David Thompson never used to like talking about his career.
“I felt ashamed,” he says. “Because of the way my career ended, because I’d finished early, I felt like I shouldn’t be speaking about the goals I’d scored or the teams I’d played for.”
A dynamic, talented midfielder from Birkenhead, Thompson emerged through the ranks at Liverpool alongside the likes of Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen in the 1990s, and would go on to make 56 appearances for the Reds, scoring five times.
Later, he would play for Coventry, Blackburn, Portsmouth, Wigan and Bolton in the Premier League, but his career would be halted at the age of 29 due to a series of knee injuries which left him, by his own admission, in a dark place.
Thankfully, the 42-year-old came through that, and thankfully he has no problem speaking about his career these days.
And as Goal quickly finds out, he’s got plenty of stories to tell...
What was it like coming through as a youngster at Liverpool in the 1990s?
"I always expected to make it, to be honest. Coming through, I knew the coaches had high hopes for me. I knew I was one of the top players in the group, and that I had a chance. At that time, the likes of Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and Dom Matteo were in the first team, and they were our idols. I was gutted when Macca left for Real – what a player he was. We had a lot of players coming through at that time, myself, Carra, Steven Gerrard were all pushing too. It was a good time."
You played on the right for a lot of your Liverpool career, but you were always a centre midfielder at heart…
"I was, yes. I felt, to be honest, that it was cutting my legs off putting me on the right. Roy Evans, for example, would never have played me out wide because he knew what my game was. I was everywhere, right, left, centre, always trying to be involved. But at the time there was Stevie, Didi Hamann, Jamie Redknapp, Danny Murphy, all wanting to play in the middle. Gary McAllister signed in 2000. And maybe it was easier to move me, a local lad, out to the wing. But I was a square peg in a round hole, I couldn’t showcase my full ability, and that was a big reason for me deciding to leave Liverpool."
The likes of Carragher and Gerrard had a really close relationship with Gerard Houllier, but you were one of the ones who didn’t. Why was that?
"I found it hard to speak to him. I have to be totally honest, here. I didn’t like the way that he came into the club, and I had a really strong loyalty to Roy Evans. He’d always supported me and stuck up for me, and I felt my career would blossom with him in charge. Then Gerard came in, and I know he liked me, but I think he got mixed up about my attitude. I was so desperate to do well for Liverpool, I would hurt people. I’d get sent off in the reserves, but it was through desire more than anything else. I needed to channel it. Look at someone like Stevie, he had similar problems with his tackling, but he found a way to channel it. I did in the end, but only after I’d left Liverpool."
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You won the Youth Cup in 1996 against a West Ham side that contained Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand. Did you compare yourself to those players as your career went on?
"Absolutely! I never had envy, but I always compared our careers. I used those guys as a benchmark as to where I could have got to. They worked hard for everything they got, but I’ll tell you, nobody worked harder than me. And I’d have backed myself against anyone coming through."
Your old team-mate Jamie Carragher asked me to ask this one; how fast did your first car go?
"(Laughs) The Clio! When I first passed my test, I took a load of the lads out round West Derby. We must have taken about 40 wing mirrors off, and by the time we got back to Melwood the car was smoking! But I’ll tell you a funny one about Carra. We had a lad called Eddie Turkington at Liverpool, and he came in one day in an old Audi Quattro. It was old but it was rapid, and it had a weird gearbox on it. Anyway, the A-team pitch at Melwood used to be pristine – Mini Wembley, everyone called it. Carra has jumped in the Audi, put it in gear and couldn’t stop it. He’s ended up tearing the arse out of Mini Wembley, tyre marks all over the pitch. He stopped it eventually, but he was too scared to put it in reverse so he just left it in the middle of the pitch! That was a funny day, that!"
Carra also asked me to ask you how many coats you wore to training, but we’ll leave that one! What was he like to play with?
"He was always football-mad. People say Carra wasn’t naturally gifted and he made the most of his ability, but I disagree. He was always a very good player. He was a top striker as a youngster for Bootle Boys, he always understood the game and he was brilliant at every level he played at. He was the benchmark for us. He had one of the greatest skills that any footballer could have – he knew what he was good at and he made sure he did that as often as possible. It was no surprise what he went on to achieve."
What was your highlight as a Liverpool player?
"I’d say the Sheffield Wednesday game, where we won 4-1 and Gerrard scored his first ever senior goal [December 1999] was the game where I displayed everything I could do. I scored one and set a couple up – even though I played on the right. But do you know the memory which sticks out above all others? We played Arsenal at the start of that season, beautiful summer’s day, not a cloud in the sky, perfect pitch. I was right midfield and Carra was right-back I think. The Kop are in full voice and the hairs are up on the back of my neck. I remember seconds before kick-off going up to Carra and saying to him ‘How the f*ck did we get here, eh?’ It was too good to be true."
How hard was it to leave Liverpool in 2000, and then adapt to a new club at Coventry?
"It was tough, yeah. I hadn’t planned to join Coventry. I met with Gordon Strachan out of courtesy and respect, but he made me feel 10 feet tall when we spoke, they put a great package together and I thought ‘why not?’ But it was a shock to the system, I got sent off on my debut, I struggled with injuries and we ended up getting relegated..."
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But you did score at Anfield that season…
"Yeah, that was bizarre. I’d not long left and I was back playing at Anfield. We lost 4-1, and I’m there looking at Stevie and Carra and Sami Hyypia, and I’m thinking I’m still on their team. I think Stevie thought the same because he passed me the ball for my goal! It was a blinding goal to be fair. I never intended to celebrate but when it hit the net, there was a lot of emotion. There was a lot of frustration and I aimed it at Houllier. There was anger in there. I felt like he’d cut my legs off and turned my life upside down."
What was Gordon Strachan like to work under?
"He was a brilliant coach. But he was quite a cynical character, and I think that didn’t help him. If he’d have had a little more charisma, he’d have been a top-level manager. His understanding of the game and his training sessions were superb."
You came across Craig Bellamy at Coventry too?
"I did. He used to make me laugh, Bellers. I loved him to bits and I’d have him in my team every day. He’s a winner, but at that time he didn’t know how to channel it. He’d be first in of a morning and last to leave, he always worked hard but he knew how to upset people too! If you didn’t know how to take him, he could rub you up the wrong way, but it was always from a good place. All he cared about was winning and improving."
Graeme Souness signed you for Blackburn in 2002, what was he like to work with?
"I bonded with him from the get-go. He was a man’s man, and I loved and respected him for that. He was so Liverpool it was a joke! From day one, he never ever told me what to do. He’d just say ‘go and play’, which was what Ronnie Moran had told him when he signed for Liverpool in the 70s. I always felt like I could try things with him in charge, I could take risks and play my natural game, influence matches. We had a great team too – Tugay, Damien Duff, David Dunn, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke – what a strike pair they were! It was an enjoyable season, that."
I’m glad you brought up Tugay. I’ve heard so many stories about him…
"What a player! I didn’t know how good he was until I played with him. He was phenomenal. He came to Blackburn in his 30s, but if he’d have come earlier, he could have gone and played for any top four club and had a major impact, no doubt. He was our Pirlo. And I played against Pirlo by the way, but Tugay was up there, no danger. I loved him to bits. The only problem was his tracking off the ball, and me and him had many confrontations at half-time over that, believe me! But in terms of a footballer, one of the best I ever saw."
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Was that your best time, Blackburn?
"It was. I just felt like when I stepped out onto the pitch then, I was scared of nobody. I give Souness so much credit for that. I remember him coming to me one day and saying ‘the way you cross a ball, your set-pieces and striking of a ball is as good as David Beckham’. It made me feel a million dollars, and I felt I was getting better and better every game. Sven-Goran Eriksson came to watch me against Leeds and I was outstanding, and he called me into the England squad for the first time. Everything was coming together, until..."
Injury struck...
"I was with England in a warm-up, I was walking backwards and felt this pop in my knee. The bones had clanged together, and it had pulled the cartilage off the bone and left a hole in my knee. I got through another three months but I was never at my sharpest, then I went in for what I thought was an arthroscopy, but I ended up out for the best part of 10 months."
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How hard was that to deal with?
"It was a massive shock. Me and Jamie Redknapp were really good mates at Liverpool, and he used to pick me up for training. I’d seen him go through injuries, and seen the psychological impact it had on him. I’d heard him speaking to surgeons on the phone, worrying about his career. So when I got the same injury, I feared the worst. I came back, I worked like a beast to get back, but I played 10 games in the space of six weeks and it happened again, another 10 months out. I lost the best part of two years of the peak of my career."
You retired at 29. How hard a decision was that to make?
"It was quite easy actually, because I’d been wrestling with it for two years. I remember playing for Wigan in a reserve game against Manchester United, and they had Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic playing. Their team was lively, and it was on a cow-field of a pitch, and I just couldn’t do it, I couldn’t get going. I remember bursting out crying after the game and telling my missus I couldn’t take much more. I’d become a really average footballer. I was putting so much effort in to get so little out. I felt like sh*t after every game."
You dropped off the radar a bit after retiring, but you’re back in love with the game now…
"Yeah, I had two or three years where I couldn’t even talk about it. I wanted nothing to do with football. I was so bitter, I wanted to stay away from it. I thought I could live without it, but I couldn’t. It’s in my DNA."
You sound like you’re in a much better place now…
"I am, definitely. I’ve started coaching, I’m working at Radcliffe Borough as assistant to Lee Fowler my old Coventry team-mate, and I’m enjoying it. I want to learn my trade and let nature take its course. I’m happy. I used to worry about what people would say about me. Someone on Twitter would say I was sh*t, and because I hadn’t won the European Cup or played for England, I’d just take it. But I know how good I was. I played in the f*cking Premier League, and you don’t do that if you’re not a good player. If I was sh*t, I’d have been sat in the stands with a season ticket or mouthing off on Twitter!"