2 weeks Ago
LEGEND Dave Merrington was a massive influence on me and I would say every one of the players that came through the Saints system back then. I don't remember exactly when I met him for the first time and I think it all merges into just realising this is a man who doesn't stand for any nonsense. In the greatest respect and nicest possible way I'm saying this, he was a hard taskmaster.
He pushed us and we needed that through his experiences in football . He felt that they were the qualities and the things we needed to learn and become, to have a career in football and brace ourselves for the big wide world. He had a strong connection with Father Andrew McMahon, who played a pastoral role for us, and Dave made sure we experienced things in the real world.
I remember him taking us up to the Ford Transit factory one day, showing us the production line and telling us this is what real work looks like. We would also go down to the local St Dismas Society, a drop-in dry house for recovering alcoholics and drug users, from time to time. As youngsters, we would spend a bit of time there chatting with them, playing cards or chess and having a Christmas dinner every December.
All of it was to make us grateful for the position we were in and recognise the opportunity that we had. It was a combination of Dave and Father Andrew. It just makes you feel very grateful and humbled that you're playing football day in and day out and you've got an opportunity of earning a living from it.
When you see those other sides of life, if you hadn't already had a grasp or an understanding of it then you certainly had that after two years as an apprentice. Father Andrew sadly passed away this year but I remember he would come in and be that sort of outside link - a wonderful, softly spoken man. It was a fantastic time to be at the club working under those people whilst we were striving to progress our careers and Dave was really key to that.
I didn't play 11-a-side football until I was about 13. I played football at the park and in the streets and then I played for Winsor United in the Tyro League. I got spotted by a scout, did some training sessions at Saints and then when I turned 14, which is the age you could join a pro club, I had a few interested in signing me.
Arsenal, Aston Villa, and dare I say it, the team down the road. But being from the area and proud of it, it was always going to be Southampton . When you joined, you would be assigned one or two professionals to look after and you would clean boots, the stadium, the training ground and vehicles.
I remember cleaning the gym, what we called the gym, which was like a breeze block construction - and having to sawdust that and sweep it each week. Every single day was a long and hard day one way or another, training under Dave and then doing all the jobs around the grounds as well. Dave drove us to be fitter and stronger physically, but also mentally, and you had to have that to come through that era of managing and coaching.
When Dave became manager of the first team in 1995, I remember it being a great thing in many ways because quite a number of us already knew him. It's a different role without a doubt. Dave was incredible in the way that he could produce young players and get them prepared and to a level to have a career in football.
All of a sudden, you're working at first-team level with other players who have come from other clubs and other backgrounds and it's a different kind of animal. I just remember feeling quite upset that we weren't able to do better that season - although we survived again - and had to see him lose his position. I felt a bit guilty that I was maybe one of the squad that didn't do better to have kept him in the job.
We all thought so much of him and had such respect. He would have been under pressure on a football front but his dear wife, Pauline, who we were all so sorry to hear passed away last year, was unwell at the time. Dave would have been so worried about his wife, trying to be the head of the family as well as leading us as manager of Southampton Football Club.
I was asked to write about a coach or teammate from my career and Dave, someone who was so instrumental to me and my football club, came straight to mind. Up the Saints, Franny Benali..
