MEMBERS of the England Under-19 squad from 2005-06 have been making a few headlines this week, with Theo Walcott’s Arsenal future up in the air and Adam Johnson swapping Premier League champions Manchester City for Sunderland.
The other names in the side national coach Martin Hunter picked to take on Slovakia at Northampton Town’s Sixfields Stadium that February read as a “Who’s Who?” of Premier League football.
City stars Joe Hart and Micah Richards were in there, along with Southampton’s Nathan Dyer (now Swansea), West Ham’s Mark Noble, Middlesbrough’s David Wheater and Wolves’ Mark Davies (both now at Bolton).
But while Walcott, Johnson and Hart were all named in Roy Hodgson’s full England squad on Thursday, the headlines another name from that list was making would have only caught the eye of Non-League enthusiasts.
Gavin Rothery, once rated highly enough at Leeds United to earn a three-year sponsorship deal with adidas, collected the Blue Square Bet North player of the month award after bagging five goals in Guiseley‘s? four-game winning start to the season.
At the age of 24, the attacking midfielder is just too old to have been selected in another England squad, Paul Fairclough‘s Cs, as three of his team-mates – Simon Ainge, Josh Wilson and Stephen Brogan – were this week.
But for the man who manager Steve Kittrick jokingly calls”Big-Time”, it is another step along the at-times tortuous path towards football redemption after an ankle injury ended his time at Elland Road in 2008, and a problematic hernia operation saw Carlisle release him in 2010.
It is also, as Rothery points out, proof that playing games in Non-League can get you noticed more than being a bit-part player in the lower Football League divisions.
“Guiseley have been great for me,” says the man who scored 16 goals in 27 starts last term before his injury curse struck again, this time in breaking a metatarsal in late January.
“I’ve been able to get a run of games here which has given me more confidence than I’ve ever had, and I’m the fittest I’ve been for years.
?I went over on my left ankle four times in a year at Leeds, and the ligaments were weakened so much they had to reconstruct it. By the time I was fit, Kevin Blackwell had been sacked and Dennis Wise had come in, and he didn’t give any of our age a chance really.
?I do look at that England squad and think what might have been, especially when people ask about my career. They always point out that most of the others are playing Championship at least, most in the Premier League.
?But for my injuries, I might have been, but it’s one of those things that you can’t dwell on too much. You’ve got to move forward and carry on.”
After spells at York City, Farsley Celtic and 18 months ?basically playing occasional reserve games, training and travelling all over to watch the first team? at Carlisle”, moving forward is what Rothery now hopes to do in his third season with Guiseley.
Beaten play-off finalists in his first, when he scored five times in 44 starts, Rothery had to watch from the sidelines as last term culminated with Nuneaton beating the second-placed Lions in the semis.
With ground improvements matching performances brick-for-stride, it is little wonder their title odds have gone from 9 to 4/1 after their start, which included the 7-1 home demolition of Droylsden.
And Leeds fan Rothery, whose style was likened by some at Elland Road to Lee Bowyer, believes the Premier is a possibility, adding: “I’m at one of the best clubs you can be at in Non-League.”
“It’s a sentiment echoed by Kittrick, who just wants his man to stay fit.
?We had some faith in Gav when we signed him and got him playing regularly again,” the ex-Ossett Town manager says.
“I’ve got belief in him and, together with my player-assistant Chris Holland, we’ve got him enjoying his football again.
?I do have some fun with him though, saying ‘here’s Big-Time’ every time he comes in, reminding him that although he played for Leeds and now works for them as a coach, he’s a Blue Square Bet North player with Guiseley!
?Every time I caught him smiling last year I’d tell him not to, because he was no good to me injured. But it’s all in jest as part of the spirit we have in the dressing room. H’s a great lad and a cracking player, as he’s proving again now.”
Yes, ‘Big-Time’ is back. Not quite on the scale of his really big-time ex-team-mates, but he’s back on a pitch and back making headlines, even if they are in The NLP rather than the red-tops!
