HNM

[fgrsimon]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jun/29/steven-caulker-mental-illness-addictions-gambling-drinking-qpr

He has played 123 times in the Premier League and for eight clubs with the same, horribly familiar cycle of insecurity and self-destruction pursuing him to each. There is always a catalyst to the nosedive. “The sleepless nights, sat up till 5am replaying every bad decision I’ve ever made in my life, worrying what will be next … Tottenham sent me to Bristol City on loan at 18 and they put me in a flat in the city centre surrounded by nightclubs, two casinos opposite, the kind of money I’d never seen in my life, and no guidance whatsoever. I was pulled once by a member of staff and told I’d been spotted in the casino at 3am but their attitude was: ‘What you do in your spare time is your business. Just don’t let it affect your performances out on the pitch.’

Thankfully it looks like his life is back on track at least now and has for the last 3 years played regularly in the Turkish Super League with Alanyaspor, which is a decent level although not the heights he could have reached if his life hadn't been derailed by addiction/mental health issues.He played one game for England and scored!

[Edit] It was the game where Zlatan scored with that unbelievable overhead kick!

 

[havanatopia]

17 hours ago, Numero Uno said:

You had people ignoring the totally obvious and defending our Medical, Strength and Conditioning teams to the hilt last season and the season before. We were just unlucky they said. Even though Andy Rolls has overseen a shit show at three clubs? Yeah, just unlucky.

Seems that Big Nige sees it the same way as the fans as do half the players. They’re all wrong though, we were just unlucky………..because it doesn’t say it was incompetence on the official site!!

Still at least the slimy, detestable, greaseball bastard that caused all this is well away from the club so that’s a start……..next thing that needs to happen is the LANSDOWNS to get their heads out their arses after 20 years in charge and start learning how to own a football club properly on every level bar the money side of it.

This has all been covered before and yet when i read it yet again here i still don't understand how these amateurs, parading as experienced pros, convinced the City board they were the best candidates for the job; moreover Ashton must have schmoozed City so much that all future back room staff were merely rubber stamped through. And so here is that bleeding obvious question again; if we all knew of their previous club failures how on earth did we end up with them all? They failed so catastrophically with Ashtons CV checks it would appear. He was brilliant at interview, put the CV in the desk and forget about it. Job done.

Back on HSM; i remember his Dad being interviewed in his first season. He was ebullient and full of praise for City. That was under Lee. Signs were too early perhaps although he had played a fair few games by then. It clearly knocked the lad when Lee was sacked so perhaps it was from that moment forward.

[Phileas Fogg]

9 hours ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

How did we give Caulker ‘poor care’ ?

It's from this fairly long Guardian article talking about his career, summary from the Bristol Post here directly referencing his time here. Pasted it below as I know the Post site is such a pain to use.

Quote

 

Former Bristol City defender Steven Caulker bravely opens up about his addictions and time at BS3
'They put me in a flat in the city centre surrounded by nightclubs.'
QPR defender Steven Caulker has spoken about the pressures of being a young footballer.

The former Bristol City centre-back - who was on loan at the Robins during the 2010-11 season - has opened up about his struggles to control addictions to gambling and drinking to the Guardian.

The 25-year-old defender played 14 times for the Hoops in all competitions last season, but not since October, and has talked about his earlier career and the role it has played.
That season the former Cardiff player was named young player of the year and nominated for player of the year as he helped the Robins to avoid relegation from the Championship.

He reveals that, despite playing well on the pitch, off the field he was often suffering and would find solace in casinos.
"The sleepless nights, sat up till 5am replaying every bad decision I’ve ever made in my life, worrying what will be next…

"Tottenham sent me to Bristol City on loan at 18 and they put me in a flat in the city centre surrounded by nightclubs, two casinos opposite, the kind of money I’d never seen in my life, and no guidance whatsoever.

"I was pulled once by a member of staff and told I’d been spotted in the casino at 3am but their attitude was: ‘What you do in your spare time is your business. Just don’t let it affect your performances out on the pitch'," explained Caulker to the Guardian.

In a revealing interview, the former Tottenham defender also talked about later contemplating suicide and seeking help from the PFA.
The one cap England international hopes to warn others of the pitfalls of youth and of dealing with mental affliction.
Having not played since last October, the defender hopes to resume his career in the near future and has recently spent time volunteering in India and Africa.

He also explained that he has been prescribed medication as a 'mood stabiliser' and is now spending a lot of his spare time playing golf.

 

 

[ralphindevon]

I think the Caulker case highlights how difficult it can be for young players, it can sound like the perfect scenario for most of us, city centre flat, young, good looking, high profile and loads of money.

HNM was just 17 when he arrived in this foreign country, now, he’s a very different person to Caulker, I don’t think you’d see him in a pub at 10.30 never mind a casino at 3am. But fast forward from when he arrived to last October, he had a new manager who didn’t think he was up to 1st team football, a pandemic was gripping the country and we were in lockdown. All of a sudden he’s stuck in his flat all week bar 4 or 5 training sessions, non of his friends or family can come and visit from France, his dad lives in an adjoining flat and occasionally his brother or sister have stayed but the rest of his family and friends are in France. He’s not even allowed back during international breaks. Trust me, at any age and not in a pandemic living in a foreign country when winter bites and there’s not much to do can be testing.

Now this is a footballer who lives for football, the sort of guy that would be playing all the time with mates even if it wasn’t his job, so not playing at this real dark time we were all experiencing must have hit very hard on him.

He kept his head down, kept working very, very hard, turned down the chance to go out on loan because he loves Bristol and with the change of manager came his chance and I think we’d all agree he took it. 
You can guarantee he’ll keep working hard to improve, hopefully add goals and assists to his game - he’s not 20 years old for a few weeks yet- and he’s seen the changes Nige has made and is making. 
 

So hopefully with restrictions lifting, a new manager, new medical staff and new team mates there’s a lot to look forward to for us and him.

[RedorDead BCFC]

I’m sure that I read when DH was fired that Lansdown said he was looking into these injuries and ordered an investigation into the clubs medical team. 
Pearson may have had some influence due to prior working with him, into employing Reenie. Most managers work with medical teams who were previously at the clubs. If they employed the whole team then replacing a manager would be a major balls ache. 
Anyway hopefully what ever HNM had concerning him, is now in the past. 

[Numero Uno]

13 hours ago, havanatopia said:

This has all been covered before and yet when i read it yet again here i still don't understand how these amateurs, parading as experienced pros, convinced the City board they were the best candidates for the job; moreover Ashton must have schmoozed City so much that all future back room staff were merely rubber stamped through. And so here is that bleeding obvious question again; if we all knew of their previous club failures how on earth did we end up with them all? They failed so catastrophically with Ashtons CV checks it would appear. He was brilliant at interview, put the CV in the desk and forget about it. Job done.

Back on HSM; i remember his Dad being interviewed in his first season. He was ebullient and full of praise for City. That was under Lee. Signs were too early perhaps although he had played a fair few games by then. It clearly knocked the lad when Lee was sacked so perhaps it was from that moment forward.

Mark Ashton has come home to roost is the simple explanation. Yes, he did a great job negotiating a few outgoing transfers, no argument there, but his recruitment was shown to be amazingly sub-standard for an employee trousering half a mill before tax plus a nice drop of cash in the old pension pot every year. Whatever people think he was good at I just cannot see the justification of his overall salary versus his overall contribution. I have no problem whatsoever with people WHO SHOW THEY ARE WORTH IT earning £10K per week. However, our ex-CEO built his own little empire and I defy anyone to explain to me how he left us in anything but an absolute mess.

[PHILINFRANCE]

6 hours ago, ralphindevon said:

I think the Caulker case highlights how difficult it can be for young players, it can sound like the perfect scenario for most of us, city centre flat, young, good looking, high profile and loads of money.

HNM was just 17 when he arrived in this foreign country, now, he’s a very different person to Caulker, I don’t think you’d see him in a pub at 10.30 never mind a casino at 3am. But fast forward from when he arrived to last October, he had a new manager who didn’t think he was up to 1st team football, a pandemic was gripping the country and we were in lockdown. All of a sudden he’s stuck in his flat all week bar 4 or 5 training sessions, non of his friends or family can come and visit from France, his dad lives in an adjoining flat and occasionally his brother or sister have stayed but the rest of his family and friends are in France. He’s not even allowed back during international breaks. Trust me, at any age and not in a pandemic living in a foreign country when winter bites and there’s not much to do can be testing.

Now this is a footballer who lives for football, the sort of guy that would be playing all the time with mates even if it wasn’t his job, so not playing at this real dark time we were all experiencing must have hit very hard on him.

He kept his head down, kept working very, very hard, turned down the chance to go out on loan because he loves Bristol and with the change of manager came his chance and I think we’d all agree he took it. 
You can guarantee he’ll keep working hard to improve, hopefully add goals and assists to his game - he’s not 20 years old for a few weeks yet- and he’s seen the changes Nige has made and is making. 
 

So hopefully with restrictions lifting, a new manager, new medical staff and new team mates there’s a lot to look forward to for us and him.

Sure, but I suspect Carcassonne (or was it Cahors?) would be less testing than other places in the world .

[ralphindevon]

24 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

Sure, but I suspect Carcassonne (or was it Cahors?) would be less testing than other places in the world .

Ha! Yes Carcassonne and I loved it. I couldn’t really complain but there were times, especially in the winter, when I wished I was with my mates in a pub just about to go to a Ashton Gate 

[DaveInSA]

On 19/06/2021 at 08:45, GrahamC said:

Interesting @Rudolf Hucker when you then add in Holden’s very poor management of him, an unused sub a lot, sometimes not even making the bench, sometimes getting 3 minutes at the end of games, it reflects the amateur way we were run.

I thought it was noticeable how Pearson, who let’s face it, doesn’t exactly sugar coat things, went out of his way to praise him by name as we continued to put in poor performances & results.

Hopefully HNM knows how valued he is by a proper manager & Rennie brings the necessary professionalism to the areas you mentioned.

I’m not certain any critique of Holden is justified. He never should have taken the job. And who knows, behind the scenes was Ashton picking the team? It wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

On 19/06/2021 at 09:13, Moments of Pleasure said:

Be nice if Steve came out and offered a little apology - for the shambles and the wasted opportunity of the last three or four years (basically, since the chaos of summer 2015). He needn't name any names but he could - having had a few pops at moaning supporters - show a bit of humility and recognise that some people were right to question what has been going on, and with a little euphemism and discretion let us know that he is humbled and contrite and ..... you may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only ( ....no, I am the only one? Oh, ok ..... )

Luckily for us, big Steve reads the forum and he’ll be responding to this post on Radio Bristol on Monday night.

in other news.

I have high hopes for HNM, what a top young model pro he is…

[BS4 on Tour...]

19 hours ago, fgrsimon said:

There was an interview with him years ago in which IIRC, he said that his 'troubles' started when he was at City, on loan from Tottenham and basically left alone with no support from the club away from football, in a flat/bedsit in one of the less salubrious areas of Bristol, with nothing to do except be tempted by the various distractions all around him.

Not his exact words but just what I remember from the interview and it was quite a while ago, but that was the general gist.

Cheers - I didn’t know that, thanks 

12 hours ago, Phileas Fogg said:

It's from this fairly long Guardian article talking about his career, summary from the Bristol Post here directly referencing his time here. Pasted it below as I know the Post site is such a pain to use.

 

Cheers, thanks for the info