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12th October 2010, 19:57
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First Team Regular
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 19,325
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Danny Hall
ChronicleLive - News - Chronicle News - Man U prodigy working his magic on Tyneside
Man U prodigy working his magic on Tyneside  HE trained with David Beckham and Eric Cantona – now Danny Hall is working his magic on Tyneside. Danny, a former Manchester United youth trainee, has taken Gateshead Rutherford AFC to top-flight promotion for the first time in 106 years. The life and times of the 33-year-old – who once won an FA Youth Cup medal with the Red Devils – was the subject of a mystery being pieced together by an author. An appeal went out to Chronicle readers by Steve Hobin who is carrying out research on behalf of Manchester United to produce a book about the club’s youth talent. Danny was a midfield whiz-kid in the 1990s, training alongside players such as Steve Bruce and Bryan Robson, before leaving professional football. Now he has been traced to Gateshead where he recently became manager of the Northern Alliance Premier Division side Rutherford AFC. And Danny, who grew up on Tyneside and was spotted while playing for Blaydon has explained how all the pieces of the jigsaw fit together. He said: “I played in the youth team and signed a pro contract, but I had lots of injury problems. I had a problem with my back and a suspected broken ankle at one stage. Back then I was playing in the reserves. I remember Paul Scholes and Eric Cantona and David Beckham, he was just coming through. “Cantona was the ultimate professional and used to put in loads of extra training. Beckham had to be toned down a bit because he was always trying crazy stuff. He’d always rather play a 50-yard pass than a 10-yard pass. “It was strange because I was surrounded by all these legends but they really just seemed like normal, down-to-earth blokes. “But back then I was told that at 18 and 19 you had to be pushing to be in the first team. If you didn’t then there was always someone else who would take the place.”  His Premier League dream ended in 1996, when Danny left Old Trafford, but he would continue to trial for teams including Norwich, Millwall, and Peterborough. As injuries and a hernia operation continued to hamper his progress, he eventually took to playing non-league and at one stage turned his back on football all together. “You go from playing for a club like Man U to teams where you get there and there isn’t even a kit for you. It was an eye-opener,” said the dad-of-two. “I went back to college and did a sports science course. I did some work on building sites and then took an office job in sales. “Eventually it got to the stage where me and my wife were thinking about the future, and that’s when we decided to come back here.” He played for Darlington and Blyth Spartans. Most recently he took the job as player manager at Rutherford AFC, leading them to promotion as first division champions to play in the Northern Alliance top flight for the first time in more than a century. Danny, who lives in Whickham and works in sales, said: “It was more of a test than anything else.” *** Another name to add to SAF's every-growing list of managerial prodigies. |
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