155: Jonathan Greening, Fulham, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10

This week Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at a former Premier League star who you may be staggered to find out what he looks like now. At least according to a major national newspaper anyway. In reality today’s subject is currently back in his hometown managing Scarborough Athletic in the National League North and doing a pretty good job of it. That might not get you clicking quite so much though. Over to Mat.

The Daily Mail. Depending on your viewpoint, a staple of reliability in the English media, or a right-wing rag. What it also is, is the home of the sidebar of shame. Moving away from its middle aged, middle class, right leaning home of the physical paper’s heartland the sidebar of shame attracts a younger audience with classic clickbait headlines. Headlines as I write this include:

• “Tom Hiddleston and his fiancée Zawe Ashton look every inch the doting parents as they enjoy day out in Paris with their baby”

• “Heidi Klum’s ‘nepo baby’ Leni, 18, shows off her casual style in latest campaign for FILA”

• “Kate’s crusade! Princess urges business leaders to put families first as she dons £1,945 Alexander McQueen blazer for Early Years roundtable in City of London”

One that jumped out at me, via Facebook I might add as I do not peruse the pages of that particular paper, was: “Former Manchester United player looks unrecognisable as he has a beer with friends and family over Christmas... but can you guess who the former Premier League star is?” Why that stuck with me I don’t know but it did. But it had all the classic SEO clickbait triggers you’d want. Manchester United – check. Looks unrecognisable – check. Christmas and beer – check (for that time of the year anyway!) Premier League – check. Well done to that headline writer.

The “mystery man” was shown with a salt and pepper beard, a Christmas jumper and a raised glass of beer, alongside his friend. Apparently United ‘supporters’ were left “struggling to recognise the former England under-21 international”. The result to this trashy tabloid mystery was one Jonathan Greening. Now, this could go one of two ways and I’ll probably dabble a bit of both. One, a critique of the sidebar of shame-style clickbait articles. Two, players who arguably didn’t hit the heights of their early career promise. So, first things first.

The sickening, formulaic, SEO bingo headline and article. Who cares?! For one thing, while a solid professional with a career most of us could only dream for, who genuinely asks themselves on a daily basis: “I wonder what Jonathan Greening is up to these days?” Secondly, who looks like they did back in 1999? Even those who have looked after themselves will look different. Age, time and changing fashion and styles will do that to you! Gone was Greening’s long hair of peak early noughties, replaced with a more contemporary, and dare I say it, hipster haircut and beard. But I guess the Daily Mail is having the last laugh as here I am, commuting on the train back home from work, bashing my keyboard on the back of their sidebar of shame article.

Now for the second part. Greening was a solid young prospect. Not of the level of the famed Class of ’92, but good enough to get first team appearances. Could he have gone on to more? Maybe. But he had to deal with Giggs and Beckham. Hard acts to oust from the starting XI. So, after an arguably stunted development at Old Trafford through a lack of playing time and committing the crime of not being a world class replacement to two of the best midfielders to grace the Old Trafford turf, he moved on to have a solid career – and one that is actually better than I remember it being.

He moved north from Manchester to Middlesbrough for £3m following Steve McLaren to the Riverside. He won the 2002/03 Player of the Year award and got an England squad call up but failed to make his international debut. Greening then went to West Bromwich Albion, and helped the club pull off the ‘Great Escape’ in 2004, and then promotion back to the Premier League in 2008. After another relegation, he moved to Fulham and played in the 2010 Europa League final against Atletico Madrid. How the fortunes of those clubs have differed in subsequent seasons! Stints with Nottingham Forest, first club York City and Tadcaster Albion followed before he retired in 2017. He is now the manager of Scarborough Athletic and has guided them to promotion from the Northern Premier League in 2022, and got the club to third in the National League North at the turn of the year, winning the league’s December manager of the month award.

Back to where I started and living up to his potential. I think he did alright for himself as a player. A solid career and multiple European finals. Was he world class? No, but few are and his managerial career seems to be starting off reasonably well so he may get opportunities further up the league pyramid soon. If not, he won’t have to worry about being recognised anyway!