 Welcome to Toffy TV, I am joined by Roger Bennett, Evertonian broadcaster extraordinaire in the US, fighting the good fight for Everton. Men and blazers of course, what a podcast, here he is. Roger, Roger, delighted, delighted to have you on our show. How are you mate? Lovely to be with you, I will say, being an Evertonian, perfect preparation for this world of darkness that we've all plunged into, isn't it? Berserk mate, absolutely. At the moment you are having it much worse than what Liverpool has certainly, so our things, you okay? You staying safe? We are all alive and it is a time of darkness, I was just joking with you there, it feels like the whole of New York City is currently run by Marco Silva. It's a bit of a waking nightmare, so many humans are genuinely suffering and it's very hard to be away from Liverpool at the moment where all my family are and just the challenges that we're all grappling with are incredibly rare. It feels like only weeks ago, I can't believe it feels like years ago that one of my biggest problems in life was the right back spot at Everton and how we can deal with that, all of those things, still very, very important but I've all been pointing to perspective. 100%, 100%, but let's begin with you, where I want to start right at the beginning with you. No, no, this isn't very, this is a great story. Obviously big Evertonian will get on to Everton in a bit, but how does a lad from growing up watching Everton end up being such a big star in America? That's a slight exaggeration that a big star. The honest truth is, I grew up in Liverpool as you did at a time when the city was really challenged in the Thatcher era in a period of incredible darkness. Like now, not like now, when it was incredible darkness, incredible suffering, and at the same time the humanity of the city, in that case Liverpool right now, New York City, is exposed to humanity, the collective wonder, the tenacity, the perseverance. I mean, there is such a connection between Liverpool and New York, Liverpool being the port where really America spilled in, everything came through in the heyday of the port, through the port of Liverpool, the ideas, rock and roll, the music, the films, the swagger. So I've always thought there's a deep connection between those two cities, but growing up in Liverpool, a dark, dark time, I really was thrilled by, you know what, Starsky and Hutch, Fantasy Island, Heart to Heart, The Love Boat, Miami Vice, the Chicago Bear Super Bowl winning team, all that stuff. It just felt like life was lived in colour there in America. I'd never been, you know, but I loved all the music, the movies, the television, penny laying records I used to run down to and make them special order, like all of Stevie Ray Vaughan's albums. I had no idea who he was and what a public enemy's first album. You know, all of that came too. I didn't fully understand it because I wasn't from there, but I felt alive when I listened and watched it. It was the first opportunity I could. I swore I'd move over there, and I did right before the 1994 World Cup, which was here. I just kind of watched football. We always joke on our show that footballers, they call it here soccer. We always say soccer, America's sport of the future, as it has been since 972. It was always meant to happen. Pele was making it massive. It is massive, but it just never was an overnight success. It just was slow and steady and watching year to year, we saw that football really was freshly in a FIFA, EA Sports FIFA playing audience, like the under-21 audience. It was massive and just starting to podcast to that. The short answer to your question is just good timing. We started 2010 World Cup when football really went over the top here. Then the Premier League started to be broadcast live here. More football on our weekend in America you can watch than in Liverpool right now because of the broadcast and peculiarities. Once that came on, there was a massive audience and we've just been really the beneficiaries of amazing timing and the fact that they allow bald men on the television in America which is amazing. How did the podcast come about though? Did you have a chat about the Premier League really? The podcast came about, it's the 2006 World Cup. It's a story that our audience knows pretty well. 2006 World Cup, we're going to a wedding and any year, if you say a year to me, 1987, my mind immediately to place myself where I was. 1986 World Cup, I know exactly where I was there, Maradona. I'm able to locate my whole life by World Cups. They are the emotional spine to my life. I'm watching the Zidane World Cup, the headbutt World Cup final. I am getting ready for the bloody wedding. I'm changing as I'm watching. My wife comes out, she's American and also a blue. I want to be clear. She goes, we've got to go. I was like, what are you talking about? We've got to go. It's the World Cup final and she goes, we've got to go to a wedding and I was like, who gives a crap about the wedding? It's going into extra time. We're watching this. The wedding's on the boat and if we don't leave now, the boat's going to leave without us. I got in a taxi, went right down to the South Street seaport and I was fairly disgusting. I'm not proud of how I behaved at that wedding. I didn't want to be there. It angered me that everyone wasn't sitting there just talking about this at Danhead, but no one gave a crap. There's Rodged just thinking about himself. These Americans all thinking about the other people. I'm angry and rude and fairly disgusting and I'm sitting at the bar at the end of the night and I'm watching this guy across the bar as equally, probably even more disgusting than I was. He did clearly didn't want to be there. He was English. He was like, rude. I went over to him. I said, hello mate. You're English? He said, yeah. I said, are you furious because of the World Cup? He said, oh my God, am I ever? I introduced myself and it was my partner now, Michael Davis. First time I ever met him at this wedding on the boat just after the World Cup final. We chatted the whole night. He's a Chelsea fan. I'm an Everton fanish from South London. I'm from Liverpool. The North, the South shared love of football, shared love of America. I loved talking to him. Right then and there, we decided that we would reconnect and start working together, which we did. The moral of the story is, even when you're at your most disgusting, when you cannot believe what your partner has made you do, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your wife, whatever, great things can still happen. I'm so grateful at the end of the day I went to that bloody wedding because it changed my life forever. There you go, things come out of places you don't want to be and you get benefits from it that you're still benefitin' from today. So there's a path to everything quite clearly. Obviously years later you started a podcast. Did you have any, I know you were saying obviously America was getting into it well cups, peaks everybody's interest, but did you have any idea when you started it that it would get to what followed? Honestly I did. I didn't know that, I knew football was going to be massive. I didn't know what opportunity that would be for us, but Americans were, I used to go and watch the Premier League. It used to be broadcast when I first moved here on some like satanta channel that you could only get in a bar and I'd go religiously at 7 o'clock in the morning, I lived in DC at the time. I'd go at 7 o'clock in the morning. It always had the worst game of the weekend. It was routinely like Luton that gained Sheffield Wednesday and I'd go and watch in this bar in DC and I'd go and watch it and it was always me and like 10 other English people, ex-pats, none of us knew each other's names. But we all just communed over the football. We didn't know what each other did. We just chatted about football and if an American walked in, which they rarely did in those days, I remember once an American walking in, we were all having Irish breakfast, it was like several pints of Guinness in, it was like 7.15 in the morning. And one American walked in and he's like, hey, it's full hand playing, Carlos fucking Negro. And one of the guys, big guy, I don't know his name, I knew he was a chef at a local hotel, the Willard and he just got up slowly and he got this American rather menacingly by the shirt, slapped him on the side of the face, just said, you know, walk on mate, walk on. This is not a place for you kind of thing, get the fuck out of here. And I watched it and I was like, wow, that's a thing. And I came back four years later, I'd left DC by them during 2006 World Cup again and there was a line at that very bar to watch the games. It was like around the block. It was as if the Beatles had reformed. It was like a mob scene. And it was all Americans. And I knew I'd seen in that period, since I'd been here, World Cup to World Cup, you know, 98, the World Cup became a thing that, you know, I guess they call them now influencers would watch. You go to this Brazilian restaurant when Ronaldo's going to play. You go to this Italian restaurant deep in Queens or Staten Island when Italy are playing. And it was like the NFL 10 years ago in England. It was like a thing that people were watching. There was a cult thing. 2002 really went over the top. You know, ESPN put a lot of energy into it. There's nothing competing with that in the summer. American-wise, sporting where the NFL's not playing, the NBA isn't in. So it's got its own space. And Americans started to follow along. And then 2006 it really felt to me right then, when I saw that, just that audience, you know, America was meant to hate football. I realised they didn't hate it anymore. They loved it. But they just, you know, they didn't grow up like you did going the game. They've never seen 80s football. They've never seen the progression. They've never seen football played in mud by men who just want to amputate each other's legs on the field. The years that we grew up with, they didn't have that context. An EA Sports FIFA, I'm probably telling you more than you want to know now, but that had sensitised a whole generation of young Americans to the teams, the players, the playing styles. You know, you play Messi and you play Ronaldo and you realise how quickly the different skills, the different assets they bring. One player can just destroy others and others harder to control. But once you can work it out, he's just a genius. And that had sensitised Americans to want the football. And that's when I realised that there was a sizeable audience here. And again, if we can get 5-10% of the American audience to care about football, that's a massive audience globally. And that's ultimately, and the Premier League also realised that, you know, that's played a role as more Americans have become owners of the teams. I prefer the Glaser ownership of Manchester United to the FST ownership of Liverpool, obviously. I prefer that one to hand out. But those things have changed everything. I'm from that on to TV. Obviously I've seen a couple of your documentaries you've done and your own television show and ending with a podcast with Wayne Rooney as well for a while when he was at DC. Yes, now I'm on top of TV. I like to say we are the last thing holding football back in America. And when we're done, it will probably go over the top. But I hate talking about, like myself, the honest truth is football, the story is one of football in America. This sport that was meant to be anti-American. You know, when America got the World Cup awarded in 1989 or 1990 for the 94 World Cup, a congressman, Jack Kemp, who was a former NFL quarterback, a Republican, felt so moved that he ran onto the floor of Congress and paraphrased him, but his speech was like, it's really important, but I still can't do an American accent. Even though you're in America in Switzerland. I genuinely can't do an American accent. So Jack Kemp was like, it's really important for the young generation, they understand the football you throw it and catch it and rush with it and it's not this kicking the ball, not using your hands. He said, one is about American strength and power. And the other game is about European socialism. That attitude of hatred has totally gone. And, you know, so many factors have played a role in that. It's a testament at the end of the day to how much Americans loved an excuse to be tongue drink. Because they're getting up for the games at like six o'clock, four o'clock on the West Coast to watch Everton football club. You've really got to love the team. You've got a passion. You've got a commitment. You've got to save, you know, six points by 8.30 in the morning to watch. Just to get through what Everton gave. Just to get through what Everton gave. Just to get through what Everton gave. Just to get through what Everton gave. It's a testament to football's growth as much as anything. Incredible, incredible. So you're over there and obviously you're a massive Evertonian. So what's it like being over there and looking at what's going on? Because obviously before you left for America, we'd had that period of we were invincible. We were amazing for a few seasons. We won the league. We had to overcome the best team in Europe to do it. They just happened to be in our city and we did. And, you know, we should have won the double two years on the run and we didn't. And there was all of that. And then obviously you've gone off to America. So when you went off to America, who was the manager? Was it the Walter Smith years or was it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a Walter Smith. I mean, when I moved over to America, this is a testament to how much football has changed and how much I think the internet has changed the way you can be a football fan. You can, you know, when I came over to watch the 95 FA Cup 75, it wasn't on television at all here. I had to phone up my dad and have him hold the phone by the radio to hear the Spurs semi-final. That was when then you'll remember like phone calls. I mean, young viewers of this will not understand this because we're on WhatsApp now and it's like nothing costs anything. In those days, it cost me more for that phone call than it was like several months worth of salary and I wouldn't swap it for a second. But that's what it was like when I came over. The football was, the football was human darkness. We've had incredible moments. I wish we were talking before the Four Nails Chelsea game in which we're outclassed by Ross Bloody Barclay. That would be a much more unambiguous conversation right now. The thing about being an Evitonian and all four kids are mine at Evitonians, which is like the greatest parenting achievement I'll ever have. Nothing will top that because it's not easy, mate. It's not easy to get from afar to get them to understand them. You want wonders of being an Evitonian. To me, being an Evitonian is a way of seeing the world. It's an identity that I wouldn't swap for anything. And you're seeing it now with the way Eviton are approaching the darkness that the country, the city is embroiled in. Every day, Eviton Football Club do the right thing in ways that make me feel so proud. They've thrown in thousands of old people, isolated, the elderly population digging out the files to think of old Eviton players who probably are lonely as hell right now and isolated and calling them too. But to be an Eviton fan is like it teaches you collective over the individual. It teaches you about its best and this is why Marco Silva drove me crazy because it evaporated completely the identity. Like collective hustle, give all you can, care about those around you, savor every moment of joy and just revel in. I was talking to my kids the other day and I said to my kids, I was like, what part? I just taped a podcast with my childhood mate who is also a bloke about what being an Evitonian has brought to us over the ages. Constantly watching Liverpool parade trophies down the bottom of the middle of Avenue going through the city. Constantly in my childhood it really was. It was like Liverpool, they always threw dentine down and I always laughed that, you know, I'd cat fight for some of their chewing gum and then I'd eat it guiltily under my posters of Andy King, John Bailey and Bob Lachford in my bedroom later at night. But I said to my kids, I was like, what has been an Evitonian brought to you? My first kid immediately was like, save the small victories. That's like what being an Evitonian is. And my daughter, she said, we appreciate life like so much more than fans of other teams. She's like, when we beat Manchester United 4-0, she's like, I'm still dancing after that victory. I'm still, you know, that was a first ever game and that's ultimately the joy of being an Eviton fan over here for me. But obviously difficult for him being away, but looking at it now, obviously we, I could, listen, I could talk to you for hours about the 80s and winning everything and it was great and all that, but we, exactly, I know. Maybe we'll do that again and we'll just have an 80s rewind because, you know, what we're doing, it's what we're having to do at the moment because there's no football. Somebody sent me a sport, somebody sent me, you know, we do a daily newsletter where I'm trying to write about what's going on at the moment. What's going on in football, what's going on in life. I've linked every day about, you know, his football things you need to read, his non football things you need to read. And somebody sent me 84-85 review of the season from Sports Night, one of those old shows. It's like 15 minutes of just, like, Eviton, each one from Dominic Calvert-Lewin range just stamped in for like three inches out, but like magnificent and that's sure amazing. And any fans, if you grew up like you did, watch that, find that link and watch it. It just lifts your spirits when you need it. When you need it big time. Obviously you've mentioned Marko Silver a few times and we've had Sam Allardyce, we've had Cuman and all of the rest. Mark Nezwich still made me go great and I should have done. But at the moment, we've got Carlo Anciolotti. So what was that like for you, Rodz, seeing, obviously seeing Eviton going after Anciolotti at a time when, you know, let's be honest, we've talked about it today. Me and Pead, Big Dunk lifted us out, dragged us off our knees after that dive, he did a 5-2. And we had a couple of great weeks with Big Dunk and Shards and then we've seen the Anciolotti links and it was like, yeah, maybe, you know, if we've got enough money, might have a little look at it. Was it a surprise to get him for you? Yeah, I mean, when he came in, it felt like a weird appointment in every single way. Like, why would we want him? Why would he want us? It felt, to me at the time, like a bit of a misfit. Like, you know, we were getting Kevin Costner, but now, like, we weren't getting Dancers with Walser with Costner. I'll take your role, Kevin Costner. You weren't getting like, I send it to my people, I'll get back to you, maybe, maybe not Kevin Costner. We're getting like, yeah, haven't had a job in a while. Sure. What? Yeah. And it felt like a misfit. Like, to me, we're a start-up and we were getting like a blue chip CEO, but a guy, a blue chip CEO from like Victor Cayam from like the 1980s. Now, it's like, I admire him, I revere him. I think he's a man of incredible style, a man of incredible accomplishment. But like, if you look at our transfers, a lot of it has been players with a name, a buzz. But like, did they really fit Everton at the time in a Yannick Balasi kind of style? And I thought it was another one of like that. I've been totally, totally wrong in every regard. And the thing that, you know, I didn't understand and you can't unless you really know the human being, unless you're really speaking to him and understanding what's going on. But it has become evident that the Everton project is deeply intriguing to him because, you know, you look at his successes and they're all easy to paint. They're, yeah, he was a nice, he's a nice guy, but the club was soaked with money at the time and really anybody could have won. And I think the intriguing thing for him, you always want a manager who is motivated. And at times we've not had a manager that, I mean, oh my God. I mean, I mean, you know, most of it, I mean, some of us played him in pies and like, genuinely, I think we've front loaded that pie delivery. But it was like, his self motivation is he wants to prove that he can do this. Like this is a, this is clearly without safety net. Like ultimately it's either going to be him that's going to lift this club to the next level or not. And it's him showing that he is the star that he can really do this. So you look at the football, it's changed. We've become more direct. You know, the defence is going to take some time. It took clock time. That's, you know, that's natural. Right now it's like the lead bloody pause that agonising time because we had that lift, that eyebrow lift. And then we had the slight wobble. So we're kind of like, so it would be left on a clip hanger. It's hard to tell where we are. You know, right now we can list centre back, right back, left back, you know, ultimately a replacement for Bainzy when he retires in 10 or 15 years time. That, that, that, that address a gay replacement, the string pull, I love goams. He's the most handsome midfield that we've had arguably since Mickey or Teta left. And he should play for that reason alone. But we definitely need a, we need like a Bruno Fernandez, James Madison, like a Jack Greelish who doesn't crash Range Rovers. We need that kind of kind of that player. And then, you know, there's tons of players that make me sad. Theo makes me sad. God, it just like it makes me sad. I just have project this sad fantasy of just Theo in the north. It's so perplexing to me. Well, that must be like for the handful. He's like, he's had the quintessential southern up. So like Theo's just wandering around. It's, you know, Bernard, I love watching. I get so much happiness now watching Bernard. But I realise like the joy I feel from him is his ability to fall over when in space. Like it's a befuddling, it's one of the joys of our season. And it makes me want Stevie Penard back. I'm scaring around the big one, Guilfe, who humanly makes me, breaks my heart because I think he's, I filmed with him in Iceland when he was at his peak, Swansea and for Iceland. And he's such a mentally such a fascinating footballer to talk to. And he was so good at Swansea with Llorente. But the two of them, like they made each other 100% better. And definitely they're like 33% of that player. So it's like, I mean, I'm telling you all the stuff that you guys talk about all the types of eBay is like French Joe Exotic. He's like, you can't stop watching him, but not for the right reasons. What do you think about what Moise Key, can we talk about him? I've never wanted a player more to every time, I think 22 times I think he's kind of trotted. Every time I'm like, this is his moment. And I'm like so humanly, especially after the big dunk moment, humanly I'm like, come on, come on. We need it. You need it. This is your moment. How do you understand that? I think I just look at him as raw talent. And he's like, he's just not refined. And I guess I take the way Dominic Calvert-Lewins improved year after year and I look at Moise Key and I think his performance against Newcastle, when we threw the game away in injury time, he was excellent in that. You froze, Rog. He was excellent in the Newcastle game playing, and he had a really good game. And if we don't won the game, people would have said, I was a great performance by Moise Key. But because we walked out the ground going, how did we not win that game? They had two shots. Everyone's kind of forgot about it and he suffered probably more than anybody with the partnership of Calvert-Lewin and Retialis and who have made themselves almost undropable now. That's it. That's it. It took DCL time. I mean, it really did. And now there's no striker better in the league from three centimetres and closer, right? But the honest truth, the things that made me feel excited about Everton is just that constant hope, that constant belief, that constant climbing the mountain. And the fact that Speedo Mick is him making it from Jono Groats to Lans End to me, that's the club DVD. Along with the big dunk ball boy classic, that to me, those are the two things. And ultimately, Carlo will be judged on a full season whenever that is, and God, we all need it. We need it now more than ever. The thought of goodness and part. I should say we are ways away from this happening. I want to be realistic and not be like, oh, the couple of weeks time. We're all good as some part though. Full through to it again. You know, the Zed cars just blasting out, coming down that tiny little birth canal of a tunnel that we've got there. It's going to feel utterly magnificent. And the challenge for Carlo is ultimately to work out how we're in games against the big six. That's the thing that eats me up. That's the thing Carlo's going to have to work out. Away from home to big six, you're right. That's going to be the key thing for him. You just mentioned goodness, and you were back with your daughter to show that a while. What was that like for you? I mean, it's amazing. I took my four kids and my dad. My dad's a blue, my grandfather was a blue. And to be able to take these kids and ultimately that's what football is for me. I mean, it's about the memories that you make, the memories that you share, the conveyor belt life from one generation to another. And when Everton scored in that game, just the photographs I've got of that of my dad in his 80s now, all four kids just losing their shit. And my dad. My dad more than anybody. If you looked at it, his mental age in that moment of celebration was probably lower than my seven-year-old. And that is the joy. And those are the joys that are embedded all over that ground for me, just collective memory, generation to generation. And in good moments, not just winning things, but to me, I love Everton Football Club. I love the Football Club of Tim Cahill. I love Dennis Strachlercy, just like these guys coming in, pulling on that shirt, playing with those fans. I mean, Dennis is Dennis the Strach. Well, I mean, just hustling. Yeah, just hustling. Just genuinely trying his bloody hardest. And it rarely worked, but when it did, when it did in those fleeting moments when it all came together for Everton's fans, it was good as some pork and Dennis Strach. It was a thing of beauty. Well, just onto that, obviously there's the USM. Bramleymore Dock Stadium is very much on the cards. What are you feeling about that? Cos you've literally just summed up others and its memories, its collectiveness, it's taken us back to what it was like the first time we walked up then steps at the age of your kids when you took them and that's embedded in us. But what will it be like for you? Do you think firstly, do you think the club needs this new stadium and secondly, are you looking forward to being in there? You know, everything that we know is grounded in the old world of football before March. And I think football's, you know, the economy of football and the financial model of football that we know together is going to be irrevocably changed, at least in the medium term by this. So what I'm about to say could be totally wrong, but you know, every single game we played at home at Everton, we were falling further and further behind in that financial realm of football in Manchester United where they cut like more 280,000 corporate dinners every game at Everton where they cook about 12 in the Dixie Dean suite. So every game where finances are in terms of results, that correlation, you can make the case that, yeah, it needs to, the architecture that I've seen is going to be unbelievable and the club, you know, the club has done quite a good job of taking the spirit of Everton and just the history of Everton and weaving it into everything they do and if we can recreate a place that captures that spirit then I totally, totally understand what we're going to do. But the reality is that the footballing model is going to change and it's going to be very interesting to see. Football is in this bizarre world right now. It's like every day we have a duality of headlines which is always like, oh, McEddon for football, it's Doomsday for the Premier League, it's like 27 billion dollars is going to go out of the league if tomorrow they don't play all the games no, tomorrow, so you have that. And at the same time, every day it's like Jadon Sancho, 114 million, come and get me, play. Everton going to sign, Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey and we're also going to get Frank Lempod back and play him, play him. So we're in this bizarre world our finances are going to change and everything we know about football will be different and we just can't wait to come back and splurge all the cash. So we honestly don't know where we'll come out and what was is not necessarily what will be and it could be magnificent. Yeah, I think if we can get it short it will be outstanding. It looks visually like it would be brilliant but it's still away. Finally before I let you go, question we ask everyone either if they're American or they come over here. What do Everton have to do to have more of a presence in the US? How can Everton grow in the US? Me i'n pedda'r always on about get the team out there, do this, do that but someone who works in the American sports industry and who's an Everton and you're the perfect person to ask in my opinion for this. I think they've done quite a good job. Everton definitely punch above their weight in the United States. Do you know what United States is this? It's like the final frontier. It's like outer space wars to Captain Kirk. The Premier League team, they just see this massive country with real cash where when they capture one of the American fans it's like 12 shirts to every fan by everything and they come over so they really care deeply about the American fan base the Premier League clubs and Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern they're all looking at this American audience salivating and Everton have done really well and when you look at the assets Tim Howard, Premier League fans started a really go next level in 2014-15 when the NBC started a broadcast that Tim Howard, you had Roberto Martinez who was on TV here during World Cups the London, Donovan cameos that get more hit a hero with every telling they're like a perfect piece when you read about Japanese artists who perform masterpieces on tiny grains of rice London had eight games but we took out London as if he's an Everton great Brian McBride really was an Everton great when we needed him and Joe Maxmore Everton fans called him Joe Max Less one of my favourite nicknames in Premier League football I think there's so many assets Everton have really punched above their weight there's no doubt I mean I think that's different about American fans than if you grew up in near goodness and park it needs to be refreshed constantly the fandom the future of global sports fandom and Everton fans in particular are like if you don't go with the game that mentality, the global fan it does need to be refreshed you connect to players and individuals that's why globally you vent us by getting Ronaldo everything there are fans who just follow players follow Ronaldo like I follow Seamus Killman or Tony Hibbert or Stephen Naesmith but that Everton fandom is the club of punching way above their weight here I think they're in the top seven in terms of the fandom because of the legacy but it needs to be constantly refreshed and I do think the club trying to think through how to do it the club needs to think through how to do it because it needs that constant momentum and I just say DCL and Tom Davis coming over here like if I were running Everton football club I would be having them broadcast constantly to America about their love American loves anyone that loves America as much as Americans do and that DCL Tom Davis that 72-hour bender in New York City we should not be waiting for the movie of that story to come out before we start capitalising on it because it was magnificent Well you mentioned Starsky and us before David I mean they were a bit like Starsky and us really and they're coming around Tom and his dressing gown I mean you can't argue with that Even cooler mate it was really what came through is how much they love it they love being here and the club can really tap into that and we'll see what they do Outstanding, Rod yet thank you so much for taking the time to join us it's obviously very difficult time and you're a very busy man being like I said before one of the biggest sports broadcasters in the United States 320 million they all know this man and he's an Evertonian I will say it's a joy to be with you what you, Baz and what Peb do it's amazing, you're doing unbelievable work and you do it not just like what's going on you embody to me everything that is great about the club so I love it speaking to you it's an incredibly hard time to be away from Liverpool all my family are there right now and everyone is grappling with the current reality and it's been a really hard, it's a terrible time in New York it's a brutal, brutal time to be away from Liverpool makes it doubly painful to speak to you to say the word Andy King say the word Tony Hibbert to say the word, ultimately hopes are only weapon right now I wish you strength I wish you courage and I wish you all and Evertonian as well as everyone in Liverpool credible health and happiness over the coming weeks to come Outstanding, Rod, you make sure you're facing some men in blazes Rod's representing all the time Outstanding, having his battle with Dave on a regular occasion thank you very much Rod's Outstanding Thanks very much guys, courage So a big thanks to Rod's you there for joining us taking time out of his busy day you can catch him on the Men in Blazes podcast and make sure you check that out brilliant him and Dave out smashing it over there in the States that's it for us, make sure you give this video a thumbs up if you haven't and if you want more videos join us on Patreon, see you later