Ger McNally's great interview with Neville Southall is below. In Part 3 you will find a review of the event from new Irish Toffees member Colm Murray. Part 1 has a brilliant interview with Joe Royle. (Ronan)
When I was first told that I would have the opportunity to interview Neville Southall and Joe Royle at the recent Irish Toffees event in the Red Cow I was filled with a mixture of excitement and fear.
Excitement because growing up there was no doubt that Neville Southall was my childhood hero. As a supporter too young to remember the successful mid 80’s period, most of my early Everton memories are of a struggling team. However, no matter how bad things got in the early 90’s there was always one guaranteed piece of class in the team and that was between the posts.
I can remember many a time staring at the television barely able to comprehend the agility of Big Nev as he routinely made the seemingly impossible possible. He was the one playing link from the early 90’s to the great mid 80’s team and long before I knew the translation, he was the epitome of our club’s slogan Nil Satis Nisi Optimum. He was a reminder that the club remained great long after the team had ceased being so.
The fear part came from just where do you start an interview with the man who was once the greatest goalkeeper in the world. Some of his stats are simply staggering. A club record of 751 appearances in all competitions, 2 league winner medals, 2 FA Cup medals, a Cup Winner’s Cup medal and a Welsh record of 92 international caps to name but some of his achievements. There is no doubt that he has a legitimate claim to be called Everton’s greatest player still alive today.
To discuss all this, I was told I would be granted ten minutes with the great man. Ten minutes???? I could easily put together questions that would take up ten hours but at the same time, I was grateful to have any time at all in presence.
It’s fair to say to say that Neville has a reputation for being difficult at times but from the moment he shook my hand upstairs in the Red Cow Hotel he could not have been more amiable.
Coming off a season where Irish players have had a bigger impact on the team than at any stage since possibly the time of Peter Farrell and Tommy Eglington, I calmed my nerves and started by asking him his impression of how the Irish players had performed for Everton this season.
“They’ve been brilliant to be fair but I think it should be like that shouldn’t it? We’ve always had a good core of British players so why not? The Irish produce good players.”
Two of the Irish players in Blue have really stood out in the season just gone, first of all, Seamus Coleman.
“I think he’s been terrific to be fair and I can’t think of anybody better in the league, that (getting picked on the Premier League team of the year) bears that out,” said Southall.
And James McCarthy?
“£13 million is like the old hundred grand isn’t it? Again, he’s done exceptionally well. He’s got a real good engine and has shown that he’s a better player than most people think,” added the goalkeeping great.
Southall said that the players during his time were always aware of the strong fanbase for the club on this side of the water.
Excitement because growing up there was no doubt that Neville Southall was my childhood hero. As a supporter too young to remember the successful mid 80’s period, most of my early Everton memories are of a struggling team. However, no matter how bad things got in the early 90’s there was always one guaranteed piece of class in the team and that was between the posts.
I can remember many a time staring at the television barely able to comprehend the agility of Big Nev as he routinely made the seemingly impossible possible. He was the one playing link from the early 90’s to the great mid 80’s team and long before I knew the translation, he was the epitome of our club’s slogan Nil Satis Nisi Optimum. He was a reminder that the club remained great long after the team had ceased being so.
The fear part came from just where do you start an interview with the man who was once the greatest goalkeeper in the world. Some of his stats are simply staggering. A club record of 751 appearances in all competitions, 2 league winner medals, 2 FA Cup medals, a Cup Winner’s Cup medal and a Welsh record of 92 international caps to name but some of his achievements. There is no doubt that he has a legitimate claim to be called Everton’s greatest player still alive today.
To discuss all this, I was told I would be granted ten minutes with the great man. Ten minutes???? I could easily put together questions that would take up ten hours but at the same time, I was grateful to have any time at all in presence.
It’s fair to say to say that Neville has a reputation for being difficult at times but from the moment he shook my hand upstairs in the Red Cow Hotel he could not have been more amiable.
Coming off a season where Irish players have had a bigger impact on the team than at any stage since possibly the time of Peter Farrell and Tommy Eglington, I calmed my nerves and started by asking him his impression of how the Irish players had performed for Everton this season.
“They’ve been brilliant to be fair but I think it should be like that shouldn’t it? We’ve always had a good core of British players so why not? The Irish produce good players.”
Two of the Irish players in Blue have really stood out in the season just gone, first of all, Seamus Coleman.
“I think he’s been terrific to be fair and I can’t think of anybody better in the league, that (getting picked on the Premier League team of the year) bears that out,” said Southall.
And James McCarthy?
“£13 million is like the old hundred grand isn’t it? Again, he’s done exceptionally well. He’s got a real good engine and has shown that he’s a better player than most people think,” added the goalkeeping great.
Southall said that the players during his time were always aware of the strong fanbase for the club on this side of the water.
"“I don’t understand how they’d expect you to come over from Ireland to watch a game if they are aiming for sixth place,” said Southall. “What is the point in you travelling all that way for that?"

“We came over here a lot, an awful lot. It’s always a good place to come. Because of the distance between the club and the fans whenever you arrive over here it’s brilliant. As soon as you land it’s the best hospitality you could get,” he said.
The most famous game that Southall played against an Irish side came in the run to the 1985 Cup Winner’s Cup final. A nailbiting 1-0 aggregate win over UCD when Everton’s European dreams almost died before they really got started.
“It was nil all in Dublin in the first leg and they missed a chance right at the end of the game at Goodison. You’re always going to get a tricky game along the way. That was probably the strangest game in that cup run, the Bayern game was different because they were a world class team. Coming over here we weren’t sure what to expect but they did well.”
Southall then went on to compare how Irish clubs have done in Europe compared to how his native Welsh clubs have performed.
“I look at the Irish teams sometimes and I think that they should do better than what they actually do, there must be a reason why they don’t. When I look at our Welsh Premier League teams and we finish the season and have to wait a month or two without competitive games. I’d like to see our season moved to the summer so that the European games are played in mid season, that would help us,” he said.
Getting back to Everton and seeing as Southall was invited over by The Irish Toffees with 1995 FA Cup winning manager Joe Royle and the trophy itself, I asked him did that cup win come at a time when he had given up on winning trophies with Everton.”
“We were never going to win anything under Mike (Walker) to be fair, we maybe would have won a few wooden spoons, that was about it,” he laughed.
Southall then went on to compare Joe Royle replacing Mike Walker with Roberto Martinez replacing David Moyes. It quickly became apparent that he held no love for the former Everton and Manchester Utd manager.
“It’s very similar to what happened with Roberto Martinez coming in to replace David Moyes. Obviously Mike had his philosophy, we passed the ball around in our half until we lost it and then they scored. David Moyes went out not to lose the game and hopefully win it. Joe came in and was positive from the start, he wanted to press and harry, to play the game in the opposition half. Roberto came in with much the same philosophy, he wants to play from the back, play the game quickly and he wants to play attacking football. There are similarities to the two but I wouldn’t compare David Moyes to Mike Walker to be fair, he wasn’t as bad as that. He did alright for the club, he took them to a level where somebody else needed to take it on again. I think the right man is there now to do that. People are now going to the grounds expecting to win.”
So he is enjoying watching Everton again?
“Yeah, I’m enjoying them. There have been occasions when they have slipped back to where they were before but that’s natural, it becomes a habit. You look sometimes at games when they scored a goal and they drop off a bit which is the old style.”
“He (Roberto) hasn’t had a full season yet, he hasn’t got all the players that he would like to have. He’s looking to put that philosophy into the players but every now and again they slip back into their old ways. You could say the West Brom game was a classic example of that, where they scored and then just sat back. They’ve come a long way but there are still days like that. Slowly but surely they will come out of that and next season I think they’ll be better again. It’s hard to trust your manager at first if results don’t come along, under Mike we didn’t know what we were doing, we just kept losing. We were trying to do what he wanted us to do but it wasn’t working. Sometimes a new philosophy comes into the club and it’s a much better philosophy.”
One thing that always struck a chord with me about Southall when I’ve heard him speak about the club is that he is always of the opinion that Everton should at least be striving to be the best. It was a message in stark contrast to a lot of the messages that came out of the club during the Moyes era when the manager and captain Phil Neville regularly tried to convince the supporters of one of England’s biggest clubs that finishing in the top 10 in the Premier League was something to be celebrated.
“I don’t understand how they’d expect you to come over from Ireland to watch a game if they are aiming for sixth place,” said Southall. “What is the point in you travelling all that way for that? There’s no point. You have to at least aim to get to the top even if you might not get there. I’ve always said that if you have a challenge in life you’ll try to match it but if you never start it then you definitely won’t make it. If you’re only trying to get halfway up the league, that’s no good. In football, you have to aim to be number one, whether as a team or as an individual. That’s what the fans expect and you can tell what the fans expect by the amount of people that say we are ok if we finish in the top ten. At Everton, we don’t want that, we want to go for number one. If we don’t get that, fine, but at least we tried. That’s what he’s done this season and really, we’ve dropped some points when we shouldn’t have dropped points.”
“If you look back, progress has been made, next season will be hard though because he will have to match that. The summer is going to be exciting but I think there is a different atmosphere now amongst Evertonians. It’s one of those places now where supporters can go and they know they are going to see attractive football. They know that if in the last ten minutes we are winning 2-0 there’s going to be a forward brought on, not another centre half. I think that’s the difference, he’s very positive, very open minded about what he does. The crowd have responded brilliantly to Roberto and so they should because they want to see attractive football.”
At this stage, Irish Toffees’ Ronan came over and tapped me on the shoulder to say that the ten minutes are up but when he walks away, Big Nev said don’t worry about that and carry on asking questions.
I didn’t need a second invitation but knowing I might only get one last question with the legend, a thousand questions flooded my mind. I decided to ask him about one of my favourite ever Everton games, and in keeping with the 1995 cup winning theme, I decided to ask him about the 4-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the semi final at Elland Road.
“They (the media) wanted a Spurs and Man Utd final but when we actually got to the ground, it was a case of spot the Spurs fan. It was embarrassing, if I was a Spurs player I’d have been quite annoyed. We always had good support, great support in fairness, and that day we had about three quarters of the ground. There was no way we were going to lose that game because of the amount of people that were there. Sometimes fans can make a massive difference. I watched the West Ham game this season and it was quiet, incredibly quiet. Maybe we had got comfortable, got the Man Utd syndrome where we expect to beat teams. I hope that doesn’t creep in and I think we have to work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. We need to think about doing something with the crowd.”
“Look at the Bayern Munich game, the crowd won us the tie. Sometimes as a club they forget that and don’t do enough, sometimes you have to do things for people.”
And with that, my time with a genuine Everton great was up but with my hands were still shaking merely from being in his presence.
(What a fantastic interview, it has me buzzing, I feel like I'm back at the event! Thanks again to Ger McNally for interviewing the Everton Giants) Review part 3 coming soon includes a photo gallery and a brief review of the event itself. Ger McNally interviews Joe Royle in Part 1 here). (Ronan)
The most famous game that Southall played against an Irish side came in the run to the 1985 Cup Winner’s Cup final. A nailbiting 1-0 aggregate win over UCD when Everton’s European dreams almost died before they really got started.
“It was nil all in Dublin in the first leg and they missed a chance right at the end of the game at Goodison. You’re always going to get a tricky game along the way. That was probably the strangest game in that cup run, the Bayern game was different because they were a world class team. Coming over here we weren’t sure what to expect but they did well.”
Southall then went on to compare how Irish clubs have done in Europe compared to how his native Welsh clubs have performed.
“I look at the Irish teams sometimes and I think that they should do better than what they actually do, there must be a reason why they don’t. When I look at our Welsh Premier League teams and we finish the season and have to wait a month or two without competitive games. I’d like to see our season moved to the summer so that the European games are played in mid season, that would help us,” he said.
Getting back to Everton and seeing as Southall was invited over by The Irish Toffees with 1995 FA Cup winning manager Joe Royle and the trophy itself, I asked him did that cup win come at a time when he had given up on winning trophies with Everton.”
“We were never going to win anything under Mike (Walker) to be fair, we maybe would have won a few wooden spoons, that was about it,” he laughed.
Southall then went on to compare Joe Royle replacing Mike Walker with Roberto Martinez replacing David Moyes. It quickly became apparent that he held no love for the former Everton and Manchester Utd manager.
“It’s very similar to what happened with Roberto Martinez coming in to replace David Moyes. Obviously Mike had his philosophy, we passed the ball around in our half until we lost it and then they scored. David Moyes went out not to lose the game and hopefully win it. Joe came in and was positive from the start, he wanted to press and harry, to play the game in the opposition half. Roberto came in with much the same philosophy, he wants to play from the back, play the game quickly and he wants to play attacking football. There are similarities to the two but I wouldn’t compare David Moyes to Mike Walker to be fair, he wasn’t as bad as that. He did alright for the club, he took them to a level where somebody else needed to take it on again. I think the right man is there now to do that. People are now going to the grounds expecting to win.”
So he is enjoying watching Everton again?
“Yeah, I’m enjoying them. There have been occasions when they have slipped back to where they were before but that’s natural, it becomes a habit. You look sometimes at games when they scored a goal and they drop off a bit which is the old style.”
“He (Roberto) hasn’t had a full season yet, he hasn’t got all the players that he would like to have. He’s looking to put that philosophy into the players but every now and again they slip back into their old ways. You could say the West Brom game was a classic example of that, where they scored and then just sat back. They’ve come a long way but there are still days like that. Slowly but surely they will come out of that and next season I think they’ll be better again. It’s hard to trust your manager at first if results don’t come along, under Mike we didn’t know what we were doing, we just kept losing. We were trying to do what he wanted us to do but it wasn’t working. Sometimes a new philosophy comes into the club and it’s a much better philosophy.”
One thing that always struck a chord with me about Southall when I’ve heard him speak about the club is that he is always of the opinion that Everton should at least be striving to be the best. It was a message in stark contrast to a lot of the messages that came out of the club during the Moyes era when the manager and captain Phil Neville regularly tried to convince the supporters of one of England’s biggest clubs that finishing in the top 10 in the Premier League was something to be celebrated.
“I don’t understand how they’d expect you to come over from Ireland to watch a game if they are aiming for sixth place,” said Southall. “What is the point in you travelling all that way for that? There’s no point. You have to at least aim to get to the top even if you might not get there. I’ve always said that if you have a challenge in life you’ll try to match it but if you never start it then you definitely won’t make it. If you’re only trying to get halfway up the league, that’s no good. In football, you have to aim to be number one, whether as a team or as an individual. That’s what the fans expect and you can tell what the fans expect by the amount of people that say we are ok if we finish in the top ten. At Everton, we don’t want that, we want to go for number one. If we don’t get that, fine, but at least we tried. That’s what he’s done this season and really, we’ve dropped some points when we shouldn’t have dropped points.”
“If you look back, progress has been made, next season will be hard though because he will have to match that. The summer is going to be exciting but I think there is a different atmosphere now amongst Evertonians. It’s one of those places now where supporters can go and they know they are going to see attractive football. They know that if in the last ten minutes we are winning 2-0 there’s going to be a forward brought on, not another centre half. I think that’s the difference, he’s very positive, very open minded about what he does. The crowd have responded brilliantly to Roberto and so they should because they want to see attractive football.”
At this stage, Irish Toffees’ Ronan came over and tapped me on the shoulder to say that the ten minutes are up but when he walks away, Big Nev said don’t worry about that and carry on asking questions.
I didn’t need a second invitation but knowing I might only get one last question with the legend, a thousand questions flooded my mind. I decided to ask him about one of my favourite ever Everton games, and in keeping with the 1995 cup winning theme, I decided to ask him about the 4-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the semi final at Elland Road.
“They (the media) wanted a Spurs and Man Utd final but when we actually got to the ground, it was a case of spot the Spurs fan. It was embarrassing, if I was a Spurs player I’d have been quite annoyed. We always had good support, great support in fairness, and that day we had about three quarters of the ground. There was no way we were going to lose that game because of the amount of people that were there. Sometimes fans can make a massive difference. I watched the West Ham game this season and it was quiet, incredibly quiet. Maybe we had got comfortable, got the Man Utd syndrome where we expect to beat teams. I hope that doesn’t creep in and I think we have to work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. We need to think about doing something with the crowd.”
“Look at the Bayern Munich game, the crowd won us the tie. Sometimes as a club they forget that and don’t do enough, sometimes you have to do things for people.”
And with that, my time with a genuine Everton great was up but with my hands were still shaking merely from being in his presence.
(What a fantastic interview, it has me buzzing, I feel like I'm back at the event! Thanks again to Ger McNally for interviewing the Everton Giants) Review part 3 coming soon includes a photo gallery and a brief review of the event itself. Ger McNally interviews Joe Royle in Part 1 here). (Ronan)