17th March 2021
Interview conducted by Adam Holt
I recently caught up with ex-professional football player Scott Davies, to talk about his career in football, some of the biggest challenges that he faced in his career as well as general football topics such as VAR (Video Assistant Referee). He also talks about his favourite team growing up as well as his football idol amongst other things.
Teams that Davies played for: Watford (Academy), Wycombe Wanderers (Academy & on loan), Reading, Yeading (loan), Aldershot Town (loan), Yeovil Town (loan), Bristol Rovers (loan), Crawley Town, Oxford United, Dunstable Town, Wealdstone, Oxford City, Chelmsford City, Slough Town, Kingstonian, Harlow Town, Biggleswade Town (loan) & Staines Town (loan).
Check out the Q&A below!
Was there someone in particular who inspired you to become a footballer?
“From a young age of someone that went to watch my Dad play, I would sit in the stands with my Grandad and watch from the age of two or three years old and for me at that moment in time I felt as though all I wanted to do was sort of walk in my Dad's footsteps I guess and I would have been happy to play non-league because that's the only football I knew at that time. Fortunately for me when I got to sort of eight or nine years old I was deemed to be good enough to be spotted by different academies and managed to forge a career out of playing professionally for 11 years so my Dad was a huge inspiration for me and obviously going with my Grandad as well who was my best mate at the time, he’s since passed away and it was like a little group we had between the three of us every Saturday, between those two they were a massive inspiration.”
What would you say was the biggest highlight of your playing career?
“I think highlights for me are very different to like emotional moments, the highlight for me was probably making my debut in the Championship which was great feeling playing at Newcastle away also was like living your boyhood dream. My Grandad was a proud Irishman and he once said to my parents that if you if Scott ever played in the green shirt then he would die a happy man and at that time I thought well that's a massive ask I was only maybe 13, 14 at the time when he said this, and I didn't realise that he actually meant Aylesbury United which is our hometown club. He was a season ticket holder there for 42 years and they played in green, but I managed to achieve the unimaginable I guess and played for Ireland in front of him against Northern Ireland in a game up in Birmingham actually, at Solihull Moors and he was stood on the side-line very emotional and very tearful. For me that was a special moment.”
What was the biggest challenge that you faced in your career?
“I think the cutthroat nature of football is huge. I think the matter of opinions that actually count in the game from people above I think some of the times the chairman, the owners, the chief execs liked to get involved in what happens in football and I don't think it is a fair reflection or a true reflection on the player themselves. I've been harshly treated I guess on some occasions by political matters non-footballing agendas and things like that but the other massive battle I faced was a gambling addiction. I had my gambling addiction for ten and a half years whilst playing professional football having to put on a brave face everyday walking into training pretending everything is okay when there was something that was eating me up inside and I found it really difficult to actually open up and speak to people about it. I didn't want to admit there was any shame and guilt about what I was doing so I was quite worried about people's reactions if I told them the truth, what I had been up to and in the end trying to marry up football and gambling just didn't work. I got my comeuppance when I was released in 2014 which was my last professional club so I think the money that I had on my hands at the time being a young footballer not knowing how to spend it or how to look after it I became very careless in the way I spent money and the way I treated it and respected it so that was probably two challenges that I faced.”
Who was your football idol growing up and why?
“My football Idol when I was growing up I would have to say Steven Gerrard even though he's not too many years older than me from when I sort of started to understand football and used to take things on board from maybe being a young teenager and to try to develop and put that into my game. Steven Gerrard was the pinnacle for me, he was someone I looked up to - I am not saying I was as good as him, but I was a very similar player to him at this young age I think my first 27 professional goals, I think seven were penalties and the other twenty were from outside the box. He's (Steven Gerrard) obviously synonymous with scoring goals from outside the box long range so yeah he was someone I massively looked up to, I just liked the way he carried himself his leadership skills and obviously his quality on the ball and someone I aspired to be like as much as I could.”
Which team did you support growing up?
“I was a Tottenham Hotspur fan. My Dad gave me a Leeds shirt when I was four years old I believe I gave it back to him when I was five. I had a next-door neighbour who was a massive Tottenham fan who was a couple years older than me and I just want to be like him, being the younger one out of the two of us. I followed his every move and when I became a Tottenham fan I think my Dad was heartbroken. I’m not a massive, avid Tottenham fan now I'm just a football fan in general, but for me they’re the team closest to my heart.”
What would you say was great achievement for you in your playing career?
“I think just being able to say that I was a professional footballer. You see the stats around it now how difficult it is to become one, to achieve that dream every boy in the playgrounds that plays football would love to become a footballer. If you are a football fan you want to be a footballer when you're older and it seems like it’s so far-fetched when you're eight or nine years old playing Sunday League, but I was very fortunate that people obviously spotted something in me gave me a platform to go and show what I could do which I think is very important. I think it’s luck and judgement at the same time you need to be in the right place and then obviously you’ve got to showcase what you're about what you do that and that went well for me at times, it enabled me to live my dream for eleven years getting up in the morning, getting out of bed and going to play football - there's no better feeling so I think that's probably my most proud moment. The stats tell you that there is probably one person in every 100,000 that actually makes it through to a professional career and to say that I did that is something I'm immensely proud of.”
In the early years of your career were there any senior players that offered any help?
“I would say that I joined professional football in a men's environment, being in the changing room at the time that it was kind of changing. I was still with some of the old school players very sort of set in their ways, banter was something that was clear to see every day, it was brutal, it was cutthroat, it was close to the bone at times, so I think I have seen both sides. When I got a little bit older people started to change, I think that the way you spoke to people in changing rooms was very different, so I had to kind of take from both aspects that I had seen. In terms of role models actually pains me to say I do not think that there was anyone that gave me any great advice. I try to do that now to younger players knowing that I could have done with that advice when I was younger, so I try and give back and if I do see any signs symptoms or behaviours in people that have changed overtime then I know that I can do good by obviously offering my help because I have lived quite a rollercoaster of a life I guess through football. I think it’s so important that people do have not necessarily role models because that's not what I call myself but someone they can turn to and value their opinion.”
Finally, what is your personal opinion on VAR, and it’s use in the Premier League?
“I think is ruining the game. I think footballs been like it has now for best part 150 years, professionally clubs that were obviously founded in the 1880s and 1870s, whenever it may have been. I think to myself now, what is the point of having a linesman, all their there to do is give goal kicks, corners, throw-ins, it takes away their expertise - they have got to the top, they worked hard to get there and now they’ve got a man sat in a box at Stockley Park telling them whether they've got it right or wrong. I do not believe that this is the way football should be, I think that it should be three men that are officiating the game let them make mistakes, they’re only human and I do believe that it evens out over the course of the season with luck on your side. Sometimes you will get the rub of the green sometimes you won't, but the thing for me is the lack of consistency you've seen handballs this year that have been given and some that haven’t, penalties that have been given for tackles that on another day haven't been. I find it really frustrating - I would rather see human errors than people refer back to VAR and still get it wrong.”
I hope you enjoyed this insightful Q&A. Keep an eye out for more in the future!
Teams that Davies played for: Watford (Academy), Wycombe Wanderers (Academy & on loan), Reading, Yeading (loan), Aldershot Town (loan), Yeovil Town (loan), Bristol Rovers (loan), Crawley Town, Oxford United, Dunstable Town, Wealdstone, Oxford City, Chelmsford City, Slough Town, Kingstonian, Harlow Town, Biggleswade Town (loan) & Staines Town (loan).
Check out the Q&A below!
Was there someone in particular who inspired you to become a footballer?
“From a young age of someone that went to watch my Dad play, I would sit in the stands with my Grandad and watch from the age of two or three years old and for me at that moment in time I felt as though all I wanted to do was sort of walk in my Dad's footsteps I guess and I would have been happy to play non-league because that's the only football I knew at that time. Fortunately for me when I got to sort of eight or nine years old I was deemed to be good enough to be spotted by different academies and managed to forge a career out of playing professionally for 11 years so my Dad was a huge inspiration for me and obviously going with my Grandad as well who was my best mate at the time, he’s since passed away and it was like a little group we had between the three of us every Saturday, between those two they were a massive inspiration.”
What would you say was the biggest highlight of your playing career?
“I think highlights for me are very different to like emotional moments, the highlight for me was probably making my debut in the Championship which was great feeling playing at Newcastle away also was like living your boyhood dream. My Grandad was a proud Irishman and he once said to my parents that if you if Scott ever played in the green shirt then he would die a happy man and at that time I thought well that's a massive ask I was only maybe 13, 14 at the time when he said this, and I didn't realise that he actually meant Aylesbury United which is our hometown club. He was a season ticket holder there for 42 years and they played in green, but I managed to achieve the unimaginable I guess and played for Ireland in front of him against Northern Ireland in a game up in Birmingham actually, at Solihull Moors and he was stood on the side-line very emotional and very tearful. For me that was a special moment.”
What was the biggest challenge that you faced in your career?
“I think the cutthroat nature of football is huge. I think the matter of opinions that actually count in the game from people above I think some of the times the chairman, the owners, the chief execs liked to get involved in what happens in football and I don't think it is a fair reflection or a true reflection on the player themselves. I've been harshly treated I guess on some occasions by political matters non-footballing agendas and things like that but the other massive battle I faced was a gambling addiction. I had my gambling addiction for ten and a half years whilst playing professional football having to put on a brave face everyday walking into training pretending everything is okay when there was something that was eating me up inside and I found it really difficult to actually open up and speak to people about it. I didn't want to admit there was any shame and guilt about what I was doing so I was quite worried about people's reactions if I told them the truth, what I had been up to and in the end trying to marry up football and gambling just didn't work. I got my comeuppance when I was released in 2014 which was my last professional club so I think the money that I had on my hands at the time being a young footballer not knowing how to spend it or how to look after it I became very careless in the way I spent money and the way I treated it and respected it so that was probably two challenges that I faced.”
Who was your football idol growing up and why?
“My football Idol when I was growing up I would have to say Steven Gerrard even though he's not too many years older than me from when I sort of started to understand football and used to take things on board from maybe being a young teenager and to try to develop and put that into my game. Steven Gerrard was the pinnacle for me, he was someone I looked up to - I am not saying I was as good as him, but I was a very similar player to him at this young age I think my first 27 professional goals, I think seven were penalties and the other twenty were from outside the box. He's (Steven Gerrard) obviously synonymous with scoring goals from outside the box long range so yeah he was someone I massively looked up to, I just liked the way he carried himself his leadership skills and obviously his quality on the ball and someone I aspired to be like as much as I could.”
Which team did you support growing up?
“I was a Tottenham Hotspur fan. My Dad gave me a Leeds shirt when I was four years old I believe I gave it back to him when I was five. I had a next-door neighbour who was a massive Tottenham fan who was a couple years older than me and I just want to be like him, being the younger one out of the two of us. I followed his every move and when I became a Tottenham fan I think my Dad was heartbroken. I’m not a massive, avid Tottenham fan now I'm just a football fan in general, but for me they’re the team closest to my heart.”
What would you say was great achievement for you in your playing career?
“I think just being able to say that I was a professional footballer. You see the stats around it now how difficult it is to become one, to achieve that dream every boy in the playgrounds that plays football would love to become a footballer. If you are a football fan you want to be a footballer when you're older and it seems like it’s so far-fetched when you're eight or nine years old playing Sunday League, but I was very fortunate that people obviously spotted something in me gave me a platform to go and show what I could do which I think is very important. I think it’s luck and judgement at the same time you need to be in the right place and then obviously you’ve got to showcase what you're about what you do that and that went well for me at times, it enabled me to live my dream for eleven years getting up in the morning, getting out of bed and going to play football - there's no better feeling so I think that's probably my most proud moment. The stats tell you that there is probably one person in every 100,000 that actually makes it through to a professional career and to say that I did that is something I'm immensely proud of.”
In the early years of your career were there any senior players that offered any help?
“I would say that I joined professional football in a men's environment, being in the changing room at the time that it was kind of changing. I was still with some of the old school players very sort of set in their ways, banter was something that was clear to see every day, it was brutal, it was cutthroat, it was close to the bone at times, so I think I have seen both sides. When I got a little bit older people started to change, I think that the way you spoke to people in changing rooms was very different, so I had to kind of take from both aspects that I had seen. In terms of role models actually pains me to say I do not think that there was anyone that gave me any great advice. I try to do that now to younger players knowing that I could have done with that advice when I was younger, so I try and give back and if I do see any signs symptoms or behaviours in people that have changed overtime then I know that I can do good by obviously offering my help because I have lived quite a rollercoaster of a life I guess through football. I think it’s so important that people do have not necessarily role models because that's not what I call myself but someone they can turn to and value their opinion.”
Finally, what is your personal opinion on VAR, and it’s use in the Premier League?
“I think is ruining the game. I think footballs been like it has now for best part 150 years, professionally clubs that were obviously founded in the 1880s and 1870s, whenever it may have been. I think to myself now, what is the point of having a linesman, all their there to do is give goal kicks, corners, throw-ins, it takes away their expertise - they have got to the top, they worked hard to get there and now they’ve got a man sat in a box at Stockley Park telling them whether they've got it right or wrong. I do not believe that this is the way football should be, I think that it should be three men that are officiating the game let them make mistakes, they’re only human and I do believe that it evens out over the course of the season with luck on your side. Sometimes you will get the rub of the green sometimes you won't, but the thing for me is the lack of consistency you've seen handballs this year that have been given and some that haven’t, penalties that have been given for tackles that on another day haven't been. I find it really frustrating - I would rather see human errors than people refer back to VAR and still get it wrong.”
I hope you enjoyed this insightful Q&A. Keep an eye out for more in the future!