Are players stopping themselves from reaching their potential as a footballer so that they can earn a better income?
Title picture: Stockport score a penalty past Forest Green Rovers in the 2012-13 season (Credit: nicksarebi)
FOR many kids growing up, a professional footballing career is the stuff of dreams.
Many of their parents – most of them frustrated would-be pros themselves – share the fantasy. But plenty of players with the ability to turn those hopes into reality snub the full-time game.
Yes, you read that right. Having proved themselves among the best of the best in junior football, they turn down the opportunity of a lifetime in adulthood.
So what – what the hell – happens to them in between?
Traditionally, full-time clubs with bigger crowds are those who can provide the best money for their players. But, there are clubs who are able to live above and beyond those means.
Step five, the National League, is predominately made up of full-time clubs. There are notorious big spenders in that division, such as Forest Green Rovers whose annual wage budget for the 2015-16 was over £2.1 million, while North Ferriby United’s reported wage budget for the 2016-17 season is around a fifth of what the Gloucestershire outfit could offer.
Lincoln City, promotion contenders in the National League this season alongside Mark Cooper's side and FA Cup Quarter-Finalists, had less than quarter of Forest Green’s wage bill in 2015-16. Full-time Lincoln City’s wage budget for the 2015-16 season was around the £500,000 according to chairman, Bob Dorrian.
A comparison to this is that AFC Fylde’s budget for the same season, despite being part-time and a league below, was reportedly over double this.
Fylde became full-time for the 2016-17 season, but during the 2015-16 campaign, they were able to offer players luxury salaries, while they also were able to balance another job.
Former Imps assistant manager, Grant Brown, said: "The biggest challenge is matching wages. If he's got a full time job and he’s playing football part time they can pick up a nice weekly wage packet that full time clubs would struggle to match, depending on what level they’re going in at.
“Their combined wages would make them near the top end of the pay scale at a full time club at a lower league club or a Conference National club."
Brown, who had been in various coaching roles at the club since 2005 before leaving the club in 2016, recalled of two experiences where the wages a part-time club could offer were more of an attraction than joining a full-time club.
He said: “We tried to sign Paul Clayton from Alfreton. He was just what we were after and we thought he was ideal for us and would make us better. But, I don’t think the club ever got to speak to him.
“He wanted to stay at Alfreton, where he was on good money, he would have come into us at the time as the joint-top earner, and he didn’t want to do it. He could pick up the same money training twice a week and playing on a Saturday. It was easier for him.”
“Dan Bradley was another one. He went to Barnet, lasted a week there, got homesick and we tried to sign him. Again, he would’ve been one of our higher earners and he chose to go back to Alfreton and pick his money up there.
“I don’t begrudge the kid that, he was working doing some football coaching. So the money he was earning from both of the those, I don’t mind that at all.”
Danny Lloyd, winger at Stockport County, has played full-time previously and turned down a full-time move to Lincoln City in 2013 to remain part-time. He admitted players can quite easily be settled in jobs and football at a part-time club.
The former Colwyn Bay man, said: "I loved it (playing full-time football) however it came down the finances and not being able to afford to live away and still see my family on the wages I was offered, which again was very frustrating.
“You can earn very good money part-time in football with a full-time job, which makes it difficult to weigh up a move to the Conference National or League 2 as some lads may be earning a lot more than what the club can offer them."
Lloyd, who works for a waste disposal firm in the North-West, also conceded that the financial benefits of remaining part-time could outweigh the possibility of returning to full-time football eventually.
“I have a very good job with career prospects and I am on good money from my current club so it would have to be a very decent package to make me consider going back full-time, which again is very frustrating because I fully believe I could play league football.” He added.
Danny Rowe, who stuck with AFC Fylde during their transition from part-time to full-time football, explained that most players want to play as high as possible, but there are other factors that are considered when leaving part-time football behind.
The 27 year-old, said: "I think they've got other options in life if they choose to remain part-time. A lad we had (at Fylde) last year, he was 29, had a good job, so it was one of them, if you have a good job and don’t think you’re good enough to progress in football, people won’t take that gamble.
“They aren’t (maximising their potential), but financially they might not be able to afford to go full-time. It depends what age they are. The lad I was talking about could easily go full time and he’s gone to Altrincham, and probably playing below what he should be."
Some players don't have the benefit of being able to pick whether to remain with a part-time club or go full-time like Lloyd and Rowe have done.
Luke Foster had plied his trade for Oxford United and Mansfield Town in the National League, while also playing league football for Preston North End, Rotherham United and Stevenage.
He made the drop into part-time football after joining Southport in 2014, before spells at Harrogate Town, Ilkeston and most recently, Coalville Town of the Northern Premier League.
The centre-half believes that the difficulties lie with the player making the step down to the part-time game, rather than the gamble of the part-time player moving into the full-time game.
The 31 year-old said: "I think there is more pressure dropping to part-time because you can be worried about the financial drop and it could be distracting you on the field and effect performance.
“But if you are a part-time footballer and get the opportunity to go full-time you have nothing to lose, you can relax and take your chance knowing you wont be any worse off if it doesn’t pay off."
If players are in settled jobs while earning a good wage at a part-time job, it can be difficult to be drawn away from that to go full-time. But, the consideration must be made how much the person is willing to better themselves as a footballer and play on the best stage, or whether it's just a financial gain.
