Connect with us

Tips & Predictions

I was living the dream and then suddenly everything changed

Published

on

I was living the dream and then suddenly everything changed

Former Tottenham, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest midfielder Jermaine Jenas has advised Stripped Podcast how an on-field cheeky second from Rafael van der Vaart led to a battle with Spurs teammate Benoit Assou-Ekotto within the showers.

Talking to Stripped Podcast, a brand new collection wherein ex-footballers and celebrities are invited to make a journey down reminiscence lane by revisiting their favorite shirts, Jenas mentioned: “There was a second at Tottenham when Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Rafael van der Vaart each wished to take a free-kick. Rafa wished to take the free-kick, however Benoit wasn’t having any of it and so when Benoit was able to take it, Rafa simply got here up and took it on the sly!

“We get in, everyone seems to be getting modified after which out of the blue I hear this commotion within the showers. It’s Rafa and Benoit going at it, bare! It received stopped just about instantly however it simply reveals that these items occur lots, simply not on the pitch.”

Jenas was no stranger to irregular moments throughout his profession as he was on the pitch when his Newcastle teammates Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer famously scrapped in 2005.

He mentioned: “I’d by no means skilled something like that. The maddest factor about the entire thing was that each single morning we’d have spherical tables in our canteen and also you’d have breakfast and lunch collectively. Bobby [Robson] was very critical concerning the gamers consuming collectively and we couldn’t depart with out his say-so. On my desk daily was me, Kieron [Dyer], Jonathan Woodgate, Lee Bowyer, and Bellers [Craig Bellamy]. We’d sit there and eat and chat each single day and received on rather well.

“It has only a second of insanity to be trustworthy, however our dressing room was fiery like that. At half-time, if issues weren’t going nicely, there wasn’t like ‘let’s see what the supervisor has to say’, as a substitute you’d have a participant in your face telling you to kind your self out.

“For Kieron it was an actual disgrace as a result of it’s what he’s recognized for. Actually, when he was on, he was the most effective gamers I ever performed with.”

The 39-year-old started his profession at Nottingham Forest earlier than shifting to Newcastle for £5million, the third largest price for a young person on the time, and after deciding on Forest’s 1994/96 dwelling shirt, he recapped on his time there: “Rising up as a Nottingham Forest youth participant, it’s drilled into you that it is a membership that has gained issues. The historical past is in every single place. The 2 European Cups they gained are entrance and centre if you stroll into the membership as a child. All the gamers are nonetheless there, and so they inform you the tales of this type of manner taking part in soccer on the membership. This can be a sure kind of schooling that you simply’re getting that’s above and past an schooling that you simply’re getting at some other membership.

“It was a disgrace it went the best way that it did. I cherished it to bits and by no means wished to depart. The dream for me would have been to have completed what [Steven] Gerrard did at Liverpool. If Forest had had the cash to be aggressive and make investments and hold me as a Premier League participant for Nottingham Forest it could have been the dream.

“I used to be 17 years previous, captain of the soccer membership and I’d simply purchased this flat on the River Trent. I used to get up on a Saturday morning and I might see folks strolling to the stadium. I used to be dwelling the dream after which out of the blue every thing modified. There have been clearly massive monetary issues and as I used to be the membership’s most dear asset, I needed to go.”

A holder of 21 worldwide caps, Jenas was a part of a golden era of England gamers underneath Sven Goran Eriksson and whereas he was grateful to have been a part of the set-up, it was an period tinged with frustration.

He mentioned: “I have a look at that period underneath Sven and you may sit there and be bitter about it however we had some significantly good gamers round that point. Sven’s [Goran Eriksson] largest failure for my part was his lack of ability to adapt to what we had. We had been so obsessive about not having a left winger at that exact time when it didn’t matter. For gamers like myself, Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves, we simply sat there pissed off to an extent as a result of we had been concerned in a workforce that ought to have completed so significantly better than it did.

“We by no means actually had any steering. He was an awesome man, Sven, however I simply didn’t see what he was attempting to do. I can’t keep in mind one sport after we performed a workforce off the pitch. It was solely Michael Owen was a genius, David Beckham was a genius, [Steven] Gerrard, [Frank] Lampard, [Paul] Scholes and it was as much as them to dig us out of a gap. I actually can’t keep in mind one sport after we had been good.”