Warren meets... Ben Hamer

After the defeat to Charlton on Wednesday evening, I managed to get hold of their number 1 and former Crawley loanee Ben Hamer and had a chat on his career so far and his future!

WL: Ben, you've had a bit of a different life to most and at 2 you moved to Germany, how did that come about?

BH: I just moved out there with my family, was over there for a few years. We came back when I was seven or eight and moved back to the West Country. From there, I obviously grew up, left home at 16 and came up to Reading and the London area.

WL: Und du sprehen Deutsch? (And you speak German?)

BH: Ja!... Ein bisschen!

WL: What does that mean?! I'm not that good!

BH: A little bit!

WL: I heard you were fluent?!

BH: I was... well, until about six years ago when I stopped speaking it! It's kind of gone now though - my German tongue has kind of slowly evaporated!

WL: Did it take long to master?

BH: Well I grew up with it. As I said, I was only two so obviously, I was in Germany, I went to a German school. That was my first language really, I grew up speaking that until about six or seven when I came back to live over in England and I learnt to speak English again. German was primarily my first language but over the years I haven't used it and kind of lost it.

WL: Onto your footballing career now. Somerset to Reading is hardly around the corner, how were you spotted?

BH: It was in a county game really. I was 15, just playing for my school counties and there was a Reading scout who was there, was impressed and invited me over for a trial and it kind of went from there really. Signed as a YTS at 16 and later I came down to this wonderful place (Crawley) for a year!

SIGNING ON: Ben (R) with John Medejski

WL: You did, was it difficult to move away from home (Somerset) at such a young age?

BH: Erm... not really. I suppose you've got to be mentally strong. I swapped schools when I was younger growing up so I was kind of used to new surroundings and stuff like that so it didn't really affect me. I moved up there and got on with my football because it was something I really wanted to do. It wasn't really a massive issue for me.

WL: As you said, you came here in your teenage years, a big opportunity to play plenty of games.

BH: Yeah, to be honest it was quite nice coming back here tonight. I think it's the first time in five years, I was 18 at the time and came here as a first team pro on loan. John Hollins (former Crawley manager) took me here and gave me my first experience in playing men's football so I'll always be grateful to him and the club for that. It was an opportunity to really get my foot in the door professionally really and gave me the opportunity to play football - It's a place I will always remember.

Ben in action for Crawley

WL: During your year at Crawley you also won the club's Player of the Year, a great achievement at such a young age!

BH: Yeah, Young Player of the Year I think it was. Yeah, it wasn't a bad season, we had money problems at the time, administration and we had minus ten points at the time as well. We started off at the bottom with the minus ten and I think we cleared that pretty sharpish within four or five games and built from there. In the end it wasn't a bad season, I really enjoyed it and made some good friends here. One still here is Dannie Bulman. I'm surprised to still see him here to be honest but he's still going strong so fair play to him!

STILL GOING STRONG: Dannie Bulman (Centre)

WL: You spent quite a bit of time at Brentford after leaving us (Crawley), you won League 2 in one of the seasons as well. Were you tempted to make the deal permanent after the number of spells you had there?

BH: Erm... I don't know really, it never really came into question to be honest with you. At Brentford I'd done well and played well for them and every time I seemed to come back on loan, Reading seemed to offer me a new contract. You know, it was good for me to be learning with a Premiership or Championship side - whatever Reading were at the time and I was happy to come out on loan and play my games that way. Then, obviously there came a time where I was getting older; I'm 24 now so last Summer I made the decision to leave with one year left on my deal. Luckily, Charlton came in for me and I made the decision to come and last season speaks for itself, we won promotion and it was the right decision in the end.

Hamer (L) celebrates Brentford's League 2 promotion

WL: Definitely... Now, I spoke to Bradley (Wright-Phillips), last week at the Three Bridges game and he said to me it was the best time of his career last season. Is it something you concur with?

BH: Yes I do, yes I do concur with that! From the start I could tell we'd have a chance because it was the same as when I was at Brentford and we went up.  The lads seemed to gel very quickly; it was a new bunch of lads that had been brought together. Even in pre-season you could tell that the lads were going to be fighting for each other and were good, level headed lads that had their feet on the ground and we had a positive vibe the whole way through the season. They're all a great bunch of lads and it was a very special season.

WL: And next season Ben, a Championship side now, do you look at what the likes of Southampton and Norwich have done in winning two successive promotions and aim for the Premier League? Go again?!

BH: That would be the ultimate for us. It'll be the first time in the Championship as a bunch of players, not many of us have played at that level, especially me - I've never made an appearance in the Championship yet. It'll be a new, fresh challenge and we'll look to do as well as we can and try and challenge the big teams that we're going to be coming up against and I'm sure we can hold our own. As far as promotion goes, I don't think you can say that just yet. We'll take every game as it comes and see how it goes, just like we did last year and look where it got us!

PROMOTION TIME: Can the Addicks do it again?!

WL: Finally, you've said, you're 24 now, you're number 1 in the Championship for Charlton, Premier League and England in a few years Ben?!

BH: I don't know... I don't know! Obviously, that is my goal in life and to achieve that I want to play in the Premiership. It's all about the tiny little stepping stones and gradually getting closer. As you say, I'm in the Championship now, hopefully I'll do well there. There is a long way to go but that is my goal and that is what I'll be striving for!

Me and Ben

Thanks a lot to Ben for taking the time to speak to me. I wish him all the best at Charlton this coming season!

Thanks also to Dave Burt at www.ctfcphotos.co.uk for the use of some of the images!

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/

Warren meets... Bradley Wright-Phillips

With not a lot to do on Wednesday night I decided to take in Crawley's latest friendly against local Ryman Premier Division side Three Bridges.  After the game, I noticed Bradley Wright-Phillips sitting with a few friends in the stand and I had a little chat with him about his career.

WL: Bradley, you've had quite a career, born in London, you began your career at Manchester City; how did that move come about?

BWP: Yeah, I actually started out at Nottingham Forest, along with my brother, Shaun. He got released from Nottingham Forest after they decided he was too small for them. The person that scouted us for Forest, brought us both to Manchester City and we both started from there really.

WL: Kevin Keegan gave you your debut at City, he's a bit of a legend, how big an influence did he have on your career?

BWP: Yeah, he had a big influence on me. When you're young, you don't know what type of player you are and he was the first manager really that believed in me and realised that I was a goalscorer and yeah, he really just helped me out in that way.

BELIEF: Keegan

WL: From City, you went to Southampton, how big a move was that for you?

BWP: Yeah, it was a big move for me and big at the time. I didn't really want to leave Man City but Stuart Pearce told me it would be a great opportunity to go out and get some first team football and it worked out well for me.

WL: Whilst you were at City, there must have been a few there that have gone on to be rising stars now?

BWP: Yeah, you've got a lot of them. The likes of the Stephen Irelands, the Micah Richards and the Nedum Onuohas. Even now, it will go on, they have a lot of talent in their youth team.

Ireland (L) and Richards (R) came through the City ranks

WL:  From Saints you went to Plymouth; starting off well there until they went into financial difficulties. How did that affect you?

BWP: Yeah, the move came about. I didn't want to leave Southampton, again. They had no manager at the time and again, I thought things weren't going too well there so I thought to myself, why not go down a step in terms of club size. Sometimes you need to go down a step to come back up and that's what I decided to do.

WL: You had a superb start to the season at Plymouth; you began like a train in terms of scoring goals. Charlton snapped you up and you haven't really looked back since have you?!

BWP: You know, it's good to be back home. I'd never really played my football in London and I'm just really enjoying myself at the moment.

WL: You top-scored for Charlton last season and it must have been great to win promotion back to the Championship?

BWP: Yeah, definitely, we had a really good season last year and it was probably the best time of my career. Hopefully we can have another good season.

WL: Your brother Shaun of course is another who has had a good career; when he made his England debut did it make you determined to try and join him in the squad?

BWP: You know what it is. Shaun's got his career and I've got mine. We've got different roles. Shaun's a quality player and he got his England opportunity and I'm happy for him. It could go down the same path for me. Maybe one day.

Shaun plays for QPR

WL: Of course you're a striker and, with Ian Wright as your Dad, he is a massive influence on you surely?

BWP: For sure, you know, when your growing up and your Dad is a plumber, you want to do that and you want to fix things like sinks and the like. Seeing my Dad scoring goals made me think "Yeah, that's what I want to do!"

Dad Ian knew where the net was!

WL: Finally, you're coming up to the prime of your career, where do you want to be in five years time?

BWP: I'm 27 now. I haven't got a clue! I hope you'll see me scoring somewhere. Even if it's here at Three Bridges! Yeah, hopefully I'll still be scoring!

Me and Bradley

Many thanks to Bradley for taking the time out to speak to me.