Cardiff stopper Neil Etheridge becomes a Premier League player – four years after being forced to sell his house and car made him want to quit the sport
Bluebirds star considered returning to the Philippines after being released by Fulham and failing to find a new club
NEIL ETHERIDGE is a Premier League player after winning promotion with Cardiff.
Yet just four years ago he almost quit football and returned to the Philippines after being released by Fulham and failing to find a new club for FIVE MONTHS.
Being out of work forced keeper Etheridge to sell his house and car to pay to train at Charlton, before moving to Oldham where he slept on a mate’s sofa.
Reaching the top has been made all the sweeter, given he has done it the hard way via the lower divisions, only joining the Bluebirds from League One Walsall last summer.
Etheridge, 28, said: “I was close to the goalkeeping coach at Charlton and just trained as hard as I could and just waited.
“It’s a very hard industry to be in and a very hard industry to stay in. It’s all in the past now and will never leave me. It has made me a lot stronger and is maybe why I am here today.
“I’d sold my house and car and was about a week away from going back home.
“I got offered a contract at Oldham, I think in the December. I took it and was living on a mate’s sofa, but that’s what you have to do.
“From then on, Charlton took me in the transfer window but the whole lot made me much stronger.”
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Hardly anyone took any notice when Neil Warnock picked up Etheridge for a song last summer, save for a few Cardiff fans wondering if the 59-cap Philippines keeper would be good enough.
But as with Junior Hoilett, Sol Bamba and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Etheridge proved another freebie masterstroke by Warnock.
Cardiff’s survival Blue-print
IS THE SQUAD GOOD ENOUGH?
CARDIFF boss Neil Warnock is confident. He claims that “after the top six in the Premier League, anybody can beat anybody on their day”.
He said he will give the players who won promotion a chance to prove themselves but will still be looking for “four, five or six players”.
WHO WILL SHOCK THE PREM?
SOL BAMBA, 33, has been a man-mountain for the Bluebirds in central defence.
Warnock has branded him “a colossus” and quipped he would not swap the Ivorian for anyone in the Prem, including the world’s most expensive defender, Liverpool’s £75million man Virgil van Dijk. Now we will see if Bamba can live up to the hype.
CARDIFF’S UNSUNG HERO?
JUNIOR HOILETT’S rise from the scrapheap has been a joy to watch, while versatile Callum Paterson has been a revelation — but Joe Ralls in midfield deserves a mention.
The tidy 24-year-old came through the Cardiff ranks and has emerged as a key man in central midfield, from where he scored seven times this term.
The ex-Chelsea academy keeper played 47 times this season, recording 19 clean sheets as City finished second behind Wolves.
Asked if he imagined 15 years ago at Chelsea that making the top flight would have happened sooner, he said: “When you’re an academy player you definitely feel it’s never going to end.
“I went from Chelsea to Fulham — two Premier League teams at the time — and was sitting on the bench for the Europa League and Premier League and you don’t think it is going to finish.
“A lot of people see the highs but not the lows. But I’ve always believed in my ability and that’s why I got through my rough patch. It has definitely been an emotional roller-coaster and I’ve massive respect for the manager here for taking me on.
“He obviously saw potential and, hopefully for the supporters, I’ve repaid them. We are now Premier League players.”