Prime big deal days is coming October 8th and 9th, which can
lead to involuntary deal squeals like the infamous deal on a new
massager squeal. Stay big on prime big deal days,
October 8th and 9th. Separate Welcome to this episode
of the Tea with Me podcast. With me, she and Todd, it's a
guest episode today. My guest is Jerry Flynn.
Jerry, you may know from being an Irish League footballer,
manager, football personality or like me, you might have been
aware of them before that, but then really none of them through
lockdown. Whenever he was posting up a
daily video about just Irish League stories that he had from
his career, I was watching them every day like a lot of people
and just enjoying the insane characters and the stories that
he was telling. So Jerry, who's mainly based in
Spain, is over in Belfast for Christmas, came in the studio to
the podcast and just delighted to have him to do it.
Also, we talked about the fact that I made a bet on the
podcast. It wasn't on the podcast, but it
was around the time when the podcast started with Big Mike
and Dan that if we ever hit the Top 40 of the Apple Podcast
charts, I would take them to Spain to do an episode with
Jerry because we were like talking about the episodes of
Jerry's Irish League stories at the time.
And I said, listen, we'll go and do one with him where he lives
if we get into that chart. Now I'm thinking that's never
going to happen as much as I, I'm confident in this podcast,
been a good podcast. The Apple chart.
No way, no way. That's like, you know, some sort
of new local band from Northern Ireland being like if we ever
get on the hot Billboard 100 and we have done the equivalent of
that. So we got to go, we got to go do
that. So the next time we do a podcast
with Jerry after this, it'll be on a pier in sunny Murthea.
And I've always said Murthea, but Jerry kept me right that
it's actually Murthea. So so it was a really enjoyable
episode. Jerry has some brilliant
stories. We do talk a good bit about
football, but I think you'll enjoy it even if you're not a
not a football fan. Before we get into this episode,
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Check it outlet's get stuck into this episode with Jerry Flynn
zippers. It's our first episode of 2021.
Let's enjoy it. Jerry, without knowing it, you
cost me a lot of money. We're talking hundreds of pounds
because when you're which obviously I want to talk to you
about when the, you know, Irish League stories were happening at
the start of lockdown and that was near what we stopped when we
started the podcast. And I said to Mike and, and Dan
who produced the podcast, I said, I've said that Jerry, you
know, we should do an episode sometime and you know, we'll
even maybe even come out and do it.
And I said to them, if we, if we can get into the Apple iTunes
chart in the next year, I'll take yous over and we'll, we'll,
we'll do an episode with Jerry and record out there.
Now I'm thinking that's my money safe.
And then about two weeks later we did an episode with Jamie
Dornan and they were straight on to me being like, we've got to
go. So at some point I'd take two
people over to camera gear over to over to Spain to do an
episode. I'll.
Look after you then I'll I'll put the free beer on in the
camp. So.
But no, it would be great to have you out.
You'll enjoy Martha. Jerry, do you do you drink Tea
to me podcast? You're a tea drinker.
That's the first question I ask everyone.
Coffee. Always coffee or is there an
occasion? I just had a tea down below
there with my my stack in the Bay Tree Cafe.
But when I'm eating food I'll drink tea.
But I would have at least 13 cups of coffee a day at least.
Genuinely. Well, first of all, I mean,
that's controversial. Loves 13 coffees a day.
But also to have tea with food. Now I love the tea.
I'm obsessed with tea but do you mean what after food or?
Whatever. I'm having a breakfast.
If I'm eating, I have to have tea.
I couldn't. I don't know what that's just a
taste that's different. So I have like a baking soda or
whatever food I'm having. I have to have a tea.
I couldn't have a coffee. Would you, would you ever take
like a soda to Spain? Like, would you ever like, you
know, bring some ingredients out there with you?
Nutty crust bread anyone? Comes out, feed a bread, potato
and soda bread. Just a side business importing
all these foods over. We actually get turtle Chris.
We sell them in the bar. There's a there's someone
actually exports them. But no, that's that's the thing
I miss most is nutty crust bread.
I'm going to ask you which being stuff as well, but do you have
you must have people every week saying Jerry, we're coming over
and is it just is that what it constantly is just that a
conveyor belt that people from Belfast coming over.
In the summer months, yeah. And I enjoy it.
But people think because I'm living in Spain and it's 2526°
most days that it's a holiday. But believe, believe me, it's
not. You know, I had my mum staying
with me last night and she's, I don't know if it's just my mum,
but I think all mums turns every switch in the house off.
She's turning my freezer off and all my food to Marks and
Spencer's is all. I had a thought all that this
morning. But well when she comes out she
breaks TV's. I usually get her out for about
2-3 months every summer, right, Right.
So after I usually need a holiday.
It's it's hard. Work do you get people like
almost seeing news like, you know, people from Belfast go
over there if they get into a little bit of bother or they've
got any problems or people give me news shout being like Jerry,
I've been arrested by the the police in March.
Can you help me out? Yeah, that hasn't.
I've had a few, few scary moments, but nothing not as as
bad as that. I tried to certain friends and
people I played football with, when they I know they're coming
out, I try to actually go somewhere else in Spain, stay
away from them. But I've been lucky enough I
haven't had as as scary moments as that.
Like, yeah. We'll start by chatting about
the, the sort of lockdown Irish League football stories, which
is something that just really, really took off.
Like I, I've always like known your name just for from having
an interest in Irish League football and Football Manager
and stuff like that. And then at the start of
lockdown, you started every day probably, just maybe to break up
a bit of boredom for yourself as well.
You were putting out 2 minute 22nd stories of of your time
playing the Irish League, managing all that kind of thing.
And, and really it just, it flew.
What was the first moment where you realised Like this has taken
off for you? It actually it was after about
the third or fourth one and people started to retweet and
stuff and like when we we were on a proper lockdown.
So myself and Debbie, we weren't, we were allowed to go
to have to get groceries or to the chemist.
But if you were fined on the way back without having bread or
water, it was €100 fine and it was a proper lockdown.
So I was thinking how did we get, you know, we were doing
what everyone was doing, the toilet roll keep ups and
exercises in the garden and stuff.
But then it got the stage. I was thinking what I'm going to
do. So it was, I was actually going
to re enact like a little video of a Jared that was taking me
down at solitude for a penalty. And then I just sat and the
first one was about Marty Quinn knocking the Stuttgart fan out.
And then I put it out. The response was brilliant.
And I was going to get everyone else.
And then it just it snowballed like people were phoning me or
taxing me and saying, oh, go easy on me.
And they were reminding me, oh, I have a story about him.
And probably the only one that I
wasn't directly involved in or wasn't there was the Kirk Hunter
story. And funny enough, it was the
only one that I'd done in one take, so it would take me 4
hours a day sometimes. That's one thing I was going to
say, put my videos on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and stuff,
fine. But to make it under 2 minutes,
20 for Twitter is a nightmare. And the idea of doing something
in one take because that's what you're doing is you telling a
story to the camera. And it wasn't like somewhere 30
seconds. There were nearly always 215 or
220 on the dog. So how many go?
Like you're talking a dozen goes.
And more. It was like usually it was
between 30 and 40 to get it because I tried to do it where I
never swore in them. And I had to be careful because
a lot of the players are all married men now and different
things. So their stories always had the
and then I want to tripped up or I have a bunch of these like wee
tiny parrot things. I don't know what you call them,
but they're in the trees outside, right?
And at certain hours during the day, they just go mental.
So I'd be in the middle of a you know, and I thought I had
cracked up and get in the two minutes and I've got it all
right, man. And then I had with the airports
not far from as the military airports.
So we'll have a big jet flag cross and I start again.
But. We're we're boys like buttering
you up and like trying to be your best mate, like around you.
And you know, Jerry, we've always been good friends just so
they wouldn't be in a in a story.
It was. It was fun like Mark packing the
one I told that was one of my favourite ones, but he was the
night before Jerry, what do you want to say?
Go easy on me now. And you know, the amount of
messages coming out was what I've done was I think was the
day before I'd put out tomorrow's one is Mickey Collins
and you had Mickey wasn't on social media, thank God.
But most, most people wrong. Go easy on me and what are you
going to say? And you know, but that was great
crack and I took up took 3 or 4 hours a day.
Did you have anybody take thick and give you a give you a bit of
like, was there anyone you heard maybe even through the Grapevine
like he wasn't happy? Well.
No, no, I think everybody took it in good GS.
As I say, the Kirk Hunter was the was the only one that was
involved in. He he was, for anyone who
doesn't know, he would be seen as like one of the hardest
players. They were Players League
football and a bit of with a disrespect, a bit of an animal
like in terms of. Yeah, and he's actually Carl
Framble's hero, you know, growing up and stuff.
So someone had said the car, you know, is that is this true?
But he had actually spoke to Kirk and he says, no, it's not
true. I'm not going to argue with
either Carl or but no, but people aren't people don't do
big Kirk justice. He can actually play as well,
you know, and I, you know, I, I didn't have much dealings or
socialise with him and stuff like that.
But anyone who, who did, Chris Morgan, Ian Young and stuff,
also a great lad. So as I say, that story was the
only one that no one I wasn't directly involved in, but two
people who were there told me about it.
And you know where he ran after the strip of grammar through his
cassette recorder after him and stuff.
But no, it was all, it was all in good banter.
I haven't seen him since so hopefully he's alright about it.
We like whenever they were because, because it was
genuinely like one of the thing because lockdown throws off your
whole routine and your work and all that kind of thing.
But that was one thing that I was following like every day.
It was taking a couple and we were having a behaviour around
that time. And to be honest, the priority
was kind of hearing your your Irish League stories, you know,
and I missed the birth, but that nothing.
But then I mean, it was just were you getting like, I mean,
part of me was thinking why? Why would BBC Northern Ireland
not be in touch and say, look, let's put these together and do
something or send the counter man out.
I don't know. But like there was so much like
potential where that means people were just so into it.
And I'll be I didn't know half the players.
I knew maybe half of the players you were talking about.
I didn't know the teams. But just, I don't know whether
it's a football thing or not. Just always having played
football and having that kind of knowing like what goes on and
like you should write a book. That's what I was thinking.
Like just the stories and. Like Stephen Looney used to be
on the Sunday. Yeah, Steve was a great lad.
Steve was on to being allowed. People say we're going to bring
a DVD out and stuff like that. And then people were
disappointed. What happened was my actual
phone and computer was stole out of my garden right about the I
think it was about 20 or 9 or 30 had done and we Simba who always
say on. Twitter.
So do you think that could have been one of the next players you
were talking about? Like could.
Have been playing for could have been but no that actually sort
of not that it was running out. I was actually running out of
clean stories that I could tell, you know, see the leaf anyone?
Like I think it was. An away trip was it?
But I couldn't. I had about 40 stories on Lee
and I couldn't. And everyone says when there's
Lee Feeny story, when's it coming?
And I couldn't actually. I couldn't get a clean one to
put in without getting them in trouble.
Did you talk about the the TV story?
You TV story, man? This is a rumour.
I'd heard about it. So Lee Feeny was someone who
went over to Rangers from here when he was pretty young, was
seen as like the golden chest, one of the most talented players
ever come out in Northern Ireland.
I had always heard a rumour, I didn't know if it was an urban
myth or not, that he, when he went to Scotland, took his took
his TV with him, as in like the the, the TV because he wanted,
because he wanted to keep getting UTV.
It wasn't, do you know what? It wasn't part of past one part
of past. I mean, he's, I absolutely loved
the bits. He's one of the nicest, nicest
guys he'll ever meet. Very talented.
Yeah. And I, he's now manager of
Banker. But no, I remember one time at
the end of the season do we used to take all the players away.
We went to Liverpool and as I was, I had a load of properties
at the time I was doing a bit of property development and it was
literally my phone was going nonstop.
And he has this sweet Dolby Kilkelax and this gaffer.
Would you ever turn that phone off?
But he was the only player we let came into the chaining room
at the end of training. They used to come in with me and
then the one just sit down and like the time I find his brother
Colin, two weeks wages. He had been drinking the night
before the game and I came in and Colin was pure wait and Lee
came in after training because him and Lee and the dad used to
live all in the one house. And he comes in, he says gaffer,
you can't find Colin two weeks wages or you need to, you need
to do it weekly. And I says well he's only six
months left on his contract and he says like what are you
talking weekly? He says look fibre.
I said well he needs to sign in an extension in order for me to
take that fibre of his wages for the next two years.
But then I had somebody from Kelkie, let's say 1 of
Parameligy, but we belly for him and he said Jay, yeah, you
can't, you can't be fine. And him out there, you know, he
won the ad for two weeks now. But two great, absolutely 2
schmicing lads. But what a what a player.
We used to go to Spain at the end of the year as well with the
staff and leave. It came along and I'd had maybe
four or five beers and I used to, I used to have a go at him
saying that you're talent, why you're not still there.
You should be playing the Premiership.
You cut him on and he was, he just has a doesn't have a car in
the world. When I was playing for Hollywood
he played in the game down the Sea Park here against us.
I think it was a cup game and they I think they won seven or
seven one and he sat our keeper down twice and scoring the one
goal went round him, almost brought it back, did it again
and think that over the top and you're thinking why are you
playing in front of not two men and a dog, you know 1 merman.
I can't. No, he just.
But again, nothing, even to this day, nothing fazes him.
He just doesn't worry about anything.
I know what he's you know, he said he wasn't good enough.
But like the first day he arrives, he goes into the room
and Andrei Koncheskas was in it and they were flying out to
America and he just Andrew he was watching some programme in
Russian and Fino like puts in foes showcase on They're flying
out to Florida the next day and he says after about 1/2 an hour
watching Russian TV, you know here Andre turn that over.
What you put the UTV or something on as you say,
absolutely rapid. But some of the stories about
him, funny as anything. Take me, take me back and talk a
little bit about your journey so you, you know, the way I see it,
like player manager and then got into business and that kind of
thing. But are you from where
whereabouts in Belfast was? Originally from the new Lodge
and my mum actually got me out, got me out, but not that they
leave just you know, you just don't know what would have
happened or what sort of path I would have taken.
And her, my dad, we moved to Glengarvie and I'm feeling when
I was 9 and then lived there. My mum, my mum is still there.
My dad passed away a few years ago, but she's still there to
this day. And so I recently found new guys
but grew up in Glen Glen. And everyone knew, like a lot of
the people you talk about for the stories you would you have
played football with at like underage level and all that kind
of thing. And.
Well, Tim, McCann, Wayne and Tim probably played in Crystal
Brothers High Town. We weren't allowed to play
football. It was hurling and Gaelic up
until the year after we left. I would have had a really good
side then when you look back at the players, but you know, me
and me and Tim would have grew up 10.
We ended up marrying my cousin, so we played at Clinical
together, you know, so me and Tim would have would have been
really good friends growing up and.
Like looking at the Irish League now, it's it, it feels almost
like nearly professional in a way.
Like some of the facilities, the the, the fitness of players all
that. Kind of like I hadn't fallen in
the Irish League for about 10-15 years.
It seems like it's it it so many clubs going towards full time
and that kind of thing. When you started playing Irish
League football, was it complete night and day?
Like was it a totally different game then?
Like, especially at Cliftonville, like we won the
league in 1998 with Marty Quinn and the wee grounds man Paddy
Madden. It was his anniversary.
I think he died maybe 2-3 years ago.
And this is not a word of a lie. Like you'd have had solitude
when it had the grass pitch. You'd have had like lines up
with a where he ran out of petrol with a lawnmower and it
was like half it really was. And then there was one.
This is this is true, true Bill. You know, the way you line the
pitch with the thing, he was doing it with a door, you know,
and he was going like 6 foot and then moving the door up to make
sure the line because the line used to be just wig like, Oh,
bendy the whole way up. And we were like Paddy, you
know, at one stage you'd be a foot out of the pitch and you're
calling for but. We literally had enough and then
we were laughing. It was Tommy Mcdonnell's story
about sharing a bath. Like if anyone said sharing a
bath now 12 clocks, you know, and used to straight in and you
never even listened to what Connor said.
You just want to dig in. The bath especially was the
winter. But that time Tommy ended up
putting the wee cocktail sausage in between his two cheeks at
Windsor and comes up and he's walking like a wee duck.
And then he just drops it into the bath and ten of us all out.
So he got one of the hot spots, but he couldn't think about that
now. Absolutely crazy, but no, it's
night and day and just the new business that would have set up.
I'm going around a lot of the clubs and I that I used to like
it's been maybe 10-12 years since I've been to certain clubs
and Larne like it must be 20 years since I've been there and.
The setup of Larne, for anyone who doesn't know, it's like
something out of a like a comedy series somebody would write
where a guy originally from Larne who's worth 100 million or
certainly a multi multi millionaire has just come back
and just decided to make Lauren a huge force in like in local
football. And it's like, you know, sorted
the stadium out their full time players coming over from across
the water and just empty. And then then that's happened to
the Glens as well. So it's almost like overnight
there's you're talking about millions in the Irish League as
opposed to. Yeah, definitely bought that.
And you know what? Kenny is one of the nicest guys
you'll ever meet. I don't.
I didn't know him personally. And it was one of the stories
that I'd done and I included his name in it.
And I says, you know, Martin Donnelly who's from the New
Lodge, I know all the family and stuff.
And you know, one of the stories was I say it's Google the owners
of Purple Bricks. It's not owned by Kenny Bruce
anymore. It's the Donnelly's on it.
You know, they were the new Dodge Mafia.
And so he actually he loved it. And since then, you know, we
became friends and you know, I asked him advice on a couple of
things business wise and without even normally, you know, yeah,
no problem at all. So I've actually done some
sponsorship with with Lauren. We had sponsored the Green
Spanish Home, sponsored one of the lounges.
But it's great for the league. About 18 months ago I just
noticed on social media because they were, they went full time
and staff were full time and the social media presence just
became fantastic and every club started copying them nearly and
that's just brought the whole profile of the league up.
Now he comes off a couple of. Tweets.
And you wouldn't like that guy cutting the pitch with the door
because he had a problem with pitches.
Unbelievable. But then afterward I throw the
odd tweet out and saying all that pitch looks fantastic.
The grounds man must be great. And you you do catch a couple of
guys saying that's a plastic pitch, but you always get them.
No, but he's he's a really good guy.
As you say, he's a multimillionaire.
But what he's trying to do is invest money in the club and try
and make itself sustainable. And they've pulled a really a
couple of really good sponsors on and I think it can only be
beneficial for the league. The same with Glentorne.
Does it like? I think it does take like
without professionalism coming in and the money coming in, it
kind of takes out a lot of that, like a lot of the characters of
the game. But that's maybe the same for
football in general. You know, I don't think 20 years
from now any players playing now will be able to tell the stories
you were telling. It just doesn't seem like that
kind of thing. And players socialising the way
they did and the trips and you know that even the idea of
someone drinking before a game, like I would say that is far
less likely now to happen. Like when you, when you sign,
when you sign for for a Cliftonville, whatever, what
what, what wages were you on at the time when you first signed?
I started off at Bangor and I went from Bangor to Hull City
and I signed a professional contract.
Paul were in the old when it was First Division, Second Division
before Premiership game so they were in the Second Division.
My first offer they gave me as a professional contract was £85 a
week. They then put it up to 95 before
I signed but I had to pay my own digs so I used to come out with
about £32.00 a week. By the time at digs tax
insurance was on. My mum used to send me send me
£10 every Monday morning along with some Vita Taylor bread and
soda bread. But no, when I went, I'd come
back from Hull. So just a Championship player
now would be on easily 10 grand away, yeah.
Yeah, at least, Yeah, so. And I went.
When I went away from home, the only things I used to eat was
like chopped steak. I like corned beef.
And when I come back, I actually was eating everything.
Was that hungry? But my first contract with
Ballyclare when I come back was £25 a week with Jim Platt, Acts
Northern Ireland goalkeeper. Me and Gem had became really
good friends ever since then. He's always coming, like to
Spain. But Gem also gave me a job
selling ladies tights in the markets all around Northern
Ireland. And I used to get 15 LB a
morning and we're like Marks and Spencer's tights, but like
little flexing. Is it the gossiper up here?
And I knew the 1520 down here opaque tights and when I started
my own run. So I loved the, I loved the, the
winter months where I used to buy the 50P tights of Gemini and
I would have sold them for a pound where there were 399 and
Marks and Spencers and my aunt worked in the dentist.
I had all hairdressers. I went round, I was on about
four or £500 a week playing for Ballyclare.
But I was selling ladies tights and tights and then I was
absolutely meant it. And then the warm weather came
in and I hated it. But you were just talking about
drink. Like I, when you look at it, my
the rewards for getting into Europe are like 1,000,000 LB
Crusaders and stuff like that. But we played Kasichi.
I want to get a story in here because I I.
Please do. It's.
Where's Kasichi? It's, I don't know, Slovakia or
somewhere like that, but we won the league in 98.
So the story is Siddadine Siddhan, David Beckham, Ryan
Giggs, Jerry Flynn, Raul, what have they all got in common?
We've all scored in the Champions League.
I thought for a second I thought you were going to say, so I paid
somebody. No, I get that in and I had AI
had a yard on every year. So now he was actually a scored
from 43 yards and a Brooklyn keepers 2 wrists, but no, and
then the punchline is but we were beat 13.
What an aggregate. I don't like to tell too many
people that, but you're just saying like we were beat 51 at
home and we goes out and take a CG and the night before the game
corner. You know, he's a realist and he
says like, realistically lads, we're not going to win this.
It's not. What you want?
Yeah. He says, so don't we have it any
more than 4 pints tonight, right.
The boys were absolutely hammered before we go out the
next day and we get PDF nil, which would never happen in in
these days. But but even like leading up to
to one in the league with club Well, that year, every Tuesday
night and Thursday night, the boys would have went out and had
a few beers together. And you know, that was the the
togetherness because you know, the training facilities were
horrendous. You know, we didn't have much
money, but we just had it together.
That's in a small squad as well, so you know it it worked.
But like clubs now like you know, most of them would
probably meet for breakfast would do it like or or a lunch
before the game, which is obviously all healthy food.
We used just just grab something on the way and like.
Like I'm one of his manager at Newry.
I try to try to introduce all the healthy eating and through
the Academy and stuff. But yet I had we we pitchy from
the short strand. What do you mean?
Walking into the ground, eating a burger with bacon hanging a
brown sauce coming down his shirt and stuff.
And I go, what are you doing? You know you.
You. Can I ask why we piggy?
He was called We Piggy. Present he was just all present,
him and Joe McDonald. You know, I give Joe was over at
Millwall again, a couple of stories with Joe where you know,
I got threats from boys at Australia and stuff because I
dropped them and I put them on the list.
And then the next thing he went and sang for Ballymena behind my
back. And so I I I was fining him for
even looking at me. And you know, he he told me to
know ingrown Antonio one day and I made him do laps on his flip
flaps and gave him bless theirs. But you know, we fail out there.
But me and you are good friends now.
And when I'm back, I usually meet him for a beer and like
some of the stories he tells me now what they were up to.
Yeah, I thought they were, you know, because we we were doing
well in Yuri and but I was thinking how they even played
some of the games when I find we piggy put him on the list one
time and he says thanks Geffer. And then he said to Joe, what
does on the list mean? He says you're getting ready and
he went Joe, you get ready. To me, he doesn't even know what
was on the transfer list. Thought he was on the good
behaviour list. But it's some great lies.
And as I say, some of the stories, like I had Maggie
Collins as well. Maggie was.
He he came. So towards the end of when I was
playing for all. Well, yeah, but ten years ago I
was playing for Hollywood and for summary, two boys took over
that were managing some parts maybe, and they just one day
just brought Mickey Collins. You need to warn people if
you're going to bring Mickey Collins to train them.
Because we were like, you know, amateur league team and, you
know, mild mannered guys. And then all of a sudden this
ball fell, got out of a car and I was like, Oh no.
And he just started hurting people.
He. He played one friendly for.
Mickey was and I'm being, I'm being polite.
When I said he was mental, he really was like it was a story.
He was ported down at the time and I had played with Mickey at
Cliftonville and then he went off to port it down.
But we played them and there's a wee guy, Steven Ferguson, wee
tiny guy who played Santa midfield.
And I says to Fergie, look, see in the 1st 5 minutes, whisper
this into Mickey's ear, all right?
And he was what? I'm not saying that I says
Fergie, you just do it. So I'm not going to tell you
what I said, but. What is it?
Some personal. Yeah, so within 5 minutes he
whispers in the Mickey's ear. Mickey just sees red, starts
throwing haymakers all over the place.
There's a great food in the Sunday life.
We Fergie. We Fergie with a fist.
So next thing, Mickey's absolute red card and it was right beside
our dog out. So I grabbed them and he was
still like a bowl. I said, Mikey, Mikey, it's
Flynner. Flynner, it's Jerry.
I said, Mikey, go off now because you're going to get, he
ended up getting I think 11 game suspension.
Yeah. But then I go to sign him while
he was still suspended. So we it was like, it was like
September time. I met him down at McDonald's in
New Yorkgate. As in by chance?
No, no, no. So that's where I went to meet
him. So I said, Mickey, what do you
want? He had a Big Mac.
And the next thing I'm discussing terms with him about
signing him. And, you know, the tables in
there, they're like, bolted to the ground.
Yeah. So I says, like, Mickey, you
can't do what you do, and everybody knows how to wind you
up. I says like it was me who told
me Fergie that and I could just feel the table lifting as if he
was going to pull it out of the ground and beat me over the head
with it. So I had done a deal with him.
You know, he would get a, say, a washing machine or he would get
a bonus every time that he wasn't sent off so many times
and. Yeah, you would.
Was that a kind of Irish League thing?
Honestly, no. Well, it was just you couldn't
give him any money because then he'd probably he wouldn't turn
up for a game or something like that.
But the alliances, yeah, a great guy.
It was one of one of the the club men at the time used to
make him deals where he would bring him a perfume before every
game and all for honestly he but he was.
That is why I love the Irish League.
It's. He's getting a bonus of either a
washing machine or perfume and you management, you're getting
McDonald's. That's why I love the Irish
League. You know, and I said it's the
greatest league in the world, you know, it's just, you know,
you've managers offering to fight other managers and car
parks and stuff. You know, you just don't get it
in the Premiership, you know, like Stephen Baxter would.
I'll fight anybody. And then you've mad Mick at Glen
Tour and people are waiting him up as well.
Tim McCann's another one. Yeah, Yeah.
But again, it's just the professionalism is great to see.
But again, as you say, there's there's not as many as
characters like, like come back to Mickey.
I'd signed him and we played five across the middle and he'd
made his debut against Distillery on New Year's Day.
And stupidly I put him in. I should a lot of I should have
given more time to see what way we played the system.
But he was all over the show when he was going up, closing
people down when he wasn't supposed to.
And he comes in at half time and I used to do a PowerPoint before
every game and have me up on my guide and the projector up and
next thing like he just comes in and just throws the whole table
up in the air. The computer goes flying
absolutely bust. And he kicks the whole tea over.
And all the boys were all, as you say, you know.
Well the douche were the lads playing, they were just never
seen. He was just like crazy, you
know, and I believe now he's getting in the cage fight and
you know, with that, I think he's finally he's fine.
That's a sport, but a great, great lad, a funny, funny boy.
I have a fantastic story, but I I can't really tell about be
full of hoops right when my gate were in a place where he worked.
But I'll tell, I'll tell you off her.
But it, it, it just sums him up. Well.
I need to tell you off her because I'm here in Belfast.
I want to get out of here before, before I tell you a
story. I'll tell you when I get back to
Spain. And then like being a manager as
well when you moved into management, is it, I imagine if
you're a manager of Hull Championship club, not that it's
easy, but like, you know, you're talking to professional athletes
who are all probably fairly motivated.
They'll all be there in training in time.
Was it difficult being an Irish League man?
Were you literally babysitting people at times?
And. That that was, that was the
thing because when I played, I knew I only had to live after
myself, make sure I was healthy, make sure I went to bed at the
right time. And I always did, you know, But
when you go in and it just seemed to be that at that
particular time at Newry, I only signed Rockets.
You know, when, when I look at the boys, at the two Feeney
brothers at Pigeon and Joe McDonnell, I end up signing
McGee, Collins Goose, the goalkeeper who played for
Linfield, I met him in town the other day.
I ended up signing Sean Ferraris who was at Klimenville, you
know, and Minto was the number two and it was like Jay, you
need to sign at least one or two sensible lads, you know.
But it actually worked. You know, we got the the first
cup final in years, but no. On it.
Was the cup final when you played it?
Was it against David Jeffrey? No, no, that was.
Story about David Jeffrey and the way he sure cans David
Jeffrey. Obviously Freddy doesn't know
Linfield manager for decades. Big, big imposing guy and like,
big character and for no apparent reason says people's
full name. And like, whenever he's being
interviewed, like he is boxed. Like his interviews after games
were fantastic. And then you you told the story
about, you know, he does that kind of dominating thing that
Donald Trump does as well, apparently, of when they shake,
when you shake your hand, they pull you in or, or make it a bit
too hard or, you know, so you pull you off balance.
Did you show that they're the big dog?
The. Alpha male, it was part of the
the pro licence when I I'd done it.
It was part of your media training and stuff like that and
what way you're supposed to stand.
You don't cross your arms. You look big and you look at
world leaders. Putin does it, Trump tries to do
it, but so I'd I'd done it on the Sunday and we play the Blues
the following week. So I'm right.
Let's put this in. And Davy always grabs you at the
back of the head and pulls you in and kisses your forehead,
right? Not only does he give you a firm
handshake, but he tries to kiss your forehead.
So the next thing I'm going right And he has me by the back
of the neck. He's trying to pull me in, I'm
pulling away, he's trying to kiss me.
And it was like it was like a comedy sketch on its own, but
absolute. I and then he Davy would never
do his his team to ours media after until I'd done 9 used to
say. What did he say?
Because I I always try to wind them up.
You know, we'll never feel funded by the IFA.
They have the most money. We have no money coming up here.
And so he would have said as well.
Steven Garrett didn't go down there for £50 a week.
You know, that's all he was getting to Linfield.
Jerry's giving him triple or quadruple that.
But I've seen him at a wedding. Joel Taggart.
I'd get married about two years ago, I think out in Lamanga and
I'm I always meet Joel and Mcfadrey's and Albert and stuff
when they come over a game of golf and stuff.
But I was sitting at his table and I hadn't seen him in years.
First thing he does, lifts me up on the ground, kisses me in the
forehead, has me in a Burr hug. Jerry, great to see you.
But I made the mistake of telling him I didn't believe in
God. And he was, he was absolutely.
And his wife had to say, look, will you leave Jerry alone?
Leave him alone. And the next thing I come back
and the little minister was over and he was saying, Jerry, we've
just said a prayer there to find God again and stuff like that.
And next day he was on the train going to Barcelona.
Me and Debbie had drove around back to our house and text
message came through. Really good to see you, your
lovely wife Debbie, and I'm still praying that you thank
God, you know, but I'm absolutely, he's one of the
best. He's one of the best guys in the
league. Again, just another character
who like, it'll be, you know, it'll be so sad if the Irish
League dolls go that way where it's a bit more professional and
you don't have those big. He did the exact same handshake
to me. We're playing a charity game at
Seaview. I don't know if you ever you
probably didn't see my goal. I posted it up a few times.
Yeah, I've heard about it. Yeah, I was supposed to play in
that actually that game. What do you think it?
Was fantastic. I'm surprised.
I'm surprised the Blues, that Glenn's thing come in for you.
Genuinely, David Jeffrey was managing the opposition team and
he's obviously Ballymena manager and I honestly thought after the
game he might because my hold up throughout the I'm not a striker
real shift. And I thought there is a chance
DJ is going to say to me, but he did that before the game.
I was when you walk into our dressing room as the first one
there and like Keith Gillespie's there, Jim Mcjilton, loads of
people. And I was just sitting off the
one side because the only people I get starstruck by really are
footballers. So I was just kind of keeping my
head down, me and my mate. And I was the first one when you
walked in the dressing room and David Jeffrey walked in and you
know, I've never actually seen him in person.
So I would take him back and he reached out, he took my hand, he
pulled me in. He might have kissed my
forehead, he ruffled my hair. He did whatever he did.
And honestly, I thought he must love my videos.
You know, I thought he's a fan. And he was really happy to see
the way he embraced me. And then he proceeded to do it
the other 30 people in the room. As you say, he's a character and
you know you can't argue. I think he's most successful
manager in world football. What he's on the Blues is an
incredible point. What sort of what sort of sort
of shit do you take being involved?
Haven't played for so many different clubs, managing
different clubs, say like a night out in Belfast back in the
day was that, was that kind of thing bad was that was there a
lot of. We sort of grew up through the
main troubles. You know, I was out for dinner
with my best mates in the last night and we were always saying,
you know, when we when we went away to Spain and people always
wondered why we always sat looking at the door and the door
opened. Everyone looks over.
But it's nearly a thing of growing up, you know, I think
that happened. But no, I remember one night
again and it was some scary times then.
It was when it was really bad, but all the player, well apart
from the ones from West Belfast like Pocket McAllister and
stuff, they would never have come into town.
You know, the Westies always stayed in the West.
They never come out of it. But we were in the, we used to
go to the Joxer after the game. You'd have had the Blues, the
Glens, Crusaders, 3 or 4 boys out of each team and there was
always crack and I was always banter, you know, you know,
social media. But I was phoning.
I think it was my dad to say, look, Dad pick me up at such and
such. 2:00 and Michael surgeon came from from behind and there
was the old phone boxes where we get at the bottom.
Yeah. And he throws a load of
firelighters, you know, firecrackers in.
And I'm not joking. I actually, I, I thought it was,
I thought somebody had opened up on me.
I thought I was shattered and I couldn't get out of it.
I dropped the phone. My mum ended up fainting.
My dad was shooting down the phone.
Are you all right? Are you all right?
You all right? I had to go back.
And he says, what happened? We thought you were like I'd
lived with the phone. What, just some of the things
back and, you know, you always, you always took it in your
stride. And, you know, I, I was lucky.
Yeah. We ended up in parties and the
Shankill and different things and me being from a new law.
It's playing for Clinton. Well, you know, it wasn't.
It wasn't done then. Yeah, Yeah.
But I always got on well with with everybody and it was scary.
Time and how come you did end up at speed?
I was a walking heart attack. It literally was after what
happened in Yuri and I had the property portfolio lost
everything I'd bought a place out there previously.
Sorry, I would imagine that when you, you know, if you're going
through business problems or you know that kind of also being a
manager of a football club doesn't help balance out the,
the stress levels. There was a couple of times a
day to end up in the hospital. I actually thought I was, you
know, I was taking a heart attack one time.
I was just. But again, looking back, it was
stress. And again I was, I was thinking,
right, I'm going to go out there.
I went out. I had a big massive minibus of
336,000 kilometres on it and I just started doing airport runs
and I probably do more work now than I did before I moved this,
but I had no regrets. But if I ever say I probably
wish I had done it 10 years before that, yeah, it's a great
lifestyle and. Do you have any involvement in
football out there or like? No, go and watch the odd game I
still keep in. I do the odd commentary when I
come back here. I always watch the results and
then I with so many live games and streaming, I keep I keep in
so. Because Mercia where you are,
and I know you say Mercia, yeah, I think because you've been over
there that long, you can. I can't.
I don't think yet. I'm ready for that.
But has their team had like a load of money pumped into it,
like racing, Racing Mercia? And they signed like Julian
Lescott or something. Then he said they didn't know
anything about it. I'm not sure, but Mercia are
actually, let me get this right, they're in La Liga, I think.
I think they've just been promoted again, so.
Why are you not saying listen? Scored in Champions League.
Can't give me a couple more weeks actually.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I think get involved and
even on the plain side like don't know if they have any
Champions League goal scorers like.
No, I wouldn't think so. No, I might put, I might put
that my CV and throw it in there.
And do yeah. And and like you say, you
working on property, you probably do have a load.
Do most people buy properties from you come from Belfast and.
There's quite a few from from back home and again, the Twitter
stories, as I said, I think a 700 followers, I'm up there 5000
now because of the football stories.
And then I started doing like little videos walking along and
I do have really good bargains for people because I'm from here
and people who are thinking about buying there and then they
know me to see the videos and I give away some of the secrets
that some of the agents are doing.
So it's it's pissed a lot of them off, but it's it's
beneficial for me. So.
Is there, is there like a little bit of a Northern Ireland, sort
of like a Belfast community? There are of expats like other
people you kind of run into. Well, about 20 minutes away
there's a place called Lasagna and they have a bar called
Paddy's Point. It's probably the busiest bar,
but then that whole region of the Alicante and Northea region.
But Joe Kernan, the ex our manager.
So Joe promoted a company who I subsequently bought off back 15
years ago. So that whole Lasagna area is a
lot of people from, you know, our my life, Joe recommended a
lot of people there. So down where I am now, more and
more, a few people from Kerry, you know, different places,
learn what places. And it's becoming more popular.
So yeah. I mean, I I love it like yes,
when you do videos walking along and you just especially now with
I've not been away for so long and all the crap that's going
on, like when you just see the sun out then and the beach and
that kind of thing. Like must be nice to be locked
and like it's not never going to be in lockdown, but to be locked
down somewhere like that looks looks like they're kind of the
ticket. Yeah, it's good.
And again, but I, I, I do a thing as soon as I go on or
someone puts a tweet, especially more so on Twitter now where
people say that's freezing back in Belfast, the first thing I do
is on why don't you rent this place or buy this place?
People are like, yeah, give me more information.
But in a strange way, I actually like the rain and the cold, you
know, through work and the business I've set up.
I've, I've just rented somewhere here in Belfast for the next 6
months. So we'll be back two weeks every
month. And I actually like walking up
the lag and it sounds strange, but when it's raining, when it's
cold, getting hopped up because it's it's going to sound
strange, but it actually is. Sometimes it's just too warm,
especially July, August, the heat's, the heat's unbearable
and. When we come out the, you know,
do the episode and and shoot it, like where will we do it?
We'll want to like show people. That's when we're in being like
in some sort of nice setup where we're where we're going.
There's a nice pier just just down.
This was was was set up on that again, A place in the sun does
it all the time. They have all the gear.
They set it all up. So great beer restaurant, just
stones like we, we rocks out. We'll set up there.
I'm thinking, I'm thinking April, May, but maybe that's
optimistic. No.
Well, like Ian, I think once the vaccine's rolled out and people
start getting it, then we have closed one of sold one of the
bars as I said to you off earlier, but one of them
realistically we're not going to open the March I think and we're
going to have a bumper year. A lot of people because they've
been locked up and on lockdowns. My wife Debbie, she runs the
rental end of the business and a lot of people are saying like
can we have three weeks this year instead of the normal 2.
So I think once we get sort of March every time, you should be
all right. Yeah, Excellent.
Need to pack those yellow speedos and yeah, think about
those now. Oh yeah, yeah.
Jerry, thanks so much for coming on the podcast.
Appreciate. We'll put a link into the
business as well. Please.
People can just have a, you know, dream about a place in
Spain. Fantastic.
Excellent. Cheers, Jerry.
Thank. You.