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Forever jealous in our murmurings of discontent, the everyday football fan has always been envious of the lifestyle professional footballers lead. We claim that they ‘don’t know how lucky they are’ and only have to do a few hours work a day. But the reality for our lower league heroes is very different.
With football finances in such a precarious state, the days of League Two players being afforded the comfort of a three year contract are a relic of the past. The job security of a lower leagues football player is now in line with the most high-pressure roles in the world. Win or bust, perform or pay.
The fickle nature of football reared its head again over the weekend in one thrilling minute at Wembley Stadium. With the League Two Play-Off Final slipping into stoppage time, the Gills were falsely awarded a corner and Simeon Jackson headed the winning goal. As the Shrewsbury players drew their hands to their heads in frustrated exhaustion, two of the Shrews side weren’t to know that Jackson’s goal had put them out of work.
Neil Ashton, the full-back who failed to stop Jackson’s header as it cannoned off his body and into the roof of the net, will have nightmares about the moment the ball crossed the line as he faces a summer of sleepless nights wondering who will be writing his next pay cheque. He and striker Nick Chadwick both started the Wembley Final, but neither will be at the New Meadow next season as they join a list of seven Shrews players who have been released by manager Paul Simpson.
Simpson said in the immediate wake of the game, “football is a business which keeps evolving and we have to go back in on Monday morning and prepare for next season.” On such a distressing occasion as a Play-Off Final defeat, it was a remarkably hard-nosed attitude from the former Carlisle manager, but it was no real surprise. One minute in football can change everything.
Ashton started more than half of Shrewsbury’s games this season and along with fellow released defender Ben Herd, who has been near ever-present in two of his four seasons at the Meadow, will count himself pretty unlucky to have been given the boot. Their futures may be uncertain, but they are likely to find a football league club without too much bother. Others, such as Chadwick, may find it a little harder.
Nick Chadwick, despite now being 26 years old, has never started more than 26 games in a season. Having begun at Everton, he has slowly slipped down the football league ladder via Plymouth and Hereford and worryingly, still doesn’t appear to have found his level. The big striker is the kind of player who the football credit crunch has affected the most.
Players can’t simply sit comfortably in the reserves for a few seasons anymore – they must all earn their corn or be tossed aside like a used handkerchief. Clubs get what they want from players before the great lower leagues swap shop in the summer; it’s a real merry-go-round.
Players like Chadwick now must hope that they don’t get thrown off the ride for good.
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