The former Yorkshire footballers buddying together to help each other after retirement

It is Wednesday morning at Wickersley Working Men's Club and former Rotherham United defender Mike Leng is setting up.

“I've had 10 people reply but we might get a few more,” he says ahead of this month's Buddies Club.

As the first few former footballers arrive, and Leng starts working the tea and coffee machine, it looks like he will be right.

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But a flood about 10 minutes in takes the numbers up to 20, including former England, Sheffield United and Leeds United playmaker Tony Currie in a bright yellow Christmas jumper besting Leng's red-and-white Rotherham effort.

BUDDIES: The former footballers meet once a monthBUDDIES: The former footballers meet once a month
BUDDIES: The former footballers meet once a month

John Pearson played for Leeds, Rotherham, Barnsley and Hull City but a Sheffield Wednesday hoodie shows his colours.

Soon they are in a back room, some braving the hecklers on one of the two snooker tables, the rest sat around the sides as Leng mingles with sausage rolls and mince pies. You can bet the chatter is largely meaningless, and for the retired footballers, hugely important.

The Buddies Club started 18 months ago as an off-shoot of the Millers Memory Club Rotherham legend Jon Breckin set up in January 2022. Last month he received the PFA's first Jeff Astle Award for its work helping those with dementia and their families. It has inspired clubs across the region.

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Many here are regulars from that – The Yorkshire Post manages to pick one of the few times Breckin is unable to attend – but this club has a different but important role in looking after former players.

AWARD WINNER: John Breckin received the Jeff Astle Award for services to brain health from Jeff's widow Laraine Astle and Jeff's daughter and founder of the Jeff Astle Foundation Dawn AstleAWARD WINNER: John Breckin received the Jeff Astle Award for services to brain health from Jeff's widow Laraine Astle and Jeff's daughter and founder of the Jeff Astle Foundation Dawn Astle
AWARD WINNER: John Breckin received the Jeff Astle Award for services to brain health from Jeff's widow Laraine Astle and Jeff's daughter and founder of the Jeff Astle Foundation Dawn Astle

“The community are part of our dementia group at New York Stadium,” explains Leng, Breckin's former team-mate who helps run both groups. “But I got in touch with Breck and said, 'Let's do something just for ex-players.'

“For those players who've got dementia, it's a bit of 'me time' for their wives. Trev Womble's got dementia, he's playing snooker and his wife has gone to do a bit of shopping. Later some of the wives will meet up before they collect their husbands.

“To see everyone chatting, it's almost like a dressing room, taking the mickey out of the snooker players who aren't very good.

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“It's a bit of a Godsend, an escape for us. It's only a couple of hours but they get ready for it, look forward to it and when they get home they'll talk about it.

BRAMALL LANE LEGEND: Tony Currie under the stand renamed in his honour at the home of Sheffield UnitedBRAMALL LANE LEGEND: Tony Currie under the stand renamed in his honour at the home of Sheffield United
BRAMALL LANE LEGEND: Tony Currie under the stand renamed in his honour at the home of Sheffield United

“When we started Breck was saying he wasn't bothered if we only got four or five but they're travelling from Sheffield and Chesterfield.”

Bramall Lane legend Currie appreciates the importance of these get-togethers, which is why he makes the effort to get to so many.

“It's nice to have a players-only get-together,” he says. “It's just like when we were all players going out in the evening and having a bit of a drink.

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“Len Badger said to me you'll never replace the buzz of playing football and a lot of players have depression after retiring because there's not much to replace it. Even going into coaching and managing is not the same buzz. When you don't have it any more it's very difficult to take. But here you've still got all the banter because everybody's brain is still 21-years-old.

“We've got dementia clubs at Wednesday, Sheffield United (which Currie runs), Rotherham, Notts County and Chesterfield and some of us get around all of them so we see each other quite lot now, which is good. It keeps the mind active.”

At 54, ex-Leeds and Owls defender Jon Newsome is one of the whippersnappers, but totally at home.

“You probably meet people you've never crossed paths with but you've got something in common,” he says. “Everybody's appreciative of what everyone went through, especially with neurodegenerative disease in football and memory clubs popping up here and there.

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“The first memory club I went to was TC's at Sheffield United and people were looking at me saying, 'What are you doing here?' I was not a well-liked footballer there through my career but they welcome you with open arms. TC goes to John Peason's at Sheffield Wednesday.”

As Paul Stancliffe, who also played centre-half – for Rotherham, Sheffield United and York City amongst others – puts it: “We had great battles but never really held grudges.”

He wonders if the current generation will have this camaraderie.

“When we all played for Rotherham, Sheffield United or Wednesday, we all lived on site, we weren't travelling for an hour or two,” he points out. “We'd go for a beer after training.

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“Can you see them doing this in 30 years' time? I can't see them meeting in a working man's club in Rotherham.”

Newsome is more confident. “The players coming to the end of their careers are fully appreciative of what you did because we all did what we dreamed of as a kid whether you played one game or 100,” he says.

Whatever their clubs, whatever their age, everyone here has that – and a desire to keep an eye out for one another.

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