The Laws of the Jungle: The Intricate Footballing Life of Gareth Farrelly

It’s the final day of the 1997-1998 Premier League season, and Everton’s proud record of 44 consecutive years in the top flight of English football is in serious jeopardy.

The Toffees know a home win over Coventry still might not be enough for that hallowed 17th spot if Bolton, away to Chelsea, match or better their result.

Over 35,000 Evertonians are sat in the stands, but Gareth Farrelly has far greater responsibility resting on his shoulders as he sets foot on the Goodison turf, completing a difficult first season at his boyhood club in which he and his teammates have been subjected to criticism from all angles.

Two decades on, Farrelly remains a popular figure on Merseyside for his contribution to Everton’s survival on that day, but there is much more to him than one memorable performance.

Off the pitch, he’s survived a potentially life-threatening illness, and has since trained to become a qualified lawyer.

Sat over a cup of tea in the plush Liverpool offices of Bermans law firm, he shares the intricacies of his enthralling life in, around and since football.

“I lost 21 pounds (during) the three weeks in hospital, I came back almost as a pencil.”

Sports stars are greeted with fascination for their exclusive lifestyle and experiences but, despite facing unique challenges, few have endured life or death situations.

But Gareth Farrelly, after suffering an aneurysm of the splenic artery in 2008, has.

The nine-month recovery period included critical surgery, three days in intensive care and a further three-weeks in hospital after the wound had to be reopened due to infection.

“I lost 21 pounds (during) the three weeks in hospital, I came back almost as a pencil,” Farrelly recalls.

This would be bad enough but, to make matters worse, Cork City attempted to cancel his contract at the club.

Farrelly took them to court and, although he successfully won the dispute, he didn’t receive the money owed because the club fell into administration.

Another experience during recovery compounded these frustrations: “I got a call from HMRC linked to supposed investments… everything that I’d been sold whilst I was playing football wasn’t the right investments for me.

“That was something that piqued my interest further in the law because I wanted to go back, look at what these people sold me… and try and unravel it.”

He’d already accrued prior knowledge of legal proceedings after challenging the enactment of the three-club rule when joining Cork, which stipulated that footballers couldn’t play for more than two clubs per season.

He argued against its implementation as the Irish season didn’t begin until March and, while Farrelly lost the case and didn’t play until July 2007, the law was changed to recognise the reality of different country’s seasons overlapping the traditional summer break.

While he doesn’t see these experiences as the inspiration behind his current occupation, Farrelly acknowledges their importance as an initial step in understanding the law.

He said: “it gave me an interest in it, and one of the bigger points (for the interest) was having a complete lack of knowledge of the law, what it means and how it works.

“It’s not something that I would ever have given any thought to.”

He finished his rehab in Preston, signing for League Two Morecambe on a non-contract basis, but the writing was on the wall: “I started to realise I probably wasn’t going to be able to play again based on my medical and different things… I just kind of thought it was time to retire (at 32).”

And so ended Gareth Farrelly’s footballing career, but instead of resting on his laurels, the Irishman enrolled on a law degree at Edge Hill University, leaving Morecambe on receiving the acceptance letter.

The three-year course preceded twelve months at law school and a two-year training contract, meaning Farrelly has now been a qualified lawyer at Bermans, specialising in Sport and Litigation, since March 2018.

In terms of the job’s demands, Farrelly remains realistic given his previous career: “a job is demanding when you’ve been a footballer… it’s a normal job, normal hours, hard work.”

Nonetheless, few lawyers can boast a CV containing over 50 Premier League appearances, a Play-Off final goal and the strike which kept their childhood club’s top-flight status intact.

Success in the North West

A cagey seven minutes have passed at Goodison Park with the Everton fans rallying behind their side in the hope of being a Premier League club once again for the 1998-1999 season.

Farrelly launches a high ball into centre-forward, Duncan Ferguson, who knocks it back down into an inviting area on the edge of the Coventry box.

He recalls: “I had lots of shots [that season], I was naïve, I made goalkeepers look great and took people out in the stands.”

This time however, at the crucial moment, Farrelly gets it right, driving a half-volley into the top left-hand-corner of Magnus Hedman’s net. The Goodison crowd are sent into raptures.

“It was like a Shakespearean irony… to go through a very difficult time but then to have an outcome like that,” the former midfielder remembers.

The release of pressure at the time is evident in Farrelly’s voice: “I’d gone from playing at Aston Villa, a top six team where, when you played… the team was invariably doing well so there was less pressure.

“I’d never got stick in my life – [at Everton] anywhere you went you were getting stick… it took quite a lot to get used to and it was difficult.”

Farrelly wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way of joining his boyhood club when the opportunity arose in 1997, even when his contract negotiations weren’t yet finalised.

He said: “I signed a blank contract at Everton… it was done, it was never going to be any different, it was a done deal as far as I was concerned.”

However, after his first season ended on such a positive note, the dismissal of manager Howard Kendall, and the introduction of Walter Smith, was a tough adjustment.

Bringing in new personnel, Farrelly went from scoring the goal which clinched survival, to playing just eight minutes and the equivalent of a Carabao Cup game in the space of one season.

Bolton, Play-Off Final Glory and Big Sam

He subsequently became Sam Allardyce’s first signing at Bolton Wanderers and, in his second season at the club, the Trotters faced Preston North End in the Division 1 Play-Off final; another match in which Farrelly played a decisive role when it counted.

Early on, a sliced clearance fell to the midfielder on the edge of the box and, with defenders bearing down on him, he took a touch before drilling a half-volley home.

That goal set Sam Allardyce’s side on course for a 3-0 win and promotion to the Premier League, but Farrelly recalls the moment with a sense of realism.

Although acknowledging its importance, scoring the goal which clinched survival for his boyhood club remained an unparalleled feeling: “any goal that has a level of significance to it is important… but, as an Everton fan, the significance writes its own story.”

Unfortunately, a change in coaching staff over pre-season at Bolton led to a souring of the relationship between midfielder and manager.

“I basically had access to the person I trusted more than anyone in football… I had him (the coach in question) as a direct point of contact”, he recalls.

Signing a new contract, Farrelly was given promises of the coach’s retention at the club, but he was instead replaced during the summer break.

“We started pre-season the next day where we went straight into sprint tests and I tried to explain that, on the first day of pre-season, I couldn’t turn up and sprint.

“I ended up doing the sprint test, pulled my hamstring and missed the first game of the season against Leicester."

Allardyce’s team, with Farrelly still featuring regularly, were widely tipped for immediate relegation, but instead survived their first season back in the top flight.

The relationship, however, between Farrelly and Allardyce remained untenable and, after a series of loan spells, Farrelly left Bolton on a permanent basis in 2004.

He remains honest in his assessment of his time at the club: “if something’s not happening how you like it to be and then you take the manager or people at the club on over it, fundamentally the only person that’s going to lose is you.

“I look back now and think I should’ve been able to manage it better, but I wasn’t (able to at the time).”

Trying Something Different

At 29, footballers can generally still enjoy a few years at their peak, so Farrelly’s move into player-management at Irish club, Bohemians, after leaving Bolton raised some eyebrows.

“I’d fallen out of love with the game at the time, (but) I was always passionate about player development… I saw a huge potential in Ireland”, he recalls of his two-year stint in charge.

Unfortunately, serious financial issues at the club were kept quiet from the new gaffer, who inherited a dressing room with 12 players out of contract, of which he was able to retain two.

On another occasion, wages went unpaid for nine weeks, forcing the player-manager to organise a bridge loan against revenue coming in on car park rental from a local hospital.

Despite the difficulties, Farrelly harbours no regrets over the decision to take on what he described as ‘two years of crisis management’ at Bohemians: “it was an amazing experience.

“I’m disappointed that I didn’t get an opportunity to completely implement what we would’ve wanted to, but… I don’t think it would’ve been possible at that time.”

Resigning in 2006, Farrelly subsequently went on to join Blackpool, leading to the events which culminated in him forging a career as a lawyer.

Despite having to overcome his fair share of adversity, Farrelly still counts himself lucky: “a lot of ex-players will jump into certain things… and not necessarily find something they like straight away.

“Edge Hill was an extremely supportive environment so, as opposed with scaring the life out of me, which (a law degree) did initially… it made that transition a little bit easier.”

His story may not be widely known, nor his career or current occupation the most touted, but Gareth Farrelly is an example of how putting your mind to a task, and working with the cards you’re dealt, can help people overcome the toughest of adversities.