 Hello and welcome to Toffy TV. I'm here with none other than Everton legend Kevin Sheedy. Kevin, first of all, thank you very much for your time. No problem, my pleasure, Paul. I see you came from the old enemy. How did your move come about and how did your iconic career Liverpool ffizzle out? I signed for Liverpool. I just won the European Cup. I went with a friend, just as a neutral supporter to Wembley. I saw Kenny Douglas score the winning goal and two weeks later I get a phone call from my Harryford German, Peter Hill to say. They'd accepted £100,000 bid off Liverpool and to travel up to Liverpool to sign. There was no agents in that day, no advisers. I just travelled up with my mum and dad. I signed a four year deal. I knew it was going to be really tough because I'd seen the best midfield in Europe. Ray Kennedy, Jimmy Case, Graham Sooners, Terry McDermott. I knew it was going to be tough to break into. I was confident in my ability, but to cut my time at Liverpool, I was there four seasons. I made my debut but never really pushed and didn't get the opportunity for a regular place. I was in Diggs in Elsie Road, which is just round the corner from Anfield and not far from Goodison Park. Midweek, I used to go and watch Everton play, saw Graham Sharp make his debut, Adrian Heath, Kevin Ratliff. I could see that Howard Kenwood was putting together a young side. When my contract ran out at Liverpool, I was at home on a Friday. It was the day before my last game for Liverpool. Liverpool was against Preston. I got a phone call and it was Colin Wood who was a newspaper writer for the Daily Mail. He said, would you be interested in signing for Everton? I said, of course I would. He said, we'll put the phone down and Howard Kendall will bring you. It was like tapping in the old days. I thought it was a prank off one of my teammates and all that because they knew I was going to move. Anyway, the phone went and I realised it was Howard Kendall. He said, would you be interested in signing for Everton? I said, of course. I'm going to come and watch you tomorrow playing for Liverpoolers against Preston. Anyway, I must have done well because a couple of days later I got a phone call to go and sign for Everton. It was a great move for me. I knew the club, I knew the supporters. The only thing was I had to start really well because in my mind I was thinking one of the Everton supporters would be thinking, if he's not good enough for Liverpool, why should he be good enough for us? I put a lot of pressure on me to start with, but I had a real good pre-season. I played in all the games and they made me debut. We played what for the way. They just got promoted into the first division as it was. We got beat 2-0, but we played OK. But Howard said our season starts next week and I scored against Tottenham. I played well, we beat them. I think the fans saw enough in my early performances to realise that I was a good player. I never had any stickers if I wasn't good enough for Liverpool. I was fortunate to be able to hit the ground running at Goddison and had some great times. I got through the team at Neville South Hall, Gary Stevens, Kevin Ratcliffe, Peter Reid, Graham Sharp and so on. How good was that team? We've done a separate video there where we were talking about how good that team was as well. But in terms of that Everton team, I'd say you're a lucky man internationally and domestically in terms of the players that you played with. I'm very fortunate to be in the right era for Ireland and the right era for Everton. Once our side clicked, we were 4-4-2 with the best goalkeeper in the world, Neville South Hall. We all knew each other's jobs. It was like a real good. Trevor Stephen on the right, myself on the left, Reedyne Brace, Adam Sharpie. At that time, Adrian Heath was the striker and he was my favourite player. I had a real understanding with him where he wanted to ball, where he wanted to play. We had great pace in the defence, Kevin Ratcliffe was the quickest defender so we could play a high line. Any balls played over the top, Kevin could sweep. If anybody did get past the defenders, they had to be big nefs. It had to be right in the top corner or the bottom corner. Neville used to say to the defenders, if they shoot him from 25 yards, don't get in the way, don't block it. He said, the deflection will beat me. He said, I'll save it if you don't block it. He was that confident. We just have a great balance. Same with the Irish, we had a great camaraderie, both on the pitch and off the pitch. Not saying that was the key to it, but certainly it helps. When you look back and you've won things, you have the same camaraderie. Can I look at the area in which you played? Since I followed, I've won an FA Cup. I was four years old, so I don't remember how my dad would have been at it. Obviously, you know him. Douglas True did the 84 season and then it was the FA Cup, wasn't it, that we won? Yeah, it was a bit of pressure on Howard Kendall. We weren't getting the results. Everyone talked about the back pass with Kevin Brock against Oxford, which your agent he intercepted and scored. But the round before that, we played Newport County away. We were getting beat 1-0, John Aldridge scored, and I hit a 30-yard bobbler in the corner to get us an equaliser. We beat Newport in the replay, then we played Oxford. We had the home gates against Coventry, there was about 8,000. So it was a real low ebb sort of thing, but Howard Kendall had such a great rapport with the press the day, so they didn't give him a stick. They bought him a little bit of time. You know him as early as the Chelsea? Yeah, probably, yeah. But you could tell in training we had good players, and the way the players trained, the quality that we had, you knew it was there, but it was just the case of transferring it out onto the pitch. And certainly the games started, we started to get better than confidence grew, and obviously the cup run, getting through to the milk cup final. We were in the quarter-final of the FA Cup. So the signs were there then, and obviously we got beat in the milk cup final, but going on to win the FA Cup. And I think like with Ireland and the Euros, you can compete against the top teams, it gives you so much confidence. But I think to actually winning the FA Cup was the starting point for our success. Obviously it gets us into the cup winners' cup. And then you go on to the next season, everyone comes back full of buzzing, pre-season went really well. And then the game started, and we did not get off to a great start. I think we lost the first two games, and then we started to win a couple, but I think the defining moment was we played Man United at Goodison, and they were a good team. Kevin Moran was right back that day. And we beat them 5-0, we played them off the park. It could have been more, and as I say they had a good team, but we totally destroyed them from both sides, down the middle, and they'd come off after that performance. I scored two goals, one with my head from 18 yards, which was unheard of sort of thing, but it was Kevin Moran, as the cross came in, I was going to head it, and he just head-buttered the back of my head, and that rocketed into the top corner. So I'll say that. But nobody was just the actual quality of the performance. I think probably looking back, that's one of the best team performances throughout my career that I've been involved in. And I think it gave everyone again that massive boost. The crowd were right behind us sort of thing. Goodison Park was a real fortress in those days, and we kept that momentum going, obviously, going on to win the league. The cup winners' cup and getting beat in the finals. We came close to a magical treble. For yourself, I was reading up on it. You missed out on the actual celebrations of the cup winners' cup for the drugs test, was it? It was like a urine sample. We'd come off the pitch sort of thing, had all the photos done and all that, just heading back to the dressing room, and myself and Gary Steen's got called in by the FIFA officials to go in and give you urine samples. You can't do it. It's really hard. It takes about 40, 45 minutes. You're drinking as much water as you can. So when we've managed to do that, we go back into the dressing room and everyone's changed showers. We've missed all the celebrations, missed all the photos that you get after the game sort of thing. So it's something to put a little, not tarnished in part of it, but just put a little, you know, because we were back on the bus, on the plane back to Eribe, early hours Thursday morning, went home, and then the next day, we were travelling down to Wembley for the cup final. So looking back, it was a tough week league game, cup winners' cup final, and then an FA cup final. So, you know, if we'd have had that extra period of time for rest, then at that time, we had the Indian sign over Oman United. So, unfortunately, as I say, we got beaten, you know, we missed out on a great treble. Yeah, just in terms of, then obviously the Heuslinson happened, and just how hard was that for you to come off such a high-profile season? I think looking back personally, I think that was the start of the demise of our team. If our team wasn't good enough to have won the European Cup date, it wouldn't have been, you know, but we had a team that was capable, we'd proven it against Bayern Munich, who'd won the Bundesliga that year. We beat them, we drew Ognil Nell away from home, we beat them at Goddison 3-1. So, you know, it was there for people to see that we could compete against those types of teams. So that was really... It was an opportunity for FIFA to ban all the British teams because the British teams had a monopoly on the European trophies. So I think that gave FIFA the opportunity to ban all British clubs and leave the door open for the other countries to win the trophy. So Howard Kendall left for Bill Bale. Colin took over the manager role. Colin was a great coach, but this is the difference between being a coach and a manager. I'd seen it at Blackburn Rovers when I was a youth coach here. Kenny Dagleith had won the Premier League with Blackburn and moved upstairs and Ray Harford, who was a great coach, took the manager's job. There is a difference to it sort of thing. At Everton, obviously the player started to leave. Gary Stevens, Trevor Stevens went to Rangers. Lindicor won the match as well. So Lindicor went in in 1986. Pat Nevin came in, Peter Boot came in, Tony Cotty came in. So there was a lot of changes and the team didn't really gel as the previous team. So it was sad because we never really fulfilled the potential of that team sort of thing. Did you ever feel like leaving or was there any offers on the table for you to leave at the time? I never read. Because I was so happy there playing there, I never really... No moves came in for me and I didn't look to see if there was any teams interested. I just carried on continued playing sort of thing. So yeah, it was disappointing to see great players go who weren't at the end of their careers. They still had, like Gary Stevens and Trevor Stevens, they still had a lot of their careers to go. So you're missing out on England's right side, Everton's right side and it's difficult to replace those two players. Yeah, there was such a huge rivalry then between yourselves and Lindicor because you were battling out at the top as well. So obviously it didn't help stuff in terms of the housing situation with them being involved in that. On a more positive note, talk us through that goal at Ipswich. The free kick. Two free kicks. Two free kicks, yeah. I was used to get to the ball as quickly as I could to see if there was any opportunity I could gain an advantage and the ball wasn't quite organised and I just bent it into Paul Coogba's top right hand corner. I'm not surprised that the referee disallowed it because Paul Coogba wasn't ready to the balls but it sort of helped, it gave me an advantage because when I put the ball down again the wall was lined but Paul Coogba knew I could put it in his top right hand corner so the wall had edged a bit too far to the right. Paul Coogba had taken a stride too far to the right and I knew if I could get up and down over the wall in the bottom corner then you'd find it very hard to get to it and I managed to execute to just get it up and down quickly with a bit of a curve on it and it was a great feeling. Obviously my career is finished now but when I meet Evertonians that's the main goal they ask they remember sort of thing so it was great. How did your ever career fizzle out then? I think I didn't. Under Howard Kendall he gave me so much confidence he gave great belief in me and played me all the time it was a different relationship with... How good of a manager was he? He was the best manager I played and I played with some great managers Jack was a different manager but certainly Howard was the best because he was one of Everton's best ever players he knew the game and he knew how to deal with players in different situations so he was just you wanted to play for him and all the players wanted to play for him so he just got the best out of you. You touched on that I think it might have been in the previous video there was Kevin Keegan the one who took you to Newcastle. How did that move come about? I was away with Ireland and we were playing Wales and just leaving the airport hotel and there was a phone call for me and it was Terry McDermott who was your sister manager in Newcastle and I knew Terry from my playing days at Liverpool and he said would you like to come to Newcastle? and I said yes because I've been in and out of the team at Everton and I wanted to play and I knew Newcastle was a big club having played against them and the supporters so I went over with Ireland played Wales we went to one I scored flew back the next day and drove up to Newcastle spoke with Kevin Keegan and Terry McDermott the easiest deal to do and they gave me they told me I'd be in their team so I moved up so it was just short to 10 years at Everton but that happens in football it's time to move on and I'm glad I moved to Newcastle it gave me an extra kick to my career it prolonged my career I was playing in front of great supporters we won the first division the goddess promoted into then the Premier League that was starting so I had fantastic times up there but again Keegan was then rebuilding obviously for the Premier League and we had the chat and felt best that it would be time to move on so then I got the opportunity to sign for Blackpool which was nearer home my kids were still going in school so they could go back to their old school so it just made sense to do that and that's where I finished my playing career so I'm fortunate to have played some great clubs absolutely fantastic career to look back on and I'm sure you get reminded of it most days anyway if not every day but just in terms of our team at the moment you've obviously still coached the club what are your thoughts on obviously you've coached from the rage of the club what are your general thoughts on the direction on which we're going in now especially since I had my shavies come into the club and Marco Silva Brans I've all been appointed now since the summer just gone it's transition after transition so obviously we had Ronald Cooman I came in I was surprised at anybody that he was more successful because he was a top player but that doesn't mean to say he's going to be top manager but he had a real good done really well at Southampton brought in some very good players and made them better players and he came in bought a lot of good players but they didn't really perform for Everton yeah especially the ones that came in last summer yeah so it was a case of the money was spent that the chairman came in gave the managers the money he wanted and then obviously results didn't go well the club felt that they needed to change the direction obviously brought Sam Maladais in did the job he was brought in to do to keep the team up the football style wasn't what the supporters wanted to see so again Marco Silva's come in had a lot of money to spend and again we're still in transition I went to the game against Southampton we played really well I've been impressed with Rick Carlson he looks a real good player and obviously stupidly getting sent off missing three games so certainly he looks a really good investment and some of the players that have been signed aren't fully fit yet so they've not really figured so I've liked the left back Dina so I think he's brought some good players but it's going to take time for those players to gel as a team and I think the supporters have got to remain patient and just give the manager we don't need a change or anything like that we need this manager to have as much time as needed to show improvement because it's not a short term fix we've got to build slowly now the teams at the top we need to slowly start to start catching them but it's not going to happen overnight so I think he's a really good manager I think we've got good players there I think he's just given time he still has to bring in his own players as well if you look at the team that he played yesterday I think only two of them he brought in all of his actual players I think then ultimately is when he should be judged on the job he's doing so as I said Dina and Richard have been great since they were apart from setting them off but then you look at Mina's to come in there Gomez to come in to the midfield because we look like we are missing a creative spark in the midfield at the moment obviously we like Tom Davis who's going to need more game time? yeah and I think we've overlooked the fact that we've got one of the best keepers as well Jordan Pickers I think he's being excellent and for such a young goalkeeper he's had loads of experience he's played in the World Cup he's played in big games so I think we need to keep hold of him because all great teams all successful teams have got an excellent keeper and I think he's excellent his distribution, his shot stopping and he'll get better as well again he was a real good investment so I think of all the signs last season he was definitely our best without question but just lastly you were over coaching in Saudi Arabia have you finished that now? yeah I finished it, I had the contract there that finished so I really enjoyed it, it was something completely different I'd enjoyed my time as an academy coach but I just felt it was I needed a little bit of direction something to challenge me and the opportunity to go there a different culture but really looking back it was something I'm glad that I've done I don't know what the next opportunity but certainly I wouldn't say now to go on a broad again so I'll just see what the next chapter of my career brings we wish you well whatever you do in your future endeavors anyway thank you again so much for your time it's been an absolute pleasure guys if you liked this video don't forget to subscribe click the bell for alerts and thank you very much for watching Toffy TV