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Most lower league and non-league football fans will know who Julian Alsop is...probably from the infamous "banana" incident that led to his departure from Oxford United...you're probably best to Google it because I'm not going to discuss that here - it's been done to death and to be honest, now I've had chance to get to know him, I'm not interested in talking about it.
I first got chatting to Julian on Twitter not long after I signed up; I'm not sure he realises that I was actually a little bit excited that someone like him was following me! Of course, everyone has preconceptions, especially after hearing those rumours about him, but having chatted to him quite a bit I've realised there's a lot more to him than meets the eye and once you've finished reading this interview I think you'll have a slightly different opinion than you started with.
So sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy...
You recently marked your retirement from football, how did that feel?
It felt strange
to be honest, I am going to miss smashing the goalkeeper and centre halves on a
Saturday afternoon and the general banter of the lads and fans, especially the
away fans who over the last 20 years have called me all sorts from donkey to the
banana man shouts and telling me how bad of a player I was. My reply to them as
always been the same; you don’t have to tell me, I know how bad I am!
What are the best memories from your playing career?
There have been a
few; making my debut in the league for Bristol Rovers against Luton Town and
scoring my first league goal against Burnley a week later. Winning the league
with Swansea and promotion through the play offs for Cheltenham and scoring at
the Millennium Stadium in front of all my friends and family. Strangely, which
I will explain, was my sacking and then four month ban over the banana incident.
It gave me a wakeup call that I had no qualifications and nothing to fall back
on after football, so I went and did an access course and then on to complete a
degree with honours I might add in accounting and financial management. I had
offers from league clubs after my ban, however, I live in Cheltenham and
refused to move or travel and live in digs all week, so I went part time so that I
could study.
And the worst memories?
The only bad
memories I take from the game are the amount of "big time Charlies" you come
across when they have done nothing in the game. When I was younger you took on
board what an experienced player had told you and got on with it; these days
players hold a grudge forever.
Some people would describe you as a bit of a journeyman, is that actually a bad thing?
I have had my
fair share of clubs in total over 20 years and if that gets you the tag "journeyman" then that’s me! The only
league club I have ever asked for a transfer was Oxford United when for 27 days in a
row I took in a transfer request, come to think of it they never did reply, oh
they sacked me!
I have always been honest; if I am not enjoying my football I
will tell you straight and say let me go. I can’t just sit there and pick my
money up, and trust me I have seen that loads of times and that gets right up me
when you see players who don’t care. Every one of those clubs I have run
through brick walls for and they will all say "not the best but all ways gave
100%" and that’s me to a T.
You didn't turn pro until you were 23, did you ever feel like you wouldn’t make it?
You always
believe that you can make it into the league; I had a couple of clubs that were
interested in signing me, Doncaster offered money to Tamworth for me but when I
went up there to play in a friendly for them although I scored two goals and the manager
Sammy Chung offered me a deal, it did not feel like it was the right move for me.
Northampton Town were looking to sign me at the time too but Tamworth wanted
the money up front from the clubs. So I had started to have a few doubts and
started to think Tamworth were wanting too much money for me.
In the end I signed for Halesowen Town who
had to lost promotion to Rushden & Diamonds by the odd point to the Conference the year before and were looking to push on and we would have got
promotion but the club policy was to sell players into the league and they sold
me to Bristol Rovers in the February and they finished 3rd.
And how did it feel signing for Cheltenham at 36?
Signing back at
Cheltenham at 36 after four years since my previous football league game was mad.
It all started with landing back from a family holiday in Spain and the team I
play for always play Cheltenham in a pre-season game for our club to raise money. I
had agreed with our gaffer I would play 45 minutes and all I did was my normal
job of heading it and holding the ball but I roughed the defence up like
normal.
Afterwards I was having a pint and Martin Allan the gaffer said what
you doing with yourself, I explained just finishing of my degree and looking to
set a business up. We shook hands and that was that, well not exactly, when on
the Monday I got a call from one of the staff to ring the gaffer. I did that
and before you know I am scoring the winner against Rochdale at the start of
the season. It went from there and I ended up winning supporters player of the
year, eight years since I had last won it, which to be honest was amazing and I
thank the supporters for that.
So aside from your playing career, you have a weekly column in a local newspaper, how’s that going?
I write a column
once a week for the Gloucestershire Echo called Alsop’s Fables. I agreed to
write only if I could been very light hearted and rib a few players or fans or
my mates from my local who I have given nicknames to, i.e. the Polish car
washer, Gerald from Full Monty, The Lord Prince of Prestbury, the list is never
ending but I never reveal their
identity. I also try and get a song title in there
too and the response has been fantastic
and have asked for me to carry until next year so who knows I could be writing
for the Sun soon!
You've also set up Footballers Careers, tell me a bit about that?
I have played professional or semi-pro
football for a career spanning over 20 years and during that time it never
really occurred to me what my next step was going to be. Playing football
full-time was fantastic, but when my career ended it became increasingly
apparent that I had no qualifications and no job skills that I could rely upon and in turn this made it very difficult for me to decide what it was I wanted
to do, but more importantly, there was no-one for me to approach in terms of
advice and help in my next career path.
And I hear you’re also training for the London Marathon next year?
The London
Marathon training is currently at the application form stage! I have a meeting
this week to establish what charity I will run for. It will be my first and
going to be completely honest and look to do it in over 5 hours! The main
reason for it is to give myself a target to release some energy now I have
retired from football and of course raise money for a charity.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog post, I've certainly enjoy putting it together and I'd like to thank Julian for giving up his time to do this for me.
To find out more about Footballers Careers or to have a chat with Julian, you'll find him here...
Footballers Careers - www.footballerscareers.com
Julian's Twitter - www.twitter.com/footballcareers
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