"I loved the game, I loved the ball. I used to treat it like something that was... wonderful"
(Matthews, S 1996)
Dear Mr Bowler.
I don't know you and you don't know me. It's a bit weird to write a letter to someone you don't know on the internet but hey ho, it's the 21st century and life is strange. I'm writing to give you some advice. I have no qualification to do so and you may well wonder why I think I'm entitled to do so - it's up to you. Plenty of people ignore this blog and you may do so as well. I won't mind - I'm just a shite blogger.
Lets get to the point. Rumours are swirling. As a fan, I don't really have a clue about who is in for you and how much they're going to pay and what your wages will be and all of that shite. We like to think we know, but we really don't. I want to start, by saying, if a really good Premier League club comes in for you, slaps an offer that makes Big Ben and Simon cough a bit and then their manager says 'Josh, lad, we love you and we're going to play you every week' and when they tell you that, they look into your eyes and don't look all shifty about it - snap their hand off. I don't begrudge you that chance.
If, however, it's a lower ranking club offering you the chance to 'be in and around things' and trying to barter on the price then... be warned.
You are as good as ANY player I've ever seen in tangerine at what you do. Seriously. On form, you are (to use a technical term) fucking magic and as you've developed as a player, form is becoming the norm.
You can go to a club who will use you as a bit part. That's fine. I can't stop you and I don't blame you for seeing that as progressing your career. You'll have an agent in your ear and you'll take advice from people with way more qualifications in the game than I.
What I want to ask you to think about is - what does it feel like, as a footballer, to know that you are the main man every week? How much has that contributed to your development in the last 2 years? How might it feel like to be on the bench again, to be in and out the team, to be playing for your place again? Will that help you or hinder you to realise your ability? You've had rejection, you've fought back from injury. The time to play is now...
Where you have matured since first I saw you play, is in knowing when to go, when to play the easy ball, when to try to slip a pass, basically, in understanding how you fit into the side. That's come, because you know you are part of things. The calmness that explodes into intensity to devastating effect has become a serious talent and I reckon (you will know better than me) that being confident of your place (and confident that you are being asked to be 'you') has allowed you to really become the player you are now.
You did really well last year. I'll remember that run against PNE where you hurdled sliding tackles till I die. The goal against Fulham similarly. So many dribbles, so many players beaten, so many moments I could name. There was though, a cross-field pass away against QPR that made me think 'aye up, this lad is more than just a daft winger' - there was the link play with Jerry for the goal against Stoke, there was a slide tackle in a home game I can't remember where the whole ground delighted in you getting stuck in, another time when you tripped someone for a yellow and everyone realised you were really taking this seriously. You weren't just a lad who runs about having fun surfing on his natural ability. You were a footballer. Once you even tried to head it. It didn't go quite as well as everything else, but you're good enough to not need to do that.
Here's the key point now. Everything you did last year, you did in a rigid structure. The previous manager did well. He did well for you too, but I'm not sure he ever quite trusted you as he would trust a more workmanlike dogged player. You did well, but I think there's more to come. You scored some goals, you set up some goals but just imagine, for a moment, what you could do in a real attack minded team. A side built to service what you do best, that doesn't put you in a weird inverted winger role in a 442 every week and ask you to simply beat everyone. A side with other players on your wavelength and a manager that wants to give you 3, 4, 5 attacking players to link with, a side where you can give, go, drift and find the space and unleash your ability at the right moment...
What would a season of that do to your value? What would a season of that do for your long term career? What would a season of that make you feel like? How much would that year work as a base for the rest of your career. We all go through ups and downs, but if you know you've done it, you know the numbers are there... then the downs are that much easier to climb back up from.
Are you going to get that from a bit part role at a Premier League club who've signed half the world already? Why weren't they in for you in July? If these clubs deserve you, they should have been beating the door down months ago and giving big Ben and Simon absolutely nothing to think about.
You clearly love football. You play with joy in your stride. You play with your soul. You take risks and you fail or succeed with a raw energy and an honesty I love to watch. Your ability (and to be honest, your attitude) deserves a platform. You've not shown everything yet. Not by a long way.
I don't know you, but when I've heard you speak, you seem thoughtful, intelligent, humble and honest. This is why I've bothered to say this. You don't seem like a dickhead who just wants flash things and nothing else.
You have a platform. Right here. Right now. You have the manager that you need, who wants to play the game the way you love it being played. You have a team of players around you who trust you and feed you. You are part of a unit and you make that unit purr.
You could do so much this season. You could post numbers that make teams in the top half look at you. That makes sides like the one you left think 'why did we let him go?' That makes sides above them think 'we need to take a proper look at this lad.' Literally everything is there for you, right here, right now, to propel yourself from the fringe of the big time, to being a player who everyone wants to know.
The stage is set. You could sign a little extension, get a decent release fee sorted and forget about all the doubts, questions, contracts and just get your white boots on and weave some long hair eccentric magic. You could score 15 easily this year. You could set up just as many. You are electric.
It's a risk, I know, but so is joining the massive heap of footballers who jumped too quickly and got lost. The names who never quite made it. The players who languish in the reserves or spend half their lives on loan only to end up back where they came, 6 years older and talent burned out.
If that happens to you, it would be a tragedy. Football is always a risk, but on the pitch, I've never once known you to play it safe and do the sensible thing and that is why I love watching you play. The gamble is not, will you get a move, but will you get the chance to play yourself to the move you really deserve. You've got to work out where will give you the best chance to do that.
It's up to you of course. No one else.
Here's the key point now. Everything you did last year, you did in a rigid structure. The previous manager did well. He did well for you too, but I'm not sure he ever quite trusted you as he would trust a more workmanlike dogged player. You did well, but I think there's more to come. You scored some goals, you set up some goals but just imagine, for a moment, what you could do in a real attack minded team. A side built to service what you do best, that doesn't put you in a weird inverted winger role in a 442 every week and ask you to simply beat everyone. A side with other players on your wavelength and a manager that wants to give you 3, 4, 5 attacking players to link with, a side where you can give, go, drift and find the space and unleash your ability at the right moment...
What would a season of that do to your value? What would a season of that do for your long term career? What would a season of that make you feel like? How much would that year work as a base for the rest of your career. We all go through ups and downs, but if you know you've done it, you know the numbers are there... then the downs are that much easier to climb back up from.
Are you going to get that from a bit part role at a Premier League club who've signed half the world already? Why weren't they in for you in July? If these clubs deserve you, they should have been beating the door down months ago and giving big Ben and Simon absolutely nothing to think about.
You clearly love football. You play with joy in your stride. You play with your soul. You take risks and you fail or succeed with a raw energy and an honesty I love to watch. Your ability (and to be honest, your attitude) deserves a platform. You've not shown everything yet. Not by a long way.
I don't know you, but when I've heard you speak, you seem thoughtful, intelligent, humble and honest. This is why I've bothered to say this. You don't seem like a dickhead who just wants flash things and nothing else.
You have a platform. Right here. Right now. You have the manager that you need, who wants to play the game the way you love it being played. You have a team of players around you who trust you and feed you. You are part of a unit and you make that unit purr.
You could do so much this season. You could post numbers that make teams in the top half look at you. That makes sides like the one you left think 'why did we let him go?' That makes sides above them think 'we need to take a proper look at this lad.' Literally everything is there for you, right here, right now, to propel yourself from the fringe of the big time, to being a player who everyone wants to know.
The stage is set. You could sign a little extension, get a decent release fee sorted and forget about all the doubts, questions, contracts and just get your white boots on and weave some long hair eccentric magic. You could score 15 easily this year. You could set up just as many. You are electric.
It's a risk, I know, but so is joining the massive heap of footballers who jumped too quickly and got lost. The names who never quite made it. The players who languish in the reserves or spend half their lives on loan only to end up back where they came, 6 years older and talent burned out.
If that happens to you, it would be a tragedy. Football is always a risk, but on the pitch, I've never once known you to play it safe and do the sensible thing and that is why I love watching you play. The gamble is not, will you get a move, but will you get the chance to play yourself to the move you really deserve. You've got to work out where will give you the best chance to do that.
It's up to you of course. No one else.
Go well.
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Kind regards
Mitch Cook's Left Foot.
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You can follow MCLF on facebook or Twitter or use Follow.it to get posts sent to your email
If you appreciate the blog and judge it worth 1p or more, then a donation to one of the causes below which help kids and families in Blackpool would be grand. Home-Start Blackpool Food Bank
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