Guest Coach David Raven Visits the Academy

Guest Coach David Raven Visits the Academy

This week we were delighted to welcome current Warrington Town centre half David Raven to the academy at Ellesmere for the afternoon to share his experience and knowledge with the players.

David has had a fantastic career in football, starting as a youngster at Liverpool FC, the team that he supported. David was at Liverpool under the management of current Newcastle Manager Raffa Benitez, who gave him his break in the first team. He traveled internationally with Liverpool playing with and against some of the top players in the world.

After being on the fringe of the first team for some time David made the decision to move to Carlisle United where he made 137 appearances for the Cumbrian side.

David moved again to Shrewsbury Town and Tranmere Rovers before making the big move north of the boarder to the Scottish Leagues. He played 153 games with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, where he became loved by the fans and a regular in the team. David helped Inverness Caledonian Thistle to the Scottish cup final with a winning goal against Celtic in the cup semi-final.

Now pursuing a coaching career, David is working towards gaining coaching badges whilst playing for non-league side Warrington Town.

David came to the academy at Ellesmere for the afternoon, spending the first hour of the session talking about his time in the game and taking questions from the players. David talked with passion about his love for the game and how he managed to keep focused on his own development during his time playing. The boys really tested him with some great questions!

When asked what one piece of advice he would give, David said “It starts now! If you really want to be a player and you have the drive, determination and ability to do it, you can, but it starts now. Every day you give 100%, every day you look at doing more, every day you think and act like you are a professional player. Only that way can you make it. The ladder to being a professional player is hard to get on, but once you are on it, it’s even harder to stay on it, so you have to work at it. Never let anyone say you can’t, if you get the knock downs, get back up and keep going. Football is up and down, there will be lots of downs, and the downs can be very hard, but think of the up days, the highs of the game, the love you have for it, and that will keep you going. It starts now!!”

David then delivered a fantastic session out on the pitch.

It was another great experience for the players. Mick Brennan, Director of the academy said “what a great day for the lads, and for me. I love listening to people from within the game talk about their experience, and David was so inspirational. He has a true passion for the game and spoke honestly to the players. I think many could relate to him and really took on board what he said, there was total silence in that room as he was talking and each and every player was concentrating on what he said. A massive thank you to David for coming in and I’m sure we will see so much more from him over the coming season”.