Nathan Baxter: How Losing a Teammate £30 Showed Me the Reality of Men's Football | Watford & Chelsea

I think it also gives you other key skills that you probably didn't realise.

So I said, when you work with players, I showed you what players struggle with.

So we took analysis of what players struggle with and it was... going to a new team, meeting new people.

Question I always get is, oh, I'm going to a new team.

How do I connect with people? That's the questions they ask.

They're like, how do I connect with people? I'm like, ask questions.

Build a connection, just start asking questions about their lives.

So another key skill there, you're going to three different teams without realizing you're picking up people skills.

connection, communication, meeting new people.

People don't realise how important that is.

I would say, to be fair to the academy at Chelsea, they were huge on how you are as a person.

They always used to say, we're not just developing you as a player, we're developing you as a person.

I think if you look at all of the lads, 99% of the lads that have come through the academy at Chelsea like they're actually good people like they train well the way they like live their lives and stuff is good like I used to know it's a difference when we used to play the other academies like lads would get subbed and they give the manager a bit of jip and just think we could never do that you know like you just be straight out yeah but I used to have it a lot where I'd go to non-league and league two and like everyone would think I'd be cocky everyone think I would like drive a really nice car like he's turned up in my like red Corsa you know and I used to do that on purpose like I'd never like wear any nice clothes or anything because I just never wanted to be seen as that like cocky Chelsea young kid you know like anyone that was like if you want to do shooting after training I could always do it like I'd never go in you know

that's perception isn't it yeah

because I never wanted to be labelled as that like cocky arrogant Like, I probably was inside in my head, but, like, I made a point of, like, trying to be, like, I'm here, you know? Like, I always used to be, like, I'm not a Chelsea player.

I'm a Solihull player.

I'm a Woking player, you know? Like, that wasn't just something I said, like, in the press or whatever.

Like, I really tried to live that, you know?

Because you know what it's like when you give them the tiniest bit to feed off.

Them senior players can't wait for you to mess up.

Yeah.

your car's completely irrelevant to the goal you've let in.

But they will go after that car or after that jacket or after the trailer just because you're a young lad and they want to find a reason to lay into you.

I've seen it all the time with young goalies come up and it's like, not driving a BMW now, it's just anything to then see how they can handle it and lay into them.

So you've got to kind of like, we touched on it earlier, didn't we, off camera, like playing the game a little bit, being a character around the place.