BY PHIL ROSTRON
NEXT season being, on his own barometer, the most significant and important in his career, it was perhaps unfortunate for Sean Gregan that a vital piece of paperwork escaped his attention.
With Leeds United ready to embark on their week-long tour of Scandinavia, it became apparent that their no-nonsense defender had indulged in, well, a bit of nonsense.
Gregan had forgotten to renew his expiring passport and was necessarily left at home to train with the reserves and the youths.
The extenuating circumstances will perhaps find a more sympathetic ear internally than ever the Secretary of State would entertain.
A house move from Wetherby to Harrogate and all the niggling, irritating asides that such an exercise can bring has been heading the Gregan family agenda this summer.
"It has been very stressful," he says "and what I really could have done with was a couple of weeks away to unwind. But when you've got a one-year-old and a three-year-old you're very hesitant about subjecting them to a long flight so basically it's been all work and no play."
Expected
There was a nice diversion for everyone interested in football, of course, and the rugged centre-back says: "I watched a bit of the World Cup including, of course, all the England matches and while it all ended in disappointment I don't know why we expected any more really.
"I don't see what the big surprise was that we should be heading home so early from the tournament.
"I'm not going to tell Frank Lampard and Steve Gerrard what they should be doing – they're far better players than I am – but what I will say is that I've played in games settled by penalty shootouts and the pressure even at the level I was playing was unbearable, never mind in front of two billion people around the globe.
"But Italy were probably deserving winners because of their defensive qualities. I can relate to that. As a defender you adopt the mentality that ball or man might pass but never the two together or, better still, that the definitive clearance is of man and ball together. I liked seeing that."
Gregan, 32, fought a season-long battle in 2005/6 with Paul Butler and Matthew Kilgallon for the central-defensive roles and he confesses: "It was a difficult season last year from a personal point of view. When I was dropped from the team it was the first time that had happened in 15 years and it was hard to take.
"I've had well-documented problems with a small section of the fans and when you combine those things it's probably easier to stay knocked down than get back up and fight.
"To win my place back maybe tells those supporters a little bit of what I'm about. At the end of the day I might not be everybody's cup of tea but one guarantee is that I will always give my best.
"I played for the reserves on Saturday and gave all the effort I would have made in a first team fixture. I'm not one of these who'll just toss it off and not try. It was difficult to take – no-one likes being out of the team – but you will never find me wanting for effort.
"I feel F***er now than I did at this time last year and that's because I came in earlier with the younger players and got a head start.
"I want to get in the team as much as Butts and Killa do, especially now that I'm not 21 and just starting out anymore. Time is not particularly on my side so it's important I play as much as I can and that's what I want to do.
"I haven't given a thought yet to what I'll do when my playing career is over. I'm not one of these people who plans for tomorrow, preferring instead to get on with what happens today.
"I'd like to think, anyway, that I have a few years left in me yet. I dread to think what the combined ages were on a few occasions last season when there was Neil Sullivan, Gary Kelly, Butts and me in the team but, as I've said before, there's no substitute for experience.
"We had a good defensive record last season and the number of clean sheets we kept was amazing really.
"Just like Italy, you see, and they won a World Cup with it!
"If you're keeping clean sheets you can always nick a win with a free-kick or a penalty or just a ball breaking kindly for you, but it doesn't mean you can be labelled a boring or negative side because you haven't conceded.
"And it's not just luck that it happened like that. We do work on it."
Gregan recognises the weight of the challenge ahead for United, observing: "On reflection, losing Steve Stone last season was a big minus point for us. His absence meant we struggled down the right and we had to improvise with our system.
"That meant, unfortunately, that David Healy and Robbie Blake were playing in positions that aren't their best but getting Stoney back plus Frazer Richardson, who missed three or four months, will give us a better balance.
"In the final analysis goals win games – you'd get relegated if you drew every week – and I'm sure we'll be addressing that.
Harder
"It's an even harder league than last year. It's the hardest league of them all to get out of and it doesn't help when you see on the television that West Brom have signed this player and that and are hanging on to the players who were performing last season in the Premiership.
"There are 10 or 12 teams who can finish in that top two and there's going to be a little more expectation about Leeds when the line in the sand is that we were beaten play-off finalists just 90 minutes away from the Premiership.
"The only improvement on that is to be promoted. By my reckoning we need one or two additions to the squad to achieve that but the manager is working away to bring people in and it's nice to hear that Dave Livermore will be joining us from Millwall.
"I've played against him a few times over the years and he's a player who thrives on battle and likes to get his foot in. The more new faces who come in, the more fierce is the competition for places and that's a good thing.
"All the signs are good. Sebastien Carole, who has joined us from Brighton, did really well against us last season and it will be like having a new signing with Steve Stone. He's an old head who has played in a promotion-winning side from this division and, quite honestly, you can't have enough experience on board.
"The disappointment of Cardiff still rankles with me and a lot of the players. After all that effort and dedication to duty over 46 matches and to come so close is a big kick in the oojahs but you can go two ways with it.
"You can sit and sulk and give yourself 10 games into the season and be bottom of the league, or you can wipe the slate clean, hit the ground running and be up and away.
"On paper we've got a fairly tough start but you can't ask for anything more than a home game to begin with and Norwich won't be relishing the fixture.
"Hopefully there'll be a big crowd to cheer us on in the job in hand."
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