I think it’s always difficult as a player,
especially with the relationship I had with
Millwall and the fans to leave.
Because you want to do
so much more for the club,
and at that time there wasn’t
any real massive investment into buying
more players to try and get promoted
to the Premier League.
And at that time I was ready.
In the times before when I’d been approached,
I’d always been a bit hesitant
because I was like:
“I need the right club,
“I need the right environment for me.”
So when the time came
to speak to clubs,
you know Everton were there knocking,
and I’ll never forget it because
I met David Moyes and Bill Kenwright,
and that was probably the best thing I’d ever done
because they had a player who just wanted to play.
And then they wanted to sign me because
of everything that they’d seen,
but still I reckon a little bit unsure
with what they were going to get.
But the only question I asked David Moyes
when we were in the office was:
“Are you going to give me my opportunity?”
And he looked at me and said:
“Well we’re signing you son.”
And I went: “No, no.
“Am I going to get the opportunity
“to play and start, or to be involved?”
And he says: “Yeah you’ll get your opportunity.”
And I looked at my agent at the time,
and I said: “That’s enough for me then.”
I knew straight away.
So it suited me perfect to go to Everton.
Just before I’d signed there,
there were question marks because
the fans were like:
“Tim Cahill, proven,
“but what type of player are we getting?”
Because it wasn’t a massive transfer fee.
I think what made it worse is Wayne Rooney
leaving after I’d signed.
But I was looking at the players:
Duncan Ferguson, David Weir,
Alan Stubbs, Lee Carsley,
Tommy Gravesen, Kevin Kilbane.
These types of characters, players. Men.
When I played for Millwall I played with men
like Stuart Nethercott, Kim Grant, Jimmy Carter.
I was a young kid amongst men
who all had families.
So it was sort of like a similar changing room.
The fans – very passionate.
It’s got history, it’s got belief.
I knew very early on that I had to be aggressive,
I had to be a leader,
I had to work harder,
I had to do extra.
It was, my second game I think it was
and I’d scored.
A Tony Hibbert cross
headed back the same way it had come from,
something that I’d done in training
for my whole life and throughout my career already.
And then celebrating
after already receiving a yellow card
and putting my top over my head.
I was in shock.
Literally put it up, put it down,
and I was so happy,
it was my first ever goal,
and it was just at the time then when
they made a rule that
if you put your shirt over your head
that you’d get cautioned.
And it was the longest time of my life
sitting on the bench
waiting for the whistle to blow.
It didn’t hinder the game or the points
but I got ridiculed
more than anything for just
hugging the manager after I’d scored
and running to him
and not with the players.
But it was the longest wait ever
but also a very special moment for myself.
It’s what I’d waited my whole life for.
I knew that I could impact that football club
because of the football club that I was at,
what I’d learned,
what I’d understood,
what players had left with me,
what managers,
what fans had instilled in me.
I knew very early on
with David Moyes his discipline.
I had the opportunity to play with Duncan Ferguson,
Alan Stubbs, Tony Hibbert –
three massive Evertonians.
I could name more,
the list could go on,
but very early on I earned the respect of those three.
And that counted a lot for that team.
When we got each other onside
and Tony Hibbert taught me what it was
to be an Evertonian through the time.
I just knew that something could happen.
I didn’t know how
or if it was going to happen,
but I knew it was going to be more positive.
We got our first ever derby win in ages.
So the constant theme through
my career has been:
just try, let’s get us together,
let’s form a belief and with what we’ve got,
if the ingredients can work tactically,
technically, and the fundamentals are all correct,
it just comes down to discipline
and the attitude for the execution of finishing fourth.
I knew going to that club that they were here,
and anything there,
even mid-table was a success,
and they were the levels
I could build on to implement myself and introduce myself to the Premier League.
The Merseyside derby is
everything for an Evertonian and a Liverpudlian.
They live for that game. You know they go to work Monday
to Friday for their football. They’re passionate,
and those moments that I had at Anfield,
scoring was the only way that you can
make an impact on those fans,
my fans and their fans.
That’s the only way.
If you go to battle in any sort of way,
the only way you can make an impact,
it’s not by talking to the fans
or trying to entice them,
it’s what you do on the pitch.
And even at Goodison Park.
So it’s an opportunity as a player to leave your mark.
It’s an opportunity to have
something that you stand for but
even now, I miss them.
That’s probably one of the biggest things
that I miss about football
because it’s a time that you can activate
the fan in a whole different way.
It takes them to another world,
that they live and they hold on to this,
not weeks, not months,
they hold on to it near enough forever.
Favourite Liverpool players to play against
in Merseyside derbies:
without a doubt Steven Gerrard.
I used to look for his name straight away.
If you want any bigger character
that has an influence through actions
and not talking it’s him.
One tackle, one pass, one shot,
one run: they’re behaviours.
They’re behaviours that become infectious
on players and they’re something
that there are not many players
that I’d say that have that impact
within a game.
The other player that I’d look for is Jamie Carragher,
because he’d be the first one
that I’d target to have a meeting with
on the pitch.
When the ball comes in,
second ball into the body and
expect contact or expect
a coming together because,
if you can win those sorts of battles
with characters like that
it does have an effect on their fans because
he is definitely one of the biggest
leaders for that club alongside Steven Gerrard.
And probably one of the best players to watch –
Xabi Alonso.
Short, long, it was like he had the ball
on a string with the way he passes.
Big, influential players but two for me
is Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.
David Moyes has a very stern character:
strong, tall and not intimidating but
when he comes into the room,
you know he’s there.
And he cares about the players,
even though sometimes he doesn’t show it.
He cares about the group,
but I think one of the best things that he’d
done for the football club was build a team
around the club’s identity.
What it meant to play for the club.
What it meant to the fans.
He’s one of the best I’ve worked with
because, not just about the football,
it was about the family side.
He always asked how my family was,
he always asked how I was mentally,
and he always knew how to push my buttons.
He’s not someone that would compliment me a lot,
but would give me constructive criticism
that would create a spark to hit a nerve to try
and do better because I know that
I can give him more.
And he could get everything out of a player.
Signing Mikel Arteta, Steven Pienaar,
Leighton Baines, [Phil] Jagielka, Phil Neville,
[Marouane] Fellaini, the list can go on.
And he was very good
at putting good characters and good people
together and giving us responsibility
within that group
to help him on and off the pitch.
But very detailed, very detailed.
Like you know, now, wanting to become a coach, and
transitioning into learning how to be a coach,
the attributes that I’ll never forget with
him was analysis.
It was being in that media room for hours,
it was being on the pitch on a Friday or Thursday,
having to get wet tops and put them on
because we’re walking through set-plays.
And we knew where we had to stand on
set plays: arm-width apart,
body shape a little bit open
and then looking to where we were going to head it,
and how we were going to break on transition
from a corner, the importance of defence.
But the detail that he had,
he doesn’t get a lot of credit for,
and I don’t think that he’d really ask for it because,
with what we had, to finish fourth,
he made the players, all these players
that he had he made better players.
They went on and had amazing moves
and resurrected some of their careers.
And who knows,
if we could sign more players or spend loads of money,
what it would be like.
I think when you talk about Mikel and Phil
into coaching: different coaches altogether,
different personalities, and also different
styles to a certain degree,
different sorts of leaders.
Mikel’s quiet, introverted, only
speaks when there’s something important to say.
The analysis side to what he does and
the detail in behind is on a different planet.
And you look at Phil Neville, it’s actions,
it’s voice, it’s pointing, it’s organising,
it’s more collective.
I think for where Mikel’s sitting now
as a coach and his character, I think he’s going
to be very successful.
And I know as a close friend,
not because we played together and I’m a fan.
I know because of being in the same changing room as him,
by being on the same pitch,
things that don’t matter to other players
or to other people, whether
it’s in a training session or whether it’s
in a video or whether it’s on paper.
The hours is the most important thing is
what you put into anything and one of the biggest things
that he said to me that will never leave me is:
“What you put in is what you’ll get back
“when you want to become a coach.”
And hence the level
that I’m putting behind the learning,
the understanding, the educational side,
the technical, the tactical, the grassroots and
being with an academy.
But I can only sit from afar and watch him,
and know that the
hours he’s putting in and the work rate is
second to none.