The latest guest on our Bred a Blue podcast series is Preston North End midfielder, Ryan Ledson. Ledson first came to Everton’s attention when he was just four-years-old and he completed the full journey in 2014 when he made his senior team debut. He speaks about his upbringing with the Blues and being handed his Under-21s debut by Alan Stubbs when he was just 15-years-old. His big moment in an Everton shirt came on 11 December 2014 when he was one of four senior debutants against FK Krasnodar in a Europa League tie at Goodison Park. Kieran Dowell, Chris Long and Gethin Jones also made their bows that night. “The team was named an hour-and-a-half before kick-off and I was in it!” says Ledson. Sadly for the player, despite performing well, it would be his one and only appearance for Everton. A highly successful loan spell at Cambridge United in the 2015/16 season really whetted his appetite for senior football and he realised that his future lay beyond Goodison. “I had a year left on my contract at Everton so I could have stayed in the building but I played in a 21s game coming back after Cambridge and I remember thinking during the game that I couldn’t do that anymore.” He made the decision to switch to Oxford United where he impressed sufficiently enough to earn a move to the Championship with Preston. Ledson speaks about the teenage pressure of being capped at every level by England and the frustrating injury that prevented him playing alongside Club teammates Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Jonjoe Kenny, Dowell and Ademola Lookman when England Under-20s won the World Cup in 2017. Ledson also reveals that he had an agonising decision to make when the Under-17s European Championships clashed with Everton’s last Premier League fixture of the 2014/15 season at Hull City. He chose his country, despite thinking that he’d play at Hull. He is now approaching 200 games for Preston, but he retains his genuine affection for Everton and said this about one of his Blues teammates: “He’s the best player I’ve ever played with. He was a step ahead of everyone in training and played balls that you didn’t even think were on. And not only that, he was a top fella who really helped the young lads.”

The latest guest on our Bred a Blue podcast series is former Everton reserves goalkeeper, Jamie Speare. By his own admission, the mention of his name to Toffees of a certain age will only prompt the response ‘his name rings a bell’, but in the mid-late 1990s, Speare was one of a number of young goalkeepers waiting in vain for Neville Southall to give them a sniff of first team action! It never happened but Speare and the Blues legend struck up a friendship that has endured to this day. It wasn’t all plain sailing initially though. “Neville pushed me to the point that I nearly quit three weeks into the first month of my YTS,” Speare says. “He was giving that much stick out and I really didn’t know how to take it. My mum took it up with the Club, but Neville said to me: 'If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t bother you,' and I thought ‘fair enough.’ “We got on great and still do. He drove all the way from Kent for my wedding, which he didn’t need to do.” Speare played youth team football with Graham Allen, Jon O’Connor, Gavin McCann, Jamie Milligan, John Hills, Phil Jevons, Michael Branch, Michael Ball, and Richard Dunne, all of whom progressed to play senior football. Speare came close, but just not close enough. He played in a friendly against Aberdeen, made the odd substitutes bench in the Premier League and was in Joe Royle’s squads for the ECWC ties against Reykjavik and Feyenoord in 1995. The closest that he got to a senior appearance was against Blackburn Rovers, but it wasn’t as a goalkeeper! “It was at Ewood Park and Anders Limpar went down injured,” he explains. “Joe had used all his other subs so he told me to get warmed up. Anders got back up, so I never got on!” In this Bred a Blue conversation, Speare speaks openly about being released by Everton and talks us through his subsequent career – which included European football with Cwmbran Town, more than 300 appearances for Accrington Stanley and a short spell at Sligo Rovers. These days, Speare in the assistant manager of Northern Premier League Division One West team Nantwich Town, after being set on his coaching career by a PFA funded course. It’s another fascinating story from a young man still involved in football after an Everton Academy upbringing. Don’t miss the incredible story of the dramatic and historical Everton message that he mistakenly pulled off the fax machine at Bellefield while waiting for one for himself!

The latest Official Everton Podcast is all about last day dramas! Evertonians have had more than their fair share of mixed emotions on the final day of a football season and host Darren Griffiths is joined by Dave Prentice and Gavin Buckland to look back at some of them. We feature the last-gasp escapes of 1994, 1998, 2022 and 2023 – and hear from one of the goalscoring heroes, Gareth Farrelly. We learn which future Blues hero made his professional debut as a teenager for Arsenal during the very last game at Goodison Park that wasn’t filmed! And which Everton player is the only one to have ever scored the very last goal of a Premier League campaign – a 93rd minute winner? We also reveal that the legendary Denis Law goal for Manchester City against Manchester United in 1974 did NOT relegate United – Mike Lyons did it a week earlier! And when did Everton get their first penalty-kick of the season with just ten minutes of the final game to go! We also speak about Duncan Ferguson’s last goal for Everton with his last kick of the last game against West Bromwich Albion and a wonder strike against Chelsea from Jermaine Beckford. And, of course, April 1978 when Bob Latchford just about reached his famous target of 30 league goals!

The latest guest on our Bred a Blue podcast series is former striker Phil Jevons. Jevons joined the Everton Academy as a schoolboy and went on to make nine senior appearances under Walter Smith. He recalls his early days at Netherton and Bellefield when the ‘friendly and challenging environment’ helped him develop, playing alongside the likes of Leon Osman, Franny Jeffers, Danny Cadamarteri, Michael Ball, Richard Dunne and Jamie Milligan. Jevons also played against international footballers when he reached the reserve team: “We played Manchester United at Old Trafford and they had Scholes, Jordi Cruyff and Solskjaer.” The Liverpool-born centre-forward helped Everton to win the FA Youth Cup in 1998 and the FA Premier Reserve League in 2001 – and in between he made his senior debut away at Blackburn Rovers. "I’d been top scorer for the reserves for three years on the run, so I felt like I was ready,” Jevons said. He went on to have a hand in the Everton goal in a 2-1 defeat: “I played an early ball to Don Hutchison and he found Bakayoko who scored.” The turn of the century was a challenging time to be a young striker at Everton because the competition was intense. Jevons was battling with Duncan Ferguson, Franny Jeffers, Kevin Campbell, Nick Barmby, Ibrahim Bakayoko and Danny Cadamarteri for a starting role. It was the subsequent arrivals of Joe-Max Moore and Mark Hughes that convinced Jevons that his future lay beyond Goodison Park “Joe-Max Moore was a good player and a great lad but I didn’t think he was any better than I was,” he says. “But my squad number went up from 20 to 26 so I had an inkling!” Jevons left Everton with no regrets and during the podcast conversation he reveals the player who had the biggest influence on him during his time with the senior squad. “He was fantastic with me. He was the ultimate professional, fit as a fiddle. He told me how to live my life, how to eat and how to train.” He left Everton in 2001 and joined Grimsby Town, for whom he scored a never-to-be-forgotten League Cup winner at Anfield against Liverpool! “I still get Evertonians coming up to me to talk about that goal!” Jevons went on to have personal and team success with Yeovil Town and Bristol City before winding down his playing career and moving into coaching – starting off at the Everton Academy where he was involved in the development of Kieran Dowell, Nathan Broadhead, Liam Walsh, Tom Davies and Calum Connolly. Jevons left Finch Farm to join Sunderland and he speaks honestly and with clarity about the ruthlessness of senior coaching environments. It’s another fascinating football story that has its roots at the Everton Academy.

The latest Official Everton Podcast is all about goalkeepers! Everton and England number one Jordan Pickford recently celebrated his 30th birthday and we thought it was as good a time as any to look back at the men who have stood between the sticks at Goodison across the decades. Darren Griffiths is joined by regular contributors Dave Prentice and Gavin Buckland as they look back at all the keepers from Gordon West to Pickford. There are audio contributions from Neville Southall, who reveals his desire to play as many games as he could and how lower league football prepared him for the physicality of the top-flight. John Ruddy recalls the bizarre circumstances that led to him making his one and only appearance, and we hear from current Everton goalkeeping coaches Alan Kelly and Dave Lucas. And, as always, Gavin provides some quirky facts and figures about the men in green. For example, who was the Everton keeper who was in goal for the reserves when a tannoy announcement asked him to move his car, and who won the league but then rejected the opportunity to join up with England for a World Cup tournament? Prenno muses over why we haven’t had a Scouser in goal for the Men's senior team in a competitive match since Andy Rankin. We also discuss ‘the one that got away’ – a goalkeeper linked with a move to Everton who went on to win a league title, a couple of European Cups and over 100 caps for his country.

Our latest Bred a Blue podcast is a little bit different! We travelled to Birmingham City’s training complex to catch up with John Ruddy and Lukas Jutkiewicz – two players who had one game each for the Everton's senior team but have since compiled excellent professional careers. Ruddy came from Cambridge United in 2005 and Jutkiewicz arrived from Swindon Town two years later. “The year I left Cambridge, they had been relegated to the Conference and Everton had qualified for the Champions League!” Ruddy recalls. The 'keeper was instantly loaned back to the Abbey Stadium outfit and trained twice a week at Bellefield before playing for Cambridge at the weekend. Jutkiewicz came under the spotlight after helping Swindon Town to the quarter-finals of the 2006/07 FA Youth Cup. “I remember my first session with the Everton first team, I was absolutely blowing!” he says. “I couldn’t believe the change in pace, training with players that a few weeks earlier I was watching on Match of the Day.” Ruddy’s senior debut, in February 2006, came in the most bizarre of circumstances – he came off the bench against Blackburn Rovers when Iain Turner was sent-off after just nine minutes. “It was probably the best thing because I didn’t have time to think. The fans understood that we were down to the bare bones, and it was a situation that nobody could foresee.” Everton won 1-0 but David Moyes moved quickly to bring in Sander Westerveld on loan. “There was an international break after the Blackburn game unfortunately, so that gave the manager time to do something,” added Ruddy. As for Jutkiewicz, he replaced Steven Pienaar late in a 3-0 home victory against Sunderland in December 2008. It was an opportunity that he thought had passed him by. “We’d had a game when I was on the bench and we were chasing a goal,” he says. “David Moyes brought Victor [Anichebe] off and I thought I was going to get a chance, but he put Phil Jagielka up front! That’s when I thought it wasn’t meant to be.” Ruddy eventually left Everton in 2010 – but it was a close-run thing! He’d just checked his bags in for the Blues' pre-season tour to Australia when Moyes pulled him over and told him to get them back as he was going to Norwich. Jutkiewicz made the trip but then agreed to move to Coventry City while he was Down Under! The two players have since racked up over 500 senior appearances between them and they both have fascinating stories to tell. Ruddy was in goal for Motherwell on the night Jutkiewicz slammed home a stoppage time equaliser in a 6-6 draw with Hibernian! The stopper also revealed that Everton also had a future England international on their radar when they signed him from Cambridge. And which player made Jutkiewicz's life a misery on the pitch at Everton but couldn’t have been kinder or more helpful off it?

Our latest Bred a Blue podcast guest is the answer to a great quiz question! Who is the only player to have been a teammate of Paul Gascoigne, Wayne Rooney and Jordan Pickford? Top marks if you went for former Everton reserves centre-half Sean O’Hanlon. Known throughout football as ‘Chief’, O’Hanlon never quite made the breakthrough at Everton after joining as a 10-year-old, but he did share a dressing room with Gazza and Rooney along the way. Indeed, he was Rooney’s roommate when the 16-year-old ‘Boy Wonder’ embarked on his first ever senior pre-season trip in 2002. After gaining some loan experience at Swindon Town, O’Hanlon decided to make the break from Everton in 2004 – realising that it was going to too tough to oust Alan Stubbs, David Weir, Joseph Yobo, David Unsworth or Peter Clarke from the central defensive berths. From Swindon he moved to MK Dons, for whom he scored at Wembley in the EFL Trophy final, then north of the border to Hibernian, before seeing out his playing days with Carlisle United and Stockport County. It was at Carlisle that O’Hanlon played in front of a teenage goalkeeper on-loan from Sunderland. "You could see even then that Jordan [Pickford] was heading for the top," O'Hanlon said. The former Blue hung his boots up in 2016 and then four years later, his young son became an internet sensation when, during the Covid lockdown, he recreated many famous goals in his back garden! The little fellow attracted the attention of the world’s media and O’Hanlon senior found himself conducting radio interviews for stations in Brazil, Italy and many more besides!

Carl Howarth is very much a part of the Everton Senior Men's set-up at Finch Farm. He’s a physiotherapist and his story is a fascinating one. Howarth is the latest podcast guest on our Bred a Blue series, having started his professional career at Everton before being released without playing a senior game. As a team-mate of Leon Osman, Tony Hibbert, Francis Jeffers and Kevin McLeod he was part of the squads that reached consecutive FA Youth Cup finals in 1998 and 1999. He recalls being on the pitch when Hibbert actually scored a goal! However, competition for striking berths, even in the reserves, was fierce and Howarth was up against Phil Jevons, Danny Cadamarteri, Nick Chadick and Jeffers. “There were no agents for us then so I would see Colin Harvey every week,” he says. “I’d had a two-year YTS and a one-year pro deal and I was playing in the reserves and it got to the end of April and I was told they still hadn’t decided on my future. “We played Newcastle at Widnes and all their back-four had played in the first team, but I scored and we drew 1-1. After the game Taff (Andy Holden) told me that Walter Smith wanted to see me the next day. I was buzzing because I thought I was getting a new contract, but Walter told me they didn’t think I was good enough and that I was being released.” It was the first of a series of setbacks. Chester wanted to sign him but after suffering relegation from the Football League they couldn’t afford any new players and a subsequent trial with Morecambe was cancelled a matter of hours before it was due to start. Undeterred, Howarth moved into non-league football and studied to become a physiotherapist. He got a break at the Bolton Wanderers Academy and combined it with part-time work for the NHS. Building up his knowledge and experience all the time, he then got a full-time opening at Birmingham City before moving to Wolverhampton Wanderers. The dream was always to return to where it had started and that golden opportunity duly came when Roberto Martinez was the Blues manager. Howarth was back at Everton! His football journey has turned full circle and his story is an inspirational one – a tale of bouncing back time and again.

European Ryder Cup hero and lifelong Evertonian, Tommy Fleetwood, was at Goodison Park recently for the game against Manchester City. He took the gold trophy, won by Europe against the USA in Rome in the autumn, onto the pitch before the game to thunderous applause from the fans. Before he walked up the tunnel, Fleetwood sat down with Graham Stuart for a quick chat about his Ryder Cup success and his love for the Blues. He also explained how his concentration on the course wavered during one of the majors – because Everton were losing against Crystal Palace in a must-win relegation clash in May 2022! “We were in the third-to-last group in the US PGA so we had a chance of winning it, but we had to keep track of the (football) scores at the same time. We’d played two or three holes and Everton were 2-0 down and then on the fifth or sixth tee we heard that we’d gone 3-2 up. We could concentrate on the major after that!” Fleetwood also compares vital putts to penalty-kicks, reveals his envy that footballers get that ‘team-spirit’ feeling every week, and recalls the time that Diamond had to curtail his viewing of a round in Orlando after picking up an injury!

Our latest Official Everton Podcast looks back at the all-too-brief, but nonetheless spectacular, Everton career of Andy Gray. November 2023 represents 40 years since the Scottish centre-forward joined the Blues. Gray was plucked from Wolverhampton Wanderers by Howard Kendall and went on to have an unbelievable impact on a team that went from struggling to find its way to becoming arguably the best in Europe. Host Darren Griffiths speaks to Gray himself and is also joined by Dave Prentice and Gavin Buckland, with contributions from Gary Stevens and the former Liverpool Echo Sports Editor, Ken Rogers, who reveals that he discovered Gray’s recruitment from an eagle-eyed Evertonian who had spotted him in a shop on Goodison Road. We learn that Everton were linked with Gray in the mid-1970s when Billy Bingham was the Blues manager, and the youngster was playing alongside Walter Smith at Dundee United. Everton statistician and historian Buckland tells us that Kendall was weighing up moves for an England striker and an Everton legend when he brought Gray in from Wolves. We also hear about when Gray threatened to walk out on the Club when he wasn’t selected for an FA Cup tie and the man himself declares that if he could play one game again it would undoubtedly be the match against Bayern Munich at Goodison Park. We discuss whether Kendall would have kept Gray had we been allowed to take part in the 1985/86 European Cup and it’s suggested that had he done so, then maybe Liverpool wouldn’t have won the double that season. Gray speaks passionately about his time at Everton and agrees with the notion that the success of the mid-80s was probably an antidote for a challenging period in the history of the city of Liverpool. Everton never lost when Gray scored and that sums up his infectious desire to win football matches for the Blues. “My best memory was signing and my worst memory was leaving,” he says.

Host Darren Griffiths sits down with the Charity’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Minds Lead, Mike Salla to discuss how Minds will offer comprehensive mental health provision to everyone when it is needed whilst promoting ‘living well’ and ‘ageing well’ with dementia. We also listen to a powerful piece from a former veteran turned participant and volunteer of Everton in the Community and how one phone call from the charity changed his life.