59: Matty Appleby, Barnsley, Merlin’s Premier League 98 Official Sticker Collection

Those of you who follow us on Twitter might have noticed that we like an opportunistic post or two (an hour) to try and get our work out there. Some, like celebrating the birthdays of our footballing heroes, are reasonable enough but we do have our tenuous moments. Apologies to the excellent 90s Football account which we have mercilessly spammed since our inception. Deep down we know that you highlighting a selection of excellent goalkeeper shirts is not an invitation to read a blog post on Carlo Nash or Steve Ogrizovic. This apology is by no means a suggestion that we will be stopping any time soon.

Ahead of the crunch relegation clash between Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday on the last day of the Championship season I thought that the footballing world might enjoy an opportunity to have a pre-match read up on former Rams’ midfielder and human trebuchet Rory Delap and/or legendary Owls’ keeper, and victim of a young Mat Jolin-Beech’s abuse, Kevin Pressman. In fairness fans of the two sides were probably far more preoccupied with forthcoming events on the pitch but thanks if you did have a read and congratulations/commiserations to those on either side of the thrilling 3-3 draw. What did come as a shock was that former Barnsley midfielder Matty Appleby thought this worthy of a like. Any man who uses his Premier League sticker as his profile picture clearly deserves further investigation but the fact he gave us a nice dopamine hit sealed the deal.

As with all the research for this blog the first port of call was Wikipedia. On first glance we see a solid professional career with long spells at the Tykes and Darlington sandwiched between formative years at Newcastle United and a non-league swansong with Whitby Town. Add in 21 goals in a shade under 400 appearances across sixteen years and it’s fair to say that Appleby clearly put in a shift. Then you see the phrase “eventually dropping out of football to become a deep-sea diver” and you know you must find out more.

Having called time on his football career at the age of 34 Appleby’s brother Richard suggested it was time for him to pursue “a good, sound trade”. The more prosaic amongst us would be expecting this to mean the former Barnsley man following in the steps of Neil Webb or David Hillier and picking up a postbag or fire hose but then again it’s highly unlikely that either of those former midfield generals had a brother who had already made a living scouring the ocean floor. In a 2008 interview Appleby revealed that he had tried his hand at scaffolding following his retirement but hadn’t exactly fallen in love with the job and was “basically going nowhere”. After some forceful yet encouraging words from his wife and brother, along with some PFA support and funding, he had qualified as a deep-sea diver and was looking forward to a future working on off-shore rigs.

Sadly further research yielded little but maybe Appleby came across more of his former pros in this line of work than he was expecting. Perhaps he was called upon by former Barnsley team-mate Arjan de Zeeuw to locate a body for the Dutchman’s new role as a forensic detective. Perhaps former Blackburn Rovers winger Stuart Ripley was a leading lawyer on the case. Then again he may have looked to immortalise his newfound love of all things maritime with a custom tattoo provided by former Liverpool centre-half Daniel Agger. No doubt such a significant career change would have been cause for celebration and Appleby might have called upon former Manchester United defender David May for some fancy imported wine to wash down the charcuterie board provided by Auto Windscreens Shield winning midfielder Kingsley Black.

So many players stay with us after retirement through punditry and management that it’s sometimes easy to overlook those who finished with the game to do something a little different. Matty Appleby racked up over 400 appearances in professional football putting in solid performances up and down the pyramid. Ahead of his fascinating career change he was aware that “the career expectancy of a diver is not that long” and suggested he may well come back to football in a coaching capacity but the fact he took the plunge (sorry) and did something different is pretty bloody impressive. However it ended up for him it must have been an adventure and, if nothing else, it clearly didn’t diminish his excellent taste in nostalgic football based blogs.