Serie Z2.

0
West Midlands football uncovered

Issue 2, January 2021

 Welcome back folks
W
elcome back to Serie Z 2.0 a�er that strangest of
winter breaks and amid another Covid-enforced
shutdown of many non-league compe��ons.
Whilst we ponder what sort of shape this o�-truncated season
will take, you can at least enjoy a belter of a second
edi�on, brought to you free of charge.
Before you read the interviews with former
Glassboys boss Gary Hacke�, England wonder
Emily Westwood and about Daniel
Nardiello’s journey from Forest Falcons to
Old Trafford – and beyond – I’d like to get in
a couple of apologies.
Firstly, if this issue is a li�le fuzzy around the
edges, that’s because we are now onto a free
online publishing pla�orm a�er the ini�al free
demo a month ago. To bring you a pin-sharp
version of the mag involves raising the £120 or so
required for an annual account at FlippingBook – and
doing that requires selling a couple of ads (see below). Anyone
who does want a nice, premium version of this edi�on in the
mean�me, however, can drop me a line on Twi�er
Keep Serie Z in print by
advertising here Quarter-page
strip ad £35
Custom ad shapes considered and full
design service offered. Contact me at
lyetownmax@gmail.com or @lyetownmax
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you the pdf.
On a second point, I am assuming there will be a more lengthy
delay before the next edi�on of the mag comes out. That’s not
because of exci�ng, ambi�ous publishing plans or
anything like that, it’s because I’m about to take the
keys to a new apartment so I’ll be stuck up a
stepladder redecora�ng for the forseeable
future. Ah, the glamorous life of sports
journalism, eh?
Now I’ll shove off and let you enjoy the latest
set of interviews, albeit with another appeal
for help. No, not for money this �me. Part of
the problem with having a free publishing
account is I have no analy�cs available so I
have no idea whether anyone is reading this or
I’m just shou�ng into the void. Once again, if you
have any feedback on Serie Z (and the more
fawning and sycophan�c, the be�er, please), drop me
a line @lyetownmax and let me know – and don’t be shy
about spreading the word too please folks.
Right, that’s it for now, enjoy the second edi�on.
Max
Half page £60
Full page £100
 Gary
Hackett
Heart
of A�er 16 years at the helm of Stourbridge FC, a genera�on of fans will have grown up at the War Memorial

E
unaware of the route taken by Gary Hacke� from Lye Town into the Football League, via the Bromsgrove
Rovers side he would also go on to manage. Glassboys supporters will be far more familiar with the string
of FA Cup upsets which thrilled packed houses at Amblecote year a�er year. Now, a�er an 18-month
absence from the dug-out, the former West Brom winger says he is ready to get back into the game.
ven when you are working on a ramshackle, publishing
vanity project like Serie Z, some�mes you can’t help but
Amblecote-based Stourbridge had been forced to surrender

GLASS
stumble upon the odd scoop.
Gary Hacke� is ready to get back into the dug-out.
“I’ve had a break and the ba�eries have been recharged,”
says the man who spent 16 years taking Stourbridge FC to
promo�ons, uncharted territory, heartbreaking play-off
adventures and those glorious, unforge�able FA Cup runs.
Hacke� resigned as manager of The Glassboys in May 2019
in the wake of a Southern League Premier Division Central play-
off semi-final defeat to Alvechurch, ironically paving the way for
his replacement, Ian Long, who stepped into the dug-out at The
War Memorial ground a�er the la�er’s Churchmen lost out to
Kings Lynn in the same end-of-season compe��on.
And therein lies a tale. The 2018-19 play-offs page on
Wikipedia states Stourbridge lost 2-1 at home in the match that
proved to be Hacke�’s last in charge but the game was actually
played at ’Church’s Lye Meadow ground. In Hacke�’s words:
“We had to swap a bowling green of a pitch at Stourbridge –
and it really is a good surface these days. Alvechurch was a
par�cularly horrible, bobbly pitch to play on at the �me. They
deserved to win on a very difficult pitch to play on. They knew
how to play on their ground.”
home advantage as the play-off �e was twice postponed while
the FA and Southern League had a back and forth about how to
punish Stra�ord for fielding ineligible player Dan Creaney, on
loan from Coalville Town, three months earlier. With Stra�ord
having finished in the play-off picture, the eventual three-point
penalty applied determined which team played which in the
end of season contest. If it was a frustra�ng situa�on for fellow
contenders Kings Lynn – who eventually won promo�on to
Na�onal League North – and Alvechurch, it proved disastrous
for Stourbridge, who had to cede home advantage because
they share their ground with Stourbridge Cricket Club and the
summer season had started.
It proved a momentous defeat for The Glassboys and Hacke�
but the former West Brom and Aberdeen winger insisted it was
not the play-off debacle alone which persuaded him to walk
away.
“It was a culmina�on of things over the course of the year,”
says the 58-year-old. “It wasn’t a rash decision. You can’t go on
forever at one par�cular football club. I felt the �me was right
for me [to leave] but it would also be good for the club to have
someone fresh in. I don’t make rash decisions. I thought it
through.”

Words/graphics: Max Hall.Portrait: Nigel Cliff


That said, Hacke� admits: “I knew it was over a�er the game.
I gave my team talk and I just knew. It’s just something… you
know there’s a �me. I was mentally �red by it. If anyone is a
manager in football they will know; you can’t play at it. It
involves so much of your �me and takes so much out of you.”
The Stourbridge na�ve, who started an impressive playing
career as a 16-year-old just up the road at Lye Town, is worried
his �ming may have been off as Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on
the non-league game since he le� Amblecote but it could equally
be argued he �med the move just right. A�er all, the game has
hardly moved on since his departure.
Either way, he says: “I’ve never regre�ed it. I’ve missed
football and I’ve missed Stourbridge and my involvement there.
I’ve been back to Stourbridge a few �mes and am always warmly
received there. There are quite a few people who I brought down
to the football club who have stayed on. The fans are
magnificent, you just look at the ground and at the facili�es
there now.”
It is a far cry from when he arrived, as joint manager with Jon
Ford in 2003, at which point The Glassboys were chafing against
the constraints of the Midland Football Alliance, having won
back-to-back �tles but been denied promo�on because of that
groundshare with the cricket club.
The new men gave a hint of the cup adventures to come with
a s�rring run to the FA Vase quarter finals in their first season.
The li�ing of the FA-driven ground-grading restraint on
groundsharing enabled Hacke� to take the club back into the
Southern League as sole manager in the 2005-06 season, a�er
Ford had moved to assistant manager because of work
commitments, with promo�on secured as MFA runners-up
thanks a reorganisa�on of the non-league ladder.
A Leon Broadhurst extra-�me winner at Leamington in 2007-
08 secured a second promo�on in three seasons and the real fun
began upon the club’s return to the top flight of the Southern
League. A gate of 2,014 saw Stourbridge lose 1-0 at home to
Walsall in the first round proper of the 2009-10 FA Cup and the
Amblecote ou�it went one be�er two seasons later, dumping
League Two Plymouth out in the first round at home a�er a 3-3
draw at Home Park. That enabled 3,067 fans to squeeze into
temporary stands at The War Memorial to see Hacke�’s side exit
the contest at home to third-�er Stevenage Borough.
Play-off semi-final defeats followed in the next two seasons,
the la�er featuring another dizzying FA Cup run into the second
round – and another defeat to League One Stevenage. The
following campaign Hacke� did it again, guiding the club into the
second round with a run that included victory over
Kidderminster Harriers en route to defeat to Na�onal League
Eastleigh.
The annual run into the televised rounds of the world’s
oldest cup compe��on was becoming a regular date but even
so, Glassboys fans can hardly have expected the record-
breaking run experienced in the 2016-17 campaign, when the
now-Northern Premier League, Premier Division side reached
the uncharted territory of the third round, where they lost at
League Two Wycombe.
It is a bi�ersweet memory for Hacke�, however, given his
side’s play-off final defeat to Spennymoor Town that year.
Referring to the buccaneering FA Cup run, Hacke� says: “I’m
a firm believer that we would have gone up if we’d managed to
keep that team together. We got to Wycombe away, and took
3,000 Stourbridge fans with us down there; it was a great
experience for us all. When you talk about the third round,
that’s where it becomes possible to get your Manchester
Uniteds or your Liverpool at home. When the draw was made,
you’re a bit disappointed but then you get on and look forward
to it.”
If the trip to Adams Park was a grand day out for Glassboys
fans, they then saw several of the stars of the show either
depart or end up in the treatment room before the end-of-
season date with Spennymoor.
“We lost Dan Scarr to Birmingham,” says Hacke�, “he’s now
doing well at Walsall and that’s great to see. Kris�an Green
moved to Solihull, Jack Duggan got injured and I don’t think
Chris Lait played again that season [because of injury]. So we
lost three of our back four within a couple of weeks and we had
lost six players not long a�er that Wycombe game.
“It’s all ifs, buts and maybes but we got to the play-off final
with a team that wasn’t as strong as that we’d had in January.”
Fast forward two seasons and Hacke� was delivering a post-
match team talk at Alvechurch while knowing he needed a
break from the game.
In the last 18 months, his involvement in the game has
consisted of the odd visits to Stourbridge and Lye games, Covid-
permi�ng, and work at The Hawthorns for the West Bromwich
Albion ex-players’ associa�on.
Not surprisingly, given the wealth of experience garnered
during his playing and coaching career – and the Black Country
contacts book compiled during 16 years at The War Memorial –
Hacke� has not been without offers.
Hackett’s
Heroes
Steve
Ogrizovic
Wayne
Williams
Willie Miller
The winger’s playing career took him from Lye to Second Division Shrewsbury Town,
via Bromsgrove Rovers, and saw him announce his arrival in pro football with a man of
the match award in his second away game with The Shrews, in front of a 27,000 crowd
at St James’ Park. Being judged best winger on display was no mean feat either, when
Chris Waddle was performing the same du�es for Newcastle. Chris Whyte
Hacke� experienced top-flight football with Aberdeen before returning south of the
border to join second-�er Stoke City and then fulfilling every fans dream of playing for
the club they support, with a move to West Brom. Hacke� played his part in li�ing the
Baggies from the third �er in a season which culminated in a play-off final victory over
Port Vale. Heartbreakingly ruled out of the big game with a hamstring injury, the
Baggies fan characteris�cally decided against travelling with the club party and instead
Kris�an
went down to Wembley in “t-shirt and jeans” as a supporter, along with a group of Green
mates from Halesowen, to watch from the stands.
His playing career con�nued with s�nts at Peterborough United, Chester City and
Halesowen before he took his first step into coaching – as player-coach under Morton
Bartleet at Stourbridge. He held similar roles at Stourport Swi�s and was assistant
Wayne
manager at Halesowen before joining Redditch United in an ill-fated spell as number Fereday
two to former Albion teammate Nicky Cross.
Hacke�’s link-up with Ford – ini�ally at Bromsgrove as they vied with Stourbridge in
an improbably strong Midland Alliance – proved more frui�ul but it is to that short
spell at Redditch that the former Shrews winger harks back when explaining why, thus Leon
far, he has turned down the offers that have come his way. Broadhurst
“I’m in a be�er posi�on than most because I can afford to be selec�ve,” he says.
“I’ve been offered quite a few jobs but I don’t want to be travelling an hour and a half
or so three �mes a week. If it happens [another management job], it happens. I know
from experience not to leap into the wrong sort of situa�on. When Nicky Cross asked Sean Geddes
me to help out at Redditch I asked him how many players we had got and how many
we had to get in and basically we didn’t have anyone two weeks before the season was
to start. I thought: ‘We might have a problem here.’
“The club was being very badly run at the �me, there was talk of takeovers here and
takeovers there. I’ve known Nicky for a long �me and I don’t think his heart was really Kayleden
in being a manager, I thought someone had talked him into it and we were going to Brown
struggle to succeed right from the start.”
In terms of his ideal next job, Hacke� said: “Ideally I’d like to manage at levels I’ve
managed at before and maybe even higher. You look at the infrastructure [of a club],
the fanbase; what wages can they pay, what finances have they got?” Luke Benbow
In terms of what he has learned during his spell away from the game, the ex
Stourbridge boss is empha�c on only one point. “Social media means it’s much worse
now,” he says of stepping into the dug-out. “You can write anything you like on it,
whether it’s true, whether it’s libellous or not. I would move away from social media
when and if I get back into football.”
Ryan Rowe
It is a revela�on likely to have chairmen and club owners within a certain radius of
Hacke�’s home in Hagley scrambling to clean up their Twi�er and Instagram accounts.
It seems unlikely the former Glassboys chief will be le� kicking his heels for long.

Soul Sister
The investment in the women’s game which people long yearned for has brought with it some of the
nega�ve aspects of men’s football, such as a tendency for players to flit from club to club. Emily
Westwood hit the heights with just Wolves, Everton and Birmingham, and is now considering what to do
in a life a�er football.
S
omewhere in South London every Monday night –
lockdowns permi�ng – there is a social five-a-side
football meet-up that regularly features a mouth-
watering array of interna�onal footballing talent.
The astonishingly well-stocked roster available to ‘The Real
MNF’ [Monday-night football] WhatsApp group was just one of
the revela�ons offered up by Wordsley-born former England
interna�onal Emily Westwood from her sofa in Milton Keynes,
as she sat down for a chat with Serie Z between the personal
training sessions she hosts remotely.
“Here it is,” said Woodward, glancing down at her phone,
“It’s somewhere in South London, I’m not sure where. There’s
Kaz Carney and Kelly Smith – it was set up by ‘Eesh’ [Alicia]
Ferguson, who played for Australia – there’s Eni Aluko and Jess
Creighton, from Sky, and Helen Richardson-Walsh too. It’s not
like they all turn up every week, though, it’s a big group.”
‘Woody’, as Westwood is universally known, was going
through the who’s who of global sports stars that make up the
Real MNF player pool a�er admi�ng “I haven’t kicked a ball”
since re�ring from playing du�es with Birmingham City Women
– formerly Birmingham City Ladies – in May 2018. “I want to
but because of my PT [personal training] stuff... most of my
clients are on an evening so I just haven’t had chance.”
Emily
Westwood
Westwood’s associa�on with Blues con�nued for another
year last season, she added. “I stayed on for a year and trained
with the team and was the go-between between the players
and staff, helping to keep the environment right.”
At the end of last season, the 32-cap England interna�onal –
who came off the bench in the UEFA 2009 final England lost 6-2
to Germany in Helsinki – officially brought the curtain down on
a playing career which encompassed five years with second-�er
Wolves Women, a similar stay with Everton Ladies during which
she won the FA and League Cups and eight years back in the
West Midlands with Blues.
Asked which was the most enjoyable stage of her stellar
career, she offered up a diploma�c answer.
“At Wolves there was no pressure,” she said, “we were sort
of playing for the love of it, for a hobby. I won the FA Cup with
Everton [in 2009-10, a feat she repeated with Birmingham in
2012], spent five years there and played in Europe and met so
many great people who are s�ll good friends now.
“If I was to say one, overriding period, I’d say when I was
back home playing for Blues and got the chance to go pro and
be paid for playing, which was towards the end of my career.
Blues was when it was becoming more professional. It became
the Super League when I joined Birmingham, it was more like Words: Max Hall.
heading towards being a professional footballer. It was also Images courtesy of Birmingham City Women FC
 Woody’s
Wonders
Rachel
Brown-Finnis

where I met my wife, Heather, who was general manager at Blues been something I’d thought about doing but I didn’t really have As we cha�ed via Zoom, Westwood was between virtual PT sessions hosted by her Solid Soul Alex Sco�
when I joined.” any qualifica�ons.” Fitness business from the front room of the home she moved into in Milton Keynes “last MBE
Westwood’s career is notable for the rela�vely long spells she season,” as she said, unable to shake off football parlance. Moving within commu�ng
Step forward the PFA, who put their member in touch with a
spent at each of her three senior clubs and that fact is not lost on distance of London means wife Heather can work as head of women’s football at
PT educa�on company in the Midlands so she was able to
a player who entered an amateur game but, in 2009, was one of Barnet-based To�enham Hotspur FC Women and Westwood also works with
combine studies for a professional qualifica�on with her playing
the first players to be offered a central contract by the FA to help du�es at Blues. With the studio she was working with set to
the club and its youth sec�on on strength and condi�oning, a specialty Laura Basse�
her England performances. for the Solid Soul business [have a gander at the PT company on
move abroad, Westwood and a colleague decided to branch
Facebook and Instagram].
“I spent such a long period of �me at each club,” said the out on their own, although the former midfielder said it
midfielder, who moved back into central defence in the la�er was a big decision. “I was thinking: ‘I need to get Reloca�ng meant Westwood had to “start from scratch”
stages of her career. “Lots of players now go from club to club, another job, what am I going to do?’ I was and then the world got turned upside down although, as
you might get one in a handful, like Kerys Harrop or Steph looking for work at places like Royal Mail; I the former Wolves player said: “I thought I’d be screwed Emily
Houghton – who has been at Man City for a while – but people was thinking of being a pos�e un�l I when the pandemic started but the online stuff went Westwood
tend to move clubs more in these �mes.” reached a decision on my future. crazy.”
But then I thought: ‘No. I’m At a �me when people have realised more than
It is one of the inevitable side-effects of the money being
going to do it and set up my ever the importance of personal contact, Westwood
invested into the women’s game as it becomes ever more
own PT business.” was quick to emphasise she is able to offer her
professional and Westwood said she would not want to put the Kerys Harrop
genie back in the bo�le even if it were possible. At this point, a groups of clients the chance to meet up, even if only
feelgood Hollywood virtually. “In the classes, we make �me at the
“More and more players are coming from outside the country
movie would show a beginning and at the end to have a chat – it’s not
into the country to play football, and players get moved on
montage of clients just me cracking the whip all the �me,” she said.
quickly,” said Woody. “There’s contracts involved now and agents
“At least everyone has had contact with someone
and fees involved with moves. Unless you’re a top player and streaming into the
that day, that’s really important because it’s so
Fara Williams
guaranteed to start, you will have to up s�cks and move around to studio but, as so MBE
many start-up easy to be lonely and to chew on your feelings.”
further your career. People wanted that money and that success,
if they win what they’ve been craving for, so money arrives, businesses Westwood knows that as well as anyone, in a
they’ve got to take the downside as well. Male players have had would a�est year in which she lost her father, Graham, to
to uproot their families and move all over the country for a long a�er the cancer just as England was going into
�me.” toughest lockdown. Kelly Smith
of MBE
The difference being, of course, that a man who had spent “Work really helped because it gave me a
years,
most of his career in the top flight and picking up dozens of focus,” said the Black Country role model.
England caps would have been paid considerably more over the it
“People asked me: ‘What are you doing?
course of his career. It is a fact Westwood acknowledges without You’ve just lost your dad,’ but I said; ‘I need
rancour when asked about the sort of money she received during this, this is what makes things normal for Jo Po�er
her playing days. me.’”
Quizzed about that FA central contract, she replied: “In that There seems li�le doubt her father would
period of �me it was big bucks, it was comparable to having a full- take pride in his daughter’s latest
�me job in retail, that sort of minimum wage type of level. At the accomplishments and there could be more
�me, it was like: ‘Bloody hell, I’ve got all this money to play big decisions ahead, with Westwood mulling
Rachel
football!’ It enabled me to work part-�me and have �me to train whether to pursue the degree she would Yankey OBE
more to play interna�onal football. require to be employed in the sports
“I was only really professional towards the later stage of my science field of the football industry.
career. Even then, the money was not that great but all I had ever “I want to pursue my business and
seldom
wanted to do was to play football when I le� school.” make it be�er,” added Woody, “but I Rachel
works like that.
As a 34-year-old, Westwood started to get more issues with “I used my savings to also want to get into sports science Williams
her right knee, to have less playing �me with Blues – she was an buy some equipment and rent and would need a degree. I have to
unused sub as Blues’ naivety lost them the 2017 FA Cup final at space and I started adver�sing,” said decide whether to get into
Wembley in the first half – and to take longer to recover between Westwood. “That was in 2018, it was educa�on or keep focusing on my
matches. She faced some big decisions. business.”
really hard. It was horrible, I didn’t have Kaz Carney
“I knew it was going to be my last season and I’d been doing a any income; it seemed to be going out Maybe a trip to South MBE
bit of part-�me work in a local PT studio,” said the England ace, “I rather than coming in but now I’m in a London for a game of five-a-
was doing a couple of group sessions each week. It had always completely different place.” side would clear her head.

Will Tipton ever

unearth another Bully?
WHAT Daniel
HAPPENED Nardiello
NEXT TO
THE BOY Having scored goals for fun for Forest Falcons “somewhere near Mary Stevens Park” and been picked up
by Wolves’ youth set-up, teen striker Daniel Nardiello’s life changed forever with a couple of goals for
Stourbridge & Halesowen District against a more fancied Birmingham team in 1997. That was enough to

WONDER?
a�ract scouts from a Manchester United side which would offer the youngster his first professional
contract within months of sealing an historic treble with that drama�c late finish in Barcelona.

“I
signed professionally in 1999 and had to go to a tribunal
with lawyers from both clubs [Wolves and Manchester
United],” Nardiello told Serie Z. “The fee was a huge
amount of money, it was something like £300,000 rising in stages
to £1.2 million, depending on appearances. “I think it would go
up to that if I won five interna�onal caps and made 40
appearances for the first team at United.”
The son of former Coventry City and Wales player Donato
Nardiello, the youngster had known nothing but success on the
field. Although he tried to play down his ability at the top of the
interview, Nardiello, who now works as a financial adviser,
admi�ed he was not lacking in confidence when he signed on at
Old Trafford.
“My life was football,” he said. “That was the only thing I was
interested in. I remember all the teachers telling me at school
that I could not rely on football – and that’s absolutely good
advice to get kids to concentrate on their studies – but football is
all I ever wanted to do. My dad took me to stuff like gymnas�cs,
karate and judo but I was only interested in football. We had a
li�le set of kids’ goalposts in the back garden and I was out there
all day.
“Being a young footballer at whatever age, you don’t realise
the situa�on you’re in at Man Utd – it was just normal to me. I’d
done well and scored lots of goals and it was just normal for me
to just go out and play football. It’s only now I realise what a
lucky posi�on I was in and what I was able to achieve in the
game. As a young kid I just didn’t think anything of it and I had
that confidence I would make it as a professional footballer.
“If you go into the football world and you haven’t got
confidence, what’s the point? I think that’s probably true of
every profession. I was extremely confident and I did believe I
could make it at Man United.”
What happened next did not quite follow the script for a lad
whose family had moved from Coventry to Stourbridge because
of Donato’s post-football career with West Midlands Police.
Whilst the player who had been banging in the goals for
Wolves on Saturdays and Forest Falcons every Sunday made first
team appearances for United in the cups – notably including a
Champions League game against Maccabi Haifa – an elusive run-
out in the league never materialised. Nardiello was loaned out to
League Two Swansea for a month to “toughen up” in 2003 and
made an impact on loan at third �er Barnsley. Despite scoring
seven goals in 16 games for the Oakwell ou�it, though, United
released the former child star and his return to The Tykes on a
permanent basis was the first switch of a nomadic playing career
which would encompass 12 clubs in the second, third and fourth
�ers of the English game before a last hurrah with Bangor City in
the Welsh Premier – and the Europa League.

Words: Max Hall.

Images courtesy of Barnsley FC and Manchester United.

Despite the back and hip problems which dogged his playing
days – most notably at Blackpool for whom he appeared just
seven �mes in two seasons as the Seasiders climbed to the top
flight – Nardiello is refreshingly free of regrets.
“I look back and think how lucky I was to be able to play
football for 17, 18 years,” he says. “I’m at Man United and my
mates back home in Stourbridge are going to college or into
training [for a profession] and I felt like the luckiest lad in the
world.
“I s�ll probably think maybe I could’ve done be�er at United.
I’ve learned things during my career that if I’d known when I was
16 or 17, instead of at 26, 27, I could’ve done be�er. There are
certain situa�ons where I could have worked a bit harder and
maybe I took the lifestyle for granted a bit but I also had a lot of
injuries. They hampered my career and that’s more frustra�ng
than a regret. United had started physical condi�oning
work when I was there but not at anything like the
level they do now. But that’s science, I guess,
people study the body and we learn more as
�me goes on.”
In terms of his footballing educa�on,
Nardiello recalls the month he spent at
Swansea vividly.
“At Swansea and Barnsley, that’s when
you really start to realise it ma�ers because
there’s fans there, managers’ jobs are on the
line. Swansea was a bit of a kick up the backside
for me. I’d been playing youth and reserve team
football un�l then, where it’s all pass and move and tappy,
tappy, and suddenly I was up against big brutes in League Two
with balls being lumped up to me and playing on pitches which
are nothing like today’s surfaces at that level. It was great for me,
though, I probably could have done with it a couple of years
earlier.”
Nardiello went on to feature in promo�on winning campaigns
in the Championship, League One and League Two and it is with
two of the la�er – with Barnsley in the League One play-offs in
2005-06 and with Rotherham as runner-up in League Two seven
years later – that he returns to when asked about his favourite
period as a player.
“I have to men�on my �me at Man United because your
youth team days are fantas�c. You’re with a bunch of lads at the
same age and there’s a real fun spirit about the place, and
morale is so important in football. If we exempt those days, I’d
9 Hartlepool
say you always remember your promo�on campaigns so I’d say “As a 17-year-old, my first professional
Barnsley, Rotherham and Bury, although at Bury it was a bit of a contract was £40k a year – and that was
difficult �me for me personally. 21 years ago,” he says. “I had a lump
sum too, my signing-on bonus from
“At Barnsley I had a real good rela�onship with the fans and
United. I went out and bought myself a
we had quite a young group in the changing room – we almost
leather jacket, my mum some white gold earrings and my
had a youth team mentality. It was the same in many ways at
dad... I can’t remember what I bought my dad. And I gave my 8 Blackpool
Rotherham, although that was towards the end of my career.
sister 500 quid. I’d just never had that kind of money.”
And I scored lots of goals. You’re always happy as a striker when
Whilst you would rarely expect an ex pro to dish the dirt 10&14 11 Oldham Ath
you’re scoring. At Bury it was frustra�ng at �mes. I finished the
season top scorer but it felt like every week I’d be coming off on former colleagues – unless there’s an autobiography to Bury 5&7 Barnsley
a�er an hour or just coming on for half an hour. I wanted more shi� – I can’t pass up the opportunity to ask the former
United a�acker about a player whose
game �me but my goals-per-minute ra�o that season was really 13 Rotherham
good, the best in the league, I think.” name is s�ll liable to incite face palms in
one half of Birmingham. 3 Man Utd
The much-travelled forward, who described himself as an “all 16 Bangor City
rounder” up front, having played out wide and as a target man “So Dan, when you were being loaned
and goalscorer during his career, would go on to appear on the out at Swansea and Barnsley and you saw
interna�onal stage for Wales “three or four �mes” in Eric Djemba-Djemba playing in midfield for
friendlies as well as helping Bangor into Europe United, what went through your
mind?”
and playing against Danish side Lyngby in his
final season as he juggled playing with He sidesteps the query with a
studying to qualify as a financial adviser. de�ness of touch Oakwell regulars would
2 Wolves
It was a career path he had long be quick to recognise.
1 Forest Falcons
considered a�er almost losing £30,000 in a, “There was maybe a couple of �mes I got
literally, ill-advised investment early in his annoyed at United when they brought in more
career, albeit one which he was able to a�acking players and they got into the first team
recoup around 90% of as the sum had been squad ahead of me but I was at United when
paid without his sign-off. they had one of the best squads in the
Nardiello, who se�led in the Manchester area club’s history. Football is about
a�er mee�ng his Mancunian wife, pointed to a recent opinions, any fan will tell you
figure which stated around 40% of footballers go bankrupt a�er they think some players
their playing days and added, the divorce rate among ex pros is are rubbish and some
are fantas�c. Carlos
also indica�ve of the fact.
Queiroz was the coach
4 Swansea City
“There’s an awful lot of footballers who are earning around who really pushed for me to
£1,500-£2,000 per week in the Championship and League One be involved with the first team 6 QPR
and think it’s going to last forever,” said Nardiello, who works for at United but then there’s been a
St James’s Place Wealth Management. “That’s good money but it couple of managers and assistant
isn’t life-changing and players get used to a certain standard of managers over the years that haven’t fancied
living based on that income and get a financial shock when it me at all.”
stops and they have to pay for a house, a family etc.”
I prod him again on Old Trafford’s ‘other Eric’
The ex pro admits he indulged in the odd extravagance as a but to no avail. “Ferguson took a chance
player himself, such as a Porsche Cayenne to grace the streets of on a lot of players. He [Djemba-Djemba]
Barnsley – “I would never buy an asset which depreciates as fast was good in training. He was a tough 12 Exeter City
as that now,” he adds, “I want to invest in assets that appreciate opponent, tough to take on, but I
these days.” However, the indulgence he treated himself to a�er don’t remember really what he
his first pay packet hardly points to Mario Balotelli levels of bling. was like in the matches.”
15 Plymouth
Argyle
Graphic produced
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