Lone Ranger

There was an interesting article in FourFourTwo recently about the career of Nile Ranger; who was once a precocious; talented teenager who played for Newcastle United and even got Laurent Koscielny sent off in a game against Arsenal.

It is the latest in a sad case of talented footballers who didn't quite make the grade for some reason or another; and he now finds himself playing for Spalding United; a team I have never heard of that resides in the eighth tier of English football.

It could have been so much greater things for Ranger; but unfortunately his lack of discipline and bad reputation put paid to his chances time after time. He actually went to jail for a fraud-related offence and was involved in armed robbery when young as well. In fact; going through his career; it seems the worst problem he had was timekeeping; which led to him being late (or even missing) repeated training sessions at his clubs; that in the end led to his downfall.

Now at 29 years old; he is very much approaching 'last-end saloon' chances for professional football. He was once capped by England U-19 at international level; and having scored goals throughout his career; you know he actually has a big talent and could have been so much more.