We're back with another episode of I Had Trials Once and this time we're joined by former Huddersfield, QPR, Cardiff & Leicester goalkeeper Alex Smithies! Alex sits down with Gaz & Jord as he discusses his football career from playing for his boyhood club Huddersfield to training with Vardy & Maddison at Leicester. The lads start the pod talking about Alex's life post football with his career in finance and helping players manager their money and not fall into the same traps we often see in the media. They then talk in depth about his early career at Huddersfield, how he became a number one keeper at just 18 years old, signing his first big contract and scoring the winning penalty in a play-off final. The trio then chat about Alex's surprise move to QPR, Ian Holloway's bizarre coach carter training tactics, how he knew Eberechi Eze was a superstar from an early age and what made Ravel Morrison so good. Alex then speaks about his dream move to Cardiff with Neil Warnock and why he was gutted he never made his Premier League debut at the club as well as what it's like as a keeper when it comes to dropping clangers and how you can only get away with one. Alex continues with his decision to become a third choice goalkeeper at Leicester City in the Premier League, relationship with Jamie Vardy and why James Maddison wanted him to shout abuse at him in training sessions. Finally, he talks about how he recently fell out of love with football before ending the pod on the toughest player he's ever come up against. 🔗 Join our Patreon below for as little as £3 a month and get access to all of the best unfiltered and unedited stories that normally have to be cut! 👇 https://www.patreon.com/IHadTrialsOnce/membership Check out the British Army below 👇 https://www.army.mod.uk/ A HUGE shout out to CAPO for sponsoring this weeks episode of the podcast - Check them out 👇 https://capouk.com/ Get 15% off your CAPO order when you use code: IHADTRIALS 🎧 You can listen to the full episode wherever you normally get your podcasts via the link below! https://podfollow.com/i-had-trials-once 📳 Make sure you Like, Comment & Subscribe & turn on notifications so it lets you know when a new episode drops. Let us know in the comments who you want to see on a future episode of the Podcast! 👇 📲 Follow us on social! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHadTrialsOnce Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ihadtrialsonce TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ihadtrialsonce Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IHadTrialsOncePodcast/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 0:00 Intro with Alex Smithies 6:30 Life since retiring 12:25 Early life at Huddersfield 16:30 England youth team 19:31 Breaking through at Huddersfield 24:55 Dealing with big injuries 26:10 Huddersfield play-off final 32:39 Signing first big contract 39:55 Surprise QPR move 46:07 Working with Neil Warnock 48:37 Incredible Ravel Morrison 52:10 Ian Holloway’s coach Carter tactics 54:10 Premier League dream move 57:25 Neil Harris relationship 58:58 Dropping a clanger 1:01:15 Tough centre backs 1:04:11 Life as a 3rd choice keeper 1:16:50 Falling out of love with football Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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