Richard Chaplow on his California dream, preparing for retirement and supporting Burnley

The day is a familiar one for Chaplow, grateful for the early training sessions to avoid the year-round heat that can come as quite a shock to someone born and raised in Accrington.

But the routine will be changing soon enough. The 33-year-old is hanging up his boots at the end of the season. The sun is setting on Chaplow’s career, he just doesn’t know exactly when yet.

Orange County finished the regular season in the United Soccer League with a 3-1 defeat at Reno but still topped the Western Conference.

Next week they face a play-off against the side who finished eighth in the Western Conference - San Antonio FC. Lose and it will be Chaplow’s last game as a professional. Win and the journey continues for another week at least. It could all be over in 90 minutes. It could end with the grand final in mid-November.

If the date and the destiny of the ending is uncertain, the scenario certainly isn’t. This is a moment Chaplow has been planning for since he was in his mid-20s. Losing the drug of the dressing room and the high of competition can hit many former footballers hard, Chaplow saw it himself in his playing days.

“I’ve been planning for my retirement since I was 26,” the former Burnley midfielder said.

“I’ve been very aware of the pitfalls of retirement and what can come after it, I had my eyes wide open watching teammates going out at 34, 35 and 36 and not having anything in place when they retired.

“It hit home for me, I thought then was a good time to start looking to what you want to do in the future.”

Chaplow began to do a degree in sports science through Manchester Metropolitan University. He liked the idea of coaching but said: “Everyone wants to coach and there simply isn’t enough roles (in the UK), there’s too many people on the pile of former professional footballers with good careers who can’t get back into the game.

“I went down the degree route to give me a different angle.”

The move to California opened up new possibilities though.

It came at a difficult time for Chaplow and his wife Emily. In May 2013 they were preparing for the birth of their third child, but they lost baby Teddy before he arrived. Spells at Millwall, Ipswich and Doncaster followed without the family ever really feeling at home.

“It was part of the reason we moved over here after losing Teddy, we bounced around a bit in England trying to find our feet but ultimately something like that rocks you,” said Chaplow. “We saw California as a great opportunity but also something of a clean slate if you will. It’s very much been that.”

Now Chaplow has his mind set on coaching and he’s already earning his spurs with a role at a private club.

“I have a love for and a passion for coaching. Now it’s getting to the point where I feel I’d be more benefit to coaching people rather than being on the pitch and playing with them,” he added.

“I have no idea yet where I’m going to end and at what club. I will be staying in Orange County, we’ve managed to secure a green card as a family so we’re good for 10 years to be permanent residents and then citizens after that if things work out.”

First the former Southampton midfielder has to finish his playing career.

Mum Teresa and dad Chris, who still live in the house Chaplow was born and raised in near Baxenden, will be flying out to California for the first play-off game. Chris spent hours on the motorways of England as he watched his son’s career, spending nights in motels and motorway service station hotels to follow Richard. He doesn’t want to miss the end.

“I have at least a week left training or a maximum of five weeks. We’ve been talking about that in training and it’s a strange one to get your head around,” said Chaplow, who recently played his 400th professional game.

“I don’t know when my last game is going to be until I walk off the pitch. My mum and dad are flying out for the first play-off game just in case it’s that one.

“My mum and dad have been avid fans and followers and supporters.”

Chaplow’s move to California has allowed Chris to ‘renew his first love’ - in Richard’s words - of following the Clarets.

“That was how I got into it, he took me down to games as a kid, I went to Wembley as a three-year-old (in 1988) waving the big foam fingers,” the midfielder said.

“Once I broke in and came through it was a dream come true for me but just as much for my dad as well. Once I then started going on my travels to different clubs my dad’s affiliation was to me. If there were games he couldn’t get to he would go and watch the Clarets again.

“That’s been his pastime at the weekends recently, he’s enjoying what he’s seeing down there at the moment and he was thrilled to see them back in Europe.”

Chaplow has the supporters’ enthusiasm back as well, having drifted away from being a fan at one point in his career.

“I probably lost it a little bit halfway through my career because you’re so engrossed in what is in front of you at the time in respect of your team,” he added.

“Then I kind of got the love back for football in respect of being a fan when I got a bit more mature and older, when I looked at the bigger picture at what I wanted to do after football I started to look at things in a different light.

“Around the time we lost Teddy as well, I had a bit of a different outlook at life, instead of looking at what was in front of me I was looking around a bit more.

“Burnley are always going to be in my heart, it was my team that got me into the game, I had a season ticket for three or four years until I left school at 15 or 16.

“I’m very much still a Claret, I watch the games whenever I can and look for results.”

So when he was growing up watching the Clarets, did Chaplow ever dream he’d achieve all he has?

“Absolutely not. As a kid growing up on the outskirts of Accrington and Baxenden, I was always on the street with a football,” he said.

“I knew I had a talent from a young age, I was recruited by Burnley when I was seven and always played a couple of years up in the school of excellence.

“You dream and you hope you have enough, but things for me plateaued out a bit at 15 or 16 leaving school and I was told to seek further education.

“But I had a guaranteed contract in place with Burnley because of the other clubs that were sniffing around me at 13 and 14 when I was producing on the pitch.

“I spoke with my mum and dad and with Terry Pashley and I didn’t want to live the rest of my life with a ‘what if’ over my head.

“I very much had a mentality of no regrets at that stage and luckily I stuck to my guns and 18 months later I was making my debut for Burnley and playing with guys who I’d watched in the stands since I was a young kid.”

When Chaplow’s first career does come to an end he will leave the stage again with no regrets, just like his younger self, and with a clear idea of what he wants from act two.