SHAMROCK
ROVERSour young players in Ireland before they move, to advise them
about what’s coming their way. It’s too late doing it when they
come back from England. We can help to rebuild their life, but in
terms of preparing our young players to become professional
footballers, we don’t do anything in this country. We’re trying to
change that and provide a proper pathway. It’s nothing to do
with ability – they have that. It’s about what’s in their heads.”
To say that Bradley is speaking from painful experience is
something of an understatement.
A gifted, cultured midfielder, he was also tipped to be ‘the next
Brady’. As has always been the way with Ireland’s best footballers,
a move to Britain beckoned. But Bradley wasextraspecial,and
everyone knew it.
Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and GerardHo
to Dublin at various stages in 1999 to visit the 1
his mother, Bernadette, to convince them thatt
the place where all his dreams – everythinghish
to paraphrase Clive Tyldesley – could cometrue
Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool isnam
just a flew of the clubs who were interested.
“At the time I was just playing football forthe
of it, but I wanted to be the best,” says Bradley(r
“I remember the day that Alex Ferguson came
the house. He’s probably the greatest manager
will ever see, and my mam was worrying becau
I wasn’t there.
“He was coming at six o’clock to take meand
mam for a nice meal in Dublin, and I was stillon
street at a quarter to, playing with the lads.We
met him before and we knew that, as a working“I WAS On A WARD WITH KIDS WHEn
I FIRST WEnT In FOR CAnCER TREATMEnT”
Above McPhail and
Bradley plot Shamrock
Rovers’ revival at the
training ground on
the outskirts of Dublin
man from Glasgow, he was just like us. It wasn’t like my mam had all
her best cakes ready for him. It was still a normal day.
“Nowadays, I suppose kids would have it all over Snapchat, Twitter
and Instagram. There was none of that around. But someone must
have tipped people off where he was, because when we came out of
the restaurant in town there must have been a thousand people
waiting outside.”
Despite Ferguson’s overtures, Bradley signed a professional contact
with Arsenal at the age of 17, where Brady coached the youth team.
But the ‘paradise’ of London sapped his hunger for the game, at a time
when it should have been at its most ravenous.
With his new-found wealth, Bradley was able to buy a nice house in
London. He then purchased a watch that “cost more than a car”, and
didn’t exactly keep quiet about it. Quite the opposite – he’d effectively
marked himself as an easy target for his attackers. He was stabbed in
the head following a break-in at his home.
He tells FFT, “When I got stabbed, that was out of my control – but
the stuff leading up to getting stabbed was under my control, and
I should have seen that. I was told when I was young, not to buy my
own house or move out. Liam [Brady] said it to me; Arsene [Wenger]
saidit.I ignoredthem.Whenyou’re young and have money, you think
youcandonowrong.Yougoout. You’re around the wrong people.
edwhat I was doing, and then it happened.”
e time of the attack, and while he knew that
t atArsenal – a move to Fulham had already
usedit as an excuse to make up for his own
before eventually seeing the light.
urned into a job for me,” he explains. “I was
andout and lost what had made me a player
stplace – I lost the touch and the feeling for. Thestreet wasn’t in me any more. I had more
neythan ever, I could go shopping all day, and
ought I was doing enough to be a professional
baller – but better players were coming along
ndI was getting left behind.
d and you want to fight everyone. You think
ouand it owes you a favour. I was out for
o talkto Liam, Arsene – no one. I basically
n’twant to know.
94 September 2019 FourFourTwo
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