Joel’s exception by showing fight to beat the odds
I’m going to be successful. That’s the tweet!
It’s pinned on Joel Nouble’s social media account along with a biography that states he “sometimes kicks a ball around”.
The Livingston striker was a pleasure to interview last week and there wasn’t a hint of attempting to go down the cliche route.
He was just brutally honest and refreshingly frank.
A phone call to his family home ended his dream of playing for Chelsea but this story is of a guy who just refuses to give up.
There’s an inspirational tale to be told by the Londoner and it’s one he’s more than happy to tell.
He tumbled down the English pyramids from Dagenham and Redbridge all the way to something called Division One North of the Isthmian League with Haringey Borough.
He was laughed at by his postal colleagues when he claimed he’d make a return to the professional game.
But he has proved his point by landing up in the Scottish Premiership against the odds.
Nouble’s in the minority. Each season the attrition rate grows for players whose careers have just been booted into touch.
Social work departments across the country are full of former footballers.
You’d be able to make a decent Championship side out of the staff at the Kibble School in Paisley alone.
The lack of security, seasonal contracts and, for some, a nomadic existence can mean it’s the exotic leagues in an attempt to work your way back up.
What stands out with Nouble is his insistence that despite all the rejections and derision over his unshakeable belief that he could sustain a career in football, he didn’t have a single doubt.
He also believes he deserves to be where he is – a standout player for the
Lions – because he has done the hard yards and been told time after time that he wasn’t good enough.
In my days, one manager once called me in for a chat – and it wasn’t one with many pleasantries.
“You know your biggest problem, son? It’s that you have your ambitions confused with your abilities.”
It’s an unforgiving world.
A former teammate was released at Clyde and sent a letter to all 92 clubs in England, as well as every club in Scotland, in a bid keep his professional career afloat.
It was a stream of knock-backs plus courtesy letters from the likes of Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham that he kept as keepsakes.
But not one reply wasn’t a Dear John (Hillcoat).
He eventually received a call after Murdo MacLeod found his begging letter in a bin and the regular first-choice keeper had broken a thumb.
Football is a career where you rarely get to decide the wheres and whens. It calls time on you, it’s seldom a matter of choice.
There are few who hit their late teens and make their way back into the professional game. That makes Nouble an exception to the rule.
He’s not a man for cliches but there’s a couple that frame his career ...
‘The comeback is always greater than the setback’ and ‘the only sure way to avoid failure is not to try’.
He has done the hard yards and been told time after time he wasn’t good enough