Life After Football

comment by Shugs (U14253)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by LQ (U6305)
posted 3 minutes ago
There was a lad in fergies autobiography who fergie said was one of the best prosects he’d ever seen but they couldn’t sort his head out and get him away from lanky hill In Stockport.

His brother was in my year something Ryan he was called.
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Adrian Doherty was one fergie regretted... Supposed to be better than giggs, but a bit of a hippy type... Got injured and never came back

Ended up dying young in Amsterdam i think
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That’s bloody tragic

Some one did a thread on this a while back. Possibly Robb.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/11/adrian-doherty-manchester-united-lost-genius

The pressures on these let’s face it boys is incredible there’s some tragic stories and waists of young lives innchase of a dream that might not be for everyone, it’s easy to dismiss it with the argument that money and football is a dream that is for everyone but it carries enormous pressure.

A different world.

If Eckersley was still playing at the top level nowadays or even somewhere high up and playing regular minutes somewhere, he'd still be a footballer now.

I know somebody very well who played for the youth set up of a Conference side at the time. He finally broke into the first team squad, but didn't play much so he ended up dropping down leagues. This team was relegated a couple of seasons ago and he told me that some of the players starting in that side were on the bench in his youth days, so I thought if he stayed at this club, he would have been a starter by now. But that's irrelevant. What is relevant though is he dropped down leagues to play games. Ok, was maybe a little impatient because he only gave himself a month or two before deciding to bail and move on. He started some games at one club a couple of leagues down, but the travel was a problem and once he scored an equaliser against a side at home which I went to watch and then he was dropped, so he ended up leaving. Eventually, he ended up 3/4 leagues lower than where he began, still wasn't playing there so he quit football for good and he's not looked back since. There gets to a point where it becomes demoralising for you, surely he'd have thought going down 3/4 leagues he'd have started somewhere and been the first name of the team sheet, but he just wasn't, therefore he ended up quitting. Its a tough old game.

David Bentley retired early cos he too fell out of love with the game, opened up a bar in Spain

Found that article pretty self-indulgent. Fair play for him wanting to do something else, but he only did that as he wasn't good enough to stay in the professional game.

comment by Kunta Kinte Kante Conte (U1641)
posted 32 seconds ago
David Bentley retired early cos he too fell out of love with the game, opened up a bar in Spain
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David Bentley is a good example. A bloke that was genuinely premier league level but just lost interest. If he really wanted to he had the talent to play for a lower prem/higher championship club over the past few years

I remember seeing him make his debut for United. I remember saying, 'There's a lad who's got a great future... running the UK's first zero waste food shop.'

Seriously though, good on him

He must have some pretty big bins out the back of his shop where he can chuck his wasted career

comment by Everywhere you go always take Lamela with you. Mopo's #1 fan. (U7905)
posted 12 hours, 52 minutes ago
comment by Kunta Kinte Kante Conte (U1641)
posted 32 seconds ago
David Bentley retired early cos he too fell out of love with the game, opened up a bar in Spain
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David Bentley is a good example. A bloke that was genuinely premier league level but just lost interest. If he really wanted to he had the talent to play for a lower prem/higher championship club over the past few years
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Earned a fortune,injured most of the time. A millionaire many times over and smart enough to know he wasn't up to it and didn't want to or need to carry on playing lower league.