A decade ago, Stephen Bradley was in an envious position. A youth team player at Arsenal, captain of the reserve side and on a £500,000 deal, he had plenty to look forward to.
But within a short space of time, the dream had gone. The Dubliner was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver during a break-in at his London flat.
"I still had the guts of nine months left on my contract. I knew I was leaving, but I bought a watch that was worth a lot of money and people found out about it. My house got broken into and I got stabbed in the head and my watch got robbed," he told us on Off The Ball tonight.
He was speaking to us about the pitfalls for young players who make the leap to the lucrative world of English football, like he once did.
However, before that stabbing incident, he admits that he had lost his drive as he struggled to deal with his financial windfall.
He recalled a moment when former Ireland legend and Arsenal youth team coach brought him into his office to talk about staying on the straight and narrow.
Stephen Bradley at Limerick in 2013 ©INPHO/James Crombie
"Liam pulled me into the office and basically said, 'look, you know there's a lot of money coming your way and this is what you shouldn't do'. But at that stage for me, I'd turned pro and I'd seen the money. For me it was too late. I didn't know then, but I know now that I needed to sit down with someone long before that even happened," said Bradley.
Even before Cesc Fabregas had joined the youth ranks, Bradley says the drive which had led him to compete vigorously against Ireland midfielder Glenn Whelan at underage games in Dublin had faded.
"It was long gone before Fabregas came into the building but he just basically sealed it. Someone as talented as him and works as hard as him is always going to skip past you if you neglect your trade for a couple of months, which I did."
The 30-year-old was speaking to us from a FIFPro tournament in Oslo where he is managing a team of Irish pros looking to attract the interest of scouts and clubs.
The midfielder, who later went on to play for Falkirk in Scotland and a number of Irish clubs including Shamrock Rovers, St Pats and Limerick, believes structures need to be put in place for players making the leap to foreign academies.
"We go away and you're in a system with lads from all parts of the world and 99 per cent of the time they've come from a professional background and we're coming from training two nights a week. Straight away we're at a disadvantage. We've got to take that away," said Bradley, who believes that a more efficient system for young Irish players will lead to more making it at the elite level.
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