“Home Is Where My Family Is,” – Jay Bothroyd Slams English Comfort Zones, Praises Japan’s Talent And Reveals Hidden Epilepsy Battle

Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports former England International Jay Bothroyd has made an impassionate plea to young players about the benefits of leaving their "comfort zone" with special mention for the rise of Japanese Football where he played seven seasons and his perspective on the current talent factor at Arsenal which he is a product off

Elsewhere he tells us the story of his Ted Lasso cameo and spoke candidly about his struggles with Epilepsy following his diagnosis as a teenager.

From Mitoma to Milan: Lessons from Abroad

Japanese Football

Yeah, definitely. I said from the beginning when I went to Japan, and I saw the level of football there, I was like ‘wow, this is better than what I thought,’ and it made me have to be on top of my game. I couldn’t go through the motions. One thing I’ll say about Japanese players is that they’re very disciplined. That’s their culture. They work very hard, and they’re very technical players.

You won’t see many defenders coming to the Premier League, just because of their stature as a country, you don’t really get 6-foot-4 defenders. It’s not going to happen. But in terms of No. 10s, wingers, forwards, full-backs, they are there in abundance. They are quick, intelligent, and I’m not surprised that more players have come.

I spoke to a club, and I won’t name the club, but I spoke to a manager about Mitoma before he went to Brighton and before he went on loan to Belgium and I said this is a player you should sign and they said, ‘he’s a bit lightweight, he looks good, but can he do it in the Premier League or Championship?’ and they didn’t end up taking him.

But now you look at him, and he’s like a 60- to 70-million player. I always knew there would be more players coming from Japan, and I’m surprised the big European teams haven’t looked further afield to Japan until late, really.

Leave Your Comfort Zone!

Yeah. I think too many English players they are prepared to stay in their comfort zone just to stay in their country. And I think when you look at European players - French, German, Spanish, Italian, whatever - or African or wherever, they are willing to travel to achieve their dreams and play at the highest level possible.

I feel like sometimes you see some players that are good enough to play in other countries, but they are just happy to stay in the Championship because it’s England, and they can stay at home with their families. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. I was one of those players; I didn’t mind doing that. For me, home is where my family is, not my location. I went to Italy at a young age.

I’m glad to see Tammy Abraham has gone there, and I’m glad to see that Tomori has gone there. McTominay and players like that have gone abroad, and they’ve been successful. So I feel like if you can go abroad and play at big clubs, then why wouldn’t you? Because you’ve got the chance to win something, you’ve got the chance to play in the European competitions.

Look at Tammy Abraham and Tomori, for example. Tomori is at AC Milan. Yes, they are not the AC Milan of old with the Kakas and Pirlos, but they are a huge club. Why wouldn’t you go abroad? You look at Tammy going to Roma - they are a massive club. So I want to see more players going abroad. It’s good for them, it’s good for their football because you are learning different brands.

If you understand other leagues better, it helps you as a footballer to adapt and play at other clubs in the world.

Arsenal’s Youngsters

Yeah, it’s great to see them in that situation. And don’t forget Ethan Nwaneri as well. Actually, Ethan Nwaneri went to the same primary school as me; it was nice to find that out! When you look at Myles Lewis-Skelly, last year he had a fantastic season. He hasn’t had the same kind of impact as he did last year, but it’s because Calafiori is playing so well, and he’s a top, top player; they spent big money on him - he will probably always get preferential treatment because he’s a player they’ve spent money on.

But Lewis-Skelly has done amazing for Arsenal, playing as a makeshift left back, made the position his own, and got called into the England squad. And to see Max Dowman being there or thereabouts involved, I’m sure as he gets a little bit older, he will be.

My only thing about the young players coming from Arsenal is that it’s not about how talented they are, because there’s no doubt about that; it’s the pathway. When I talk about the pathway of these players, you look at, for example, Max Dowman, Ethan Nwaneri, they’ve got Saka and Odegaard in front of them. Lewis-Skelly is a bit different because his only competition really is Calafiori, and because that’s his competition, there’s going to be more rotation there.

But when you look at Ethan, who played in that kind of central role that Odegaard plays in, and with Saka, how are they going to come through? Are they prepared to wait for the opportunity, or are they going to say, ‘I’m going to go out on loan because I want to play week in, week out.’

Me personally, I would go and tell them to go and play football week in, week out. If you can go to a team, let’s say Nwaneri could go somewhere like Newcastle, and compete with Jacob Murphy as a right winger, go and do it, get your experience, because ultimately that’s going to make you a better player.

You look at the likes of Yamal, Lennart Karl at Bayern Munich, Musiala at a young age, Pedri at a young age, all these players that we talk about these young players, they all broke into the team and played fairly regularly as a 16- and 17-year-old; now they are like 21 and 22 and you think ‘wow, these are amazing players’. The reason they are amazing is because they got that experience early on in their career.

Lewis-Skelly has played a lot more than Nwaneri and, of course, Max Dowman, but if I were them, then from a selfish point of view, I have to think about my career and my pathway at Arsenal. Saka is still young; he’s mid-20s. You look at Odegaard, and he is too. They are not going anywhere for a long time. That’s the only thing. But there’s no doubt about it, it’s great to see those young players coming through at Arsenal, and it’s great to see what Arsenal are.

Ted Lasso Cameo

The funny thing about that was that when I started watching Ted Lasso, I was actually in Japan. And I was there by myself. Because Covid happened, obviously we weren’t allowed out, I was spending a lot of time at home, and you go through Netflix, Prime, Paramount - you are watching everything just to keep yourself entertained - and then I got through everything and I was like ‘what’s this Ted Lasso about, it can’t be any good, an American manager managing an English team, it can’t be any good’, but then I’m on my laptop and it’s on and it captivated me!

All of a sudden, I was watching it, and it turned out to be one of my favourite programmes. When I decided that I was going to retire and I came home, my manager called me and said, ‘You like Ted Lasso, don’t you?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, great show?’ And he said, ‘Do you want to be in it?’ And I said, ‘Of course I would?’

I went up to Manchester and did the filming, met Jason, and he’s a fantastic guy. He was always in my ear, saying, ‘What do you think about this?” What do you think about that? Can we do this better as a player? What would you do here?’ and he was just picking my brain to make the programme better.

From my point of view, it was great because the way they film it, you think ‘how is it going to look on TV?’ then when you see it on TV, it’s like chalk and cheese, it’s like amazing.’ It was a great experience for me.

Health Inspiration

For me I had epilepsy from a young age. At 18 or 19, I had my first seizure. There was no history of it in my family or anything. And it was a scenario which was scary, especially for my friends. Because obviously I can’t see myself having a seizure - back then, there was no iPhone or whatever, so it’s not like you could video it. But it was scary for my loved ones.

And I remember when I came round, I just said to the doctor, ‘Is this something that can kill me?’ He said ‘No, the strain of epilepsy you have is not going to kill you, but obviously if you have a seizure close to a swimming pool or something, then somebody is going to have to save you because if you fall in, then, yeah, you’re going to die.

But for me, I was always one of those people who didn’t let it hinder my dreams; I didn’t let it stifle my dreams. I was always very determined.

In my early years, I was a bit irresponsible because I was young. Me now, I take my tablets in the morning, I take them at night, every single day. When I was young, living by myself, I’d take my tablets sporadically, ‘oh, yeah, there’s my tablets, I’ll just take them today,’ I wasn’t regimented like I am now.

I had seizures in the past, and no one knew about it. Because I was scared to tell anyone, just in case it would mess up my football career. I didn’t want to tell the managers and other people. The only people who I knew were doctors and the physio because I needed to get medication regularly, and that’s the only way I could get it.

But yeah, I just always felt like I didn’t want to let epilepsy define my pathway in life. And that’s why I kept it a secret. There were games I don’t remember playing in that I played in, because I had a seizure so close to it. Because when you have a seizure, the next two, three days are foggy. I had seizures, then played the next day. And it’s not a good thing to do.

But I would say that if you have epilepsy, then you need to speak about it. There’s a lot more support now. There’s a few football players, one in particular that I know at Chelsea now, and you have to talk about it. I felt that if I’d said something, people would have looked at it as a weakness, and I didn’t want to be looked at like that, and that’s why I didn’t say anything.

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