Brutal truth of life as a football journeyman
Rory Gaffney’s pursuit of security in football has brought him to Salford City, and he’s determined to make the most of his stay
‘YOU DON’T SIGN HERE BECAUSE THE CLUB BELONGS TO SCHOLES’
IT wasn’t difficult to get a hold of Rory Gaffney. A WhatsApp message was sent to the Salford City striker and within a matter of moments the blue ticks confirmed that he read the request to meet and agreed to discuss life at England’s most famous non-league club.
David Beckham is the latest member of The Class of 92 to purchase a 10 per cent stake alongside Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Gary and Phil Neville. The former Manchester United stars are now majority shareholders, with Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim (owner of Valencia) holding 40 per cent.
As you quickly find out, that is where the glamour ends for Gaffney. Not discounting, of course, the fact he has the distinction of being the first footballer from Tuam to make it as a professional in England.
‘There was a young lad from the town called Ethan Mannion who played in the same St Kevin’s team as Robbie Brady and Jeff Hendrick and signed for West Brom,’ Gaffney says. ‘He was a really talented kid but didn’t break through after going over.’
As he readily admits, previous spells with Cambridge United and Bristol Rovers, having cut his teeth in the League of Ireland with Mervue United and Limerick, have left a lot to be desired. ‘To be fair, I thought it (his career in England) would be better. It’s tough. The lower leagues are tough,’ Gaffney states.
That line only scratches the surface of his more considered thoughts. They make his story all the more fascinating. His candour about the insecurities of a lower league journeyman are compelling, another death knell in the coffin for those who hold romantic notions that this is where the true soul of the game is to be found.
His honesty about the clinical thought processes behind his decision to leave Bristol Rovers in League One for Salford, two divisions below, is refreshing, while the mental and physical battles that he endured go way beyond what he describes as ‘abusing your body for 90 minutes on a Saturday’.
Worst of all – despite another two full years on his contract after this season – is the fact Gaffney turns 30 in October and needs to be ready for when… ‘The legs go. You can say it,’ he laughs as the topic is clumsily broached.
‘That’s what I’m already thinking. I will start going downhill in a couple of years. The older you get, you’re only a year closer to finishing up. I hate birthdays. When I was 25, I was thinking then that I was getting on.’
He was in England a year at that point. He arrived there after the agent of Cork City’s Gearoid Morrissey, the player Cambridge wanted to sign, arranged a trial for Gaffney when he impressed in the same game for Limerick.
By that point, he had completed the FAI’s FÁS course in Castlebar and earned a degree in accounting from National University of Galway.
‘It’s mad how quickly the time goes. It’s 10 years since I was at Mervue. Now I’m almost 30. How long have I left playing? Four years? Five years? Touch wood I avoid serious injury. You really don’t know how long you have left.
‘I never expected to be here so I can’t really be too pissed off that I don’t have more. I feel I’m ahead of where I should be,’ the former Galway Under-21 Gaelic footballer continues.
‘I’m not ready to settle or wind down, I want to be the best I can and make the most of what I have. You’d hide the niggles. You don’t want to get to 32 or 33 and be saying ,“I can’t train today”. Obviously it’ll help if I’m still scoring goals.
‘What will I be doing in five years’ time? I’ll definitely be working. There’s no way I’ll be retiring off the back of football. But will I be in a 9am to 5pm job in an office? I have to take my accountancy exams to qualify but I don’t honestly know. How do you adapt? I won’t be going about killing the day drinking coffee, that’s for sure.’
Part of the reason he so readily agreed to meet was to do just that, to ‘kill the day’. Rather than chat near his home or at the training ground, Gaffney suggested a coffee shop in Altrincham, an affluent suburb of Manchester.
He has a string of coffee shops that he will visit throughout the week. ‘Independent ones, none of the big corporations,’ he insists.
On days off he will head out to Wilmslow for breakfast with teammate Adam Rooney, after that he will head off for some time in a jacuzzi. ‘It all kills the day,’ he repeats.
Gaffney shares a flat with his girlfriend Sinead among the yuppies of West Didsbury. She works as a social worker in the city, and it is his Manchester United-supporting landlord – rather than any of Salford’s famous owners – who is a season ticket holder and helps arrange for the boyhood Arsenal fan to get to Old Trafford when he fancies.
Indeed, the presence of the Class of 92 isn’t really felt. ‘I’ve had no dealings with them since I signed,’ Gaffney reveals. ‘Other than when the club got in touch during the summer, while I was on holiday in Brazil, to tell me they wanted to sign me, I haven’t really seen them.
‘They come in at five to three before a game and are gone soon after. They don’t make it about themselves. It’s not as if we’re getting pep talks from Gary Neville, Scholes isn’t pulling the centre midfielders aside for passing and Beckham isn’t doing crossing practise!
‘The manager (former Burnley stalwart Graham Alexander) does his thing. Sure, on New Year’s Day, I only found out after the game when someone sent a picture of me heading the ball that the photo was actually taken of Alex Ferguson who was in the stand with Denis Law. I was thinking, “I wouldn’t have minded meeting them to be honest”, but all that stuff is kept away from us.
‘Obviously I watched the documentary about Salford before but you don’t sign here because it’s the Nevilles’ or Scholes’ or Giggs’ club. I just want to be a success.
‘When you’re a young lad you think it’s all great. You’re out kicking ball thinking, “This is great, this will never end”. But it comes to a point where you’re closing in on
3 Rory Gaffney signed for Salford City on a three-year deal in June, bringing an end to his spell at Bristol Rovers
30, you’ve been offered a three- year deal. Yeah, you could take a year somewhere else and back yourself to score a load of goals but then, you could also pick up an injury and be gone. It was a no brainer, I’m definitely happy at what I done. It’s a good club to sign for.
‘It’s relentless in this league. You’re Tuesday-Saturday, Tuesday-Saturday. A lot of games. This time of year, the pitches aren’t great. It’s not the most attractive style of play. It’s a tough league. You’re coming up against big, strong lads who have played 600 games. They’re coming through the back of you.
‘They are seasoned pros. You’re in the fifth tier of English football coming up against players and you’re thinking to yourself, “He’s good, how is he playing here? Maybe his family are from that area? Maybe he’s getting a good wage to be there?”’
Competition for promotion is fierce so this is no jolly-boys retreat where journeymen can slip into semi-retirement and get comfortable on a bar stool reminiscing – another easy, and dangerous, way to kill the day.
‘You are kept so busy. F**k, the last thing I need after playing is being hungover the next day. You wake up feeling hungover, the aches and pains in your body. The dehydration. I don’t want an actual hangover on top of this. ‘You are stiff, you’re sore,
you’re getting belts on the back, your knee tendon will be sore, you’ll have a dead leg. I don’t think the best thing is to be dying with hangover. Not that I’m a saint or anything but the time you need to be eating right, drinking right, is after you’ve abused your body for those 90 minutes.
‘It is your job. If I fell in at three in morning and was terrible on Saturday, the first thing I’d ask is, “Why didn’t I play well?” Well, all those pints and a takeaway on Tuesday won’t have helped me, I should have been in bed. Then it’s, “What do you want to be a footballer for?” It’s not as if I’m on a five-year deal on £100,000 a week.
‘Players can be replaced in the morning. Others are always coming to take your spot. Lads from academies, other older lads.
‘I have to give myself the best platform, make sure I am in the best condition to do well on the Saturday. I’m sure when I look back at it all I’ll enjoy it more.’
The immediate aim is promotion to League Two but, despite yesterday’s 1-0 win away to Ebbsfleet United, it looks as if that will have to be secured through the playoffs. Salford remain in fifth place. There is little chance for rest and on Tuesday they are at home to Sutton United.
‘This club is kicking on and I want to be a part of it in the Football League, scoring goals there because when it comes to the end of this contract, if the club do decide to move me on, there will hopefully be Football League clubs ringing me rather than National League.’