IT is not unusual to see professional footballers at non-League football grounds.

Rovers star David Dunn can sometimes be spotted in the crowd at Accrington Stanley or Great Harwood - his hometown team.

But when a former Manchester City, Leeds and Sheffield United player from Eccles turns up at Rossendale United, you have to wonder what the link is.

That player is David White and the link is Dale owner Andrew Connelly.

Connelly, a former rugby league professional, and White, a former lightning-fast winger, are both millionaire businessmen at Connelly Demolitions and White Reclamation respectively.

White would buy the scrap metal from Connelly's demolitions and a friendship was born.

And when Connelly bought Rossendale after a brief spell at Bacup, he asked White to become involved at both coaching and board level.

Now the 34-year-old, who was forced to retire from football with an ankle injury several years ago, is president of the club and at manager Jim McCluskie's disposal as a coach.

He even reckons he might have a go at managing a club himself in a few years time.

"I actually haven't done that much coaching recently because I have been so busy with the business," he said.

"Obviously I am good friends with Andrew (Connelly) through work. I have known him and his wife Sandra for about nine or ten years, since I was at Leeds.

"We started going down to Rossendale socially, taking the family and then I started doing one or two coaching sessions and got myself involved in pre-season.

"That was before Jim took over but after he did he rang me up and asked me to come down and do a few training sessions and I was more than happy to.

"I'd sometimes take a full session if he thought the players needed a break from him!

"And then I was away with Andrew and Sandra in the summer and they asked me if I wanted to become a director and I said yes."

White has two children, Sam and Georgia who are 10 and eight, and most weekends are now taken up by them rather than football.

"Saturday now is a chance to get time with the kids because I am working from seven in the morning till six at night every day and it is nice to have your weekends.

"But Jim obviously thinks I can lend a hand and do a decent job. He just rings me up from time to time asking if I can go down and I'm free to say yes or no."

McCluskie spent most of his playing days in the Conference while White, who won one England cap, came through the ranks at Maine Road, winning the FA Youth Cup in 1986 and playing most of his career in the old first division and then the Premiership.

He says that makes him no more qualified to manage, but it is something he would fancy giving a try.

"I believe I have a lot of advice to give to the players in the way they approach games.

"I haven't even got a coaching badge but I'd be surprised if I go through my life having never been a manager, probably at non-League level at least at first. I'd like to do it but maybe in 10 years time when the kids are older and looking after themselves.

"I enjoy it but I am not prepared to do it while my priority is the business."

White has more interest certainly in the coaching side than the financial side - he hasn't got any money invested in the club.

"I don't think you can make money out of a football team. Andrew has never asked me to put money in and I don't know what I'd say if he did.

"But it is wrong to go chasing promotion with money. Paying players stupid money is the way to ruin a club. We'd all like to pay a player £500 or £1,000 a week but if that player gets injured you are without him but you still have to pay him. That is the wrong way to do it.

"But things are looking good for the future."

Promoted from the North West Counties League last season, Rossendale threatened to make the play-offs in their first season back in the UniBond first division, but poor form since Christmas has seen them slip down the table.

White blames the slide partially on the loss of the former Rovers and Bolton midfielder Mark Patterson, who moved to Scarbrough as assistant manager earlier this season.

"We had a very experienced midfield player and it was a blow to lose him because he wasn't costing a fortune.

"These players don't come along very often and when he started playing well other clubs wanted him."

So although White is not someone you would immediately, say, looked at home at Dark Lane, it seems his passion for the club runs much deeper than of someone just in it because his friend asked him.

"Rossendale are a club very close to my heart, they're a lovely club in a lovely part of the world. And I much prefer going out socially there," said White.

"All the people down there show so much commitment, it is incredible."

And until he is ready to take the reins at a club himself, he is happy with that!

I haven't even got a coaching badge but I'd be surprised if I go through my life having never been a manager, probably at non-League level at least at first