Danny Drinkwater on joining Chelsea, his Man Utd contract & regrets

The Athletic FC Podcast

Danny Drinkwater joins David Ornstein for a candid discussion about his rollercoaster Premier League career, focusing heavily on his time at Chelsea and the personal

Key takeaways

• Danny Drinkwater asked Gary Neville to negotiate his Manchester United contract because he disliked agents and wanted a direct deal with Sir Alex Ferguson.
• He felt Chelsea's handling of his situation under Maurizio Sarri was 'mad,' especially after being excluded from first-team activities despite earning high wages.

Main topics

• Chelsea career & Sarri fallout
• Contract negotiations without agents

Notable quotes

"I'd say you don't have a clue."

Conclusion

The episode offers a raw, unfiltered look at the psychological realiti

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Many fans, some pundits will say you were more focused on the money than the football. Footballers are more focused on money than the football. What would you say to that? Speaker 2 (0:10) I mean, honestly, I'd say you don't have a clue. I'd say you don't have a clue. Speaker 1 (0:15) Hello and welcome to Truth or Paddle Extra on the Athletic FC podcast. I'm Emma Payton and I'm back with Truth or Paddle host David Ornstein. It's good to be here. It's good to be back with you. How are you doing? Speaker 3 (0:27) Very well, thank you. Looking forward to this one. Me Speaker 1 (0:29) too. But just to quickly remind listeners, Truth or Paddle is a brand new limited series we are creating here at The Athletic. And it is all about asking our famous football guests the kind of questions that we wouldn't be able to in a normal interview. And it all happens over a game of paddle. Tell us all how it works. Speaker 3 (0:48) Well, it's a basic but brilliant concept. If I win a point, the guest has to answer the question. If they win the point... they get to avoid it. This week's guest is Premier League winner Danny Drinkwater. And Speaker 1 (1:02) here's a quick clip from that video now. Speaker 3 (1:04) OK, this one needs some real truth. Do you regret moving to Chelsea? OK. Speaker 2 (1:12) Come on David. Speaker 3 (1:20) He's getting nowhere near that. Oh Speaker 2 (1:22) no! Speaker 2 (1:27) Oh, what was the ice? Speaker 2 (1:33) What's going on? Do you regret moving to Chelsea? No, I don't regret moving. I regret in hindsight how it's turned out. I think... Speaker 2 (1:44) I think I could never turn it down. Speaker 1 (1:45) Well, the full video of the paddle game interview is available on the Athletic FC YouTube channel. The link is in the show notes. But what are we going to hear on this episode coming up? Speaker 3 (1:54) Well, we sat down after the game and had a really good and funny chat. We found out what the drink water abuse actually is. Speaker 1 (2:03) We Speaker 3 (2:03) had some classic Truth or Paddle questions like, who would you want to punch in football? Go on. Bizarrely, it was the former Burnley assistant manager, Ian Woan. So I needed to find out why. Then there was the more serious topic of Chelsea. What went wrong there and what it was like being a player who didn't play. And then finally, the Desert Island question. And that produced some really interesting answers. It Speaker 1 (2:33) sounds wide ranging. Where did it start? Well, Speaker 3 (2:36) Danny was telling me a story about how he actually asked Gary Neville. to negotiate with Sir Alex Ferguson on his behalf to try and agree a Speaker 2 (2:45) contract at Manchester United because he didn't have an agent and I'll let him explain the rest. Speaker 3 (2:50) No agent. How did it work? What happened? Speaker 2 (2:52) Yeah, so I knew he hated agents. I knew, I mean, as a kid, like now, as a kid, do you need an agent? I don't know. But I remember I was with my first agent when I was 15. I had like a two-year... kind of agency deal with him i knew as a kid i didn't really need one so i didn't really want to go over an agent after that contract ended and then i think that was the period where i asked uh gaznev to kind of go in as as a great figure in the club and yeah and then i kind of Speaker 2 (3:27) I don't want to say backed it up because they had nothing about me whatsoever, but I kind of tried fine-tuning it at the last minute, I suppose. Speaker 3 (3:35) So Gary Neville went into Sir Alex Ferguson on your behalf? Speaker 2 (3:38) Yeah, yeah. So that was, I mean, he did that for quite a lot of players. Wow. Yeah, he was top round the club, guys. Neville was brilliant. And so he did that on one deal twice kind of thing. He went in two times for me. I remember it like the back of my hand. It was brilliant. And what did Speaker 3 (3:53) he do? Did he come out with more money for you? Speaker 2 (3:55) Yeah, he came out with... slightly improved, better deal than as a kid. I don't know if it was greed or just I was curious, just kind of said, can you try again kind of thing. And then, yeah, kind of come out the second time and told me to do one, which was fine. And then that was my chance then to kind of go in and see where it was at. But yeah, it was, I mean, look back now, it was a great experience. But at the time I was bloody hard, mate. Yeah, Speaker 3 (4:25) I was nervous for that. Agent Gary Neville already had his business mind on. One question I didn't get an answer to on the call because you won the point was which club do you hate? I'm Speaker 2 (4:35) trying to think of a place. Do you know what? I used to hate... I don't hate them as a club, get them as a club, totally get the whole concept, but I used to hate playing at... when I was Speaker 3 (4:44) in Speaker 2 (4:44) the Championship Millwall. So I'll Speaker 3 (4:46) say them. They seem to take pride from people hating them. Yeah, it Speaker 2 (4:50) used to be like corner tick. I was getting... pennies and quids on that launch the old drink water abuse which is great but yeah not a nice place to go to Speaker 3 (4:59) what's the drink water Speaker 2 (4:59) abuse oh yeah just the old sentence and a surname stuff in it i don't know drink drink anything other than water you kind of get it don't you i didn't realize Speaker 3 (5:10) that that one had passed me by yeah and i was also really fascinated You say now you're not that into football so much. You were obsessed as a kid, right? Yeah, yeah. But maybe not now. Take us inside that mindset because there are a few footballers like that. Ben White springs to mind, for example. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 2 (5:27) I think, I mean, as a kid, you know, you just... You just love what you're kind of good at I suppose, you don't know any different. And I think later on in life I just started seeing it more as a job I guess and then you get... Like any job, you go through spells of loving it and not loving it. I want to say it was probably around maybe my 30s. It was like... I don't know if it's where my career went. The last six months at Leicester, I was thinking... Speaker 2 (6:02) There's got to be more to life than just Speaker 3 (6:04) football, if that makes sense. I've got this fascination with that. idea because we don't want to bite the hand that feeds us of course and so we really respect the industry but the more time you spend in it like you and i and you sort of lift the curtain and see behind on what it's really like there's loads of good stuff but there's also loads of bad and ugly stuff grim things um often involving money and ego and that sort of Speaker 2 (6:32) thing is Speaker 3 (6:33) that something that in your career you sort of grew to dislike, detest and have reflected now you're out of it on Speaker 2 (6:42) in just not being pleasant yeah i'd say so i mean i think i think that goes in kind of any business as well do you know like so it's a sport it's a it's a beautiful sport but you know, football clubs are businesses. Yeah. And I think the older you