“I didn’t think my feelings for this club could get any stronger”
Millwall-redaktionen bjuder på ett utdrag ur en intervju med Kenny Pavey från "Anglofil.se". Bland annat berättar han om ett brev som rörde honom djupt.
Ödmjuk eller inte återvände han med en enorm målaptit. Väl tillbaka i London bildade han giftigt anfallspar med Tony Cascarino och sköt upp Millwall i dåvarande högstadivisionen. Och innan en osedvanligt framgångsrik karriär fortsatte i bland annat Tottenham och Manchester United passade han på att slå Millwalls målrekord och göra sig odödlig bland fansen i sydöstra London.
Föga anade Kenny Pavey att han 13 år efter Teddy Sheringham skulle packa sin väska, hoppa på ett flygplan till Sverige och gå i sin stora hjältes fotspår.
”I lived on a estate next to Brimmington Park, just of Old Kent Road, for 15 years and played for a local Peckham team called Athenley. I played alongside Anton Ferdinand, I went to school with Sean Wright-Phillips and Scott Parker, and I also know Jimmy Bullard very well. There were quite a few I played against that made it, Julian Gray for example”, berättar Kenny när vi frågar om hans uppväxt.
”I began playing quite late, around 11 I think, and I got scouted by Millwall. I played for them for four years as a schoolboy. In my last year I was looking for a YTS deal (lärlingskontrakt med A-truppen – red), but I’m not the biggest lad around so they asked me to stay and be monitored for three extra months for them to decide. Me and my dad weren’t happy about that. I had been there for so long they should have known how good or bad I was. So I decided to leave and I got a YTS at Sittingbourne instead. They were in the Dr Martens Premier League.”
Och plötsligt öppnades en ny dörr:
”Aston Villa scouted me, watched me for a while and I went there for a week’s trial. I played very well in a match against Coventry alongside the likes of Gareth Barry, Darius Vassell and Lee Hendrie. I scored a volley and had a good game. But at the same time Sittingbourne went into liquidation. The club was actually closed. We couldn’t even get into the ground. So they wanted to get more money for me than Villa were willing to offer. I’ve still got the newspaper clip saying ’Villa dream falls true for Pavey’”, säger han.
”That was a big blow. But with bad things normally come good things. The guy who scouted me had a contact in Sweden, David Wilson, who was a player and a scout for Aston Villa and got me over.”
Han är tacksam för att han övertalades att ta chansen i Sverige, men medger att flytten över Nordsjön var tuff:
”Leaving London for Ljungskile was hard for me. It’s not the capital of the world if you know what I mean. I met a girl and she helped me to settle and made things a little bit easier. Smaller towns probably look after you a bit better. I had a lovely stay there.”
Till säsongen 2006 värvades han till AIK och blev med sin uppoffrande spelstil och never-say-die-attityd en stor publikfavorit på Råsunda. Och 2009 var han en direkt bidragande orsak till att klubben vann sin första ”dubbel” någonsin.
Inför den avgörande seriefinalen på nya Gamla Ullevi fick Kenny ta emot ett mycket speciellt meddelande.
”It was two days before the final game of the season. I got this envelope in my hand. I didn’t know what to expect, but they said I would like it. In it there was a ‘best of luck’ message from everyone down at The Den, and they said they wanted me to come down and show them the gold medal.”
Trots att Kenny de facto aldrig spelat A-lagsfotboll för Millwall hade hans framgångar i Norden nått fram till sydöstra London.
”It really, really touched my heart. Not many clubs in the world would do such a thing for a supporter. I didn’t think my feelings for the club could get any stronger. I took a photo of the letter and sent it to my dad, my uncle and all my mates. It was an amazing thing for Millwall to do.”
Intervjun finns att läsa i sin helhet på Anglofil.se där Kenny berättar öppenhjärtigt om Millwall, svensk fotboll, bad boy-stämpeln och varför han så ofta tar supportrarnas parti.
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Foto: Magnus Neck
Källa: www.anglofil.se
