The Tooney & Russo Show - Growing up and school days

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

In this episode we hear why Ella and Less were so fond of their time at school, plus why Ella campaigned about school dinners and Less’ fashion faux pas on ‘non uniform’ days. The pair also share what it was like studying during England camp and the chaos they got up to with other players in class.[Episode recorded over 24/04/2024 & 25/04/2024]

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cargurus.ca. BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. I was fine in school, but then whenever I did an education class and I was with Les, like, she dragged me down. She's blaming you.

No. You did because I never got to teach in school. You distracted me. I remember when we were at the World Cup in Jordan, we hid one of the girls in like a suitcase yeah we hid georgia stanway under like a video of us yeah and we were like dragging around and that and mike's going girls get back to school just do your work yeah hello and welcome to the toonie and russo show with me, Vic Hull. I am here with two of football's most famous friends, Alessia Russo and Ella Toon.

Woo! That was a really aggressive woo! Just a finger! I like that one! Woo! This is the pod where you get to be a part of the conversation with ella and less and find out all the ingredients of a friendship that is over 10 years old as always the girls have promised that nothing is off limits nothing is off the table so let's get into it on the toonie and russo show

hello again hello oh yeah if you're not watching on youtube and you're just listening uh the finger sounds like euphemism it wasn't i just i don't know why do you ever find yourselves in a situation where you're not sure what to do with your face body or voice i remember when you scored and you did like five different celebrations i did all sorts i was like hands went up, hands went out. I jumped. I did this. I did this. Just a little kiss on the wrist. I'm going to start doing that in social situations when I'm just unsure of myself. Oh, I've had, you know when you're not sure

if it's supposed to be a hug, a kiss on the cheek, a handshake, and you've gone in and they've gone in for a different one. Awkward. It's so awkward. I feel like even the first time we met, I was like, do I hug? I'm not sure if it's right. Are we there yet?

But I've had before where I've gone in for a hug and a kiss and a handshake. It's all been at the same time. And end up giving my hand for them to kiss. Like it's Victoria's Day. You can't kiss my hand. Oh, I do hate that. When you go like that and they've gone like that and then you swap and they swap.

Yeah. Oh, you just want the floor to swallow you up. Yeah, and I hate a hug and they're going in for a handshake. Oh, God. It's so awkward. Well, we have been discussing friendships, the best way to start them, like our own, and the way that your friendship has developed over the years.

We're taking it right back to the beginning now. This episode is all about how you were at school because your school days, they do, they pave the way for the rest of your life, don't they? They were the best days. Were they for you? Yeah, definitely. And when you leave, like you, when you was in school,

you was like, oh, I can't wait until we finish. And then as soon as I left, I was like, I miss it so much. I miss seeing my friends every day. Maybe not the actual school work, but I miss everything else about it. It's funny, isn't it? You literally count down the days. I could not wait to leave.

I was so ready. And I look back with these rose-tinted spectacles on that time in my life. I loved it. Yeah, I loved it too. Were you quite good at school? I was actually really good at school. Really?

I was so scared of being told off. I think that's just the way mum and dad brought me up, but I'd never had a detention in school. In high school, never had a detention. I don't know if it's because the teachers loved me or what, or I was actually just really good, but yeah, I was pretty good in school. I don't mean to offend. You didn't expect that from me, did but yeah I was I was pretty good in school I don't mean to offend

I didn't expect that I was no everyone thinks I'm like really naughty and that but I'm actually really good and just cheeky that's nice though because I feel like there's a confidence in cheekiness that doesn't mean naughtiness at all when kids are allowed to like be themselves um and not a single detention. No. I'm really impressed. Yeah, it's good going, that. Yeah.

What were you like? Were you ever naughty? No, I was good. The only thing I got in trouble for was talking. Yeah, I can imagine that. Yeah. I just liked to have a little chat every now and again. And sometimes it was probably not at the right time in class, maybe.

But besides from that, I was good too. Although a lot of teachers I have two older brothers and we all went to the same school and my eldest brother Luca was really good and like really academic and Giorgio was a little bit like Ella like quite cheeky but often maybe crossed the line of being a bit naughty and I when I used to go into class and like on your first day when you get new teachers and stuff they used to always be like oh you must be Giorgio's sister

it's so unfair if they hate the way if they set the tone and there's expectations I always felt really bad because I had three brothers all younger and I'm not this is not to blow my own trumpet

because it's not necessarily something to be proud of I was a massive swat like I took it very seriously like ran myself into the ground with working hard and having to do all the extracurricular activities and so when my brothers came through all the teachers like oh victorious brothers yeah you're gonna be great and they were like it's not fair yeah I know a lot of toons went to, we've got a massive family, so loads of toons went to school before me.

So when I came, they were like, oh no, not another toon. Yeah, that was more my vibe, like, oh, you're a Jojo sister, rather than like, oh, you're Victoria. The opposites. It's nice though, having siblings or family members

go to the same school. To an extent, I say this, to an extent I remember there being a boy that I liked at school and once my brother found out, because even though my brothers were younger, very protective, I remember Louis used to stand with a cricket bat and just like do this to him, like threaten

him in the corridors. Once I even saw my brother at a window go to him like this. I probably can't say that, it's quite gruesome. But, like, drag his finger across his throat in threat. Oh, scary. What kind of schools did you go to? Well, my primary school was just literally down the road,

like, two-minute walk down the road. Boys and girls, just the usual. and then my high school was fred longworth i still go back now because i'm really close with a lot of the teachers um a lot of them still come to my games and stuff so i have a good relationship with them and um yeah that was just a walk as well um yeah mum and dad never dropped me off at school. I had to walk. But it was better than getting the bus, I suppose. They must be so proud. Like, when you go back and you see them and you see the students as well, do the kids get so excited?

Yeah, I went back not long ago because they'd just knocked down our school and built, like, a whole new one. So I was really upset because those were the memories and it was like a dead old-looking school and now it's so modern and new but I went round with my PE teacher and he was showing me everything and I was going into classrooms and they were all like

oh my god it's Ella Toon and I was like that's so weird isn't it oh it's so nice yeah it's just so nice to see my teachers and stuff and they've now like done a board outside the PE office of just me with pictures and my shirt and stuff. And they've now like done a board outside the PE office of just me with pictures and my shirt and stuff like that. So yeah, it's really nice.

Les, have you been back to your school any time? Yeah, I have. I go back, well, as and when I'm home and stuff like that. It feels like tiny again, doesn't it? Yeah, you feel dead tall, especially when you go into primary school. Yeah. You feel massive. All the chairs are like...

Yeah, yeah. dead tall especially when you go into primary school yeah you feel massive the chairs are like yeah yeah my primary school was like around the corner um like quite a small primary school and then my secondary school i actually went to a catholic school um but it was like the best school like in the area yeah unlike toonia i couldn't actually walk there it was a bit far and my mum actually took me and my brothers to school every single day like I don't think there was one day where mum didn't take us that's lovely that and she used to make really good packed lunches like she used to make like a pasta salad or like really nice sandwiches and like I remember sometimes if I didn't eat my lunch because I had like sometimes I had to go to like football and stuff at lunch. All of my friends would be like, can I have your lunch today?

I didn't used to take part lunches in. In high school, I loved break time. I used to order everything off the menu. And then at dinner times, I used to love a cheese swirl. Did you ever have a cheese swirl? Yeah, that's not a bit of me. And then they got rid of them, and I was school council, and I fought for cheese swirls back. And they came back. Your early politics days. I was school council and I fought for cheese swirls back and they came back early

politics days I was really you brought back the cheese swirl yeah I did I did it for the did it for the people yeah for the people in your face so you you had lunch I feel like I'm hearing a lot about Carol and I think you need to try her food yeah yeah it's legendary clearly yeah she's my favorite was this pasta salad in it. It used to have like tomatoes and little chunks of mozzarella in it. And it was like in basil and salt and pepper. She used to go all out, to be fair. But like, she's just, yeah, she's great.

She used to wake up early and make it before. That's nice. We used to go to school. But you were on school dinners. Yeah. Yeah, same. My mum did not make us packed lunches um but she did take us to school well my dad took us to school in the mornings and she'd pick us up in the evenings

and i say evening because it was well after six o'clock and everyone else in the whole school had gone what did you used to do till six o'clock we would wait on the wall outside we do like the after-school club and then we just wait my mum was working hard she was working hard and then she'd pick us up but we would have school dinners but at break time everyone else would have packets of crisps yeah but my mum was like no no processed food we were always you get an apple and that was it and everyone knew that the warsaw hopes were coming because me and my brothers would walk around the school playground with our hands like this and everyone would know to put a single crisp. That's nice of them. Times are hard.

They knew we weren't allowed. And they were like, there you go. Thank you. There was a little shop round the corner from my school and when we got a bit older and we were allowed to leave at like break and lunchtime, we used to just go around and get crisps all the time yeah it's actually bad what i ate in in school but you're tiny like yeah you need people used to sell like chocolate bars for 50p i was i must have been the biggest

buyer yeah in the school and they'd sell like lucasade yeah we had lucasade yeah my brother i actually sold for a week i didn't tell my mum and dad but I sold Chewits for a week I used to love Chewits you know if you got caught doing that it was like detention yeah because you're really dealing

but we used to yeah the shop it was like 20 pence it was 10 pence for an ice pop we'd take 20 pence from the juniors

we'd make a 10 pence profit nice that's good yeah because you just have to do the walk yeah what were your favourite subjects at school oh PE

PE I love PE I used to go and sit in the PE office I never left Yeah, because you just have to do the walk. Yeah. What were your favourite subjects at school? Oh, PE. PE, for sure. I love PE. I used to go and sit in the PE office. I never left. And have like a cup of tea. And yeah, I used to love PE. Yeah, I never left the PE office.

I was always there. Dinners, after school clubs, everything. I really enjoyed history. Like the actual subject of it. I just find it fascinating. I don't think my actual history teacher liked me so that was a bit of a problem but I enjoyed the subject

and yeah I used to I remember it was on the top floor of our school and the classrooms were so hot but I enjoyed it I enjoyed learning about the wars and stuff like that I liked Spanish I weren't the best at it but it was fun I enjoyed it. I enjoyed learning about the wars and stuff like that. I liked Spanish. I weren't the best at it, but it was fun.

Don't say that. You were good at Spanish. I know my Spanish paragraph. You've done your paragraph. You know what? I used to like catering food or whatever people call it. But what I hated was when I had catering and PE on the same day. Because you had about six bags. And I couldn't carry it all in.

That was a nightmare. That was a nightmare. That was a nightmare day for me. What about when you'd like say to your mum at like eight o'clock at night, oh, have you got like 100 grams of flour or something that you needed? Have you got these ingredients? Yeah, I need to take these in tomorrow.

And I don't remember us ever taking anything home either. I think we just ate it there. Yeah, I think I did too. Depends who my partner was. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. If my partner probably didn't wash what i mean yeah if if my partner probably didn't wash their hands while they were making my food it didn't come home so yeah you keep that to be fair though my cousin and best friend is called ellie to ellie to an ella to and we're

in the same classes we're in the same year and luckily we're always next to each other on the register so like in catering class like we'd be partners together which was nice so you can take i could take the food yeah yeah say ellie wash your hands before you touch your food how much was um football a part of your time at school oh yeah i used to take trainers in every day yeah play with the boys on the boys with the boys on the playground yeah play with the boys football team and the girls football team we barely had a girls football team yeah I started a girls football team and I just got all my mates on it and they all hated it yeah but I'd just get the ball and run run for everyone and they'd be like cheering me

so did it feel unusual to be into football as a girl at your school at the time yeah but I used to have a really good group of girl friends and then a really good group of boyfriends at the same time um and I used to like meet the girls at the start and eat my lunch and then I used to be like right I'm off now and I used to go up into the playground and meet the boys and play football and then I'd go back because I'd leave all my stuff with the girls and then I'd go and put my blazer back on and then we'd walk to class together that was like I was when the lads were playing at dinner time and stuff like the girls would all be there standing watching and I'd be playing with the lads and then I'd like if the lads sometimes tried to kick the ball at the girls I'd be like in the way like

protecting all the girls out the way yeah but yeah I absolutely loved football in school like I played with the lads y cyfan. Pan oedd yna'r ysgolion, roedd yna un gynharach yn chwarae ar y tîm. Roedd yna un gynharach yn chwarae, ond roedd yna'r lads yn parhau i fynd i fyny. Os oedd rhywun yn gwneud tâcl pech arna i, roedd yna'n dweud yn dda. Felly, roeddech chi'n chwarae ar gyfer y tîm chwarae bach neu'r tîm chwarae? Ar gyfer y tîm chwarae bach. Ie. boys football team or just for the football team for the boys football team yeah um and then in like year nine or whatever I started a girls football team uh yeah and tried to get as many

girls as I could in that and since then there's been a girls football team now see the politician again campaigning exactly what's right yeah looking back and knowing how much you enjoy camp and that camaraderie and that community and getting to play all together would would you have enjoyed being at girls school do you think or would you not have had that opportunity that you had from being with the boys I think I'd always like I grew up with two brothers I used to play with their teams when I was a kid I was in and around like boys football ever since I was young that I think if I went to an all-girls school probably would have missed like yeah that camaraderie and definitely playing with the boys I was almost ignited because they were there yeah and you always feel like you have to prove

yourself with the boys so you always feel inferior a little bit until you've proved yourself um and yeah same as Toonie like when I used to play on the boys' team and we used to go and play another boys' team. To be fair, most of them locally I would know because we'd played football together in the past. But if we'd go further out to play a boys' team a bit further away, they'd always be whispering like, oh my God, they've got a girl on their team.

And then you're like, screw this. You want to try even harder. Yeah, you do ever feel like car shopping is designed to make you second guess yourself

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and price history. So you know a great deal when you see one. That's cargurus.ca. What was it like juggling school and the beginnings of your footballing career? Because that's a lot of work for a kid outside of school. Yeah, it was hard. Yeah, it was hard. I remember going straight from school to training and having to do some homework in the car and getting changed in the car.

Yeah, it was difficult. And when we used to go away on England camps when we were younger, we'd be away for like 10 days. So you used to have to take loads of schoolwork away with you and we'd have like an hour or two a day on camp doing our schoolwork there. Felly roeddech chi'n gorfod cymryd llawer o waith ysgol gyda chi ac roeddem yn cael ddau awr neu ddwy o ddiwrnod ar y camp yn gwneud ein gwaith ysgol yno. Felly pan roeddech chi'n dod yn ôl, roeddech chi wedi colli llawer o waith ysgol, yna roedd gennych chi'n rhaid i chi ddod i fyny â 'r holl hyn. Felly ie, roedd yn anodd. Beth oeddech chi'n ei ddweud?

Ymhlith 13 a 16. Ond yna roedd y camp un o'n ni hefyd, sydd yn But then there was one camp that we had as well, which was in Belarus. And we had to take some of our GCSEs out in the office. What was it called? I don't know what you mean. What's the embassy? Embassy, yeah. The embassy in Belarus. We had to take like two or three GCSE exams at the British embassy in Belarus.

I took science, I think. I think I took maths. Yeah. And we had like a education officer shout out to Mike shout out to Mike he was like our favourite

he loves me and Les we've got a group chat yeah still now yeah we always oh my god amazing we see him and speak to him a lot don't we

I actually think I need to text him because he's from Liverpool and I'm playing Everton at the weekend so hopefully he'll come up for that game but yeah

me and Tooney were definitely his favourites and he'll admit that we were his favourites but we caught the most trouble didn't we like I was fine in school

but then whenever I did an education class and I was with Les like she dragged me down she's blaming you no you did because I never got

you distracted me and yet Mike kept me and you behind after every session. I think he just liked hanging out with us. Yeah, true. But we did talk a lot and there was times where you'd be like, Ella, like, go and crawl under the table. Oh, come on.

And then I'd do it. She'd make me do things that I didn't want to do. I remember when we were at the World Cup in Jordan, we must have been about 15, 16, and we hid one of the girls in like a suitcase. Yeah, we hid Georgia Stanway. Under like... There's a video of us.

Yeah. And we were like dragging around and that and Mike's going, girls, get back to school. Kids, they just do your work. Yeah. So was Mike bringing your actual GCSE papers with him to Belarus?

I don't think he brought them over. I think they got like sent over to the embassy. Because they're under lock and key. Like no one can get hold of them. Yeah it was serious. It was serious yeah. We had to do loads of revision and stuff and every time I was away on camp like I'd hardly

really do anything. Yeah. I'd just copy out the textbook and like highlight it and make it look dead pretty. Really nothing was going in my head. But yeah I did I took science with ellie roebuck i remember georgia stanway used to have the neatest revision book i've ever seen in my life it's like the biggest thing though yeah but she failed yeah it was like the nicest revision book ever but it was literally just copying it was so neat yeah and if she'd do a little scribble

she'd like rip it all out and start again, like perfectionist. Whereas me and Les were like messing about. How did your GCSEs go? I did all right, to be fair. I think academically, I weren't the best, but I had to really try dead hard. And I think if I would have revised a lot more,

I'd have done better. But I think I got one A, six Bs, two Cs. So I didn't do too bad. Yeah, I was very, like, average throughout. I can't remember what I got in my actual results, but same as Toonie, I had to study. And if I didn't, then I felt it. By the time you were doing your GCSEs, did you feel like they mattered?

Because at this point, presumably, you know that football is what you're going to do. I don't think we did i think you know like the pressure of gcse and exams was like this is the be all and end all of life like but i also knew that i wanted to be a footballer but it wasn't like a thing like you people that were footballers when we were that age had other jobs so i think school was always really important and that's another reason why I went to America although I am yet to finish my degree but I've only got two classes three years later we're in the process of it um but yeah I think it was education had to always be a priority for us yeah and my mum definitely drilled that in she was like it's a non-negotiable Ella

yeah you gotta go to school it can be a place with loads of pressure all you want is to fit in did you feel like you ever struggled with that did you ever feel pressure at school no I don't think I ever did like I was just who I wanted to be and from really young I was a proper tomboy like I had loads of boy mates like I just wanted to be with the boys just wanted to be playing football and I earned that respect from the boys like quite early on that she's a Roeddwn i'n fwy o fwyaf o ffynion. Roedd gen i llawer o ffrindiau. Roeddwn i eisiau bod gyda'r ffrindiau, roeddwn i eisiau chwarae ffôtbol. Roeddwn i'n cael ymddiriedaeth o'r ffrindiau yn gyntaf, ei bod yn ddyn ond galla i chwarae ffôtbol. Er bod fy mab eisiau rhoi fy ngwyliau i mewn, roeddwn i'n gwneud cwtiau ffôtbol. Roedd hi'n ceisio gwneud i mi ddynnu'r air, ond doedd hi ddim yn ei wneud. Roedd hi'n dweud, wnewch chi ei gadael i, mae eisiau gwneud hynny, mae eisiau chwarae ffôtbol, mae eisiau bod gyda'r ffrindiau. she just leave her to it. She wants to do that. She wants to play football. She wants to be with the lads.

And yeah, I think just because I had that from them, I just went on and did whatever I wanted to. Were you aware of pressure or trying to fit in? Yeah, I mean, I think that when I was a lot younger, I felt like I had to be a tomboy to fit in with the boys. Like there was times where I'd wear boys' shorts shorts to school like I used to really want to make sure that I was always allowed to play football but at the same time I'd always been really girly but I just felt like I needed to kind of act like a boy to be able to play football um but as I got older and I went to my first girls team, which was Charlton at the time when I was about 12,

maybe a little bit younger than that, actually, I saw that these girls could be girly and still play football. And I was like, yes, this is what I've been waiting for. So literally within a week of me joining that team, I said to mum, can I go and get my ears pierced? And mum was like, yes, of course you can. So she took me to get my ears pierced. And then from then on, I used to love having my hair done.

I used to love going to get my nails painted. I realised that I could still be really girly and play football at the same time. And when I was really younger, I didn't really understand that. I thought football was only for boys but I still wanted to play um so yeah once I grew up a bit I was back in my dresses I didn't snap out of my tomboy era for a while mum was waiting for me to put that dress on yeah it's funny isn't it because when you're growing up and still now and it's a society thing it's a it's a cultural thing you feel like there's these boxes we have to fit in. You can either be girly or you can play football.

And I think, and I love to talk to young girls about this. It's not just a case of saying you can be anything, but you can be everything. It's not or, it's and. Knowing that you can be whatever you want to be and it's a little bit of everything. You don't have to fit inside a box at all is the most liberating thing and it's something we learn when I was at school I don't know about you but there were those boxes and there were those groups like and a lot of it actually was based on what kind of music you listen to that was sort of how the tribes were were defined was like they're the emo kids they're the rock kids they're the r&b

kids they're the pop girls were there different groups at your school yeah there was definitely different groups um can't remember what we was called like we had a group name oh my god maybe like t11 or can't remember the girls i remember and then there was another group with a different name it was like a bit of rivalry um but yeah there was loads of different groups in school. And it was nice, because I think our little group actually got on with everyone, but we just was always really close friends.

But yeah, it's nice that you fit into your different group and you find your different mates along the way. Yeah, you find your tribe. Our group was all just, we were all just the same height. We were all just similar height, which looking back now, it sort of makes sense because you you just see eye to eye like physically but the groups at my school there was everyone was sort of in there's like this is really bad there's a group of boys who were called and they call

themselves this the hobbits because they were all quite small and they had one tall friend and he was Gandalf. Don't be like, he was not very tall. But yeah, we went for our emo phase at one point. That was quite a big one. We all wore those like really flared purple cords and the studded belts. Maybe this is slightly different. That might be a Geordie thing. Maybe.

Or maybe I'm just 10 years older. There was also this sort of hierarchy of popularity. Looking back now, it's so stupid and it's so arbitrary and everyone's gone on to find themselves and what they do and what they're good at. But do you remember that at school? Yeah, for sure. My group was formed on like,

you were put into sets like set one, set two, set three and set four. And set one was two set three and set four and set one was the top set and set four was the bottom set and we were like very middle all of my group and yeah that's how we formed because we were in most of our classes together um and then every now and again someone would get promoted to set one and someone would get demoted and you'd be like i need to get back into set two to be with my mates um so yeah I had a really nice group of friends at school and we were all super similar and they were all quite understanding of football as well which was nice because we couldn't really do the normal things that girls would do in school we couldn't go out partying we couldn't go to all

these different things that people wanted to do on a weekend because we had games and we had to sleep and we had to be on the other side of the country for something. So, yeah, they were nice and they were super understanding of football. And yeah, they still watch today, which is nice. How would your schoolmates have described you? I think they would say chatty and outgoing um I definitely think as I've got older I've become more of an introvert when I was in school I was really like extrovert wanted to be mates with everyone it's funny isn't it what you say about um going from being quite loud to being a little quieter because it's not necessarily being shy like people sometimes

confuse confidence with loudness and you can be quietly confident it sort of comes with a bit of security and knowing that you're doing what you're meant to do yeah I think as you get older you care more which you shouldn't but you care more about what other people think yeah and I just when I was younger I just used to I used to want to be with everyone I used to want to be in these big circles and I would be center of attention and now I think of absolutely nothing worse than that I'm happy like to have my chats in the morning then go home and be on my own and chill out and yeah it's weird how you change over time we used to do uh the personality things on camp like you used to have to fill in, like, a big questionnaire

and it would give you, like, your colour. And your colour was, like, meant different things. And Les's was always yellow. Like, so, wanted to be around people, like, ray of sunshine, you know, like, social and all that. Mine was always red, like, the angry one. That's good, yeah. But I was always in the red one.

What does it mean once you found that out though what do you do with that information it was just like getting to know each other yeah understanding that when you're in when you're away on camp for a long time people need different things and people there was blue and green as well and those were like green was like critical thinker yeah and that blue was like um I don't know I was never in them then too it was always roedd y blwch yn meddwl yn gyffredinol. Ie, ac roedd y blwch yn, dwi ddim yn gwybod, roeddwn i ddim yn ymdrech yn nhw. colour they are how they're going to take it so like the reds would always probably like shout but they don't mean to shout that's just like they're the red in the um yeah it was good to understand about yourself as well when you read this profile on you it was like someone had been following you yeah and they like just knew everything about you it was so weird yeah it's like when you get your star sign and like how do you know? But then sometimes I think, am I just relating? Yeah, yeah.

In terms of perceptions, and we keep coming back to it, but are there any things that people still say now about women's football where you're just like, oh, for God's sake, shut up? There's always going to be things people say about it, but I don't really ever listen to it. No, and it's so boring. Yeah't really ever listen to it like and it's so boring yeah it's like look how much it's grown i'm not really bothered if one person down the

road doesn't watch it like yeah it really doesn't affect me a lot of people still think we can't play football yeah exactly and that's fine you have that opinion but yeah that does not bother me at all any like anymore and i just think if you want to watch it, watch it. If you don't, don't. It is what it is. Don't force it upon someone. If you don't want to watch it, don't bother. People love telling you that they don't watch a thing. People always come to me and go, I don't personally listen to your radio

show, but I'm like, okay. You didn't need to tell me that. What do you want me to do with that information? I'm not... You don't listen. I'm not sitting at the microphone going i really wonder if karen is listening right now because i don't think i'll be able to perform without it yeah yeah people are rad aren't they we're almost coming to the end of our discussion about school just quickly non-uniform days because you mentioned

you wore a blazer so it's a uniform school oh yeah to love non-uniform days yeah why i just used to love getting dressed up i did i used to love it i used to like plan my outfit the week in advance really i remember i used to say to my friend do you know what you're wearing for non-school and my uniform was like blazer tie skirt like tight shirt tucked in top button done up it was very like proper so when you could relax and but I've always loved shopping and love yeah getting dressed up so I think that's why I got so excited about it I had literal anxiety the night before not even one day I couldn't sleep I would be sick I was so nervous and worried that I didn't have because like so many of the girls and boys in our school would have like really nice designer things or whatever and we didn't have that and I would

like you plan the outfit out and then just worry like fret all night it's not enough they're gonna make fun of me I loved uniforms because they were an equalizer yeah they were you don't have to think about anything you could go wrong yeah what about you yeah um I'm I'm probably more of a i'm still like this now i'm like oh less what you're wearing because i don't even know what to wear like basically my mum dressed me my mum's really good at like knowing she still does it now like when i go to an event she's like ellie you need a dress and then she'll send me loads of different dresses and when i went to cheltenham i didn't have a clue what to wear so she took me to the traffic center made me try loads of stuff on.

So yeah, mum definitely picked my outfits for non-school uniform day. Do you have any pictures from your teenage years that you look back on and you think, what was that? Hilarious. Yeah. Chinos and Toms get me when I look back on them. You remember them shirts that you used to nerd or like, you used to get them from like Primark.

Nerd and that, yeah. I don't know what was going on. And you used to wear like them glasses from the cinema and pop the lenses out yeah yeah god there's some uh yeah some bad uh wardrobe malfunctions going on but that was fashion then we look cool back then but that's so true yeah looking back i reckon in 10 years time when i watch this podcast i'll be like what am I wearing? I'm literally only wearing jeans and some trainers but it'll look weird in 10 years I feel like we all look great. We do. Guys don't

let's not put ourselves down but yeah I was never out of footy kits growing up. Used to have all of them like the Spanish ones, the Barca ones United ones, England ones loved it. I used to get the fake kits when I was on holiday. Yeah, same. I remember going to Madrid

and it was just after David Beckham had started playing for Real Madrid and going to the market and getting a fake Beckham shirt. Yeah, I used to have loads of fake kits. Loads of them. It was so cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Well, on that, I mean, we're almost done. What are you wearing tomorrow? Next episode. I don't know, we need to plan it, don't we? Yeah. I don't know, I'll ask Les what she don't we yeah I don't know I'll ask Les what she's wearing and then go off that

I'll ask your mum yeah I'll ask mum what I should wear yeah I'll see you next time see you next time thank you so much

for watching the Toonie and Russo show remember we have new episodes every single Monday you can listen on BBC Sounds or you can watch on YouTube

just search for the Toonie and Russo show and remember as well that if you want to listen to Miss Me with Mickey D'Oliver and Lily Allen, that is also on BBC Sounds for you. Enjoy, and we'll see you next time. On the Football Daily Podcast. The Women's Football Weekly.

With me, Ellen White. Ellen White coming forward for England, and there is the second. And me, Ben Haynes, with some of the biggest names in the WSL joining us every week to discuss everything that's happening in the women's game. Right after the World Cup, got told, we're going to America. I thought, amazing. Ten days in training, did my meniscus, and the next day they flew to America.

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