and we laugh and we go all, we hope it's a miracle, but we really hope we do go to somewhere like a miracle. So those fans get a chance to see Evan again. So we get to play some glamour ties. So we get to have the opportunity to go somewhere and spread the Evan name because we haven't done that for a while. And pre-season saves two roles, obviously. I mean, first and foremost, it's your chance to get your players fit. You know, it's your big chance to get your players fit. And we haven't been using it for that hard in the last few years. The pre-seasons have been a mess and they've not really done the job they're supposed to. And the other side is the commercial point of it because you've got things like the ICC, which, like we were obviously in it a few years ago by default when Galatasaray pulled out and we took their place, which David Moyes' brother sorted out for us and then obviously Manez benefited from it. And that was a fantastic tournament. It was a fantastic opportunity. The players played top opposition, got fit. Some stars were created, like John Stones, on and off the pitch, and I just loved that again. And the ICC now is so big that I think it's in pro-evolution soccer now as a tournament. Tim FIFA. Yeah, you know, it's mad, isn't it? It's like it's become a premiere and I'm not saying, you know, we need to get in that because that's a, I just would. It would just be nice to be able to go into a pre-season, settled, have a plan before the end of the season. No where you're going. Tell that to your fans. Ultimately, it's got to be for the benefits of getting players fit for the season. So that's what could we have done this year, you know? This year is difficult because obviously Sam Allardyce was in. Manatees will have different ideas of what they want their pre-season to be. One might like a gravy vat and one might like salad and stuff away, you know what I mean? Yeah, but if we'd have gone, Sam Allardyce wants to do that. Now, behind scenes, Marcel Brans and Mark O'Shilderman, they go there. We say, what could we have done, said the Sam Allardyce going to this tourney? He's like, no, we're not going there. I don't want a book. Don't want a book. I like that. You know? It's difficult because you're right. We've been in flux for too many summers, really. You know, it's been a while since we've been settled going into that summer and pre-season to planned February, January. Like, as you look on ahead, summer planned a year in advance almost. David Moyes, because he was in the job for so long. Everything was settled. He loved America as well. So we want to go there. We want to do this. And he had this tried and test the formula. I think everyone have done well, particularly the likes of David Harrison and people like that. And Marcel Brans getting the games that we've got actually give because it's relatively short notice again. We probably still had, with a month to go, there was still an outside chance we could get the Europa League place. So that's why they've probably been a bit like that. You know, if your Liverpool say or Tottenham, you can kind of go, we're going to be in the top six, which we don't have to qualify for anything. Last season, essentially, start on the premise. So we can kind of commit to that. And hopefully, you know, in the future, we might break into that or whatever and be able to do it. But I think the other thing as well is obviously if we're settled going into a summer. So hopefully, like you just said, all things being equal next season come a March. Now, you've got time with settled, Michael Silver's doing well and the starting to go. Even any kind of tournament, Liverpool, for years when I played in that Audi tournament in Germany. So that's still a big tournament. Arsenal always have the Emirates Cup at home. You know, so there's still big, big tournament. And you know what, listen, I know there'll be people saying, well, what does it matter? But it matters for me. I think it matters both ways. I think commercially you can do a lot from it. And the other point of it, I think if you're playing in games that really test players, you know, and you're playing in hot conditions, that's going to get them fitted. Well, that, Martin, there's one that Moise had sorted out. You know, we had the events, the slowness, and Seville was it? Was it Valencia? Valencia. So we played three big games, you know. One in LA, one in San Francisco and one in Miami. So you're playing tough conditions. Tough conditions against good players. You know, and we had other games. I think we went to Acherings and Stanley, one for one. I think the first game we played and we had another couple more. On the summer like that, we had a couple of them, a couple of big ones. And then we come home and we lost the Spanish home. Oh, we lost the Spanish home. Apart from the, yeah. So it was one of them, wasn't it? We kind of hit the season, ready to go almost, and we had a good season from it. And I'm not saying it was simply because of that, but it does help. And last year was a mess. Well, I tell you what, the other reason I think it's a good thing as well, is that it brings players together. That's the key. Well, you know, you have that kind of feeling having me talking about it. Imagine this summer, I know players come at different times, but if you get players in Italy, and then you get, I know they go, say, like, Australia for a week, but if you take them somewhere in America where they might have a little bit of downtime and away from the hotel and stuff, somewhere actually where they can have a little walk around and no one's going to know what they are. They have a little bit of time away, get to know each other. I think all those things are really important to get to bed plays in. Foster's this thing called Team Spirit, and that, you're right, Moise will go into the States. Moise will go to the States and not even play games. He just said it's the best facilities. It might have been Tim Kayle or Leon Osmond. I said summer out for when it was everything that was in flux, you know, Rooney was going and stuff like that, and everything went out to America. And it just, the only, I think the only, went for seven days or six days or something, but he went, and it was said, you know, we've got to do this together, and he come back, and I think we ended up, well, we did end up finishing fourth that season, and everyone got tight, and then because of that, Moise took them back again. So whenever there was the opportunity to go there, he would. And listen, it's great, but any time away is great. I would, and I've said this before, I'd go to America every single summer, right? I'd plan for it, and I'd do it, you know. If you go around the MLS All-Star week, you can play all the games. We went and played the MLS All-Stars. That's a big game now. It's a massive game. You played like a real man. Playing U-Vay this year. You get announced by the player. It's a massive game. All the teams compete, stadiums compete to host it. I think it's in Atlanta this year. It's a massive game. It really is a massive game. We went, and they hadn't been beaten, and we beat them. And we didn't have an away kit, right? So we wore training gear. This is how backwards our club has been in the last few years. In the last few years. We wore a training gear. It was the first year of the La Coche Sport East deal coming back, and we'd launched a blue kit, but we hadn't launched the away kit. So we wore a training gear with numbers on it. So it was a big opportunity to launch the away kit. Now, I'm not saying the game was as big then, but it was a big opportunity to launch the away kit. No, they wore training gear. Do you know that you've done it with my playing team? We've gone over that. I'd go every single year. I'd nail it down. I'd build the fan base like Chelsea have and other teams have. The fans keep coming back. If you're over there, there's a team for them to go much every year. They know they'll be there every year. I'd also have said this before. I'd go into a city that loves football somewhere like Seattle, or Atlanta. Atlanta is massive now for football. There's a lot of big teams over there. I'd hit them for a week. I'd take the women's team. I'd take the youth team. I'd send them into the door play games against the different levels. I'd send them into the schools. The schools would be off. What did you go to the summer camps? The camps would just set up clinics in the city to get kids in. Kids training with Theo Wolcott or whoever. Getting little tips off. Getting training off some of the academy coaches or whatever. Get Howard there. Get Donovan. Bring Ted Peanard over. Get all the ambassadors. Make a big thing about it. Do it for a week and smash it. You know what? This is our city. Seattle, let's set up it. I know there's teams already in America. Seattle or someone. It's their club. Link up. You can come over and play. Do that. Do it every year. I'll tell you what, there'll be some traction in there. That's the way the club should be thinking. I think maybe it will move towards that. These are all the stuff they've got to identify. I think from a purely playing perspective. I think they've done well to get the appreciations together. Especially if they add another one. If they can add a team in Germany. Or Holland. Something like that. In a midweek kind of game. I think that'll benefit them as well. Just to get away again. Just to have another overnight. I'm glad they're playing Berry. I'm glad they're playing Blackberry. I think it's important to play those kind of teams as well. It's set it up nicely. There'll be six. There'll probably be half a dozen games for Marco Silva to really get his teeth into. Get his training. Seven probably if you include the Austria thing. So it's going to be able to get his point of cross. And exercise every little bit of his coaching. That he loves to do in my new details. That's going to benefit the players. Getting away being together. Trying to get them a bit closer. Look when you went to Dubai. Look at the way Towson settled in. Probably because of Dubai. Now he came back from there. He had to go. If he came at the end of August. Say the transfer window. He might have struggled and struggled and struggled. Now say Sanzo would have still been there. When he went to Dubai. And he'd have got him here. What do you like doing? Whatever. You don't know. We listened to Derek Montfield on the show. When he was talking about the details. Like that, the things like that. He was suggesting them go out and have a scrap. Or a meal and a beffy and stuff. I think it's beneficial. Like you say, I'm looking forward to it. 21st, 22nd. That's this tournament. 8 o'clock kick-off. The better game is. The 18th. The black bean is the. 26th. The 30th isn't it. The Premier kicks off on the. 11th. Valenti on the fourth. I think they were looking at a game between the 26th and the fourth. So there's a week. So there's a week and a bit there. Where you could throw another game. And then obviously the finish. The Valencia thing. And then it's preparation for Wolston. It's a decent little pre-season. To be fair considering. It's an old school pre-season. I like it. That's the way it is. Warren's sign as we've ended up with. We've got a good little tournament to go on and have a game in. Early on in the pre-season as well. See the other thing just very quickly. The thing with America. Why couldn't they go. And start the pre-season in America. Well that's what I'm saying. That's what Moys used to do. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Maybe not faulted you. That would be a pre-season. But ladry for early on in a week. And then at the end of it. And then even if you're out of Europa League. Qualify it. And then it's a preparation down for that. Then you can play three. It took me a bit different as well. I honestly think they will be looking towards those markets. I think it's been enough. I think it's been a mess for ten years. We've seen the changes are a fault. It's still a noise. We basically can't help but be annoyed. If you keep looking back. I'm moaning. I'm just saying it should be happening now. I think things are changing. I want them changing now. Because I think these are the most basic things. That other clubs. That requires planning. That's what I'm saying. Marcel Brans might say. I don't see any value in dragging players off. I've said this before. The problem is sometimes you've got to take those decisions. I don't think a lot of clubs think there's value. A lot of managers of clubs think there's value. He's a commercial. He's someone who's very much involved in the football business. I think sometimes you've got to take these things at the hands of those people. This is where we're going. We're going every year. Pontons. See what happens. That's the pre-season anyway. Hopefully there'll be at least one. Hopefully two games. Because again. You've got a 25 man squad. You want everyone to get optimum playing time. You want more opportunities to look at the kids. Because they're going to form part of your squad. You're not going to be trying them in Premier League games. You've got to see if you can do it in these first. One or two might catch you, right? Yeah, do you have it? Are you a Evertonian abroad? Would you like Everton to come to your country? Your city? Let us know. Is there opportunities there? Let us know what other people are doing that we're missing out on. Are you going the Algarve? Nice to hear. Have a bit of that. Let us know in the comments. Thanks for watching Soffy TV. We'll see you later.