Wandering star Nouble has found a home in Lions’ den
WELL-TRAVELLED FORWARD IS LOVING LIFE AT LIVI AFTER HIS SHARE OF HARD TIMES
IT wasn’t actually the road to nowhere. It just felt like it. Amid the many days in his formative years that were filled with monotony and frustration, Joel Nouble reserves a not-sospecial place in his memory bank for one day trip to Cornwall.
‘I went down two levels,’ the Livingston star recalled of a move to non-league Bishop’s Stortford in 2016. ‘I just wanted to play. But I injured my ankle in my second game and was out for another three months. A new manager came in with his own ideas. He didn’t want to play a young striker.
‘We were playing Truro, which is a seven-hour journey (from Hertfordshire) in traffic. I was working as a teacher’s assistant at the time, so I had to take the day off.
‘He only brought 14 players because of the distance. I was the only one who didn’t come on. The next day, I called him and said I was leaving. They got relegated that year, which I wasn’t too disappointed about.’
That episode felt emblematic of his struggles around that time.
A scholar at Dagenham and Redbridge FC, Nouble was the only one of his year to be offered professional terms. He learned his trade during loan spells at clubs including Gray’s Athletic, Thurrock, Welling United and St Albans City. Just before his contract expired, disaster struck.
‘I injured my cartilage and needed surgery. I got let go after that,’ he recalled. ‘So between 19 and 21, I didn’t play a lot of football as I was recovering.
‘It was a dark time. I was sat at home with a cast on. I couldn’t get a job as I was injured. I was lucky to have parents who were really good to me.’
Raised in Lewisham in southeast London, the value of a supportive family was never lost on him.
‘There were rough parts to it but I loved it,’ said the forward. ‘For my two brothers, it was football all day every day.
‘There was a little park in front of the flats where we lived. We’d play there until our parents called us back in. If we played inside the house and broke anything, all hell broke loose.
‘I got signed for Chelsea at seven. My brother (Frank) was at Charlton then came to Chelsea but then became a pro at West Ham. Ruben Loftus-Cheek was the same age as me. Tammy Abraham was the year below.’
The former is now a mainstay in midfield for Chelsea, while the latter leads the line for Roma. Both are England internationals.
While Nouble hasn’t quite hit those heights, the fact he is thriving these days at Livingston is remarkable in itself.
Having quit Bishop’s Stortford after that ill-fated day, he finally found an environment in which his talent was appreciated — only for fate to threaten to blow him off course again.
‘I moved back to Thurrock,’ he recalled of a drop to the seventh level of the pyramid in 2017. ‘Numbers-wise, it wasn’t my best year but it was my most enjoyable season. It developed me.
‘The chairman had cancer and told us he couldn’t put any more energy into running the club. No buyer came forward. In the second half of the season, we weren’t playing for anything as we knew the club was going to fold.’
Mercifully, the end for Thurrock didn’t signal the final whistle of Nouble’s career. His reputation was growing.
A verbal agreement to join Tonbridge Angels came the day before he offered to drive his friend Ferni to signing talks with league rivals Haringey Borough.
‘Next thing, the manager is saying he thought I was a great player with Thurrock but had stayed under the radar,’ he explained.
‘He asked if the two of us and another friend from our area called Chinedu would like to be his front three. How can you turn down the chance to play with your best mates? I stressed about it, but eventually I told Tonbridge I wasn’t joining.
‘When we played them, I got loads of abuse as their fans thought I went for more money. I actually left for less. It was the right move for me. It was my best
and most enjoyable year. The Haringey fans still message me.’
Finally, his career had lift-off. He spent a year at Concord Rangers and another at Aldershot Town.
‘There was a lot of talk about bigger clubs being interested but most were apparently saying they weren’t sure if I could make the jump,’ he recalled.
Fortunately, one Jay EmmanuelThomas needed no such convincing.
‘He is friends with my older brother,’ Nouble said of the player who had just left Livingston for Aberdeen in 2021. ‘We were playing against each other in a six-a side tournament down our way. His team also had Joe Aribo as he knows him as well. After the game, he asked me what was happening with me and I told him I was a free agent.
‘He was like: “I’m going to call the gaffer” and tell him you’d do well for him. A couple of weeks later, I’d almost forgotten about it when he (Livingston boss David Martindale) called and asked if I wanted a week’s trial in Spain.
‘After everything I’d been through, I backed myself to take the chance. A couple of weeks later, I signed.’
An immediate loan move to Arbroath was always the plan. After taking the scenic route through non-league football to get there, Gayfield felt like paradise. ‘I loved it, although I had to work out where to stand on the really windy days to pick up goal-kicks,’ Nouble laughed.
‘I’d never met a management team like Dick and Pink (brothers Dick and Ian Campbell) in my life. We were away to Dunfermline one day and both of them were boxing with each other to show us they wanted us to get stuck in. We won 3-0.
‘If it wasn’t that, they would sing to us. Most games, I’d go out on the park laughing. It helped.
‘They just gave me freedom to play. Dick creates such a good environment. He signs good players but also good people. The dressing room had a great chemistry.’ By last Christmas, Arbroath were threatening to blow the doors off Scottish football.
Top of the Championship, Campbell wasn’t exaggerating when he talked of overseeing a football miracle should they stay there.
Nouble was thriving and would gladly have stuck around but respected his parent club’s right to recall him.
‘I was a little bit disappointed to go back as we were top at the time,’ he said. ‘Arbroath became everyone’s second team. At the same time, I was going to play at the highest level of my career.’
After all he’d been through, he owed it to himself. The form of Bruce Anderson ensured he didn’t walk straight into the Livingston team but he showed he had something special to offer whenever he could.
As at Arbroath, there was no attempt to sugarcoat any shortcomings.
‘He (Martindale) and Dick are the most honest managers I’ve had,’ he said. ‘I respect that. You can talk to him about anything. He knows the game and he loves it. That rubs off on you.’
Having struggled to encounter many managers who believed in him, at the age of 26, Nouble had found two in a season.
When his majestic chip found the net against Rangers live on TV a month ago, his list of admirers grew substantially — and then again when he struck against Hibs.
Martindale is adamant the forward will remain in West Lothian for the foreseeable future but the path to bigger things recently traversed by Lyndon Dykes will surely present itself at some stage. The man with the velvet touch is on the right road now.
‘I’m really happy here,’ said Nouble ahead of today’s trip to Aberdeen. ‘If I perform well, more often than not, that will help us win games. If I don’t, then the interest will disappear.
‘I’ve always had self-belief. I’ve always just needed a chance.’