James Chester: ‘The age footballers retire, there's a lot of life ahead – I'm excited'
'This is going to be the most enjoyable part of my day,' says James Chester. Chester is speaking to The Athletic from his kitchen. He is having a busy week, announcing his retirement as a footballer at the age of 36 and preparing for the next stage of life.
'I've got to present an essay this evening,' he says. 'I'm writing a script for the PFA (Professional Footballers' Association, the players' trade union in English football) sporting directors' course I'm on. Me and three others have got to present ours at 5pm. It's a proper course, hosted by Portsmouth University. I had to write the essay at the end of January.
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'This appeals more than coaching does. It touches on a lot of subjects I found interesting, like background checks on players and being diligent when recruiting. Stuart Webber spoke about Norwich City's policy (while he was sporting director there from 2017-23) with Brexit and having to find new markets, recruiting players from South America.
'That side has always interested me.'
It is the final day of James Chester, the footballer; ending an 18-year career, spanning 12 clubs and 481 appearances, plus 35 games for Wales' national team. At his age, having turned 36 a couple of weeks ago, the sense of one chapter closing can invite trepidation.
'I probably had that thought five times,' says Chester, when asked about retirement. 'I kept kicking the can down the road. All I've ever known is to be a footballer. You never imagine the day is going to come, but it'd be daft not to notice the differences in my body the older I've got.
'But the main feeling is excitement. The age footballers retire, there's a lot of life ahead.'
Chester anticipated this season would be his last. He signed for Salford City in League Two, English football's fourth tier, back in the summer, which worked for him practically — they are based a half-hour drive from his home in Warrington, near Manchester — as well as reuniting the defender with former Hull City team-mate Alex Bruce, who is Salford's assistant manager.
Injuries have become all too frequent for Chester since turning 30. Having had a clean-up knee operation over Christmas and yet to play a league game this season and none at all since August, the time feels right to hang up the boots.
'I had a conversation with Alex and the manager (Karl Robinson). Salford wanted to know whether I would be interested in going on loan (in the recent winter transfer window). At 36? No, thank you.
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'But I was open to helping, if they could help me. We've come to an arrangement where I will stay until the end of the season and be involved in training at the back-end of the week, helping players, but having told them about the sporting directors' course, they're kindly going to let me shadow people in that department, too.'
Chester was back at Villa Park on Sunday evening, watching Aston Villa's fourth-round FA Cup win against Tottenham Hotspur. He spent four years at Villa from 2016-20, a period he says was 'the most enjoyable' of his career.
Having joined from West Midlands neighbours West Bromwich Albion, Chester continued living in the Jewellery Quarter, in Birmingham's city centre. Such is the attachment he and his wife, Rea, have with the place, they remain reluctant to sell their apartment there.
Villa supporters hold Chester, who made 126 appearances for the club, in high regard. There is recognition of his sacrifice in playing through pain, despite knowing the longer-term ramifications.
Appointed club captain on the eve of the 2018-19 season, Villa's Championship play-off final victory nine months later against Derby County was a bittersweet moment. Though it signalled redemption, and a return to the Premier League, after Wembley heartbreak in the same fixture against Fulham 12 months before, Chester told reporters afterwards that his 'body had changed indefinitely.' He lifted the trophy with Jack Grealish that day but had suffered a career-altering knee injury and was not involved, having not played since the January.
'Whenever I'm back in Birmingham, that's the main topic of conversation,' Chester says. 'Villa fans will speak to me about playing through the injury — that's just how they would want their club to be represented. Although it affected me, I'd probably still make the same decision.
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'The injury was a little strange. After games, I would have an ache in my knee but I'd go to training on the Monday and be fine. In the car on the way home from a 3-0 win over Derby County (in the November), my knee was instantly aching.
'The doctor saw it was fluid irritating a band on the edge of my knee. I continued playing without the pain going away. A later scan showed a bit of knee cartilage that hadn't come off yet but was starting to.
'Every time I was bending my knee and running, cartilage was catching and that brought the pain. Because I continued to play, the cartilage eventually came away, which brought a new problem of a lot of fluid in the capsule, which is the body's reaction to protecting itself. There was so much fluid, it became difficult to be mobile.'
Chester managed the pain for the rest of his playing days, icing that knee after matches but never training fully again.
'I was aware that playing on might have not been the best decision, but I was the only centre-back,' he says. 'I recall a conversation with Dean (Smith, Villa's manager at the time) and the doctor in the office, looking at the fixtures and seeing how many there were until January 2019, when the club could sign players. I just agreed to play through.'
Following 'the best six weeks' of Chester's career, reaching the European Championship semi-finals with Wales in summer 2016, he received a call from Villa's new manager Roberto Di Matteo. Despite being part of an outstanding Wales back line, he was out of favour at West Brom, a Premier League club at the time.
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'Robbie said, 'I wasn't aware you were available' — he actually called me Jamie and I didn't correct him, so that continued until he got the sack,' Chester says.
'There was a question mark as to whether I should drop to the Championship (Villa had been relegated the previous season). But I remember trying on the shirt and it seemed right.'
In the second tier for the first time since the late 1980s, Villa started to build from the ground upwards.
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A 13th-placed finish in Chester's debut year was well below par but Steve Bruce's arrival after Di Matteo got sacked in the October offered stability. Chester had worked with Bruce, a former centre-back, at Hull and they'd shared a productive relationship. He played every league match of the following season, which was defined by the 1-0 loss to Fulham in the play-off final.
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There was little time to dwell, however; Chester was getting married the next day.
'I had been warned that if the bad result did happen, I was, in no uncertain terms, allowed to be in a mood,' he says. 'Looking back, it did me a favour. I had no choice but to change my mood.'
That loss at Wembley not only meant Villa were consigned to a third successive season in the Championship but the financial risk that accompanied being outside the Premier League was immense. There was flux at executive level, with owner Dr Tony Xia wanting to sell up and urgent funds needed.
'It was me and Jack (Grealish) who had clubs looking at us,' Chester says. 'It's not something I had any interest in, but I understood the situation. I remember talking to Steve in the canteen after I had received interest from Stoke City (another Championship side) and the fee bandied about would have kept the club going for another month.'
The decision to retire has brought reflection for Chester.
He recounts his time as a schoolboy at Manchester United, after joining at the age of eight. He can remember car journeys with his parents, travelling to the training ground to learn whether he had been offered a scholarship at 16 and the anxiousness of not knowing.
He credits former coach Paul McGuinness as a key influence and how a passing comment by strength and conditioning coach Michael Clegg — 'Eat what you need, not what you want' — remained a virtue during his career.
And the more difficult days? 'Playing against (Chelsea star) Eden Hazard in his pomp. We (Hull) were in a back three and I was almost at right-back against Hazard. He tore me apart. I got dragged off after 60 minutes and was lucky to last that long (Chelsea won 2-0 that day, Hazard got the first goal).
'Then I played at Arsenal for West Brom. I was left-back and Alexis Sanchez was playing, when he could be bothered. And he was bothered that evening. I got the drag at half-time (with Arsenal winning 2-0 thanks to two goals by Sanchez)!'
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Latterly, there were stints at Stoke in the Championship, Derby in third-tier League One and Barrow of League Two, with the last of his appearances for Wales coming in November 2018.
'With the career some players have, you compare yourself to them and question whether there was more I could have done,' says Chester. 'But playing in the Premier League, reaching an FA Cup final, playing in the Euros… if you'd told me I'd go on to achieve that, I'd have snatched your hand off.'
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Boston Globe
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