Latest Journeys
As I prepare to catch the coach at our regular meeting point just off the M1, I pull into my favourite service station to grab a coffee, get the papers and some snacks for the long journey ahead.
Is it me or does everyone else have a favourite services on the motorways? One that you plan to take a break or just an excuse to get a coffee and treat yourself to a slice of cake.
But this particular services entices me every time and has been a routine of mine on every away trip this season.
While patiently waiting for my double espresso, which is very much needed after being on the road for a few hours, I start to ponder at how much I must have spent at the services over my career.
Quite a boring and perturbing moment as the numbers escalate rapidly. Nonetheless, it also made me think about how much time I've spent on the road.
Although I don't regard my journey to training as a commute, like any other person would, it certainly has clocked up the miles on my car and the regular service, which would normally be once a year but has turned into every six months.
Life on the road really isn't as glamorous as you would think. OK, staying in five-star hotels is always nice, but when you're driving up and down the country, it can become quite lonely and you feel isolated from your family.
Although it's part of the job and you have to at times “man up” and deal with it, when you find yourself travelling back after a midweek game at 2am, it does test your character and make you wish you were at home.
For me, Barrow away has to be by far the worst fixture I have ever played in. I'm sure many other players agree, especially when the original Saturday fixture was called off and rearranged for a Tuesday night in mid-January. Lovely.
When spending so much time in the car, there are repercussions, usually resulting in injuries as the stress of driving takes its toll on the legs.
I've been at a club where the chairman would only sign players who lived within a certain radius of it. He didn't want his players commuting from afar and wanted them fully committed.
However, the rule that the chairman implemented was soon changed when the manager signed new players in the summer who didn't live within that radius.
When the players formed a car school commuting from 70 miles away, the chairman made the gaffer aware that he wasn't happy, which created disagreement between them.
This resulted in the manager telling these players that they could no longer commute and had to stay over at least twice a week.
The players soon began to feel unsettled as they were away from home and, after a few weeks of stopping over, they continued to commute. When the manager found out that they were ignoring his guidelines, he fined them.
The boss had to show to the chairman that he was staying firm with the club policy and, shortly after this, one player was sacked for breaching club rules.
This shows that some players will ignore their club's policy if it means them being at home and seeing their family, I have been in this position before so I can completely empathise.
Conversely, I can completely understand that the clubs should have a policy, which they feel all players must obey.
In this instance, either the player commits to the club and moves closer to it or the club has two options, which would depend on how important they feel that the player is.
He either leaves the club, having not agreed to respect their policy, or the club agrees to allow the player to commute and just let him, this one player, get away with it.
In my experience, there is only one winner. A manager I once played under was very stubborn and once refused a player to attend his partner's 12-week baby scan.
Friday traffic. I'm sure everyone is aware of this when you travel home from work or happen to be travelling somewhere for the weekend and get caught in it.
I've had this traumatic experience dozens of times, mostly when travelling on the coach after staying overnight before the game.
One thing that really infuriates me more than anything is when the coach driver gets lost en route.
He has one simple job, which IS his job, and he manages to get lost, either going to the game or to the hotel.
I've never quite understood this; neither could one of my team-mates a few years ago, who took out his frustration on “Twitter” by slamming the driver.
Only for the coach company to see his comments and make a written complaint to the club.
This resulted in the player being fined. The club was told that they wouldn't be able to use this company again unless the player made a personal written apology to the firm. It really is ludicrous when these situations happen.
Which takes me on to my next point … players turning up late for games.
I can speak on behalf of every player who has been late for training. Nevertheless, players turning up late for games is inexcusable, regardless of the circumstances or incident that may have occurred.
There is no excuse and it is proven when the player is put on the bench or is not even in the squad.
I know of one player who was sat on the M4 for three hours because of an overturned lorry. He turned up to the match five minutes before kick off, at 7.40pm.
He was named on the bench, despite having scored in the previous game, and found himself out of the team for the next five matches.
Fortunately for him, he didn't have to buy all the fans a drink, like comedian Jason Manford did when turning up 90 minutes late for a gig in Lincoln.
A nice gesture from the mad Manchester City fan but which also left him £3,500 lighter after receiving his bar tab.
I thought that was bad but a conversation that I caught wind of the other day was that one player drove all the way to a Conference club and had to pay his way into the players' car park.
I'm not sure how that went down. But I would have refused to pay … and kicked up a huge fuss!
*Read The Secret Non-League Footballer's column at www.thesecretfootballer.com
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