Robbie Simpson – the ex-Coventry striker helping players transition to life after football | Football News

On the face of it, Robbie Simpson’s route into skilled football meant that he was at all times going to be properly-positioned to make a easy transition away from the pitch as soon as the dream lastly got here to an finish.

After he had performed for non-League Cambridge City as a teen, he studied for a level in Sports Science and Maths at Loughborough University and in July 2007 – the identical month as his commencement – signed for Championship aspect Coventry from Cambridge United.

And it was on the very first day of pre-season coaching {that a} seed, which may very properly form the remainder of his life, was planted.

“I remember overhearing Stephen Hughes and Arjan de Zeeuw saying it could be their last season and wondering what they were going to do after football – and I sensed a bit of a worried tone,” the 37-12 months-previous recollects to Sky Sports.

“I used to be pondering ‘You [Hughes] performed for Arsenal – you have to be a millionaire and never have to fear about having to work once more!’

“As people got to know me, I got labelled the student as I was the only one with any form of education in the changing room. They were coming to me about courses and education and almost looking at me with a bit of jealousy because they thought I’d be fine when I finished playing as I had a degree. It was surreal.”

Simpson moved on to Huddersfield after two years with the Sky Blues, however struggled for enjoying time there and later spent 18 months at Oldham in League One, following a season-lengthy mortgage spell at Brentford.

It was at Boundary Park, in the summer time of 2013, that he discovered himself at a crossroads.

“I had been desperate to get back and I had always regretted dropping into League One after leaving Coventry and signing for Huddersfield,” he admits. “I thought it was going to be my last chance to get back to the Championship that summer.

“I went trialling with Championship golf equipment all summer time and even into the season I used to be at Blackburn after which Sheffield Wednesday, however nothing happened. During that interval, I used to be turning down gives from League One and League Two golf equipment and it obtained to the level the place nothing had come from Doncaster or Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday have been the one membership to say no. I used to be caught then.

“By that time, it was near enough November and though I felt like I’d been good with my money – I’d invested a lot and saved a lot – I could see that coming down because I was still living the same lifestyle on no income for four or five months.

“The gives from League One and Two golf equipment had then gone as that they had signed another person after I had turned them down, so I used to be in a little bit of a gap. I actually wasn’t coping with it properly as a result of I did not know what I wished to do past football – I hadn’t even thought of it as a result of I did not suppose I used to be going to have to give it some thought till I used to be in my mid-30s.

“I didn’t feel like there was any support in that regard from anybody either, whether that be clubs, my player union or the PFA.”

He didn’t notably fancy a training profession – notably after being instructed one 12 months there have been 2,000 candidates finishing their badges and round 200 roles on supply – and with a level underneath his belt already, a sports activities journalism course didn’t whet his urge for food both.

That is when LAPS (Life After Professional Sport) was created.

“A few friends said I needed to get a LinkedIn profile, so I did and I started connecting with literally anybody,” Simpson says with fun.

“I connected with Rob Steed (CEO of LAPS) – and we met around six months later when I re-signed for Cambridge in 2014. He asked me if I knew how he could get to sportspeople as he was a recruitment consultant for four or five different companies and they had asked him to recruit sportspeople into their businesses. I wondered why.

“He began itemizing off all these completely different attributes prime-degree sportspeople have: they’re pushed, they’re decided, they have grit, they’re good purpose-setters, they study from failure shortly, they analyse their very own efficiency very well and he simply saved occurring. He was completely proper. Just to turn into knowledgeable sports activities particular person, in some unspecified time in the future alongside the line, you’d have to present all of those attributes, or not less than a considerable amount of them.

“That ignited something in me that I knew there was a need for more support from the sportsperson’s perspective, in terms of the end of their career and what they are going to go into. I didn’t know there was a need from companies’ perspectives to get an in into this niche market of sports people. It was like a match made in heaven.

“Originally we have been going to set LAPS up as a job board the place he would exit and discover firms to place their jobs or alternatives for sports activities folks on a web based platform. I’d then promote the on-line platform to sports activities professionals and it could be a platform for them to log onto, and apply in the event that they noticed one thing they preferred.

“We soon realised that wasn’t going to be enough. I hadn’t written a CV since I had left university, so these lads wouldn’t have done it since they were 16. I had a degree behind me, but 99 per cent of footballers didn’t, so we needed to do CV writing. None of them would have ever gone to a job interview before, so we had to create a page to help them with interview techniques.

“The hardest factor can be making the sports activities folks realise that the earlier they plan, the simpler it will likely be at the finish.”

The pair make it clear to members that they’ve something up to 60 extra years wherein to maintain themselves and their households, however that they may do all the pieces they will to discover one thing to swimsuit their wants.

On the LAPS web site laps.careers, there’s a part devoted to video interviews with former sportspeople “who have successfully transitioned into new and rewarding careers”, whereas the Ahead of the Game networking occasion – typically held at giant football stadiums like the Etihad – supplies a plethora of potential alternatives for athletes throughout the nation

Their tireless work has even caught the consideration of the Premier League and League Football Education who requested a workshop that might be delivered to U18 and U23 groups and paid for by a portion of their annual schooling budgets.

The response will be blended, however Simpson doesn’t thoughts. “I always say that I don’t care if we don’t hit 99 per cent of the athletes we are speaking to, because that one per cent matters and that one per cent makes it all worthwhile.”

There is one specific success story that sticks in his thoughts.

“As soon as I set up LAPS, I told my team-mates about it down at Exeter and there was a lad called Tom McCready who got released at the end of the 2016/17 season and was struggling to get a new club,” he says.

“He knew I had just set up LAPS and he reached out to me. We do members meet-ups, where one of our partners hosts it in their offices, and we got St James’ Place, the wealth management company, to host it. I told Tom we had an open day and that he should come along – instantly he hit it off.

“He listened to what St James’ Place had to say about why they wished sports activities folks specifically and what the profession may appear like. He known as me the subsequent day and stated he’d had a suppose, that it was one thing he wished to discover and whether or not I may put him in contact with them.

“We guided him through the process of getting into their academy and now he has been with them for nearly five years.”

There is an ambition to be a part of forces with the PFA to maximise the impression of providers to assist players hanging up their boots, however thus far no progress has been made on that entrance.

Simpson explains: “When I first set up LAPS and took it to the PFA, I thought they were going to be really supportive, because I designed it for all of the different player unions and bodies to use themselves.

“They have been – and nonetheless are – a bit dismissive of it and they might simply say that they had their very own recruitment web page – and I knew all about that! It has been powerful with the PFA, it actually has.

“Without their help we’ve still done it, but it’s disappointing because together, I feel that we can achieve so much more. Hopefully we’ll get there one day – we’ll keep trying, that’s for sure.”

In the meantime, he has made inroads to deal with one other facet of life off the pitch that does not obtain consideration; LAPS was shaped to deal with the transition from sports activities particular person to abnormal member of the public, with a second firm – RS19 – shaped to assist with way of life monetary planning.

Most notably in football, players are handed huge sums of cash at a younger age, typically with no actual concept how to deal with it. They construct a way of life that they’ve the funds to finance at the time, however a football profession is a brief one and, most of the time, the cash is not going to final eternally.

He is there to supply a wise voice and a helping hand – however, crucially, the last item he needs to do is impose way of life restrictions upon shoppers.

“No one likes to talk about money, especially footballers where if you’re seen to be wanting to move for more money, you’re seen to be a bad, greedy person. There’s a bit of a stigma there,” he says.

“Sportspeople do get paid well for something they love doing, which we all aspire to do. It’s through no fault of their own, but there is a lifestyle demand of a footballer and it takes a really strong person to not give into those lifestyle demands.

“The first assembly I’ll have with a consumer is only a espresso to see if we get on and whether or not we may set up belief – I consider that lengthy-time period friendship helps to obtain the greatest outcomes. I work fairly holistically, so I like to get an summary of their entire image i.e. their household, their way of life, their present financial savings, their investments, their pension provisions.

“I call it a life plan, so we look at short-term, medium-term and long-term. We gauge what they want to do and then come up with a plan and I educate them on different financial investment products they could utilise.

“I do not like doing it to restrict the way of life they need to dwell now as a result of they I really feel prefer it’s a burden on them and each time they make investments cash, it is restrictive. Every six months I’ll sit down with them, particularly with footballers, as a result of their earnings can change similar to that. The key, for me, to being lengthy-time period monetary planner is being adaptable to shoppers’ conditions.”

The two businesses that keep Simpson involved in professional football continue to grow and offer the footballers of today the support and guidance he found to be absent earlier during the fledging years of his professional career.

He admits helping others has changed him personally for the better, and that the whole ethos of both LAPS and RS19 has developed into something much bigger, too: tackling mental health issues in sport.

“It has actually ignited a ardour inside me for helping folks,” he provides.

“As a footballer, people think you are selfish; setting up LAPS made me become less selfish. In fact, the last three years of my career, where I was running LAPS alongside playing, I felt that I became a better player because I was more unselfish.

“I can bear in mind watching Jordan Rhodes on the bench each week at Huddersfield hoping that he would fail to profit me. It’s ridiculous as a result of Jordan Rhodes is certainly one of the nicest folks I’ve ever met! I look again at myself again then and I wasn’t particular person. If you examine the starting of my profession to the finish, I really feel you may actually see how a lot I’ve grown.

“One aspect of mental health in sportspeople is coming to terms with their career coming to an end one day. Without a shadow of a doubt, that plays on sports people’s minds. Whether they earned a lot of money or not, they are not going to get that feeling of walking out onto a pitch or scoring a goal again.

“We really feel that, quite than them having psychological well being points after which speaking about them, we hope that LAPS will help present pursuits away from sport alongside their sporting profession so possibly they do not have to discuss at the finish, possibly these psychological well being points do not develop and develop after which when the profession ends, explode.

“In anything, you have to get buy-in from the player. I need to help them understand why these two companies are beneficial for them and get buy-in from them for them to be able to utilise them properly.”

The phrase of the steerage he and his firms can supply is steadily filtering into dressing rooms, and players ought to take consolation in that.

After all, he’s, in truth, residing proof that there’s certainly life after skilled sport.