VETERAN Glen Southam may now be selling watches and jewellery but that doesn’t mean the clock is ticking on his playing career.
The 35-year-old midfielder has left National League South side Sutton United as training during the day became tricky, but he says retirement couldn’t be further from his mind.
His new business venture is taking off but Southam reckons his next manager could be getting a player with more than five years left in the tank – and is aiming to be a footballer well into his 40s!
The 2007 Conference champion with Dagenham, who played 16 times for England C, is still smitten with the game and laughed off any suggestion that time is catching up with him.
The ex-Eastleigh skipper said: “My business wasn’t taking over football, anyone who knows me will understand that would never be the case.
Rubbish
“I have put a lot of time into it as it’s my future but the manager (Paul Doswell) said to me that perhaps it’s better to be with a club who train in the evenings so I can build it up properly and I accept that.
“I want to get back into it as soon as I can. I have got so much ambition left in me. Wherever I end up I am not going to just be passing my days.
“Wherever I go, I am going to win. Retirement? No chance. I am as fit as I was when I was 25. People say the older you get the more heavy your legs are but that’s rubbish.
“I have always played at whatever club I’ve been at and I’ve been captain at three of my last four clubs.
“Age is a number. I look at players who have played well into their 40s and think that’ll be me. I could play until I am 40, a million per cent – wherever I sign, they are getting a player with five years left in him, maybe more!”
Southam accepts his will to win may have rubbed a few people up the wrong way at Gander Green Lane.
He said: “The team that Sutton have there should have started a lot better than they have. I demand a lot from people as their captain and perhaps that upset a few people within the dressing room.
“I know the players there are more than capable of getting it together and reaching the play-offs. I think they will.”
