‘Rosco’ says he returns a better yet different player

The pull of New Zealand has snapped in favour of a return to his beloved home island. Everyone associated with Guernsey FC is silently screaming ‘wa-hay’, our saviour is here.

But will he be?

Ross Allen has turned 32 and even he admits the zip has gone even if the pulling power hasn’t.

At a time when the Green Lions will go nine games without a home game and the revenue that brings, the spike his return has provided in terms of GFC season tickets is most welcome and, while James Queree, Luke Campbell and the like in Jersey have the Bulls’ maiden UK season uppermost in their minds, with ‘Rosco’ back come next May a tougher Muratti test is in prospect.

Just how good and effective Allen is after two years-plus on the other side of the world we will see soon enough, but as far as he is concerned he believes he is a better player than when he left, albeit perhaps a touch different.

He confirms it was a big lifestyle and sporting choice to come back, just as it was to go to New Zealand in the first place.

‘I didn’t make the decision over a couple of days or a couple of weeks, it was something me and Tony have been talking about for quite a while.’

Although it was not until late July when his return was publicly confirmed, as early as the end of May Tony Vance was quietly offering this writer 60-40 odds on his top striker returning.

‘I had given him a big indication early on in our conversations in May time that it was looking like a very good option for me and that was more to do with what was going on New Zealand and how our [Team Wellington] season finished.

‘I wasn’t necessarily going to get the game time opportunity over there this season, no Champions League, and from that side of things staying over there would have been more for the lifestyle rather than the football. At that stage Guernsey was a very attractive prospect given that I could slip into a group and environment I knew very well and there would be no issues there and with a 38-game fixture list compare to an 18-game one in New Zealand.’

That would seem to be the crux of the matter. Football. He still loves it, loves scoring goals and wants to play.

Last season he didn’t get anywhere near enough action and it clearly bothered him.

‘As amazing as last season was with Team Wellington there wasn’t enough minutes for me, coming off the bench a lot and not really given a great chance.

‘Looking back it was all worth it just to experience what I did with the Club World Cup and Champions League, but I was on this road trip on the South Island thinking back over the darker times of last season when I wasn’t in the squad or not on the pitch, and I thought I can’t risk that again at this stage of my career.’

He has come back, but will he be the player we knew?

‘I guess we will find out soon enough, but I’ve learned a lot and while there was backroom staff here in Guernsey I’ve learned a lot more just about how to look after myself, how to get ready for training, just the routine that being in a more committed, higher level environment brings.’

Age, of course, brings more aches, pains and greater chance of injuries, so pop down to Victoria Avenue on training nights and you will now see a Ross Allen who spends up to an hour before training on the foam roller working the muscles and limbs in a bid to stay fit and just be better.

‘It’s not just about being a good thing to do and because of my age, it’s naturally going to take me longer to get ready and I have a better understanding of myself and what makes me tick.

‘In terms of looking after my body, I have improved as a person and as for playing that’s fed into that.

‘It is going to be interesting coming back to this league and maybe comparing the type of player I was four years ago and my last full season for GFC and what I’ve had to learn as a player over there.’

He is sure he is a different player to the one that left.

‘The Ross Allen of old was probably get the ball somewhere in the half and try and beat people.

‘I still have quite a bit of that in me but in my last few years of GFC my body was not quite allowing me to do that to the same extent. That little half-yard had gone and I had to maybe rely on other players more.

‘That was magnified more at Team Wellington, where everyone was of a very high standard and there was a very big share-the-ball team ethic, and as a No. 9 up front I’d be required more to maybe link up occasionally and maybe not until the final third and then get the job was to get it wide and get the ball in the box for that guy to finish.

‘We would run through some patterns of play in training and you’d hardly touch it until maybe you get in the box. I wasn’t necessarily required to be too involved in the link play, which maybe earlier on with GFC I was required to do.’

He insists he is fully charged.

‘I’m 100% excited.

‘Tony didn’t want me to be coming back unless I was 100% in thinking that this was the right thing to do and the same for me and I didn’t want to go half-hearted into a project just because it was convenient and that it might work out.

‘’The more I thought about it, the more I thought about the challenge and coming back into a group that is very similar personnel wise but something that I think has grown a lot.

‘Players like Thomas Dodds have now got really good experience in this league and whatever I can bring to add to that, whether it’s me performing on the pitch, or me just adding experience and giving advice on the things I’ve learned, those little one per cents that make us all a better group.’

Read how Allen fared on his GFC comeback match at Faversham in Monday’s edition.