UK Edition
'While Spurs were beating Man Utd, I lost a Newport player who quit to become a tattoo artist', says Michael Flynn
If the size of the gulf between Newport County and Tottenham Hotspur had not been made clear enough in the past fortnight, then Michael Flynn provided further evidence on Tuesday of the more practical differences between life at the top and bottom of the professional footballing scale.
For while Mauricio Pochettino, the Spurs manager, was last week defeating Manchester United and preparing his side for a trip to face Liverpool at Anfield, his counterpart was trying — and, indeed, failing — to prevent one of his players, Sean Rigg, from quitting the club to become a tattoo artist.
“I wanted him to stay,” said Flynn, the Newport manager. “He made his decision a while back that he wanted to go part-time and pursue a career in being a tattoo artist. I tried to change his mind, spoke to his father, spoke to his agent.
“He’s a clever lad, but he just fell out of love with the game. He was thinking of the future and this was the ideal time for him to go and chase his dream, which is to be a tattoo artist.”
As if the point needed emphasising, Flynn added: “I’m sure Mauricio won’t have any tattooists.”
And so the Newport misfits march on, straight down the M4 and towards the shining lights of Wembley, where on Wednesday night they reap the rewards of their 1-1 draw with Spurs at Rodney Parade last month.
The League Two side, ex-convicts and former shelf-stackers et al, were just eight minutes from a famous victory that night, thwarted only by a late Harry Kane effort. That result, and this subsequent trip to the national stadium, will provide funds that could revolutionise the club, but it also appears to have taken its toll on the players. Newport have lost twice, against Lincoln City and Colchester United, in two games since they bogged down the mighty Spurs in the Welsh mud.
Still, the mood in south Wales was one of optimism as Flynn and Padraig Amond, the goalscoring hero from the first meeting with Spurs, looked ahead to what Flynn said could be “the biggest result in the club’s history”.
Flynn made clear that any players who “dangled a leg” at a Spurs forward in the penalty box will be “sat next to me” on the sidelines and joked that he will immediately retire if they win, while Amond quipped that he has watched his goal back at least “a couple of hundred times now”.
The two managers have been in contact since the previous meeting, primarily because Flynn had texted Pochettino to apologise after a scouting report that highlighted the weaknesses of the Spurs side had found its way into a tabloid newspaper.
Among the criciticisms were that Dele Alli can be “selfish”, Eric Dier is “very one paced” and goalkeeper Michel Vorm “won’t come for crosses”. Coincidentally, Amond’s goal came from a right-wing cross, with Vorm remaining motionless on his line.
“I have dealt with the so-called ‘secret dossier’ manager to manager,” Flynn said. “Things have a habit of coming out and it happens in football. It’s the way it is, nothing is private these days, but there was no malice in it. I apologised on our behalf to Mauricio for it getting out.
“We have exchanged a couple of messages back and forth since then. There is no issue here and he has bigger things to worry about.”
Indeed he does. Having already played United and Liverpool in the last week, Spurs have meetings with Arsenal and then Juventus as their next two fixtures after this FA Cup replay. In the space of two weeks, therefore, Pochettino’s side will have taken on four of Europe’s most powerful sides. And Newport.
“Do I think he will play a full-strength team? No,” said Flynn, who stopped watching the Spurs victory over United as soon as Christian Eriksen scored after just 11 seconds. “I am hoping he makes a few changes, but they should still have enough to turn us over.”
Wednesday's trip to north London is Newport’s third match at Wembley in six years. Flynn played in their last visit, a 2-0 victory over Wrexham in the 2013 Conderence play-off final that sent them back into the Football League, and is eager to maintain his 100 per cent Wembley record.
“If it doesn’t work out it’s because I wasn’t playing,” he laughed. “The extra money is brilliant. This game is on TV and so would be the next one if we cause one of the biggest shocks in the FA Cup, so we get three hits from one game.”
Flynn knows there is nothing to lose from having another go at one of Europe’s finest, while there is potentially plenty to gain. “We are dreaming now,” he said. “But dreams do come true occasionally.”