Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports former goal-scorer Jay Bothroyd has described the "Roy of the Rovers" Wrexham effect but added that the duality of the pressure on Phil Parkinson of managing a club with such large squad and expectation level.
The well-travelled player and pundit has offered his perspective on the Championship Battle for safety and the respective chances of Oxford United, Plymouth and Blackburn of staying up.
Elsewhere he discusses his experiences of the grassroots football scene and how important Colchester United is to the Essex area and why Oldham are setting an example for Premier League teams with their work in their local area.
Wrexham
Managing Wrexham’s Depth
It’s always going to be difficult for managers to manage players who think they should be playing the ego as well. If you’re one of the players who has had a very good career, you might be in your 30s, managers might look and say, ‘Well, I don’t think you can play three games in a week, ’ but you think you can.
It’s difficult to get your head around the fact that you could be sitting on the bench, and players will be playing in front of you. But that’s part of the battle, you have to bring players in that all kind of share the same mindset, which is that the most important thing is getting promoted. Everyone is going to play their part, and they will, because it’s the Championship and there are so many games, there are going to be injuries and suspensions.
It is difficult for Phil Parkinson, and the fact that Wrexham are spending money and bringing very good players in always makes things difficult. It’s not just the quality of the player; you need to bring the right characters in.
I think Wrexham’s story is great for football. Tom Brady has tried to do it with Birmingham - they’ve gone from League One into the Championship, of course - and I’m sure we are going to see more celebrities, let’s say, around the world get involved. Because football is growing, and football-soccer in America wasn’t that big, but now it’s growing, because everyone is enjoying it.
You get the likes of Lionel Messi, players like that, Ibrahimovic, Beckham, going to play football in America, and it’s growing the sport. Now you are seeing these stars, LeBron James, Tom Brady, and people like that, talking about acquiring their own team.
It’s great to see what Wrexham have done, and I want to see more clubs to do that, those kinds of stories, the Roy of the Rovers kind of stories. I like all that. Hopefully, it continues, and more people come in and give these smaller teams the opportunity to rise up the leagues.
Will Wrexham Reach The Premier League In The Next 5 Seasons?
Championship Relegation Battle
Can Rowett Keep Oxford Up?
I’m very impressed by Gary Rowett. One thing I would say about Oxford is that the recruitment of young players and getting players from non-league and things like that has always been pretty consistent.
They’ve been good. They’ve got a fantastic training ground. They’ve got good people at the club. If you get relegated, it’s really hard to then bounce back - you’ll want to keep your players, but then you’ve got players who want to leave as well - so it’s really hard. But they have the potential to go down and bounce back if they do.
Can Cleverley Keep Plymouth Up?
It’s a tough one. It’s difficult to get quality players to get to Plymouth with the location - if a club is close to London, for example, it’s different. Tom Cleverley is a young manager. OK, he’s fairly inexperienced, but he’s done alright at Watford still. I think it’s going to be difficult. I hope the best for Tom Cleverley. I think he is a talented manager.
Blackburn’s Frustration
Yeah, definitely. When I was at Blackburn, there was a really good team there, a really good bunch of players. I was only there for a year, and I got injured. Obviously, managers change. Graeme Souness signed me, and then a few weeks later, he left and went to Newcastle. I remember he called me and said, ‘I’m really sorry about this, but I’m gone, good luck’ - so that was pretty funny! I was a bit disappointed with that. But that’s football. It is the way it is, right?
One thing I definitely would say is recently these games being called off for a waterlogged pitch. Blackburn were winning the last game, then they ended up losing it because the game got abandoned. And it’s happened again. They were winning this game, then the game got abandoned. They need to fix the drainage at that club. When I was there, there were never problems. It was freezing cold, snowing, no problem. Blackburn is a team that has passionate fans.
Again that part of the world, football is really important for the city, for the area. Blackburn is actually a club I would like to see competing again to get into the Premier League because they’ve got a lot of history, they’ve won the Premier League when the likes of Shearer and Sutton were there. So I’d like to see them come back, but at the moment it’s really difficult.
And I keep going back to it, it’s the recruitment you need, you need a good manager, you need good players to come through the youth system, you need to loan good players, and then you can start moving up. But things are looking pretty bleak now for Blackburn.
Grassroots Football
The Importance Of Colchester United
I like my fitness, I want to take care of myself, I don’t want to be one of these footballers who blow up. I preferred not to run on the treadmill; I’d rather run around the pitch for 90 minutes - and it’s still fun. We go out there, we play with our mates, we enjoy it. I’m still super competitive!
Grassroots is more difficult than you think. The pitches that we used to play on as kids, the grass is high - then you are playing on perfect pitches - then you go back to it! I remember the first game I played in Sunday League, I went to have a shot from the edge of the box, and the ball was rolling across, and I thought I’m going to hit this first time - and I almost dislocated my knee because it bobbled up, I missed the ball, and it felt like I’d hyper-extended my knee! Now I’ve learned you’ve got to take two touches on everything!
When you are lower down the leagues, it seems there’s more passion for those teams. Because they are not supported as much. So it’s good to see the teams being supported like that.
We played in the Essex cup final and played on a massive 4G pitch and were losing 2-0 with about 13 minutes to go in normal time, and Joe Cole was in my team as well, and you get the fans on the side saying, ‘how can you be a professional footballer?’ and all that kind of stuff. Then I scored a free-kick to get it back to 2-1, then we made it 2-2, we went to extra time, I scored from the halfway line, and we ended up winning 4-2! But it was one of those games where the jubilation of winning was there. I definitely got the abuse before we won!
Do We Need More Of Oldham's Christmas Day Spirit?
100 per cent. I think football clubs need to do that a bit more. I know there are certain things that happen at football clubs - I know that Arsenal, for example, let people play on the pitch at the end of the season and things like that - but I think clubs should open the doors more. I think it’s good for the community, especially at a club like Oldham, getting people involved.
Some youngsters might not support Oldham at the time, but they might feel ‘wow, I want to get involved in football.’ Years down the line, they might end up being footballers playing for Oldham. I always think it’s good that football clubs get the community involved and help them see things they wouldn’t normally see.
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