IT IS a clumsy Google translation, from Swedish to English, as Ostersunds FK announce their signing of Welling United‘s Alex Dyer – but it sums up the last few months of the midfielder’s life perfectly.
‘Alex has parallel with football gambling studied at the university where he was featured in the British University team that finished second in the Varsity Cup’, read a press release on the second tier club’s website.
Who knows what the first part should say, but any mention of gambling in connection with football at the moment brings suspicion. Not in the 23-year-old former Northampton Town youngster’s case, however.
Dyer dropped into Non-League with Wealdstone in 2010 and was a huge hit at Ryman Premier level while studying accountancy and working four days a week.
The Open University course, and his form for the Stones, of course, took him to Russia in the summer as part of the Great Britain Students side that achieved a second successive World University Games silver medal under head coach James Ellis.
He describes the trip to Kazan as “the best experience of my life” – and that, combined with a fine start to his first season in the Skrill Premier, has helped seal his move to northern Sweden, with Ellis, the former Nuneaton and Kettering coach, having recommended him to boss Graham Potter.
“Because I was training in the evening with Wealdstone, I could work as an accounts assistant four days a week while studying,” said Dyer.
“But having gone to Russia and then stepped up to sign for Welling, where training was three mornings a week, I couldn’t really go back to them and say ‘Could I just do two days?’
Rethink
“It would have been too much of a strain to go straight from training to work, combined with the away trips and the travelling.
“So I thought I’d take six months to a year off work to concentrate solely on the football, and if things didn’t work out and I didn’t get back playing professionally in that time, I’d have to have a rethink.
“I think it’s all helped me because by not having that job, I knew that I had to give everything to football because I didn’t have that extra money. I had to make sure that the gamble paid off – and luckily it has.”
Dyer is the latest player to leave 36-year-old Ellis’ group to go on to a Higher Football Education.
Bradley Pritchard made the step up from Hayes & Yeading to Charlton Athletic two-and-a-half years ago.
Of the GB team that won silver in China in 2011, Gary Warren left Newport County for Inverness Caledonian Thistle and is now a top defender in the Scottish Premiership, while Nick Jupp is Barnet‘s back-up keeper.
From Kazan, Ellis has also this week helped James Baldwin – a star of Shortwood United’s run to the FA Cup first round – agree a deal to go with Dyer to Ostersunds, while goalkeeper James Belshaw has done well enough for Nuneaton Town to earn an England C cap.
Joe Lolley, the Kidderminster forward, needs no introduction as the target for a host of big professional clubs in his first season since stepping up from Midland Combination club Littleton.
Dyer says: “James thought highly enough of me to recommend me to Graham at Ostersunds and he’s told me what it’s like out there and how it will suit my play. They like a possession based game, which is similar to how James wanted to do it with the uni side.
“The World University Games gets such little exposure over here, but when you go out there it’s unbelievable.
“The tournament football brings you on as a human being as well, because you are away from your family for a month and it’s like a birdcage – you’re trapped in and there is nothing around you, so you’ve just got to cope with everything.
“You become a group, and the togetherness really does bring you on as a person and as a player.”
Supportive
And that is what Wellling have benefitted from in the first part of this season. He signed off with a man-of-the-match performance in Jamie Day’s boys’ 1-1 draw at Grimsby on Tuesday night.
“It’s a special club – the best group of lads I’ve ever played with in terms of the team spirit, and the manager plays a big part in that,” adds Dyer.
“I didn’t want to upset the FA Cup preparations for the Plymouth game last week, so I spoke to him on Monday and then he told the lads after the Grimsby game in the dressing room. Everyone couldn’t have been more supportive.
“I’m disappointed to leave them now, but at the same time I’m really excited about a new adventure.”
And so he should be. A footballer’s genuine gamble paying off? That’s the kind of story we love to hear!
