Warren meets... Darren Ward

As you may know or see, interviews are becoming a regular thing for me recently. I intend to normally do two a game and this week was the turn of Darren Ward and Shaun Batt.  I managed to get in contact with the both of them this week and fortunately, they agreed to have a little chat with me. In this piece, I'll begin with Darren.

WL: Darren, you started your career at Watford. Was becoming a footballer always the plan at an early age?

DW: Yeah definitely, from a young age, I always wanted to play football and I've got three brothers that are the same as well. I'm privileged and a very lucky man to have done so.

Darren's early days at Watford

WL: You joined Millwall in your first spell at the club for four years after leaving Vicarage Road; picking up two Player of the Season awards in the process, that must have been very rewarding?

DW: It was very good and, in my eyes, I thoroughly deserved it as well. I worked very hard and there were some very good players. You also get encouraged and helped along the way to reach your potential it's nice. A lot of players have the potential and it's good for them. It's great.

WL: On joining Millwall, you gained the nickname "The Peckham Beckham", it must be one of the more nicer names surely?!

DW: Well, you get called many things in football and I suppose you could be called worse names! I'll take that one though with a little smile on my face!

WL: You then joined Crystal Palace for just over £1m, did that figure put pressure on you to succeed there?

DW: Erm... not really, I'm one of those guys that simply takes it as it comes. At the time, as you say, I'd just won two Player of the Seasons, an FA Cup finalist and there were a lot of clubs after me. I was backed along the way to go on and do well there (Palace) and ultimately, the price had to be paid. I had to be sold in Millwall's eyes and that was that really.

HIGH FLYING EAGLE: Darren (Centre) celebrates a goal for Palace

WL: You've also played for Wolves. Unfortunately most of your time was spent on loan, why didn't it quite work out for you there?

DW: Well, in my first season there, I'd played 30-odd games and did well. Obviously, sometimes you just don't settle at a club, sometimes you don't get on well with people at a club and it's just one of those where maybe at another time it would have helped. There were a few other issues around it and I would say it's probably down to many different circumstances rather than anything else.

WL: Yeah, and after a few years on the road, on loan, you must have jumped at the chance to return to Millwall and to return "home" in a way?

DW: Yeah, there were quite a lot of offers to be honest before I joined Millwall. Of course I had history there in terms of what I'd done before at the club and how I enjoyed it there so much previously. I decided to come back. There were a lot bigger clubs that I could have joined but with Millwall, it was just an absolute pleasure to come back and play for them again.

WL: You're one of three brothers that have been footballers; Scott's played here (Crawley) and Elliott is at Norwich City, are you a sporty family? Were your parents sporty types too?

DW: Yeah, yeah, my oldest brother Lee was at Watford as a YTS as well; he was a good player. My Dad was at QPR as a young lad. We all love football and we are very fortunate enough to do it - 3 out of the 4 isn't bad.

WL: Not bad at all. I'm sure you must be delighted to see Elliott doing so well, playing at Premier League level, for Norwich?

DW: Yeah, he's a fantastic player Elliott, a very very good player. Hopefully he can be pushed and can push himself to go on an be the player that everyone knows he can be. When he was young, at West Ham, he was coming through the ranks with Glen Johnson. Unfortunately, he (Elliott) had a bad back injury which helped propel Anton Ferdinand's career. To be fair, they've all done well, Glen Johnson, Anton and Elliott at the time who were there, have all gone on to play in the Premiership which isn't bad!

EL' OF A PLAYER: Brother is a Premier League player

WL: Whilst we're on the topic of Elliott, was it true you turned down the chance to join West Ham when he was there because you didn't want to keep him out of the side?

DW: Yes, I did turn down the chance to join West Ham. It was a decision I made at the time - We're all very close, as brothers. I suppose a little bit of it was not to keep Elliott out of the side but we're all very protective and football's a difficult industry at times; you've got to have a thick skin to come to the table every day. In the end, it was one of those where I felt it was better to join Palace at the time.

WL: Off the pitch you've got a couple of business ventures. You've got a cattery, are you an animal lover? Is it something you always wanted to do?

DW: Erm... I'm not sure if it was always something I wanted to do! It was an opportunity I was offered to take up. I have a couple of other businesses - The cattery is one of three. It's a good business, a very good business. People love cats, I used to work there, it was a good opportunity, it runs well and we're an established company now. The second one is the financial company New Incentive, it's a UK and international based company. We look after quite a few footballers from International players, Premiership, all the way through to the Conference to help players with their financial situations. It's very, very important because, as you can imagine, there's a lot of people out there that target players because of how much money they earn and they haven't got the help, or the background in a way, to help them decide what they want to do with their money. I've also got a trophy company which sells football equipment as well which is good and is doing very well.

WL: That's Pro Team Sport?

DW: That's the one yeah, Pro Team Sport. Yeah, that does well too, it's a fairly new company. I'm not in it as seriously as I could be, with of course football at the moment. It's a good one for the future hopefully.

WL: Finally, you're in your early 30's now, have you started to look into the coaching side of the game?

DW: I've been approached by a number of people from management. It could be an option but, if I'm honest, I'm not looking at it at the minute. I'd like to think I'm very, very fit for my age and I do not see myself retiring for a number of years. With a lot of things I have around football, I'd like to take my time a bit more and assess things as and when I need to start looking at other options. At the minute, not just yet!

Me and Darren

Many thanks to Darren for taking the time to speak to me.

For more information on Darren's businesses, visit the links below:

Silverhill Cattery - http://www.silverhillcattery.co.uk/
New Incentive - http://www.newincentive.co.uk/index.htm
Pro Team Sport - http://www.proteam-sport.com/

Separating the men from the boys

It's that time of year again.  The business end of the season or, as some call it, "squeeky bum time".  It won't be long until teams will embrace the joy of a promotion or a league win and those teams not so lucky having the heartbreak of goal difference away from success or relegation.


Here, I am going to do a series of the ups and the downs in the four tiers of the English game.  Who's winning things and who's crying on the pitch at the end of the campaign.

I'll begin with the Premier League.

WINNERS/TOP 4

The big ongoing battle at the top has been, for a long time Manchester United v Manchester City.  Roberto Mancini's side seemed to have had the upper hand for the majority of the season, but, after the away defeat at Swansea, United capitalised and, at this moment in time are 4 points clear of their neighbours.

City's home form was the real catalyst behind their successful campaign (Recently going a whole calendar year winning EVERY home league match they played).  However, away from home they have looked rather shaky with draws against Fulham and West Brom along with defeats at Sunderland and Everton.

United on the other hand seem to have really pushed on since their 6-1 home mauling by City way back in October 2011 and, as the pundits regularly say "get better during the second half of the season".  By the looks of things, the Red Devils have the easier run in too.

Where City really did cock it up was losing Joleon Lescott and the influential skipper Vincent Kompany due to suspensions and injuries and having to call upon the mistake-prone Stefan Savic at the back, a number of his mistakes have led to opposition goals.

Savic has hasn't had the best of times

The early promise shown by Edin Dzeko seemed to have faded away a while ago and for some reason, Mancini decides that his best forward Sergio Aguero is only good enough for the bench some weeks.

United haven't looked brilliant all season but, as you normally see with Fergie's side they win any way they can, even without the presence of Nemanja Vidic for the majority of the season and relying on the not so good Jonny Evans (How he has the audacity to pick up a wage I don't know).

So, prediction time..... For me, United will be the ones celebrating yet another title success - City, and in the words of Anne Robinson on The Weakest Link, will be left with nothing apart from a runners up spot after bowing out of every other competition.

The other two spots for Champions League places next season I believe will fall to Arsenal and Spurs finishing in 3rd and 4th respectively.

The Harry Redknapp saga has come at just the wrong time for Spurs who were going great guns before the court case and the England job talk came around.  They'll still be top 4 but I reckon Arsenal will pip them to third.

Arsenal to finish third... after their dreadful start you would have been joking if you'd said that back in September time.  Their reliant Robin is obviously the main reason for their "decent" season, weighing in with 37 goals in all competitions and being involved in 67% of Arsenal's goals all season.  He seems to have got over his different range of injuries now which begs the question "Just how many goals would he have got in his Gunners career if he had stayed fit the whole time?!"

VAN THE MAN: Has had a memorable season

RELEGATION

It's tight down there! Three of Blackburn, Bolton, QPR, Wigan and Wolves will be Championship sides next season in mine and many's opinion.

Firstly, Blackburn.  They really have come on leaps and bounds recently and, admittedly I was one of the "Kean Out Brigade" despite not even being a Rovers fan!  He's shown he's a tough nut to crack and despite the abuse and hatred coming from the Ewood Park stands he hasn't been broken and has got his team winning now which ultimately stopped the boo boys.  His purchase of 38  28 year old Yakubu in the Summer has been a real masterstroke with the big man weighing in with his fair share of goals helping his side move clear of the bottom 3.  Kean was once an idiot, but now, for me, is an absolute legend!  Blackburn will be SAFE.

Kean has turned Rovers' fortunes around

Next up are Bolton, who similarly to Blackburn began awfully but gradually Owen Coyle has turned their fortunes around.  Due to the events that happened at Whit Hart Lane last week to Fabrice Muamba, Wanderers will be focusing on his health at the moment rather than the next game but I'm sure, with the players they have they will be alright by the end of the season.

Now to who I think will finish in the bottom three; QPR, Wolves and Wigan Athletic.

I'm a huge fan of Roberto Martinez, in fact, many are huge fans of Roberto Martinez; he's just a genuine, nice guy but I feel that the time has come for them to finally, finally get relegated down to the Championship.  Over the last few years they have been very lucky at the tail end of the season - Last season saw Charles N'Zogbia almost single handedly keep them up and if it wasn't for a Hugo Rodallega goal against Stoke on the last day they would have gone down.  Playing well at the moment but I just feel there's not enough in the tank for them.  They'll battle though, that's for sure.

Next is Wolves who, for me made a wrong move in replacing Mick McCarthy as manager.  Plenty of experience in the type of situation they are in at the moment and instead of replacing him with a proven manager they appointed Terry Connor.  They just look like a demoralised team, low on confidence along with having a captain who turns up to training drunk.  Conceding goals for fun and having an in-ability to score goals doesn't bode well for the Molineux club.

Its been that type of season for Wolves under Connor (L) and McCarthy (R)

And, finally, to QPR.  It gets on my nerves when people say that a team is too good to go down... We've seen it in the past with Newcastle and West Ham getting relegated over the last two years and I fear QPR could be that type of club.  Mark Hughes hasn't had the impact that everyone was expecting and, if your team have discipline problems then it isn't the best of starts.

Bottom 3 for me:

18. QPR
19. Wigan Athletic
20. Wolves