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Welcome, to sign up. YAY. Hello and welcome to a special episode of Sign Up. Every season, we travel the country going behind the scenes at Premier League clubs. In this episode, we'll be sharing our favorite interviews from the series. Here's what's coming up. We begin with one of the managers of the season. Keith Andrews did an amazing job with Brenford. We met him shortly after he replaced Thomas Frank. I am not going to be good at this. Just so you know, welcome to Sign Up. Not so robotic. I'm not a good dancer either, just so you know.
Thank you for meeting with us today. So, you've always wanted to be a head coach. You've now been in the role for 4 months. Did it live up to expectations? Ye. Yes. Uh it's been a busy few months. Uh there's been a lot of changes at the football club, staff, players. It's um it's been hectic, but it's a club that I know really well from being here for nearly 18 months now. So I knew a lot of the people that I will be working with, players and staff, which I think gave me a real advantage. But it
it has lived up to expectations. It's everything I've wanted it to be. And I think the main thing is that the people that I work with make it feel really special. And you've you've got that culture on a day-to-day basis that is um I think it's very special what we have here. So it's um I've enjoyed it. It's been busy but enjoyable. You played for Wolves and you became captain at a young age of 21. Would you say that you had those natural leader skills from a young age? Maybe. Yeah, I was very um I was very loud always on the pitch in the dressing room. Maybe two louds for a young player. Um and then I think you what you need to do is as you get older, I think you lead in a different way. As you
mature, you communicate more concisely rather than based on emotion. And I think then when you go into coaching, that's a really important part. Communication has to be concise, simple. Players need to understand it. Staff, the constant communication, whether it's in team meetings or whether it's on the sideline when you're trying to get little bits of information across to players, I think it's an important part. Um, but I suppose I always had certain levels of maybe I don't know whether it was leadership or I was definitely loud.
Thank you so much. It's been lovely having you here today. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Hello. Nice to meet you. I'm Danny Mate Ross and Sepra. Hello. Have you worked with the deaf person before? No. Okay. So, she's my voice standing over there. Okay. It's naturally for you to probably look to where the sound is coming from, but just keep your eyes on us. Well, so far Hello, welcome. Your dad was previously a professional footballer. Did you learn any experiences from him growing up? Any takeaways?
Definitely. He um definitely installed a lot of like say my habits and how I play now. Uh growing up, it was always hard work first. Um, even from a little kid, it's like making sure no one outworks me, out outruns me. I have to make sure I win all my jewels, all my battles and stuff like this. And just to always try and be the hardest working player on the pitch, no matter who you're playing against. Um, in terms of like physically seeing him directly, I was very young, so I don't remember too much of what he can do. But obviously, I've got friends and family who have told me a lot. You made your senior debut for Exit City at a young age of 15. Did you take that challenge on? Was it a bit unnerving?
I think it was looking back a positive. The fact I was so young, I was maybe a little bit naive to the pressures of the first team game because I was so young and a lot of older players might be working for their wages and for mortgages and stuff like that. whereas I was just a kid in school. So maybe I didn't have that external pressure, but it was something I just enjoyed doing as a kid. You always enjoy playing football. So it was never a daunting thing, but maybe it's cuz I didn't realize the pressures that I do now. You joined leads and became captain. So how do you feel with that additional pressure? Have you just kind of taken the role on and adapted easily?
Uh I'd like to say I think I have. I'd say players who have played with me before I was obviously fortunate to be given the captain and after would say I'm still the same person. Um I don't think it's changed me at all. I hope it's not changed me. I still have to perform to the same way I did. I still try to lead and be the same person I was. So you obviously I understand the added pressures that may come with but I'm still trying to be the same and growing in that way as well. Sorry, my thought process is all over. Okay. Right. So, I know nice to meet you. What's then when I've met you many times? Lovely to meet you.
It's the same as nice. Lovely to see you. Okay. So, like you Thank you. What's Chelsea? Chelsea. cuz you know the tongue on the badge, the tongue sticking. Oh, the red. So, Chelsea, Chelsea. So, this season, Chelsea will have interpreters on screen at both the men's and women's home matches. How do you feel about that? I think it's great. Um, I think football should be for everyone. Um, and I always find it hard when people aren't included. Um, it's one of my biggest pet peeves. So, for me, it means a lot that we can have interpreters. I've got um
it's really close to home um the deaf community and wanting to have everyone feel inclusive with my cousin being deaf. So, um yeah, I'm I'm all for it. You know, in the deaf community, everybody has sign names. Have you got a sign name, Hannah? Yeah, my cousin always made me one um when I was younger and he's does it ever since. So, it's H for Hannah and then goal hands from a goalkeeper. So, yeah, he's always calls me that. So, you communicate with your cousin through BSLD or do you gesticulate, lip read? How do you the two of you communicate?
He's very good at lip reading. Um and he can hear some pitch. He's got obviously his cockular implant and he can understand some words. Um, but I have learned a tiny bit of BSL to try and communicate with him and um, just put a smile on his face the odd time that I see him and I get to see him just to make him feel included in the family because it was only ever my uncle that could communicate to him. And it was annoying me when everyone just kept asking my uncle to tell Ethan um what we wanted and you just couldn't go to him. It didn't really feel personable. And I'm sure you've already picked up a lot of signs along the way, but are there any signs that you don't know that you'd like to learn?
Um I'll give you one. The lioness's Oh, I like that. The lionesses. Oh, I like that. So this is the sign for lion, but female lions don't have a mane. So lionessesis. Oh, I like that. So you can teach everyone and it well if you ever get a chance to score and they go, you could do that or you save a penalty, it could be a celebration. Next time I'll do that next time. You'll be watching out for it now. Do you know Chelsea? Chelsea. I just learned that one yet. Chelsea, I've got that one. I don't know. I think I'd really want to know a lot more um general phrases to be able to communicate with people um on a day-to-day basis.
How are you? Yeah. So, I know how are you? Nice to meet you. Um I know like quite a few generic ones, but I always like find it hard when I've asked you a question, you've replied to me, and then I'm a bit stuck. Yeah. And I think you can always use gestures. I think people don't always realize that gestures you can make yourself understood. It's all confidence as well. That's really important. Use these facial expressions. Do you want a drink? Let's go. Easily done.
Story of her life. Join us after the break for more of our favorite moments from this series. Welcome back to our season highlight show. Wolves finished bottom of the Premier League, but my visit to the club in December included one of my most memorable interviews. Hello. How are you? Okay, I'm good, thank you. This is my interpreter, Nadia. She's also my voice. Perfect. That's amazing. If you could just take a seat here, please.
Hi. So just to explain how the setup will work, I will sign directly to you. My interpreter Nadia is sitting over there. She will speak at the same time. She'll then pause for your interpreter to ask you the question. And if you can try to just look at me all the time, not me, look at her. So, welcome. When did you first become aware of your stutter? football is very fast-paced and very loud with a lot of people shouting. How do you manage communication especially if you need to say something quite quickly?
I think we're quite similar. Being deaf, communication is quite difficult. Sometimes I have to gesture, but when I'm on the pitch, I feel like everybody understands me. So, we probably have a similar experience. Yeah, that's true. So, we both possibly struggle with communication and we have barriers when it comes to communication. So, we need people to be patient with us. How important is that to you that people are patient? Welcome back to Sunderland. In 2000, Dwight York, Thierry Enri, and Alan Sheira were all competing for the golden boot. They were beaten to it by Kevin Phillips. He is one of only four Englishmen to score 30 goals in a Premier League season. We met him at a
club's training ground. Phillips take the scoring from here. Oh, yes he is. Phillips again. AND THE SCORE. OH, YES. Super care strikes again. One of the games finest finishes. Oh, what a strike. What a finish. 10 the 30 for Kevin Phillips. What an achievement. It's like absolutely incredible to go from being promoted into the Premier League with absolutely no fear. You take the stage in that platform of the Premier League and you've got contemporaries like Alan Sheira, you know, just completely blow him aside to win the golden boot in that season. When I think about some of the players that I was competing against, not just on domestic but England as well in the
England squad. You know, you had Alan Sheer, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Emil Hesky, Andy Cole, Matt Latizier, Teddy Sharingham, Jermaine. You know, there were so many good center forwards and I was competing against these week in and week out. And you know, these players played for and this is no disrespect to some of them because I love them that much that we weren't a top four, five side, whereas the others were playing in those teams where they expected to score goals. So, I think the achievement for me personally was probably better than those if I'm being honest because we weren't expected to finish in the top end of the league, but we did. We finished seventh. So, you know, it was a great season in terms of just getting my first
goal in the Premier League was huge. And then it just continued and flowed. And I have to, you know, I have to say and I give it a you know, I give huge credit to the players I was playing alongside because I couldn't score all those goals on my own. I needed my teammates alongside me to create me opportunities, no more so than the famous Nile Quinn. Exactly. You had a great partnership on the pitch. What was it like off the pitch? Did you go out together? What was your relationship like? Well, I have to be careful what I say here. Um because, you know, back then, as you can imagine, nowadays, players are so professional. um social media, camera phones, you know, you have to be so careful what you do. Whereas back then, no media uh no social
media, no phones with cameras on them. So, we were able to go out and relax and enjoy oursel and you know, it was more of a culture back then where the manager and the staff encouraged you to meet outside of the football to get to know each other and have a drink, you know, when it was right. Um but we probably took it sometimes a little bit too far. Um but we were getting results and so the team spirit at the time as it is now what I see here at Sunderland was so strong and you know my relationship with Nile off the pitch was great. You know we were very close and we probably did more tactical work off the pitch in the pub with pint glasses saying I go here queeny goes there than
we did out on the training ground. So it was a great time. Yeah, you'll be the genotonic glass and he'll be the pint glass. Right. Little and large. I was the shot glass. You said it. Okay. Thank you so much, Kevin. It's been a real pleasure talking to you and we really appreciate you coming to talk. No problem at all. Thanks for having me. Really enjoyed it. Nice. Lovely. Lovely to meet you. I've got one more question, Kevin. One more question. Do you have any regrets?
No. Well, actually, well, no, I don't. I wouldn't. If I had to roll back the clocks now, I probably wouldn't change a thing. Um, I was very close to signing for Tottenham when Glenn Huddle was the manager. Imagine Glenn wanted to sign me, but I had to have double hernier operation at the end of the season, so he said, "I can't take that risk." um was also close to signing for Arsenal as well. Very close. And so a good thing. Well, it's a good thing you didn't. So it was out of me and Francis Jeffers. Do you remember Fran Francis Jeffers? So Arson Wenger decided to sign Francis Jeffers instead of me. So whenever I see Arson Wenger now, he always apologizes
to me to say, "Sorry, I should have signed you." I'm like, "Well, that doesn't help now, does it?" But it would have been It's like sliding doors. Correct. Yeah. What if you know there's that what if but it would have been my dream to play alongside the legend Thierry Henry. So, but is it a regret? Imagine maybe a little bit. Yeah. Can you imagine Thierry Henry Kevin Phillips up front? Now, time for something special. Last month, Liverpool teamed up with their longest standing partner Carlsburg to launch a new campaign, Signs of Unity.
And before their match against West Ham, fans were invited to sign their iconic anthem. Take a look. in your heart. I remember Wow. It's watching King Kenny sign that. Wow. It's giving me goosebumps. There were loads of fans there watching the game. They sent us a few video messages and you can see what it meant to them. After the break, we tell the story of a deaf FA Cup winner. Welcome back. I'm here in the town of Todd Morton, just 9 miles south of Burnley. Why? to tell the story of a remarkable FA Cup winner.
Billy Nesbbit was born here back in 1891. At the age of 19, he joined Burnley Football Club and played right wing. He was quiet and very private. Few knew he'd been deaf all his life. He communicated by means of lip reading and gesture. And though he was small in stature, he was one of the quickest, trickiest wingers around. And in 1914, he helped Burnley lift the FA Cup. 7 years later, Burnley lifted the championship title, which included a 30game unbeaten run. Only three players featured in all 30. One of those was Billy Nesbbit.
He passed away in 1972. A quiet man who let his football do all the talking and whose remarkable story still echoes through Burnley's proud history. So, you grew up in New Zealand. What was that like? Now, what were your early football memories? Uh footballing memories from New Zealand are more from my dad. Um he played football, so I watched him growing up. Um as probably everybody knows, rugby is a big nation out there. It's it's been the best in the world for a considerable amount of time. Um although we're falling off to South Africa at the moment, but uh um that's what you grow up watching and loving. Um and I love that as a sport,
but it was my dad's influence of football that made me want to play and uh I just wanted to be like him. And then football just took over my life. So you moved to England. How did that come about? One of my coaches back in New Zealand, uh, Roger Wilkinson, he knew Dan Ashworth, which was academy manager at West Brom and, uh, they were lucky enough to just organize a trial for me to come over. Um, came over for a couple of weeks and done all right. And then they signed me on the scholarship program over here, which was fantastic and a start of this big journey that I've been on. And how old were you then when you signed?
I was over on my trial when I was 15 and then signed permanently at 16. That must have been a big adjustment adapting here. Yeah, it was an adjustment. Um my mother's English so I think it was a bit easier. She moved over with me in the beginning. Um and then my dad followed and uh my sister was at university at the time so she stayed back in New Zealand. Um, so I think having my parents there really helped me adapt into English life and uh made it easier to settle into in football over here. So you're at West Brom. You were loaned out on five separate occasions. Then you went to Leicester where you were loaned
out again. You know, you must have been all over the place. You know, how did you cope with that? Look, I think I was a firm believer I wasn't going to play in the Weston first team. We would just been promoted to the Premiership. Um, and they needed experienced strikers. Um, especially when they're they're trying to be consistent in the Premier League. I was 18, 19. Um, they're not really going to call on a youngster that much to lead the line. Um, so I had to go and play my football elsewhere and apply my trade. And, uh, the best way I believed and what people around me believed was doing loans. And I truly believe that's why I've got to where I have. um being able to experience those different
leagues, um understanding men's football in a game when I was so young and uh just trying to get better as the seasons progressed. I am here with actor, presenter and author Rose Ailing Ellis. Rose, hi. How you doing? Fantastic to have you here on Sign Up. Firstly, I'd like to discuss the deaf Olympics if we may. Um, the tournament is beginning very shortly on the 15th of November in Tokyo. It's the pinnacle of deaf sport without a doubt with representatives from all over the world.
But a lot of people don't know much about it. Can you tell us a bit more please? A lot of people when I tell them death That's fantastic. And GB are participating in seven different sports. There's football, athletics, swimming, tennis, cycling, golf, shooting. It's incredible the variety there. You were in a fundraising event recently, weren't you, for GB? What was that? Who were you involved with? I knew that a lot, not enough money. I wanted my platform to bring awareness to them for me that Olympic be as you know a lot of athletes well actually all of our GB athletes do not receive funding and that's an issue how do we change that probably
a lot of people don't know about the lack away why they want to fun and about business about money. But more out the more people want to watch demand mean grow and then money increase hopefully more. The captain today is going to be Mandy because you've been there for such a long time. We need your leadership. We need you to support the team going forward. Okay. So, what done It's good. Thank We need to be playing at your best ability and don't give up. Keep going. Keep your heads up.
Communicate. And the most important thing is just to enjoy the game. Join us after the break for more highlights from this season, including the Deaf Run Pub next to Sunderland Stadium, a popular spot on match days. Welcome back to Sunderland. Just around the corner from the stadium is the Victory Pub. A very popular spot on match days. It's deaf owned and run entirely by deaf volunteers. Here are some of the regulars. We're here at Leed's training grounds with manager Daniel Farer.
Hello Daniel, thank you for joining us. Thanks a lot for the invitation. Thank you. This is your third season in the Premier League. You led Norwich to promotion twice and you brought leads up to the Premier League. What would you say has been the biggest difference in terms of the transition from the Championship to the Premier League? Well, it's a huge uh gap between the Premier League, the best league in the world, and all other leagues and of course then also to the Championship. Um it's no coincidence that in the last years all the newly promoted sites were struggling. We want to break this curse and want to be the first site more or less since a few years uh to stay in the first time of asking and um it's
difficult to compare my former club Norwich and lead United. It's of course a different club in terms of size in terms of fan base in terms of tradition. So um I really have to say I really like it. I also like how the club together with our supporters have approached right now also the Premier League and this is what we want to do. We want to give this club and this supporters um yeah but what they need and also what they deserve. This club has huge potential and should play in the Premier League and hopefully we can establish this club then also this time for good. So how do you switch off aside from football? But you relax. It's difficult. If you want to work on this level, you have to be a bit like a workaholic and
you have to be ready to invest. And there's rarely a day. Sometimes there's a day without training, but um the head is always working and you think about the next opponent, about the next lineup, about the next training session, about the next conversation, about the next meeting. Um it's important to try at least to take you sometimes a bit time off. So I like to do myself some sports to clear my head. I like to read a lot. Uh I like also to watch films. Anyhow I have many different interests. So on my um on my neck is not just the ball. Anyhow I have the different interests. But as long as you work on this top level it's also difficult and you have to accept that you have to work a lot and if
you're not willing to do this it's also difficult uh to be competitive on the top level. You say you've got a lot of hobbies and a lot of interests. Do you have any hidden talents? Um, uh, so not enough time at the moment for many hobbies. Um, lots of interests and I would like to travel more and to see more, but perhaps hidden is a bit like um that I wanted to become a writer myself. So I really tried also like to write books anyhow when I was younger and the fire was burning. Um so um just due to my love to literature and to read a lot. So this is still a bit something I wouldn't say I'm unbelievably talented otherwise
I would have probably sold already a few books. Um but this is one of the hidden talents perhaps. Yes. We're back with Lindsay to talk a little bit more about her role as a presenter. So, what does pre big game prep look like for you? Well, it probably starts sort of early in the week really where I'm thinking about the two teams that we're focusing on. Start reading articles, um, making notes about the teams, possible talking points that I want to bring up with the pundits on the weekends. Um, and then I'll have a chat with my producer and we'll share ideas and discuss what we might do in each part. Um, and then he'll put that together in some running order format. So, we get a bit of
structure for the show. And then we get the pundits involved via a WhatsApp group, which is always good fun. Get their thoughts. I'm sure there's some bad behavior in those WhatsApp groups. Yeah, Joel Cole is normally very funny in the WhatsApp group. He loves a voice note. his voice notes are legendary. Um, and they'll start putting some thoughts into that on what they want to cover because we always want it to be punditled. So, we're talking about the issues that they're really passionate about. Um, but it goes on all week because you don't want to just be on top of your game. You want to be on top of
all the general stories in the Premier League because you just never know what the big story will be that weekend, what can change. So, you want to be across everything really. Um, so it's a constant process for me. I always have a document on my laptop for every game that I'm covering and I'm constantly just putting in little ideas or question ideas whenever I'll think of something through the week. Live sport can be very unpredictable. Lots of things can happen, lots of changes, technical issues. How do you cope with it all?
I think you just have to embrace it. um because it keeps us on our toes. I think it just reminds you that you're you're doing live TV and you just have to react and adapt. Um I think the prep comes into it. If you feel well prepared, you've always got somewhere to go, then you can comfortably deal with those situations. Um, and I think just doing it for 20 years now is that experience just helps you navigate those situations because you just get better at handling it, not panicking, staying calm, knowing that you've you've you're probably standing with legends of the game. So, if you can't fill some time talking to them about their stories and their experiences, then you probably shouldn't be there. Um, but
I think it's it's the exciting part of the job as well because you always know that anything could happen and you've always got to have that in the back of your mind when you go on air. Prepare for the unexpected. Yeah. I had one game though last season where I had a mild panic because I didn't actually have any pundits with me when we were about to go on air because we were at Tottenham. I remember that story. I think was it Joe Cole? It was Crouchy and Glenn Hodzle and we were at the Tottenham Carabag game and I heard through my earpiece that the carabag coach hadn't made it to the stadium. The traffic was horrendous.
I think the trains were all messed up. It was utter gridlock in North London. And they said they didn't know when the carabag team was going to get there. So there'd be a delay to kickoff. it could be 40 minutes to an hour. They weren't sure, but Glenn and Peter were also stuck in that traffic. So, not only did I think, well, I've got an extra 40 minutes to an hour that I'm going to talk as well as the 1 hour buildup, but I've got no one to talk to. So, anybody want to come talk to me? I was literally like that. I was like, Leslie King, can we get Ledley King? He's over there. Um, I think if you've got pundits with you, it doesn't matter. any delay, you can deal with it. But just not having anyone there with me, I
thought literally, who's going to want to listen to me for an hour and 40 minutes talking, but they literally ran in with seconds to go. Bright red in the face. Made it to the desk and off we went for this massive fill until kickoff. Just in time. Just in the nick of time. Ledly, off you go. Off you go now. We don't need you anymore. We've got Glenn back. I'm Demarus. Tom, you're here. Yeah. Welcome. Lovely to have you here, Tom. You've been at Fulham for a decade. Looking back to the player you were when you first arrived to the player you are now, what's changed?
A lot. I feel like I was um a boy and now not really. But yeah, a bit more of a man. Uh grown up a lot. couple of children um on and off the pitch. I feel like my mindset's changed a little bit. Um I feel that comes with a little bit more responsibility that the club have gave me, that the managers in the past have gave me, the manager now. Um but yeah, I think I've kind of grew into that role the longer I've been here. Um and yeah, I've kind of taken it in my stride. When I first got the captain's armband, it was is a little bit strange and a little bit early that I thought and I just had to kind of learn on the job a little bit. Um, but now I feel like um, no, I'm mature. I'm definitely one of the older players in
the group. Um, and sometimes it's nice in terms of your mindset. You said that changed. Can you give an example how your mindset might have changed? I feel like when I was a bit younger, I was a bit little bit more selfish just like looking after yourself um, concentrating on your own performance. But I feel like um as you get older being captain and then Premier League, people come from all over the world and you kind of like try and help them settle in, help them, do you know what I mean? Like cuz if they feel at home earlier, then it helps us as a team. And I feel like um as you get older or being a captain of a club, I
feel like that's a bit of responsibility because it's it's very daunting for like foreign players to come in, not know anyone, their families. Um it's difficult. It's very difficult. So, I'd say that's the biggest change like mindset wise to kind of think of other people more than just yourself. What would you say your leadership style is like as captain of Fulham? Um, I feel like I've got more vocal as I've got older. Maybe when I first started it was a bit more um kind of like leading by example on the pitch. Um, I've never been a big shoutter, but I feel like I've I've grown into that with more experience and more confidence in that sense. I speak a lot more before games than I used to now in my 30s. And also I'm quite versatile in
the dressing room where like I can speak to the older people about kids and school and stuff and I can go speak to the younger ones about going out and enjoying life. So I feel like I'm quite versatile in that sense in the dressing room. Like I don't you I float sometimes when the time's right. Yeah. You can invite us along next time. We can show you how to park. You need to watch out for Dear. She's dangerous. Throw some shapes. Oh, yeah. Thank you to all our amazing guests that we've had on the series. Ralph, who's been your favorite?
Oh, that's a difficult question. We've had so many good guests, but I think my favorite would be Kevin Phillips, Sunderland legend. Everything he said about his goals, his experiences, who he played with, really enjoyed that. And that was my era as well. He's quite small, a lot smaller than I thought he'd be. What about you? Mine would be Chelsea's goalkeeper Hannah Hampton. It was just after the women won the Euros. It was such a good conversation. I was in awe talking to her and she really took to the sign language. We've had loads of amazing guests. So, thanks to them and thanks to you for watching.
Bye.
