 Hello everyone and welcome to The Christmas Everton's Show, and for this special festive episode I'm delighted to be joined by Duncan Ferguson. Great times I have you on The Everton's Show, Duncan, not just because it's Christmas but because there's a great deal of positivity about Evan at the moment. It's been brilliant, hasn't it? With the results I've written very well for us so we're on a good feel factor. You can tell around the training ground there's a buzzback isn't there? I think you get the confidence back and you get the results, you know what I mean? Rwy'n ystod gan y rhan, yn y cyffredin ac mae'n edrych i'w ymgyrch yn gyflwydoedd o'r cyflwydoedd. Rai'n amsiau'n gweithio'n digwydd, amser Osam i'n Greig Shakespeare? Rwy'n gweithio'n gwahanol i'r gyflwydoedd. Mae'n gweithio'n gwahanol yn gyfathor ac rwy'n ei ffobl i'w ffór. Rwy'n gweithio'n gwahanol i'r gwahanol i'w ffobl i'w gwaith. ..y'r bod yn cael periwn cyffred Tools rum. Yn mor tyfu lynyddiad yma felly mae'n gwneud amser. Mae'n llwy reddiwch yn ymlaen i'r ysgol. Yn ei rhaid i'r hyffredig a'r cael i'r llwy ffoclwyr yw... ..a phrygau arhennyrch gan o'r cwrs ar gyfer y tŷ... ..y'r llw ar y Cymru, yw cael ei ffoblol yn ladodd. Ie, tynnu'n un lle ddwy'r gweithio. Mae'n rhaid i'r lle ar y cyffredig. Rwy'n cael eu gair o'r cyffredig. Mae am TikTok i essaysidio i gweithio. Yma yng Nghymru? Maenai, mae 싶wydio ar y mewn gyflawn i'r ysgawdd. Mae'r gwaith fynd o gwych gyflawn a oedd hefyd. Mae nid ond pan oedd eich newid o'r gwaith yn mae'r haneselu. Fyn am ddaeth o'r pob gyllennieddaeth hefyd ifaeth yma? Yn cael, mae'n gyllanau ond erいます. Mae'r rhe – mae'r cyllident ychwanegoedd. Fe gweld yn allu y wyd écfnog, It's two different things. I think that the manger coming in and he's really got us organised, the defensive side. I think that's shown in the pitch so far. Do you enjoy watching Big Sam Sessions? I love the bossy sessions. I mean, I enjoy... I'm a manager sessions to be honest. As I said I enjoy learning and watching if I have a lot of experience myself in a game now. So you're always learning something new. Let's speak about Wayne Rooney who's been in tremendous form recently. And you won't be surprised at all at that will you? Classes permanent isn't it? Fe wrth gwrs, ym mhug gan fi i wedi'i wneud arno, dyma, llawditteb. Felly efallai, mae'n gwrs fluidr הדdfodraeth wedi'i feddwl i'r glas ffliad ar y gwneud erbyn. Mae'n ganddo sydd wedi'i bach iawn pwysig yma. A'r ddisgwyd am hynny wedi'i'r pryd yn ffliad i'r clwb yn ein glas bwyd. Mae'r gwerth gweithio'n teimlo ddeud i'r gwrs wedi'u gwneud hwnnw. Fflaen i'r gwr yw ar y bod wedi rhoi'u ar y chwrdd. ac os i'n wneud i oswb wrth y gymryd. Oedd eich cyreol, mae'n gwneud i oswb, a yna'n gwneud i oswb i oswb eich pob gynhalu, mae eich hyn ymddindig yn fath o'r bod yn fath i fath. Os ewch yn ymddindig, lle mae'r club ei r�sio'r lle. Yn daEN mae'r club eich lle a'r gwasanaethu'r hoff. Ac oedd eich bod ni'n siwr, ond dechrau'n chi ddim. Os eich ei bod yn ddweud hwng yn fath o'r hoff, ond mae'n siwr yn ymddindig, Maen nhw'n dychydig wrth Felly mae'n gwestiwr, mae'n gwestiwr yn cael rhaid o bros llwyddofyn yn gallu'r clob. Byddai'n debyg ac mae yna'n dif recru o'r blygu i'r parrindig. Felly mae'n gofio ar gyfer hyn mae'n gwestiwr yn raddol byddai. Felly mae'n gwestiwr yn debyg ac mae'n gwestiwr yn roi ffilm yn eu parryd. Mae'n gwestiwr yn teidio chi'n gwasanaeth sy'n farson yng Ngysgriff Cymru ar y gall i'r llwyddofyn. A nodd dob i'r glwhenu sydd yn gweithio ei erbyn jyfin iawn. Mae'n gwasanaeth y byddwch chi'n meddwl i'w ni'n meddwl ehau'r pall i�wethaf ac rwy'n meddwl i'r meddwl i gael... ... y bod wedi'i gwell nag y byddai arwain a hwnna hefyd yn meddwl o'r meddwl arall. Rwy'n meddwl ein addresses o'r wiad yma a dyna i'r mynd o wneud sydd yn falch ar un dyn ni peirio'n meddwl sy'n meddwl... ... yn meddwl i'r meddwl ag y gallwn meddwl ar gyfer y lodiad yr un dil yn meddwl i ardal. Yn meddwl guardingio ernyn i'r meddwl a blwyddsod y tîm. Mae'n gwneud i'n ddigonio ar gyfer y gweithio, ond mae'n llin o'n gweithio. Ond John Jo'r gwneud a'n gweithio'n ddwylo, mae'n ffyrwm yn llunio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio. Mae'n gofyn oedd y cwbl i'n gweithio, yn fawr. Mae'n gofynu i John Jo o ysgolion. Mae'n gofynu i'r Gweithio Tom Davis, Benny Benninghamu. Has that been a help to those young players to come in and look around the dressing room and it must be big for young players to come into a Premier League dressing room, but to see somebody that they've worked with before like yourself, a familiar face who knows all about them? I'm sure it does help them, but coming into the first team is a massive step, and you can sink or you can swim. They'll add in the moment, they're doing well, they've got the potential to continue to be an everton player, but it's just to start for them. I mean they step up from youth football to the first team is massive, and it's going to take them time to establish themselves as Premier League players, but a lot of hard work and dedication which they've been showing, they've got a chance to continue their career at Everton, but they've done very well so far. Of course there's big expectation at this football club, and we expect to be fighting towards the top of the league, and it's a big ask for a lot of these players, but at the moment they're certainly stepping up to the mark. Is it mentally tough for a young boy to come into a team as well as physically tough? I think every lad is different, I mean obviously, when you're young you maybe know the same pressure on you as an older player's got, but no, they've worked hard, and they've dealt with it well, what I've saw. You still keep an eye on all the young kids and all the age groups coming through, don't you do the Cadwent? You've still seen you out there here at USM Finch Farm watching all the different age groups? Yeah, you've got to keep your eye on, haven't you? Because when you're asked you're a pin you've got to give it, so I try to make sure I keep an eye on all the players through all the age groups, and if my opinion is asked I give it, so obviously by watching as many football games as I can and watching as many kids as I can, it gives you a good perspective on who's coming through. As a coach now, do you find yourself watching matches on the television as a coach or still as a football fan? If Manchester City are playing Manchester United for example, are you looking at it as a coach and analysing it? Yeah, I mean you look at it as a coach now, I mean it's a long time since I've played, so no, you look at it as a coach and you look at potential signings, you're looking at information, you're looking at tactics, so it's always been a coaching point of view. You're still very much involved and you've still got that passion on the sidelines, we don't see that, but three o'clock when Z-cars is playing, is that when you really miss actual playing? Yeah, I mean you miss playing, you know what I mean, but I reckon every player misses playing, but obviously it comes to an end, doesn't it? My focus now is on my coaching and it's just been focused for that game as a coach really, I look at football now as a coach now. Is the Duncan Ferguson style centre forward a dying breed? There don't seem to be many big barnstorming centre forwards like yourself in the game at the moment. There's just trends in there, different trends, I think a few years ago it was all the smaller players like Barcelona had and they were really the team everybody was trying to chase and they didn't hear any big players, so I think that's kind of starting to come back to the big target man there, I think it's just a trend isn't it? But yeah, there's not many good big strikers there, but if there is one, I'm sure every team would like to have one. There's always room for a big barnstorming centre forward in football, that's for sure. Right, we're going to show you a lovely piece of film now, it's one of our blue crimbo edits, Helen Fosborough, who visited Alderhay recently with three of our young players. We're here at Alderhay Hospital waiting for some of the first team players to arrive to meet some very special children. They're undergoing treatment here for cancer and today we're going to try and bring Christmas to them just that little bit early. What was it like when you were here? Can you tell the lads a bit about what you went through and what you were... Some days are better with those, sometimes you're a bit depressed, obviously other days you feel bad in yourself but you get through it, you'll be able to family and what else. How much has this place meant to you then? Quite a lot, because they've saved me life really, haven't they? If it wasn't for the nurses here, what they do for people like me, I wouldn't be here today. I think it's been great for the lads to come down and see the kids and just put a smile on their face. I think half an hour, an hour out of your day to come and break up a long day for them and a long week I think it's brilliant to come and see them. Is it quite humbling seeing kids like this when you realise what a struggle some people are going through? You know, you don't understand how much they are. I think the kids here are brilliant, I think the staff are brilliant, helping the kids get well so I think it's great. It's hard to understand what these youngsters are going through and have been through. All they want for Christmas is their health. But seeing the joy and the smiles on their faces when the players arrived and listening to their stories really has been very moving. Hopefully the lads have managed to deliver some festive cheer. Lovely piece of film that Duncan, and I know when you were a player here you really enjoyed going to the hospitals at this time of year? Yeah, it was a great time. It was great to go into the hospitals and see the families and the young kids and obviously they were going through a tremendous hardship. It's sad to see that but obviously when you go in there and spend a wee bit of time in them, it brightens up their day. So it's something that's really rewarding and something I really look forward to, to enjoy that. It's good for the staff as well I always think that the porters, the doctors, the nurses, everybody that works at these places, they enjoy seeing the players as well don't they? Yeah, absolutely. I mean they're all heroes aren't they? I mean they're doing an unbelievable job, fantastic people, real heroes and it's great to be a wee bit of part of that on that day. We do the community sad really well don't we Evan? Yeah we do, brilliant yeah, do a fantastic doing a great job. That's just about it from Duncan and myself for part one, but don't go too far away because coming up in part two we'll hear from Andy Johnson, we'll hear from Aaron Lennon and of course we look ahead to the weekend Premier League visit of Chelsea. Welcome back to part two, time to hear now from another former Everton centre forward, Andy Johnson was back at Goodison last week for the Swansea City game and he took time out to speak to me for the Everton show. You enjoyed yourself for Evan didn't you? Yeah I loved it, it's an amazing club, I didn't realise how big it was until I left really. It's an amazing club, it's top class, the fans are great, I had a great set of lads around me, great management staff and I scored some goals here and had some really good memories. And you're off to a flying start of course, it's always nice for the strikers to score a goal on this Premier League debut for a new team isn't it? Yeah it took a bit of a deflection but I'll take it so yeah it's just one of them ones where you need to get up and running and it's nice to get up and running on your debut. Then it continued into the season, obviously played Tottenham away and then obviously the big light game here which was like the Derby at home so yeah it was a good season for me. Do you wish you had a pound for every time an Evertonian stopped you and asked you about that 3-0 win? Yeah I'd be a rich man. Do you miss playing? Everybody does don't they? Yeah of course yeah you know out there now just watching it from up in the stands like you wish it was out there trying to affect the game, it's a fantastic atmosphere. I love the night games as well, they're great, bit like during the grass, definitely like the banter as well. The boys I think that's the hardest thing to adapt when obviously you finish coming out of that dressing room with 30 lads for 20 years, it's tough but yeah I miss it. What about the current Everton centre for Dominic Calvert-Lewan, you like the look of him don't you? Yeah I really like him, I think he's fantastic. You know for such a young lad to take on that responsibility we've obviously the team being in such a difficult position you know I think he's done fantastic. You know he gets up, he's horrible, he's nasty, he wins the ball, I just wish there was a couple more running beyond him to obviously have him out once like then balls are flicked on but you know he's obviously living in the shadow of Lukaku but you know for his age and the way he affects the game you know I think he's fantastic. It's a lonely role isn't it the lone striker? It's tough, it's tough yeah unless you've got a little Australian lad called Timmy Cahill flying in behind you yeah it's tough you know it's really tough but you know he's taking it well, he's doing well, you know he's causing all kinds of problems, he's quick, he's strong, you know he's hungry which is what I like. Dominic Calvert-Lewan for a young boy has done really really well hasn't he? He's done well, he's done well, he's got himself a position there and he's been working hard, he's done well we always want more for him and yeah he's got to lead the line and he's quite young so it's a tough position to be on your own up front but he's done really well. The lone striker is a tough position in the Premier League for an experienced striker isn't it let alone a youngster who's let's get it right is still learning his trade. Yeah it's tough I mean the Premier League is tough and to be on your own up front it's not easy you know playing that target man I mean he can run in behind as well is that there's a lot to his game that he needs to improve on but of course we're doing that on the training field as best we can and he's doing fine. Do you do a lot of work with the young strikers yourself Donk? Yeah well all the work I do is when the manager instructs me to do it so yeah we do work with them if it's a striker, if it's a midfielder, if it's a defence or it depends what we're working on and I'll get asked to whatever the manager asks me to do I'll do. Talking about the Premier League being a tough playground, the top division in Scotland in your day was a tough playground for a teenage centre forward under United was it? Was it tough for you in the early days? Yeah it was very tough there, that's a different world isn't it, when you look back at how we come through, you know the upbringing was completely different for the kids now, it was a tough environment and one that wouldn't have changed for the world. You must have learnt an awful lot coming up against some really experienced, battle hardened Scottish centre haws. Definitely, you know we've got a few knocks and a few bruises to prove that but now the game's changed and back then it was much tougher, it was a great education as I said but I mean the game's obviously now it's a wee bit more quicker, it might be a lot fitter now but no back in the early days it was tough to survive up there. We're talking here at USM Finch Farm, the facilities are fantastic, the young players want for nothing, probably wasn't like this at under United was it, did you have to do all the usual apprentice jobs? Yeah well everybody did didn't they back then, you know you did all the jobs, everything, cleaning the toilets, marking the floors, doing the kit, washing the kit, cleaning the boots, cleaning the manager's car. Cleaning the manager's car? Yeah we used to wash his car until some sprites back decided to take this car to the car wash so we scraped a pound together and took the manager's car to the car wash, about six of us hanging it, it was big, quite ouday. So we used to start doing things like that but it was great, great and the best job was sweetening the terraces, that was the best job because you always got a few quidders, because obviously the lads are on the terraces and they're towing their money at their pockets and they're dropping their money. So when you're going up to the terraces you've always got a few quidders. It's a great upbringing in that though isn't it, you must teach it a little bit of discipline and give you more desire to leave that behind and get involved with the first team. It's just the way it was when I've never had a lot, wasn't it any big wages back then, my wage was 38 quidders something I was getting and I got a wee bit of dig money when the manager decided to give me the dig money, so no, it was just the way it was. It's interesting when you say you wouldn't have changed it for the world, it shapes you to become what you are. Absolutely, I think everything does, as you get older you get wiser don't you, you draw in these past experiences and certainly in my education we're under the guys like Jim McLean, Walter Smith, no proper old school, proper managers, guys that are respected, it was a fantastic upbringing for me. That's some tough managers haven't you really? Yeah, quite a few tough ones, they've all been good to be fair and you're learning for everyone in a month and you try to remember the things they say to you and you know you're coming through and you try to pass that information on to the kids now. It's an interesting story really is but we're going to take some time now to look ahead to the Premier League game against Chelsea at Godderson Park at the weekend. One player who's been delighted to be back in the first team frame is Aaron Lennon and as he tells us now he's also pleased with his own form. We've picked up some great wins, a great draw against Liverpool as well and confidence is coming back and you can see that in the performances but definitely we're getting better and better each week now. And do you feel that's the case personally as well? Yeah, I think my thickness is getting up there now, I feel sharper, stronger in the games and yeah personally I feel a lot better in the games. Is the manager here having a good influence on you personally as well? Yeah he's been great and some of all the staff that have come in have been great with me, showing me clips on how to improve and the spaces to get in and where to run and stuff. Now they've really helped me since they've got in and not just the gaffer and they've all been great for me and the staff as well. The next game is Chelsea and what a great challenge to come off the back of this game now? Yeah of course, Chelsea are a great side but we're in a good form and at Goodison we fancy our chances against anyone so we'll look forward to that. We'll get ready in the training pitch this week and we'll get ready for Saturday. Are you starting to get that mindset here at Goodison Park now where it almost doesn't matter who the opposition are, you feel like you can win the match? Yeah I think we've always had that here. Like I said we know at home the fans get behind us and we're a match for any team if we're at it so like I said we know that no team really wants to come to Goodison and if we're at it we know we can get a good result. These big games at Goodison, the big big games against the likes of the Chelsea's and what have you, do you still get pre-match nerves, in fact you get different pre-match nerves as a coach than you did as a player? Yeah definitely, probably more nervous to be honest. Really? Of course you're really controlled by Lily but isn't it? It's down to the players then when they cross that white line to carry your instructions and they've obviously got to perform. As a player you were just in that mode and you got nervous but I wouldn't say I was too nervous player you know what I mean but as a coach you get very uptight in the touchlines. Even though you've done all that preparation you've passed on the information as best you can once the whistle blows and you can't influence the game. That's when it's frustrating for you is it? It can be but you can influence it but not as much as obviously when you played but it's certainly I find it more nerve wracking anyway. Momentum is such an important part of football isn't it? Particularly at this busy time where we can keep the momentum going and pick up a few points, you're right up there aren't you? Yeah I mean considering we were confident in the last few weeks we were fighting relegation a month ago so now we're in the top half of the table. It's been a tremendous steps of me and we've just got to continue that and as you said we've got to continue that momentum and that confidence we've got to keep that going and that obviously just comes with the results. It's going to be a massive game for us on Saturday so fingers crossed. Need the fans don't we? We need the fans but the fans are always important to us aren't they especially at home. We need to get behind us and I'm sure they'll always do it anyway and we've just got to try and make sure we perform on the pitch. That's the main thing isn't it and picking up their wins. Just to finish off then Doug just like to revert back to the academy. There's a lot of young players who have come through the academy and made it to the first team and you as a coach have taken the same path as well haven't you? I have done. I mean I've learned tremendous amount for the academy for that pathway that I took. I mean the academy coaches will end off like the Sean London's and the Paul Tates and at the moment they've got Joe Waldrum and Matt Molden doing a fantastic job there and of course they're the lifeline of the club. We need these players coming through and they've done a tremendous job doing that and really are the unsung heroes in that development of these players. I mean there's no young player nailed on who's ever going to play in the first team. I mean very few young players you could say 12-year-old or 13-year-old or 14-15 are going to play in the first team. There's very few of them so it needs hard work and dedication for other players and the staff. I mean there really is a lot of unsung heroes in our academy who deserve a pat in the back in recognition for the hard work that they're doing for their club. You still love this football club don't you? Absolutely. That will never change. It's our club isn't it? It's the best club in the world and I'm the best job in the world and I've got a ring side seat. Can't beat that. That's just about it for this Christmas edition of The Everton Show. Thanks enormously to Duncan Ferguson for joining us. Thank you for watching as well and please make sure you watch next week as well because we've got an exclusive interview with Mike Walker and that's not one to be missed. A very merry Christmas from everybody at The Everton Show.