Kelly: I miss Leeds United, not the game
By Phil Hay
TO the lucky few, professional sport brings ample fame and financial fortune, but the loss of familiarity that comes with retirement has been Gary Kelly's most noticeable sacrifice.
More than a year has elapsed since his last competitive appearance, and nine months have passes since the end of his final professional contract. Kelly is firmly enrolled in the ranks of former players.
But does a man who spent half of his life on the books of Leeds United miss the sport which provided him with a career?
No, he says. At least not the game itself. Five-a-side matches provide an occasional fix now.
What about the money? "Football gives you more than you need, and I'm very grateful for everything it gave me."
But when it comes to the camaraderie that exists between players, Kelly admits the break has been less clean. The dressing room at Leeds was his second home for 16 years, and moving out was a strange experience.
"It's difficult to explain, but if people ask me whether I miss the football, I'd have to say no," he says.
"I was a professional player for a very long time, and I was lucky to have a really long career in football. If I'd got injured at a young age then it would probably be different, but I can look back and say I got as much out of the game as anyone could hope to.
"The one thing I do miss is the dressing room. Not having the banter and atmosphere ona daily basis is a bit difficult to get used to.
"It was like my workplace for 16 years, and I was very close to the players who came and went from the club. Through 16 different squads, that's a lot of different faces and a lot of new people.
"But it has to end sometime, and when I made the decision to go it was the right decision to make.
"The thing about a football club is that when you go, your gone. It's not really a gradual process. The kit men and the canteen ladies, the guys like Alan Sutton (United's former physiotherapist) who you see every day for year-after-year, they're the people you leave behind and the people you miss.
"It's the familiar things as much as anything."
Yorkshire and the city of Leeds became a familiar setting for a player who was a month past his 16th birthday when United brought him to England from Home Farm, an Irish club based in Dublin.
Kelly was Howard Wilkinson's signing but would play under a total of eight different managers before the end of his 16th season last year.
The roll of coaches ran from Wilkinson to Dennis Wise, and covered the tenures of George Graham, David O'Leary and Terry Venables.
His last game for Leeds at Barnsley on November 4, 2006, was his 531st appearance for the club. At the time of his 500th game, another of Kelly's managers, Kevin Blackwell, admitted he did not expect another player to better that figure at any point in the future.
Kelly was not an old man when his decision to retire was announced. In fact, he was only 32.
"After the last contract I signed with (Peter) Ridsdale, I was looking at six years, which would take me up to around the age of 33," he says.
"It's not an old age for a footballer to retire at, but everyone's different and everyone feels ready to go at a certain time.
"I thought that 16 years at a club – one single club – would be enough for me. And I didn't want to go anywhere else.
"A few opportunities came up for me during my career, but I never looked over the garden fence.
"When I came towards the end, I realised that 16 years is a long stint, and I wasn't going to pull my family to a different part of England and start again. I'd had plenty of support from them over the years, and it was only right that my decision was in their best interests.
"Anyway, I'd have found it very difficult to go to another club and feel attached to them like I did to Leeds. The supporters were good to me, and they never turned on me.
"Every club's fans are great when you're playing well, but I always appreciated and respected the fact that the fans at Leeds would stick with you when things were tough.
"And they were tough at times.
"They're right to be upset with a few of the things that have happened over the last six or seven years.
"I'd say thanks for their support but, above all, thanks for their patience because it's not as if I went through 16 years without making mistakes and doing things wrong."
Kelly moved home to Eire last summer but was given the chance to maintain a direct link with the club's fanbase when he was asked to become the new president of the Leeds United Supporters Club.
He agreed to join the organisation willingly as their replacement for Eddie Gray, who stepped down as figurehead last year, and Kelly travelled back to Leeds for the first time in nine months for the Supporters Club's annual dinner at the Royal Armouries last weekend.
He was one of several former players present, among them Dominic Matteo, Robbie Blake and Richard Cresswell, recreating the dressing-room atmosphere for a few hours.
There remain, however, obvious questions about the way in which Kelly's career concluded.
In his final season with Leeds, rumours were rife of serious discord between the Irishman and Wise. The supporters were baffled by Kelly's continued absence from the first-team, an absence which was blamed by Wise on a back injury.
It later transpired that Leeds had asked Kelly to reduce the wages offered to him by Ridsdale, which chairman Ken Bates claimed included a £4,000 appearance bonus. The contract seemed incompatible with the financial nature of the Championship.
A presentation to Kelly was planned for the final home game of last season, but was wrecked by a pitch invasion towards the end of United's 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town.
His exit from Leeds was, in the end, sadly quiet. But Kelly is not bitter. His career, he says, provided too many satisfying memories to cloud his view of the club.
"There was no bad taste at all last season," he says. "Honestly. Not a thing.
"It was water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned, and you'd be a sad individual if you dwelt on things. It's all forgotten about.
"I've got to say that Dennis did a great job this season until the point when he left, and so did Gus (Poyet).
"I also hope that any issues between the chairman and the supporters can be sorted out. These people are all good men in their own right.
"Life's too short to be falling out with people, and it's too short to hold grudges.
"I've got too many good memories to worry about anything. I played in the semi-finals of the Champions League and that's as close as you can get, give or take, to the top of club football.
"It's something to remember, that's for sure."
The full article contains 831 words and appears in EP Leeds First & County newspaper.