Joel has found a home at Livi after a nomadic footballing existence
Joel Nouble is delighted to have bit of certainty for the first time in his career.
The 26-year-old hopes his wait to start a new season as a top-flight player is finally over.
Nouble joined Livingston from Aldershot at the start of this term, and was sent out on loan to Arbroath.
Impressive performances at the Red Lichties saw him recalled by the Lions during the January transfer window.
His journey to the Premiership has been a long and winding one that has involved 15 different clubs, most of them in England’s non-league system.
Nouble said: “In football there are so many things you can’t control.
“When I was younger, I was at Dagenham, but got injured in my first year as a professional, so got released. “From 19 to 21, I didn’t play any football. “That’s probably a key stage in a young person’s career. So from that, I just went down into the lower leagues.
“When I was at Arbroath, people would go online to look at my career and say: ‘Why has been at so many teams?’.
“It wasn’t like I was jumping from team to team. I just never stayed at clubs for longer than one year.
“When I was down south, I was at tier six and did well, then went up to five and did well, then went to four. I went up from league to league.
“I think this is probably going to be the first time for five years I’m going to be at a team for two years. I’ve always just done a year and then left.
“But that experience has been good for me. To be able to adapt to new surroundings year after year, not a lot of players can do that.
“Sometimes it take players a year to adjust to a new team but, for me, I’ve known when I’ve gone somewhere new that I’ve had to do well because you never know what’s going to happen.
“When I went to Arbroath, I just saw it as another new challenge. I wanted to do well and then come back to Livingston.”
After today’s game against Dundee, Nouble can look forward to wearing the same shirt after the summer break.
He went on: “Knowing where you are is massive for any player.
“I can get my head down, have a little rest and come back raring to go.
“Hopefully I can play better than this season. I know there’s still a lot more I can improve on.”
While Nouble will be back at the Tony Macaroni Arena for pre-season training, there’s no guarantee that he will see assistant boss, Marvin Bartley.
He has been linked with a number of managerial posts, and Livi manager David Martindale revealed that he has given his No. 2 the green light to leave if a job takes his fancy. “I’ve spoken to Marvin and said: ‘Go for it’,” said Martindale. “I’m under no illusions why he is in football. “Does he want to always be Davie Martindale’s assistant? Probably not, let’s be honest.
“I have a relationship with him that’s open. If a club wants to speak to Marvin, they can come in and take him.
“His ambitions are to be a football manager, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
“I understand that, and I’m confident enough in my own ability to deal with that. I’ll bring someone else in.
“I’ve got Neil Hastings, who I brought to the club. He’s doing coaching and being mentored to understand how we work.
“So losing one member of staff, including myself, shouldn’t really make a big difference.
“If I walked out of the door tomorrow, I’m more than confident – for probably the first time since I’ve been at the club – that the coaching staff would carry on fairly easily, and do a very good job for Livingston.”