Phil Jones has revealed the frank words of advice from El-Hadji Diouf gave him Blackburn Rovers Premier League debut against Chelsea.
Jones is one of the best Academy products produced from the Brockhall Senior Training Centre and went on to win trophies with Manchester United and earn 27 caps for England.
The boyhood Rovers fan, who still speaks so fondly of his Lancashire roots, recalls the honest advice a certain Diouf gave him before his first Premier League start against Chelsea.
"I was bottom of the pile at Blackburn, to be honest. Going through the youth teams, when my teammates were getting professional contracts, I was still on scholarships – no question there, I was bottom of the pile," Jones said, speaking to Ladbrokes at the launch of Ladisfaction.
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"Technically, I wasn’t bad, but I hadn’t developed, I hadn’t grown or matured into my body, and then in the first season with the Under-18s I did really well, and by the time we got to the second season, I was pretty much playing reserve football. So, while a lot of that youth team were ahead of me when we were growing up, there came a point where I kind of leapfrogged a lot of players into the reserves.
"After a spell with the reserve team, the first-team was in a real injury crisis; Ryan Nelsen and Zurab Zhizanishvili both got injured, then a couple of guys who would have been ahead of me in the Under-21s were both out with cruciate injuries, so I was literally next in line, and that’s how I ended up making my debut in the cup against Nottingham Forest.
"Then came my first start in the Premier League; I played well in the cup, there was no one else available, so I was in. It was me and big Chris Samba at the back, against Chelsea!
"You know, I can remember just going through their team before the game; you look at the line-up and I’m playing against people I grew up watching. All of a sudden I’m stood in the tunnel with JT [John Terry], Lamps [Frank Lampard], Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Michael Essien, Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Nicolas Anelka… like, what a team they had.
"I was absolutely s******* myself before the game! But when you’re walking out onto the pitch, you’re just thinking about the job you’ve got to do. And, when you’re younger, you don’t really realise the magnitude of the environment you’re going into.
"I’ll always remember the day before that game, El Hadji Diouf just said to me “listen, nobody knows or cares who you are… if you play well or not, nobody cares.” It stayed with me, because even though people might hear that and think it’s a bit harsh of him to say to a young lad, he was right. And it relaxed me."
Rovers earned a 1-1 draw in that match, with Jones earning plenty of plaudits. There was one specific moment that has stuck with the former defender even today.
"I remember we were 1-0 down after about 10 minutes, and then there was a moment where I feel like I announced myself to the Premier League. It gives me goosebumps now just thinking and talking about it.
"There was a 50-50 tackle in the middle of the pitch with Frank Lampard and, bang, I won it. The ball came loose, someone else came in and, bang, again, I won it, and got a free-kick out of it. The crowd just erupted and from then on we seemed to just control the game.
"We ended up getting an equaliser later on through Diouf and we drew the game 1-1, which was a massive result for Blackburn at the time.
"I came in after the game and Big Sam [Allardyce] brought my parents in and just said “listen, your life is never going to be the same from now on". From that moment, he was just brilliant with me, and always has been."
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