Back to my roots - Ray Wilkins
Dan Pope, Club Website editor
Ray Wilkins' career in football has come full circle. Having started out as a schoolboy at Chelsea, he graced some of the finest clubs in Europe as a player before moving into management and, most recently, finding his way back to Stamford Bridge as their current assistant manager.
When I met Wilkins at Grassroots Football Live 2008, he had yet to take up his role alongside Luis Felipe Scolari, but Chelsea still figured strongly in our conversation. In the latest in our series, Wilkins went back to his roots to tell us how his football career began at Chelsea and Senrab, one of Club Website's largest clubs. Here's how the conversation went:
Dan Pope: "So who did you first play for as a kid?"
Ray Wilkins: "Well I obviously went through to the local school and district side but when I was 10 and a half I joined Chelsea, so I was playing Tuesdays and Thursday whilst at Chelsea. |
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"From about 12 on I played for a team out of East London called Senrab, which has produced quite a few footballers who have earned their living out of the game. I played for them for about four years up until I signed as an apprentice for Chelsea.
"Senrab would have been the main club I played with. It would have been packed out with the young men that had joined Chelsea, so they had quite a strong team."
DP: “What other players that you played with went on to make it in the game?”
RW: “I played with John Sparrow, Ray Lewington and Tommy Langley [all of whom went on to become Chelsea regulars]. Over the course of the time that I played for them, there were about six or seven who made it at first team level.”
DP: “What’s your abiding memory of playing football at that age?”
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RW: “Fun. Enjoyment. And I think that’s the way it should be as well. I used to love it. I used to go and watch Chelsea play in the afternoon at Stamford Bridge and then get on the underground and go over to the East End and stay with a real friend of mine, Tommy Westwood, who was the goalkeeper at Senrab.
I stayed with his family, played on the Sunday and then came back Sunday afternoon. It was a great experience but we enjoyed playing football… and it was football, football, football.” |
DP: “Was there a particular highlight from playing at that time?”
RW: “No, I think just playing with your mates to be honest. I think that’s what it’s all about. We used to train together on a Tuesday and Thursday and play on a Sunday. It was just getting prepared and playing with your mates, cos I think that’s what football’s all about at that level. You play with your mates, you have a bit of fun and hopefully you win.”
DP: “What was the best piece of advice you were given as a young player trying to make it in the game?”
RW: “The same, I suppose, as everybody’s told – just work hard. Every bit of training we did was all about technique, which is how it should be because you can run all day as a kid anyway - you don’t need to do any physical stuff. So it was all technique – we used to spend hours and hours just practising our technique.”
DP: “I was wondering if you were 11 years old today, the same kid as you were then, how do you think your chances would be of making it in the current game?”
RW: “Well that would be a difficult one because obviously with the influx of foreign players it is very difficult for young lads to make it unless you appear to be outstanding or exceptional. I do feel for the [home grown] guys at the moment because we do have a massive influx of foreign players so it’s very difficult for young men to make it. But, I still say if you work hard enough and you train hard enough and have the right attitude you can beat that foreign player. There’s no question why our lads can’t work as hard as them and improve their ability and skills.”
DP: “If you were in charge of the FA and could make one change to improve football from the grassroots up what would it be?”
RW: “It is things like the exhibition we’re at today. We’ve got to open the eyes of people and let them know what [football] is out there for them to do. We’ve got to raise awareness.
We’ve got to get kids away from computers. Computers are for schools so we’ve got to get them away from them and back into the playing fields and playing football. Now I know that’s extremely difficult because we live in a social climate that, at times, stinks. Therefore you’re a bit wary about letting the kids go and play but, as much as we possibly can, we’ve got to get them out playing football.”
DP: “If you could change one rule in football, what would it be?” |
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RW: “I would bring in goal line technology and only goal line technology. We play in an era now where sponsorships are so great and to remain in a division, whichever it may be, is of such importance. There are so many goals scored, or not scored, from the underside of a crossbar that I think we need goal line technology. They do it in ice hockey – when that puck crosses the line a buzzer goes off and I think we can do that in football."
DP: “Sure, you can see this working at the top of the game where there is so much money involved, but obviously you can’t do that over Hackney Marshes and some people argue that they want to keep the game the same at all levels.”
RW: “No, fair comment. I do see that, but the person over Hackney Marshes on a Sunday will accept that they can’t afford to have that [technology].”
DP: “Is there anything in the rules that you think you could change for the game as a whole? Anything you think that needs improving?”
RW: “I think players have to improve their attitude, I’ve got to say. I’d love to see players be a bit more humane in the way they go about things. I don’t think they respect each other enough.”
DP: “The FA has recently launched their Respect programme, of course.”
RW: “Yeah, but probably a tad too late. But then, better late than never."
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All images courtesy of Grassroots Football Live. Dan Pope met Ray Wilkins at Grassroots Football Live 2008. The 2009 event takes place at the NEC, Birmingham on 12-14 June 2009.
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