LISTEN: Allen the GFC coach – it could happen
ROSS ALLEN is not ruling out a future Guernsey FC coaching role but, for now, he is eyeing a playing career that will take him close to 40.
In a wide-ranging interview on the GP Football Podcast, the GFC star also gave an insight as to why he has no regrets at chasing a professional career in the UK game.
Allen, 34, said he feels refreshed and eager to get going again with the Green Lions later this summer having, this past season, barely played and concentrated on coaching with the Elizabeth College and GFA Academy.
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Asked the hypothetical question as to what would have happened to his career had there not been a GFC, he said that it arrived with perfect timing because he had not enjoyed the experience of putting himself in the shop window away from the island.
‘I did about six or seven years of trials from when I was 16, had a good go at it at a bunch of clubs in the UK and went to college in the States for a bit. But nothing really stuck and it was getting quite demoralising, I’m not going to lie. It was hard and I was getting to not enjoy the experience and not enjoy football.
‘The plan was to go out to Australia, that was my next step, and that’s when we were doing well with the Systems Cup, I was getting in the Muratti side and then there were the rumours of GFC starting. Tony and “Sticks” [Mark Le Tissier] were saying “don’t go anywhere”.
‘At that point I thought it [GFC] was the best option.’
GFC’s all-time record scorer said he never came very close to signing with a UK professional club.
‘The only things that were ever on the table were more trial offers,’ adding that he became unhappy at the whole process.
‘At no time when I went to the UK did I ever enjoy living there and that was the big thing.’
He admits he could see reinventing himself as a player and playing in deeper roles.
‘I want to be playing as long as I can and I hope that this little break with COVID will have done me good, fresh,’ and that is why he opted not to play domestically this winter.
‘I’ve got a huge hunger for when GFC comes back, a new passion for it.’
As for coaching he said he was ‘not putting any pressure on himself’ but could see himself doing it one day at senior level.
‘Senior football is something I’d like go get involved in, maybe not as the main coach to begin with, but I think there is definitely something in me that thinks I could do that down the line if an opportunity came up.
It maybe, he said, that he could become an attacking coach with the Green Lions. ‘It’s something I’d really like to see myself doing.’
