SCOTT DAVIES: TIME TO REPAY BOSS’ FAITH
IT’S MY CHANCE TO PUT RIGHT SOME WRONGS
FOOTBALL took a turn for the worse for me in 2014 when nobody would have touched me with a barge pole, but with a list of valid reasons to go with. As a manager, would I have signed myself ? Ability wise, yes. Professionalism? Not a chance. Yet saying that, any player could have all the ability in the world, but without professionalism you have no hope. It’s probably in the past few weeks that I realised how money was thrown my way as a young player. From the best contract I was on in my career, I now have to work for a week to match up to what I earned in a day back then. I definitely took it all for granted, as I am sure most young players would. You get caught up in this idyllic little world where you feel as though you’re invincible and on the fast train to stardom. Wrong. This stage of the year shows your value, your true worth and the opinions of managers within the game. Many a player I know is still waiting for that phone to call, to save them from entering the real world. It’s a scary feeling and one that is very hard to accept. Continuously checking twitter and BBC Football to see who has nicked a move, so that you can then sit there in the doldrums telling everyone how much better you are than them. Some may be asking how I know all of this? I know because I have been that person, and in some ways to this day, I still do it now. Of course there are players I have played with that I’ve quoted, ‘wouldn’t have got into my school team’, but what they do have is a real desire to do things properly and have the full trust of the manager. In what some would call ‘expert’ opinion, having the trust of a manager is the biggest requirement in a player these days. Once you’ve crossed that line it’s all down to the lad with the shirt on his back. For a manager to have 11 players out there that he trusts at once is unlikely, but to have a few goes a very long way, I assure you.
Disaster
Players of real pedigree have phoned me this summer asking if they know any clubs looking for a striker and so on. It’s getting more and more difficult. I remember back to the summer of 2014 when I thought it was a matter of time before somebody called. My stats didn’t match up too badly from games to goals, with a couple of promotions along the way. A few times the phone rang, with a number that I didn’t recognise which got me excited for obvious reasons. Then you hear ‘Hello, is that Mr Davies, I hear you were involved in an accident?’. At the best of times those calls were frustrating, but at a time where you had no job, no income and no dream to be living, it was very hard to take. The fear of the bills stacking up, whilst the money is slowing down. It’s a recipe for disaster. Doubly hard in my situation when I was trying to fund a gambling addiction too! Yet I managed, thanks to the help from my parents. It shouldn’t have ever got that far, but it did as I treated money with no respect in my early days when I should have been planning for my future. People always say to me, ‘You must miss being professional?’ In all honesty, I don’t. If I did it all over again I would have done things differently, but I don’t regret what I did. It was part of me then, and is still part of me now. At the end of the 2014 summer I received my first call from a club, Dunstable Town. They asked me if I would like to play in a match that evening against Hemel Hempstead so they could ‘have a look’ at me. I half laughed on the phone when they said that, as my ego took over. Have a look at me I thought? Are you joking? I’m coming down to have a look at you! In my head I was telling myself that I had just left Oxford United, a big club in League Two, to come and play in the Southern Prem in front of a couple of hundred people. Anyway, I played, did well and later signed for them. It’s only now that I look back and realise that being at Dunstable was where I deserved to be at. A lot of players feel as though they have this god-given right to be at a higher level from what they’ve achieved in the past.
Attitude
Having now signed for Chelmsford in National League South, I see players week in, week out who have dropped out of the pro game who should be playing higher. I’m in no doubt that if you made a squad up from our league from the best available, it would compete with the best teams in League Two. Again, it’s not about ability, it’s all about attitude. We sit and talk about ex-teammates who are playing in front of huge crowds in massive tournaments as if they’re fictional characters. It was only a year or two ago that we shared changing rooms together, and now I’m wanting a shirt of theirs to hang up in my wardrobe. I did this exact same thing with Ryan Bertrand at Southampton in December when I went to watch Tottenham play. He was an ex-teammate of mine at Reading, yet a few months back I questioned if he would recognise me or not if I asked for a shirt? Fortunately he did. But it’s still strange. A lot can happen in football in a short space of time. I signed for Chelmsford as I want to be successful and deemed this move to be the best opportunity to do that. Having had one session with the squad so far, I am very optimistic about the new season ahead. During the two-hour session I was impressed with what I saw, with a real good competition for places which can only ever be seen as a positive. The manager (Rod Stringer) played a huge part in getting me to sign. I’m pretty sure he had me on speed dial for the past year or so! But I’m grateful that the deal is done and hoping that I can repay the faith that he has shown in me. Last season, Chelmsford lost to Ebbsfleet in the play-off final so we want to go one better than that, but we know it’s not going to be easy. A lot of hard work and also quality is going to be required but we’re determined to achieve success.