Vernazza: ‘I went into a hole after stabbing… but I won’t use it as an excuse’
I had never heard of Vernazza as he was a bit before my time. But this was an interesting read on The Athletic. I’ll try to provide a few quotes and interesting tidbits for those interested.
Paolo Vernazza grew up an Arsenal fan living minutes away from Highbury and joined the academy at the age of 9. He was training alongside the likes of Ashley Cole, Stuart Taylor, Julian Gray and Richard Hughes.
When he was 21 and returning home along with a fellow Arsenal trainee Andrew Douglas, he encountered a burglar leaving his home. In the ensuing struggle Vernazza was stabbed in the thigh, taking him out of Football for about 3 months but would left lasting psychological scars.
Douglas got it much worse and sustained stab wounds to the neck and ribs, and effectively ‘died’ four times in the hospital, needing to be resuscitated each time.
After dipping his toes in the water of first team football at Arsenal, this incident caused a spiral in his career, and he eventually retired at the age of 31. He was then contacted by a friend and entered into a new career as a player agent.
He cites the incident that derailed his career as a learning point he tries to impart on his players, telling them not to repeat similar mistakes he had made in his own career.
One of the best parts of the article is when Vernazza discusses his experiences training with the Arsenal first team, the transitions that occured when Arsene Wenger joined the club and its impact on the existing British core.
On the transition and the impact on the existing British players…
“It was unbelievable seeing the transition,” Vernazza says. “It made the boys up their level. All of a sudden, you saw Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn and Martin Keown going up a gear. Martin Keown would never want to lose anything. He didn’t want anyone taking the piss out of him in training, ever. It doesn’t matter who you are — if you’re Bergkamp or Marc Overmars or whoever. If you come near Keown, you’re getting some.”
He goes on to discuss how Keown in particular took a lot of the young British players under his wing…
“He treated us with respect,” says Vernazza. “As long as you came in and worked your bollocks off, he’d never have an issue with you. And if he thought you weren’t at it in training, he’d be the first to pull you aside and tell you.”
I’ve heard plenty about that mentality from Keown, but man do I think we miss that a ton in the modern team.
Vernazza continues to discuss the challenges and misses opportunities he had through the rest of his career. He feels that he let the stabbing incident impact him mentally, and that the mental side of the game is what takes players from League One to the premier league. Players who always demand more from themselves are the ones who will be successful.
Anyhow, I’m not much of a writer but I really enjoyed this article and would encourage folks who can afford it to subscribe to the Athletic. Top qualitee content on there.
https://theathletic.com/1783123/2020/05/01/paolo-vernazza-arsenal-stabbing/
