 Hello and welcome to the official AFC Bournemouth podcast coming to you from Vitality Stadium. We're here to bring you closer to some of the personalities connected to the Cherries and for those of you who haven't tuned in before, my name is Zoe Rundle and I'm here in place of Chris Temple today. Last time he ditched us for the Euros, this time he's only gone and ditched us for the Olympics. In all honesty, I don't think it's too bad of an excuse. Anyway, I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that there's one constant on the official AFC Bournemouth podcast and that is my co-presenter, Neil Parrott. Neil, how are you? What's changed? What is new? I'm fine Zoe, thank you for asking. What's new? Where the country's opened up at last? I finally took my mask off after two years and my wife was horrified. Wasn't just your wife there, Neil. Well, Neil, we are in for a treat on the pod today. Our guest this episode is a man who's made 324 appearances in all competitions for the Cherries as well as captaining us in the Premier League. He's also recently taken on the role as assistant first-team technical director working alongside Richard Hughes, so I'm sure you can guess who it is from now, but I'm delighted to introduce Simon Francis to the official AFC Bournemouth podcast. Frano, it's great to see you. How are you and how's your summer been? Thanks Zoe, thank you, Neil. Good to be here. It's been a good summer. It's been a different summer, obviously. Being a player, normally you finish the last game of the season, your first thing you think about is going on holidays, taking the kids away, taking the misses away and have some downtime, but even now not being a player, it's just been so hard to get away really abroad obviously with the whole pandemic and everything that we're going through right now, so it's been a good chance to spend time at home. Been getting into landscaping, which is unbelievable to say. I never thought I would, but doing bits in and around the house and Neil came over when I finished the season and got to see the house and some little bits outside that need doing, so when the weather's good, I get myself out there. The kids being off school now, which is great, spend more time with them and then we're back into pre-season and the busy time that is the transfer window, so yeah, it's all systems go again, but excited for the season ahead. Yeah, it certainly sounds very busy. Well, there is a lot that we want to talk about. You have been here for 10 years, but we'll start with this exciting new role for you. Tell us a little bit about it and just what it entails. Yeah, it's certainly exciting for me, so a passionate, a passion of mine within the game that I've had probably since I suffered my ACL knee injury and being close to Richard Schuess as a friend first and foremost off the field and having played with him as a teammate. He first gave me the insight into that side of the game. I was wearing at my options as a coach in a coaching capacity along with a few other players we did. I'd be licensed down at the stadium and I did enjoy it, but I didn't necessarily have a love for it. I loved learning under ready the side of the game and he always said you should go and coach. You'll see the game in a different way and he was certainly right about that, but at the same time he kind of put me off the coaching side of it because of the hours he put in the intensity, everything that he gave to the football club and the sport was almost something that I wasn't ready to go straight into. I wanted that little bit of time away from the grass and recruitment gave me that. It meant I could spend time at home, I watched a lot of games, I watched a lot of players, especially last season when we weren't allowed into stadiums, which was tough. And then the natural progression this season, which has been to step up to work closer with the team and closer with Richard Hughes, which has been excellent for me and I've loved every minute so far. What about the punditry side of things, as you used to do some of that as well, has that stopped now? Yeah, I've put that on hold, Neil, for now because I didn't think it would be the right thing to do is carry on that whilst I'm in this role as assistant first team technical director. I think this takes up a lot more time, certainly, than last season, whereas I was at home a lot, couldn't go and go to games, so a lot was being watched on the laptop and on the tele games. And then I'd be invited up to a sky game to watch whether it was Bournemouth or not. I just wanted to weigh up both those things and see what I enjoyed. And whilst the punditry was great, I still had the passion for the recruitment side of things and watching players and seeing who I think would fit this football club, that kind of personality, the character. And that's certainly the road I wanted to go down. So yeah, I've put the punditry on hold for now. So you said about when we spoke to you after you'd left the club as a player this time last year, and I know you weren't too sure what you were going to do, whether you were going to keep playing or not keep playing. Would you fancy it a couple more years somewhere? The honest answer was no, I think. I didn't tell my agent that for about four weeks because I was just waiting to see if he did give me a call. And in all honesty, the only calls I had were South End, Mark Moles, and Bryan Stock at Weymouth. And I had to let them down gently, but straight away really. I just had to be honest and say I'm just not up for it. I think I would have liked to do another year here in the championship under Jason, but that wasn't to be. Not in a playing capacity necessarily, I just would have liked to have been in the changing room, try and get the boys back in that mindset of going again to be promoted last season. But being fortunate enough to go straight into a recruitment role suited me perfectly. The transitions from retiring to going straight into that really helped rather than sitting at home and doing absolutely nothing, which I think a lot of players will find themselves in that situation until you retire. You don't know what you want to do and you don't know how you feel. But I was fortunate in that respect that I went straight into to getting busy and keeping busy and here we are now. You mentioned Richard Hughes there, obviously who you're working alongside in, I think it was August 2012. He came out of retirement, returned to the club, started playing. He's asked us to mention a stunning free kick winner at Yoval that he scored, but we're not going to mention that. So was there an instant connection with him or did it take a while to get to know him? No, I would say there was an instant connection. I think he came back and we just saw the game in a similar way. We spoke about football a lot and we were close to Harry Arter as well as three would spend a lot of time off the field together, our families as well down here. My wife and Richard's wife are very close. The kids are really close. My boys playing the same football team together now, they're the same age. So yeah, we've always been close and there definitely was an opportunity. They always said to him, look if I retire, I'd love to come and work with you on that side of it, if it was feasible for the football club. As I said, when I was injured with my ACL, he invited me out to Italy to watch the under 21s tournament. England played in, Lloyd Kelly was there at the time, Phil Ford and some excellent players coming through. I mean, they didn't do too well in that tournament, but it was a real eye opener for me. Myself, Des Taylor and Richard were watching three games a day, travelling throughout Italy. It was a great little trip for three or four days and I loved every minute of it and that was where the first bit of passion was ignited for me to go into this side of the game and I've got to thank Richard for that. Harry Arter, how is he? He's good. He's Harry, he's still the same Harry Arter. Got to see him last week and he came down to the game, to the Chelsea game. We went for some food before that and it was good catching up with him. Ultimately, he's in a tough position right now at Forrest. He wants to be playing first-team football. He's not getting that at the moment and I know how frustrated he is. He wants to play a couple more years at a higher level as he can and he deserves to do that. He had the best years of his career, he'll say, along with a lot of us at Bournemouth. It was definitely sad to see him go, but he's still the same Harry. He's one of my best friends within the game, so catch up with him nearly every day. There's obviously that link with Harry Arter and Scott Parker, the two of them, their brothers-in-law. We've got this new management team that's come in. How has that affected your role? How has it changed your role, if at all? No, it's been excellent, to be honest. Scott's been great. He's been really open about it. I think it was one of the first, what, I say one of the first, but Neil and Richard explained that I was going to be moving into this role to Scott and Scott said absolutely no problem with that. I'd met him a few times, obviously, through Harry and spoke about Scott with Harry and it was always the right fit for us at the Football Club to bring Scott in. I think he shares a lot of the philosophy and the styles and the characteristics that he wants to bring into the Football Club, which I think suits this place right now. It's exactly what's needed and I can't speak highly enough of him and his team. Matt Wells and the rest of the staff that he's brought with him, they've been excellent. The training I've watched has been of a really high intensity and I have to say I'm very excited about the season ahead. Do you have regular conversations with them, weekly meetings, monthly meetings? How does the relationship work? It's been interesting and that's certainly a part of it that I'm learning as I go. I like to watch training anyway. I love going and watching training. It's one of the things I wanted to be involved in the most and obviously I had to speak to Scott about that and see if he was okay with me just turning up and watching training. He's absolutely fine with that. I feel like I'll learn a lot about the team and how he wants the team to play, which then I can feed back to the recruitment department about styles of play that we may have within the team and players that we're trying to attract and players that would suit the football club. I think it works both ways. Whenever I see Scott, we'll catch up and Richard and Neil, Neil Blake would obviously speak to Scott on a more regular basis in terms of targets and players in coming, that kind of thing. But mine are more relaxed chats about the team, how they're doing, other targets that we might be looking at. It's been a great dynamic so far. As I've said, I've loved every minute of it and I'm sure I'll learn a lot of Scott as well because he's brought a lot to the football club in this short space of time already. Do you enjoy that sort of communication aspect of it? Because obviously, as you say, you're out watching first team training, you're then feeding back to Richard, to Neil, to the rest of the recruitment team. Is that something that you're enjoying doing? Yeah, I absolutely love it. Honestly, I thought when I would be coming back to being more involved in watch training that I'd miss it more and more. But I don't so much miss it. I'll just enjoy watching the boys out there and putting in 100%. I remember being that player and having that feeling and we were out in Marbella watching them and the heat that was 30, 35 degrees some days and they were sweating their hands on their knees after training, the running they were doing. I remember that feeling and it's such a good feeling after training because you know you've put in absolutely everything, maximum effort. The players have already brought into Scott's style and philosophy and his intensity that he wants. That's why I'm so excited about the season ahead because I can see a group of players that want to run through a brick wall. We talk about that terminology within the game, but they do want to do that for the manager. Scott's been really welcoming for me and that's been great. At the moment we're in the middle of a transfer window. You mentioned you know coming back for the summer a little minute ago for you, how does your role differ when we are in the middle of a transfer window and when we're in the regular season? Yeah well I'll let you know when the window shuts how much different it is but right now it's busy. As expected you know we had some players leave the football club in the summer, we had some loans that were expired so those players left as well. So we're already working on trying to replace them because at the moment the squad isn't exactly where it needs to be for the championship. I think if you look at some of the other teams within the championship that had been relegated or some of the ones that went close last season to being promoted they have a bigger squad than us in terms of first team players ready to come in whereas we've utilised a lot of the younger players from day one which personally I think has been excellent for them. Some of them have really stood up to the level and been excellent as we've seen in the game. Zana Rossi, Gav Kilkenny, Mark Travers, Jadon Anthony looks like he's been playing there for years, Jordan Zamora as well so the list could go on they've really done themselves proud of the younger boys so they've put themselves in a position now where they can say to the manager look I'm ready if you need me and then we can try and add to that as well whilst the window is still open. It is a tough window there's no doubt about that especially with the pandemic and what it's done to football it's just not the same at the moment without fans in the stadium a lot of the revenue within football clubs wasn't there last season so transfers are tighter you know you're working on a smaller budget so it's definitely been tougher but it's what it's all about I'm loving every minute of it I know I keep saying that but I am I'm really enjoying it and whilst the windows still open we'll try and do all we can to to build the squad into a into a better position come the end of the window. You mentioned all those players who've come through the academy isn't just about the first team it's about what's going on behind the first team as well under 21s under 18s and below them now you're not the sort of guy that just focuses on watching the first thing because we've seen you at Canford watching under 21 and under 18 games just tell us how important that is for your role as well. Really important for me I think as you said I'm not just going to be turning up to to watch first team training because I don't see how that will benefit myself and the first team I want to go and see what what we can produce in the next two or three years who's going to be the next Owen Bevin 17 years old training the first team for the past five weeks done in the world of good who's the next Xenor Rossi you know as I said the list goes on so in regular contact with Sean Cooper as well Al Connell two guys that I get on really well with have a lot of respect for them and they're doing a great job but at their levels of football as well so I'll be going to watch the game later this afternoon against Portsmouth see how the boys get on and it's just that that filtering back to everybody so whether it's Richard or Scott and I say look one of the younger boys are doing really well you might want to have a look at him if we're ever like throughout the season we've got to bring him through I think it would do in the world of good to train the first team so you're absolutely right I think it would be silly of me to not venture down and watch a lot of the younger age groups and even below that as well I plan on doing that throughout the season and making myself as useful as possible so we need to lift to that game can you help out yeah no problem I'm heading over after this so so the pandemic I know that you we have a smallish recruitment team some of whom are abroad just tell us how it's impacted on you because you must have found it difficult traveling and attending games and stuff like that yeah last season was it was a tricky one and again my first year within the recruitment role working with Andy Howe and and Craig McKee, Dez Taylor, Mark Birchell and the other scouts the other guys in the department but they were they were great with me it was excellent the only problem was that I'd say 90 95 percent of the games I was watching were on the laptop and or on the telly at home and you can only get so much of a gauge of a player of a game from watching it like that you know you guys know yourself you go to a game you sense the atmosphere you can get a real feeling of a player and what what they're like in front of a crowd whereas last season the under-23s games I was watching the younger players I was watching I'd only seen them play in front of an empty stadium so then how can I put my name to these guys and say that they'll be brilliant in front of 40,000 away from home they'll be absolutely fine I couldn't do that that's where it was tricky you can get certainly a sense of what these players are going to be like and how good they are technically or where you see them go in and progress in the next two three years but it's hard to really say how they would perform in front of a crowd that was the biggest problem it was something we'd never expected to be talking about within the game so we'll have those targets from last seasons that you want to try and stay on top of the younger boys the younger players within the game and then this season will be interesting because now we can freely go back into games go and watch them again and see that how progress see how they're progressing so that's exciting for me and then looking at the older players that have already played in front of bigger stadiums how do they stand up to the test and the challenge or even at the championship level already so there's definitely different levels that you have to look into and types of players and that's what we're just learning about now and what I'm getting interested in especially speaking to Scott the types that he would like it's not just about young players who are great on the ball it's all about experience as well characters leaders he can bring into the group so it's been great and I think we're in a good position right now we could obviously could be better in terms of the squad but we're doing okay just for supporters who don't know about the recruitment team you reeled off some names there but how does our recruitment team compare in numbers to others in the championship and others in the Premier League that's a good question you know I wouldn't know about exact numbers at other football clubs but I would say because of the size of the football club we are we're probably a little bit lighter than other teams I mean that's that's probably a no-brainer really that wouldn't be a surprise for anyone but what I will say is that we put in a lot of work the guys are excellent Craig McKee and Andy Howell they do a lot of organizing behind the scenes they're on top of everything I'd like to think that we cover a lot around Europe and a further field is tough as you can imagine because especially last season with COVID and and even Brexit playing a part it's been hard to cover a lot of European games so that's been tough but I think for us in the short term and for Scott I think we know these leagues really well we know the Premiership the Championship League 1 and League 2 a lot of us applied our trade in in those divisions so we know the players that would stand out in those and those that would suit us so the guys behind the season have been excellent I don't think we've left any stone unturned especially the back end of last season even when we didn't know which league we were going to be and going into the playoffs we certainly had two different lists two squads that we envisaged if we're in the Premier League these are the targets we can go after if we remain in the Championship then these are the targets we can go after as well so that's definitely been an interesting part of it and now we know where we are of course with the season coming upon us the targets that we're trying to stay on top of work towards and hopefully get them as well through the door so without giving away any sort of secrets how has this window been for this club again it's been tough I mean I think we're fortunate in the sense that we've got a hell of a of a squad or at least a starting 11 when everybody's fully fit you're talking about Arnaud Danduma, Phil Billing, Jefferson Lermer, Lord Kelly, Lewis Cook the list goes on for me Premier League players who should be playing in the Premier League week in week out fortunately for us we've got them in our squad right now in the Championship so when they are fully fit if we can get them on board to be performing at the top of the their game which I think Scott can do that he's I've seen him talk to the players the way he delivers his messages across his his motivational skills at a second to none and obviously I worked under Eddie Howe and I see a lot of similarities there in his philosophy and the respect that he commands from the players and and vice versa again it's hard for me to say because the window is still open but I just think once that shuts and we know where we are I think we're being a better place and you are a player playing for a championship club and like you've said you're good enough for the Premier League you think you're good enough for the Premier League that's just give us both sides of that yeah that's interesting I think the problem nowadays is is Neil I think players can be swayed by a lot of things outside the outside the game outside the training ground the pitch whether that's family whether that's friends whether that's social media the view that they have upon themselves given given by social media the way they're treated on Twitter on Instagram the way people talk them up whereas I'm sort of from the old school I've played both sides I started when I was 17 so I came through a generation of no social media at all it was you you were told in the change room the dressing room it was black or white that's how it was yes there was agents about but they weren't as as involved as they are now for me they are heavily involved now in how players think how players act and that that's the difference now you can have a player who has an unbelievable season in the championship and then that's it they think they don't have to play in that division ever again um whereas you have other players who have a really strong mindset and think well I'm at this football club I'm going to get my head down I'm going to perform to the best of my ability if a Premier League club comes then so be it but whilst I'm here in contract as the club I have to get my head down have to work hard and I think that that's the measures that scots put across um any player can can say they want to leave that's not a problem but whilst you're contracted to a football club you have to be a professional you have to get your head down um and I think that is certainly what I'm seeing in training from the players that that he's got his disposal the ones that fit I'm seeing them fight for every ball even in training I think we'll see that as the season starts you'll see a real energy to us um and that'll be down to Scott and his management team the um the detail that they've put into training um and I just think there's with my player head on that that's how I would be just just um so he hasn't actually popped out it's just like just keep coming up with all these extra questions which um I just want to ask you keep those two hats on talk about agents because you would you would have had an agent as a player of course yeah I did and and mine was very he wasn't as hands-on as I would see a lot of agents nowadays um especially in my later years when I knew the football club I knew the people that were making the decisions whether that was Neil or my close relationship with Richard I could almost have done the deals myself really um over the past few years and a lot of players will go down that road a lot of the older players experience ones um they'll be honest they'll know the the clubs I've been here for nine ten years so I didn't really need to be distant to everyone at the football club and just say I'll let my agent handle that I had the discussions myself um we were all on the same page every single year that I was here really but agents play a big part I do understand it um especially for younger players they're not as vocal or outspoken as as a lot of the older school players were back in the day so they do need agents to do a lot of their talking for them sometimes too much talking but that is the game that we're in um agents a part a parcel of it I'm just learning that side of things now um I'm not in a position where I'm speaking to loads of agents that's certainly not my role yet but I'm learning about that that side of it and you know they pop up everywhere as you can imagine that is their job um and rightly so to some extent I get I get it completely players have to have people looking after their best interests at heart um so it's the it's the side of the game as social media is that that's not going anywhere not going away anytime soon the club paid in the region of £25,000 for you and you went on to play more than 300 games captain one promotion to the Premier League and you're now assistant first team technical director are those players still out there um Harry answer £4,000 are they there no I don't think they are Neil no um I think football's changed dramatically in that in that sense I just think that nowadays you find a player like that and it's just it just doesn't happen you also have to have the manager in place like an Eddie Howe who can see something in a player to bring out the best in them I think I was at the bottom of the scrap heap so I could have gone for less than that to be honest from Charlton I really do think that was the case I certainly got lucky in that respect that Lee Bradbury was here as manager and then I only started to pull my finger out really when Eddie Howe came back to the football club and that was partly with Richard Hughes as well I remember the days in which Paul Groves left and then Richard was close he's close with Eddie Howe obviously they're very close and he said Eddie's coming back I said okay tell me about him he said he's going to bring out the best in you he's going to bring out the best in this whole squad and that's all he needed to say to me I was almost on last chance saloon I needed to make more out of my career the most out of my career that I could whether that was financial or to benefit play at the highest level I could I didn't even think that was going to be Premier League at the time when we were in League One so yeah that for me it can often be about the manager and the recruitment department spotting these talents and sometimes you do want to try and get that next one the problem is nowadays you go and look for a diamond in the rough one of those gems at youth team level or non-league or league two and you'll ask about them and already they'll have an agent and they'll already have Premier League clubs sniffing around so you're already back at the queue they're harder and harder to find nowadays that's the problem because there's more agents in the game there's clubs willing to spend money there's clubs like Man City and the group that own up to 10 clubs all around the world so they don't miss out on many so they're harder to find certainly but we'll keep looking and hopefully we can and unearth the next Harry Arthur or Simon Francis we are going to go through your career in a moment but I just want to pick up on something you just said there you say football's changed agents social media in terms of social media we see it you know instagram twitter facebook everything these days for you when you were in the early stages of your career social media wasn't what it is now is it almost a frustration for you now when you go on social media and you see you know these 17 18 year olds getting slammed on social media by by people that aren't out there people that aren't you know putting their all into something is it a frustration for you when when you see that for our younger players who are who are just trying their best out there yeah that that's certainly the dark side of it and look don't get me wrong I do have frustrations with the social media side of football but I also know there's this huge rewards there with it as well we saw what Marcus Rastford did throughout the pandemic I completely get that and there's so many positives that go along with social media and I get it as well I'm in my daughter's 10 years old and she's already wanting an Instagram Facebook let her have a TikTok account but it's private that kind of thing and she'd sit on there for hours it's just it's just the generation we're in so there's no stopping it I completely get that my worry and my concern with it is over the last two or three years I was seeing more and more players after games looking at their phones straight away searching their name and reading what fans had said about them and that's where I couldn't understand that they needed someone else and mostly fans or or pundits to tell them how they played without them knowing themselves how they played whereas the generation I came up through you'd be told if you had a bad game to your face in the chain room by one of your teammates or if you knew you had a good game you'd know because you're a footballer that's that's your job to know what your family would tell you they'd be honest with you whereas now I think there's a real lack of honesty within the game of of how players see themselves and that's a shame I want nothing more than a player to go out there and know when he's played well when he doesn't need 20,000 people on Twitter or Instagram to tell him that he should know that he's done the right things in training or more importantly Scott would pull him the manager and say you were excellent today and don't let anyone tell you any different or if he's not done something well then on Monday morning he'd be watching his clips back of the analysis department would have set that up and he'll know what he's done wrong and Eddie was big on that he was always always about watching your game back whether you did well or you did something not well can you correct those mistakes you did and or if you did something well watch it back and see you can do it again next time and yes it's definitely a frustration for me that that players rely heavily on what people say on social media as I said to Neil earlier it's it's not going to change anytime soon I just hope that players can cannot get sucked into it more and more as the years go on and this becomes even stronger absolutely well we will get on to your career now we'll go right back to where it all started born in Nottingham you ended up at Bradford City give us your memories of those early days you know growing up around there and just starting your career out yeah I mean I spoke about it before but it was a real stroke of luck that I got up to Bradford really I thought my chances of being a footballer were completely over when I've been released from Knox County I went on trial at Knox Forest but was nowhere near good enough end up going to college to study sports science and then by a stroke of luck our college tutor or coach who did the coaching football there and the district team Nottingham sure Chris Downey's name was still keeping touch with him now he got a job up at Bradford as youth team manager Nicky Law was a first team manager at the time he took two of us up from the college the other boy didn't get in and they signed me on on like a sixth month trial basis first within two months the club had been had gone into administration Bradford had a lot of the first team players refused to play didn't want their wages getting deducted so the first team manager asked for about six or seven of the youth team players to come up and step up into the squads and within six months of being at the football club I was making my debut against Nottingham Forest my hometown team for Bradford City so it was a real whirlwind start to my football career but but since then huge ups and downs before joining Bournemouth and moving further further and further south of the country as my career progressed so Bradford to Sheffield United loan spells at Tramur and Grimsby Grimsby I thought was in league one at the time when I went on loan there turned out when I got there I realized over the top of league two that's how out of the loop I was with with the lower league football but near one I could send me there off the back of an injury then to south end met my wife there realized that south end weren't going anywhere fast we've been relegated out of the championship and then we got relegated again from league one I'd actually had a quite a good season went to Charlton off the back of out and thought this might be the time to kick on a really big football club Charlton Athletic but manager Simon Phil Parkinson was sacked and then Chris Powell came in and I didn't fit into that squad and then I'm thinking well this could be it you know a career in league one beckons me I think that's as good as it's going to get and then as we spoke about earlier again in the stroke of luck really that Lee Bradbury picked up the phone and gave me a call and I realized then I had to do something with my career trying to get to back to the levels that I knew I could do I had the ability to because I'd I played at a good level early on but yeah and to Eddie Howe walk through the door that was certainly not the case I just want to take you back to Sheffield United you mentioned Neil Warnock there what was he like to play under he was interesting actually he was and I speak to Harry Arthur about him actually because he played under him at Cardiff and he hasn't changed one bit which is great to see because you don't want managers to change I think he's had the success he had because of how he is he's one of the best man managers I've played under I probably wasn't as focused as I should have been on football with my time at Sheffield United he tried to get me on the straight and narrow numerous times and it was absolutely no fault of his that I didn't succeed at Sheffield United it was down to myself I've always said that and if I spoke to him now I'd say the same and he was great with me really he sent me out on loan when I needed to I thought I didn't need to go on loan but it was the right thing to do as I said I'd move back home to Nottingham I was probably going out of my mates too much I wasn't taking football as seriously as I should and he'd put you put the arm around you and you needed to he'd give you a rollerkin if he needed to and some of those I'm sure they're on YouTube as well now if you can see him Neil Warnock in the dressing room he was a one off when he gave someone a rollerkin that's for sure but he got the best out of players and now the hell of a squad at the time Phil Jagiellke Michael Tong Michael Brown there was some big players there some players are still keeping in touch with now and credit to him for still going all those years later you know nearly 20 years later and he's still managing a really good level and Harry said he's still the same excellent man manager tactically surely he'll admit he's not up to date as up to date as the likes of Eddie Howe Scott Parker but but as a man manager and I think at this level you still need a great squad of players a good character good team spirit sorry and he certainly brought that Sheffield United and all the other clubs he's been at during that time at Sheffield United what lessons did you learn from that because you know you said yourself just then that you could have applied yourself better and it was no no fault of his that it didn't quite work out for you there is there lessons there that you sort of took into later on in your career yeah I think you have to learn lessons at wherever you go as a football or whatever team you're at if you can pick up little pieces of information or knowledge from other managers or other players I remember Brian Dean of Sheffield United legend when he came back to the football club he sat me down on the side of the bank up at Sheffield United training ground it's like got tears and the first team train at the top and the youth team are down at the bottom which is really interesting it's a little bit similar to Real Madrid when we went out there and trained there the youth team started at the bottom and it's almost a case of as you look up that's where you could be if you keep progressing if you keep doing well and it's a real good motivational tool for a football club to use and he sat me down and said what are your plans of your career and at the time I didn't know I said I don't know really just just try and get in the team and see what happens from there and he said you got it all wrong he knew that I wasn't applying myself a hundred percent he's like you have to get your head down you've got all the ability in the world but your mentality is miles off it and I didn't I never took it on board until again until probably Eddie Howe came to the football club and and I was seeing younger players I was working the younger players who had a similar mentality they weren't applying themselves all the time and I could see Eddie was getting frustrated with them in training and I try and speak to them after training say look you've got to work harder the first and foremost if you're coming up from the youth team the least you can do is is run your socks off every single day and I kept having setbacks in my career and I was thinking was it me or was it managers and ended up blaming other people apart for myself there was times I got with my with my wife and had Halle my daughter and that was a real turning point for me it was it was like a case of okay well I've got to start providing more for her I've got to start putting this potential at the forefront and trying to use it in the best way possible so you take lessons for everywhere you are as a player in every team you're at and I got a lot of good advice from managers and players some that I didn't take on board when I should have done and that's certainly the way I try and live my life now if I speak to a lot more players and now my next player I still speak to the lads within the group or players that have moved on likes with Dan Gosling, Harry Art and even Matt Ritchie sometimes asked for advice and always honest with him the way to go about things because I made a lot of mistakes in my career but I also did a lot of things right in the latter stages of my career to get the best out of it so I feel like going through those processes and that journey that I've been through can put me in a better place now and even in the role that I'm at watching younger players identifying them and what they bring to the group. Despite all of that when you you were in your early days at Sheffield United in February 2005 you paid for England under 20s in a friendly against Russia at the valley you clearly had potential it was clearly being noticed how did you almost feel at that time you know knowing okay I've been recognised internationally that there might be something here for me? No actually the opposite I was embarrassed by it to be honest I never thought ever I would get called up for England I didn't think I was ready I think the first time I got called up to the the 17s or 18s I was sat on the bench at Bradford and then the England call came and I was just I was so deluded with where I was at I didn't really have any confidence I thought this can't be real I can't be getting called up to England whereas it should have been the opposite it should have really brought out the best in me and I didn't perform anywhere near as well as I should have when I went away with England I didn't really have an agent at the time I didn't really have of course I had my family and friends around me but it was all new to me I've been released from Knox County I'd been at college for a year and a half so I didn't really have that that background of an academy or anyone else to really get behind me and say you're good enough to be here I was playing with the likes of Gary Kayle partnered him in defence some really good players within that group but I just felt like I wasn't ready so whilst I should have been on top of the world I was actually a little bit more embarrassed that I'd been been called up to that squad did it almost being called up did it give you a kick that you needed did you go there and think okay wow look at all these amazing players I'm playing with I need to go back and really get my head down or did you come away you know feeling as you did when you went there no it gave me a certain amount of confidence and belief but nowhere near what I needed at the time I think so I've been at Sheffield United I had Neil Warnock who was a great man manager then been at South End with Steve Tilson who again was a great guy and I learned lots off but I know I keep going back to it but until Eddie Howe put his arm around me and we had some real lengthy chats about where I could go with my my career in the in the latter stage as well I was 25 at the time and I'd always felt like before that I'd wasted my career I never thought I'd get back to the top but we spoke length about different things different situations in football how his career ended early and I didn't want that for myself and that's when almost we say a lot of the penny dropped I think for a lot of the players within that squad as well even the guys that that were on the journey from league one championship in the Premier League I think they would have all been in the same boat you know they all had the potential but it was there it was just who was going to unlock it and it was a combination of the manager and the players wanting to buy into that and work hard and that was certainly the reason for it a bit of a random one here but someone in our office seems to think he's seen you cycling around with Matt Richie is there any truth in that yes not random that's that's 100 percent true yeah I'm into my road cycling now Neil Matt he only comes out obviously when he's back so that was in the summer probably we did a big one he might have seen as a new force we did a hundred miles in the new forest a huge ride which I was not up for at all but but Matty as Matty Richie is he just goes full in dives two feet into anything that he does and there was three different stages there was a 70 miles 90 miles and 100 miles and I said let's just do the 70 70 was the longest I've I've ever done anyway I got into cycling when I did my ACL and I started loving it and he was just like no let's just do 100 let's just do the 100 round the new forest and you know why it turned out to be one of the best experiences I've done I'd never felt pain like it in my legs it took me back to the playing days those pre-season days took us five and a half hours around the new forest but it was brilliant we were chatting to people that we'd never met before who were on the ride as well afterwards you just felt a huge sense of relief and an experience that I'd never had before really something completely alien to me going away from football but still pushing through those mental barriers and boundaries that you have as a player and when it gets tough you're going to carry on and there was a hill towards the end right near Matty's house in the new forest and the incline was 20% and it was almost like we were pulling up to it and Matty was like right this is the last hill do not get off the bike and there's people off their bike walking up with it because it's so hard to ride up and it was like I felt like I was in the last 10 minutes of an away game and we're hanging on one nil it's like you can't give up now and it was just so interesting that we'd done it and we got there we had a coffee after and it was great I mean we ride as much as we can I do a lot more on my own now or with some other guys that I've met local to me but yeah we love it we're always out and about when we can Matty's missing it all the time he's saying he's desperate for one when he comes back so I'm sure when he is and he's got a couple days off we'll be out again but it is true a couple of questions about your time at south end can you relive your goal against the cherries in a 4-1 win January 2008 yeah I got very lucky I think with that one nil the keeper fumbled it I don't know who they got who do we know the goal he was then might have been shwan maybe I'm not sure Aaron Flavs was it or don't know Flavs at south end so I don't know if it was Flavs then but he was I think it was straight out the keeper to be honest and he fumbled it but I took it nonetheless yeah it was one of few goals I scored didn't get many as you know but it was it was a highlight for me that one so you went to Charlton ahead of the 2010-2011 season making your debut against the cherries you had quite a good first year there but you only played a couple of games at the start of the following season what was what was going on there yeah well I spoke about it with Zoe Phil Parkes and Simon from south end and and I thought that was that was it there was the chance to step up now a huge football club right on par with Bradford probably bigger in terms of that the fan base and the level that I played up for a number of years and I was really excited I love Phil Parkes and we got on really well I thought it was a great manager and he'd gone on to prove that afterwards as well and we'd been on a great run in league one and I was playing every single game and then he got sacked and it coincided with the birth of Halle my daughter and again for a few months I wasn't applying myself as much as well as I should do sound silly but I was probably I don't know probably doing the night feeds and not concentrating on training enough and my levels went down a little bit as I said that coincided with Phil Parkes and losing his job Chris Powell came in towards the end of the season steady the ship a little bit and I could tell straight away that I wasn't going to be in his plans preseason having said that I knew this was my opportunity to be a big football club so I came back the fittest probably I've ever been since until I came to Bournemouth and running was part of our DNA but I came back and smashed all the preseason tests the fitness tests because I wanted to prove a point to him I said you're going to pick me I'm going to make sure of that and actually I was completely wrong I was training with the kids by the end of the first couple of weeks of preseason and that's just how sometimes our football is your face doesn't fit and mine certainly didn't with Chris Powell I think he'd been told by the people above that we needed new players we needed a new squad I think Carl Jenkinson was playing ahead of me and the team at the time ended up going to Arsenal so that was probably one of the reasons they wanted to financially benefit from that and I remember training the reserves with Gary Doherty, Tottenham legend and we had a great time but it wasn't great for my career and as I've said Lee Bradby picked the phone up and he actually did early stage of preseason I said to him first I said look Brad I'm going to give it a go here I don't want to come down to Bournemouth yet I think I've got a chance of proving the manager wrong and he was like no problem fair enough and I guess I got very lucky when he made that second call I think Nathan Byrne got injured so he called me up again I couldn't have said yes quick enough I was on that M3 as quick as you could say when that move did come about alone initially the first game you were involved in do you remember it Jillingham no it was a 6-0 defeat oh I was on the bench sorry I thought you meant the first one I played in no you were on the bench for that one yeah you're an on-use sub that day and it did sound like a good one to miss yeah I was just seeing if the ink was dry yet on the contract had signed because we got absolutely smashed away from home um but if anything I thought well at least I'm going to play the next game because they're going to have to put me in and as they say the rest is history look we had some great times under brothers and and still a friend of mine that I catch up with every now and then when I can inherited some good players for the level league one and then Paul Groves came in and I thought implemented the style of play that Eddie then took on to the next level a possession-based football and yeah just progressed there and I was I was desperate to be on on that journey and be a part of that and so are the other boys as well they sent something special was coming especially with Max Denham coming into the football club Eddie Howe coming back we knew we were on to on to something good when Lee Bradbury left what was going through your mind because obviously you you've just said how keen he was to sign you he picked the phone up again he wanted you at the club when he left what what was going through your head yeah I was good for brothers because you know we were friends on a personal level as well so that was always a difficult part to take but again I've been in football long enough then to know that managers come and go um and if you're not getting the results on the pitch then that's going to be the case um Paul Groves came in and what can you do as a player you have to get your head down and and buy into what the next manager wants to do and as I said I thought he implemented a really good style of football Paul Groves did um we were passing the ball we were keeping the ball off teams we just weren't scoring enough goals and we were conceding sounds simple but that is what football is um and I think when there was a sniff of Eddie potentially being available to come back I don't think there was any any doubts in anyone's mind if we could do it then we were going to do it um and yeah I always talk about the first day when Eddie came back it was it was special we went for a walk down to the beach and he pulled every single player individually and it it clearly been out of his way to gone out of his way to to watch all the all the players all our players within the squad know know their strengths know their weaknesses and we chatted for about 10 15 minutes and he must have done that with every single player and for me I've never seen a manager do that on the first day of of them coming into the job and even from then the players knew right well this could be it it was going to be something special does that just sum him up the fact that he he took you all down there to do that yeah it does and when we continued that that was that was certainly a um a bit of a ritual for us once every couple of months or once a month we'd go down on a Monday morning win lose a draw um go and have a coffee at West Beach and sometimes if it was summer we'd go in the sea and use that as a bit of an active recovery and also it'd be a chance to mingle with fans as well you know how this football club is with the community and the fans and Eddie was big on that go down and give someone a chat for five ten minutes connect their day sometimes for some of the players and the fans are like and the manager as well and it was nice for us to be seen out in the public I think that was always big on Eddie's mind for us to be close and connected to the fans who had been and are still so special to this football club so he was great like that he always had ideas for the teams always want to be doing something like that and and I'll never forget that first day when he came back when he did come back he'd been at the club he hadn't even been at the club yet did you know much about him initially no only from what some of the players that were still there from his first time at the club before he left for Burnley so Harry in particular um who'd spoke very highly of him of course he wasn't the levels that he was as a manager and as a coach from the championship to the Premier League days because he was learning as well he was still a young manager in the game and I'm sure he would have learned a lot from his time at Burnley and even the first time around at Bournemouth and I spoke to him I spoke to him towards the end of our time at the football club and said what what did you do when you first came into that club you I can't imagine the centre halves were split and then and we were dominating games when we were trying to stay in league two um on minus 17 and he said no you you look at the strength within the squad you work out a way to win games and you go with that and I think they played to to big Fletcher's strengths and got the ball to him and and got runs off him and and for me that was a sign of a good manager you look at the squad you have that your disposal and you think how can we get the best out of that and I think fortunately for him and he'll say that he did inherit a very good squad for league one level we had some very good players and we proved that we went up to all the way to the Premier League and played hundreds of games there so 100 100 games there or whatever it was for some of the other players and myself and yeah I think it was a a combination of both the manager coming back with timing and then the players realising this this was going to be our chance always an absolute gentleman to deal with as a member of the press was eddy what was he like behind that changing room door did you ever see him lose his temper or anything like that yeah certainly saw him lose his temper yeah he's a manager so you'd expect that um but at the right time is in the right way there was never any times when I thought he was over the top he was out of order absolutely not and I was on the end of some of those rollikings and at the time you think well that was a bit harsh I don't agree with that but then you'll watch the game back and on a Monday morning you'll know that he was spot on and he always was to be honest even when he was giving positives out and you something you hadn't noticed in a game that you'd done well but he'd picked up on or in training session he was so meticulous his attention to detail was phenomenal for years and years he wanted to take every single session every part of the session the defenders the midfielders the attackers and only really after a few years and when the games are coming thick and fast and championship and then the Premier League he realized he has to delegate some time to Jason Tyndall's Steven Purchase and because he couldn't do everything he wanted to do absolutely everything and he was good enough but he just couldn't and I think that was one of the best times for us in the Premier League when we sometimes split up into blocks and defenders worked very hard for an hour or so so did the midfielders and then they come together at the end and he was always evolving as a manager and as a coach and you could see that and we were doing that as well as players because at the moment you stand still as a footballer I think you end up moving backwards you end up slowing down and of course time catches up with every player physically did with me certainly but if you're always willing to learn especially under someone like Eddie how you're always going to improve you still keep in touch with him have you heard from him or yeah a few times I mean we always keep meaning to especially with Richard and his younger boy because Eddie's boys are similar age as well we we want to go around and have a kick around in the garden and spoke to him a few times on the phone especially since I was moving into this role and just having a chat about things just briefly more than anything not not anything too in detail or serious about our time just almost as friends now more than anything because you never have that when you manage a player relationship until the last year really when I was injured quite a bit and I was out from ACL we'd often have chats and it was sometimes never about football at all it was just about family and and that kind of thing and that's why he's so great because he's he's very open in that respect when it's about football he's serious and he's concentrating 100 but outside of that he's a great guy and you know I'm sitting here like a lot of us waiting for his next move and very excited about it as well I know you could talk all day about promotion to the Premier League but I know you want to get to Canford so just sum up that season in I don't know two minutes if you like if you can the best season of of Makarou and it does seem weird to say that and I always say to Matt Ritchie if we were together or Harry was that really the best season of our career we had five years in the Premier League why why are none of those seasons the best and the answer is because we were working towards something that meant we were going out every single game knowing we're going to win or wanting to win and that is the very least don't get me wrong that mindset is is absolutely needed in the Premier League but the reality is we weren't going to win every single game whereas that season we genuinely had that belief every time we stepped on the pitch we're unbeatable that came from Eddie that that came from the confidence we built within training in the week we were training so well that we'd go into a game thinking yeah we're going to blow someone away this weekend the Birmingham game sticks out it's like someone was going to get that at some point that season because that's how we were performing every single week everyone knew their jobs the combinations the link up the rotations the patterns of play none of that was by chance on a match day it's because how hard we worked at repetition every single day in training so it just came naturally in a game so that season for me was was extra special all the rewards that come with the Premier League financial being in the limelight playing against the best players all that kind of thing the best stadiums of course the family you have to get 10 15 tickets for every single away game although that's not very exciting because it's more stress than anything the night before that's all special of course it is to play at the top of your game in the best league against the best players but the championship for our enjoyment that one-off season was was up there or it was sorry that was the top lots of highs and lows in the Premier League personally and for the club let's start with those highs a personal highs for you can you anything that springs stands out yeah i mean just being captain in the Premier League was huge for me something i never thought i would do i only had aspirations of that i never even saw myself as a captain i remember looking at the captains i played for and i played for some unbelievable captains even at bradford um david weatherall one of the biggest legends ever to play for leads in bradford and i used to look up to him not just in stature because he was a good few inches tall of them here but as a lead and just think wow how have you got to where you are and i was a million miles away from what he was as a player and i know age plays a big part in that and i was 17 at the time but then as i've said before you take experiences and knowledge and advice as you grow and grow and until the armband was sat on my place i think the first game of the season against charlton in the first championship season um and no one had told me no eddie didn't tell me the day before i just saw it there as i walked in and i felt a huge wave of emotion come over me and that was when i thought well if the club think i can be captain if eddie how thinks i can be captain and i better start acting like it i better start leading on on and off the pitch and then it was like the click of a finger i started to change who i was um the lads used to joke a little bit it's like what so you can't come and have a laugh now you're captain you can't come for a coffee and for a few weeks i was a little bit serious about it all and i'd change who i was and then i realized no you can still be yourself but you have to lead by example on the pitch and that was when i started having aspirations of captain in the in the premier league and so that on a whole that was a huge hire for me of course it was individual games manchester united at home for many reasons of course um the biggest one that stands out for me and i spoke about before was coming back from my acl and then beating chelsea away from home with gozzo's var goal that was huge for me on a personal level to be captain then and come back from the acl was a little bit of closure for me um something i'd had in back in my head going through that injury for nine months if i can just lead the boys out one more time then that'd be very special and i was fortunate enough to do that so yeah loads and loads of highs of course playing in the premier league you touched well you've mentioned the acl and we're talking about alone now i mean that must have been the lowest point for you and did you think that that was it for you then um yeah there was part of me in my head that i was sitting in the back of a car after the scan um and they told me it was a rupture um and i was pretty upset and i never really get upset about football matters really but that was when i first thought this could be it because anyone over 30 who has an acl although nowadays sport science is completely different to what it was the chances of coming back to any kind of level that you were before were really slim um so yes at the back of my mind there was part of me for the first four to six weeks of that rehab thinking i'm never ever going to get back and there was loads of setbacks within that pains that i was getting i wasn't able to straighten my leg fully so i had doubts throughout the whole of the nine months that i was ever going to get back to the to the level i could but then you get a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel when you're back training with the team and you come off the training field and your knee doesn't swell up and then suddenly you think wow you know finally i might feel normal again and then i got a run of games managed to play the Chelsea game and only then after the game and i wasn't anywhere near physically as what i was i definitely lost lost a yard my sharpness wasn't there but i could play centre half and still lead the lads out and as i said that's all i wanted to do one more time or a handful of times if i could fortunately i did that and then my last game for Bournemouth was against Burnley and certainly one i wouldn't like to talk about much more and i try and forget that one that is a question for later that one but i'm just gonna say that um it's not all doom and gloom because you hold this print you hold this Premier League record for the club the most red cards now oh that is doom and gloom is you think they should have all been overturned were they all justified or what well i was never it's probably more annoying that i was never a reckless going in with two feet that kind of reputation as a player they're always silly ones two yellow cards or uh the Jamie Vardy want to get away at Leicester i'm telling you if we had had var that would have got overturned because i got the ball on that and i'm adamant to this day and even if i watch that back on youtube and i try and show my son he's not having it but um i definitely got the ball the other angles i wish they are always in place then um but yeah some of them were silly reckless the wolves one that was a another time when i thought maybe i'm not good enough to play in the Premier League i came back from my knee and got sent off against wolves two yellow cards and they were really sloppy ones they're only two files i made in the game but that's the level you're up against the likes of Chara and Jota you bring them down you're going to get a yellow card so yeah some of them were foolish and silly but um i wasn't the reckless type to be flying these tackles but unfortunate you could say now Neil has given me the task of talking to you about that burning game your last game for the club a three-nil defeat but it was an absolute var fiasco what was going on that day you know i was kind of glad that var took over how bad i had played in the game because it it meant i could try and forget about it because i don't mind talking about it now of course because whether it was my last game or not i'd had so many great games before that i wasn't as fussed um the problem was that it was part of our Premier League in the season that we got um relegated so i was gutted on that part of it um but it was the only game that i'd gone into with with still i still had swelling on my knee i never felt 100 even before the game but we had injuries i think steve cook was out at the time so it was me and nathan ackee at the back and i just started the game really poorly and then i felt like burning were targeting me down the channels and i always said to myself if i'm ever that center half who's being targeted down the channels then you know it might be time for me to call it a day and it was a tough game for me personally and and as a team as you say the var decisions were just incredible i think we went up the other end scored and then it got called back for smithy's handball some shocking decisions within that um but it kind of summed up my my game on a whole the way that game turned out we've had obviously var worked for us you mentioned the Chelsea game work you know against us all be incredibly harsh on us in that burning game is it something the championship should have um i don't think we miss it in the championship no i don't think we will miss it in the championship i don't think we're moaning saying we're desperate for var because i just think there's it runs a bit more smooth as it is you know we've still got the emotion the atmosphere in there i think the euros use var brilliantly um i have to i have to say i think because around europe there's a better refereeing in england i don't think we've we've been good enough over the years with it especially in the premier league it's been two stop start it'd be interesting now with fans back in the stadium how they're gonna feel about it because there's too long a delay i think between decisions being made referees at one point we're never going to check the pitch side monitor now they're going to check it straight away and i they're not confident enough in their own decisions i don't think anymore anymore because they know var's in the back of their mind so yeah it's a it's a debate it's a talking point you ask a hundred people it's going to be divided between whether they like it or not i'm kind of glad it's not in the championship because it just means we can go and try and win games and be successful off the back of us doing the right things and doing things well if decisions go against us fine but i think over the course of a season they end up even themselves out so i don't see it being a massive problem now i don't think anyone will miss it to be honest now just before we wrap up i want to ask you about something away from football in an article with the echo in 2015 you said you dreamed of opening a cafe or a restaurant one day if you haven't already is that something that you'd still be interested in doing or was that sort of just a comment at the time that you thought i'll cross that bridge when when i'm retired no well i haven't already or haven't still i don't know if it's still a dream i would love to do it i would love to to own a restaurant yeah and i speak to richard hughes about it a lot he's he's involved in a couple around london and we were close to an opportunity actually before the first lockdown um there was a place in penn hill it was cruel sea a fish restaurant it closed down and we inquired about it we looked into it um and we just the timing didn't suit us actually uh i just finished oh no i was still playing actually wasn't i because it was the first lockdown so it was the back end of the season we got relegated so i was weighing up weighing up a lot of other things off the field and it just didn't seem the right time anyway and it italian took it over two weeks later and then lockdown hit and we thought we've dodged a bullet there we could have been in debt massively because of lockdown but it turns out the italians done really well because they started delivering in lockdown they've opened another place in westbourne and then i'm thinking oh maybe we missed a trick with it um so no it's not really a dream of mine but i i love going to eat out in restaurants i like coffee as well so it's it's definitely something i've always had an interest in whether that opportunity will come around again i'm not sure um and i love love the area as well i'd love to open somewhere down here but yeah we'll see maybe in the future would you have mark pure as your chef if you opened a restaurant what a question um i think he cooks too healthy for for a restaurant i've seen him making sweet potato toast uh with an egg on now i'm not sure how well that would go down in a fine dining restaurant um but no in all seriousness puree's been excellent um in what he's achieved for the football club and then going into that side of things he's always been switched on and clever and and he's definitely not been that football fanatic away from away from the game i always sensed that from him um he'd always had other interests and food was one of his and we'd speak a lot about it and he's doing great with it and hopefully that that cookbook that seems to be in the pipeline comes out soon i'll certainly be buying one we've got some questions from supporters i have to say that there were a lot of questions as well we've had to limit it down to just eight um ellie scammel is asking do you miss playing or do you enjoy your current role more um no i enjoy my current role now um maybe not more than playing i don't think anything can really replace that feeling of being a a Premier League footballer at the top of your game um but i'm enjoying what i'm doing now to the to the most i think the transition was fairly seamless from from retiring to going straight into working for the football club and now i see myself as being a fan um of the club and trying to do as much as i can to benefit this football club to get back to where it belongs in the Premier League now oscar is asking whether you have any superstitions and i'm thinking back to tomie elphick headbutting the post and found out yesterday that Lord kelly hops onto the pitch as a superstition have you got any at all no i didn't have any none at all neil i had rituals i suppose but that was more of a timing thing i'd leave i'd leave at the same time i'd eat pre-match same time i'd do things maybe in the same order in the changing room but if i didn't i didn't notice it being a big deal tommy was to the extreme i think at one point he was having the same amount of roast potatoes before the night before he came honestly because he'd won the next day he was he was crazy with it tommy again and top captain who i learned loads off as well i'm still keeping in touch with now but yeah the headbutton of the post used to take him 20 minutes to come into the to the pre-match huddle because he was so busy doing all that but it worked for some well jonathan woodgate would drive around the block to make sure that his mylometer was on an even number as well that's probably one of the most bizarre ones i think that's OCD isn't it rather than superstition nathan is asking whether you prefer right back or centre back ah good question um right back until i was about 30 31 and then when i realized i didn't have the legs as much as i i was under 30 centre half after that Troy Taylor wants to know your closest friend during your playing days at Bournemouth harry harry and matt richey um we had a great group especially in league one championship there could have been 10 15 of us going out for dinner or for a coffee after training but certainly harry and mattie stick stick out as along with adam smith and gozzo as well one from andre here um on instagram camborn with get promoted this season yes absolutely um i've got a very good feeling i really have and i i wouldn't sit here and and say that if i didn't um i think what scott has brought to the group um as i spoke about the buy-in from the players that i'm seeing in training even in the games uh there's an intensity there that i love about us i think scott has brought that and we have the quality absolutely yes we might need a a few more players before the window shuts or as as the season progresses because there's going to be injuries there's so many games within the season it's going to be tough but i'm very confident i'm excited about it as well we spoke about under 21 players earlier hayden wants to know who do you think is our most exciting upcoming talent oh that's a really interesting one and i spoke about it earlier i think a lot of the younger boys have done themselves proud um probably the one that sticks out for me as being a defender would be zeno rossi i think he's he's come in and been a credit to himself and to the football club um going out on loan last season did in the world of good playing men's football at a tough level as well center half learning that that side of it where you have to be aggressive you have to be physical and then he's come in and he blew the fitness scores out the window on the first day he was the fittest out of the whole group i think that set a standard for for himself and for scott that made scott take take note first day and scott wouldn't have known who he was he knew he would have known he'd been on on loan and he was a younger player joining us for preseason but that certainly sent a message to him for me he's backed up every single day i've seen him in training every week he's a humble boy he's coming and he's performed better and better every single preseason game he's played and and now he's put himself in a position where i think scott can rely on him if he needs to one from rowan what is the best lesson you've learned from your playing career we talked about those lessons in the early days what's the the best lesson you've learned um i wish i'd known what i knew when i played under eddie when i was 17 18 years old um i mean i know it's not like that and football changes as your career progresses and goes on but not just not just eddie but everything about the club that we we brought into it the sports science side of things nutrition the analysis at 17 18 it was nobody was batting an eyelid if you're going and having five six pints after a game or even before a training session whereas now you just can't get away with it and i wish i'd known that and at 17 18 and just live my life right off the pitch and benefited from it on the field before before i came down here and one final fan question this one's from james how tricky is the scouting process it can be very tricky i mean i i'm still relatively early on in the in that side of my career but last season was hard because as i spoke about not being able to go to a lot of games and sit in a stadium was tough for me um watching two three games a day on a laptop is an ideal but it was part of part of my journey really to come into this side of the game um this season i think it's going to be a lot a lot better for me personally being closest to the football team identifying targets um but it can be difficult it's one thing identifying a target and thinking they'd suit this football club but it's another another one making them sign the contract and getting them through the door so it's it's a tough process but one i'm excited about and enjoying this is one from uh neil in ballmouth did you ever have five or six pints before training session yes i did yeah but not before i came here already but definitely definitely um in my sheffield united and south end days yeah yeah well franno it's been an absolute pleasure having you here with us on the aFC ballmouth podcast it's been great to chat about your playing days and your role now so thank you ever so much for for sparing us your time and for joining us thank you guys loved it thank you now then we'd be really grateful if you could give our podcast a rating on the platform that you're listening on and it'd be even better if you could give it a share on social media so it reaches as many fans as possible our thanks again to simon francis and from neil parrot and myself soy rundle thank you for tuning in to the official aFC ballmouth podcast