GaryOrrell
Well-known member
Really good full page article (well, nearly!) in Times Sports supplement today about Maxwell, work ethic at club, community mind of SS, etc. Great to see some really positive BFC news in national press!
Times article
- Thread starter GaryOrrell
- Start date
seasideone
Well-known member
Chris Maxwell knows the difference that a man in his position can make — but the Blackpool goalkeeper is no longer talking about his penalty shoot-out heroics of the FA Cup third round.
He has raised the issue of literacy among schoolchildren and, specifically, the challenge of persuading them to ditch iPads and pick up a book. It is a subject on which the 30-year-old speaks passionately, as the interview moves away from those three spot-kick
saves against West Bromwich Albion that set Blackpool up with the chance of another Premier League scalp today.
Maxwell has immersed himself in community projects wherever his career has taken him and, prior to the pandemic, he visited schools in the Blackpool area to encourage youngsters to put down their gadgets.
“In this day and age, the majority of kids are glued to iPads or PlayStation or TV and the number of kids who don’t read on a daily, and weekly, basis is rocketing considerably,” he says.
“For example, one of the times I’ve been to schools, the children are saying they don’t read. I said to one boy, ‘What do you like?’ ‘I like PlayStation.’
“ ‘What do you play?’ ‘I like the Avengers.’
“ ‘So you like the Avenger films then?’ He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’
“I said why don’t you go home and ask your dad if you can get an Avengers comic book. Six weeks later at the end of the season, that same child was there at the game, on the barrier, and his dad was with him.
“His dad said, ‘This is my son, do you recognise him?’ And I did, and he said, ‘He reads a lot now. I got him a few comic books and he enjoys reading.’
“If kids don’t want to listen to their parents, maybe it is uncool, and they don’t listen to their teachers, I thought, ‘Would they listen to players in my position at football clubs?’
“If we, as players and as a club, can get messages like that across, then even if you made a difference to one child in each class in each school it would be beneficial.
“You only have to look at Marcus Rashford and what he is doing. When you are given that platform you want to use it for the greater good.”
Maxwell, who has a young daughter, Mila, takes his status as a role model seriously. He credits the values instilled into him by his mother, Jen, and father, Ian, who was a chief inspector with North Wales police, for fuelling a determination to achieve as much as he can.
There is a desire to move into management, he already helps out coaching the under-14s and under-15s and he is also studying business management with a view to taking a course in sports directorship.
Maxwell also uses Wyscout, the platform that provides football analysis, as he looks to arm himself with as much information as possible before today’s fourth-round trip to Brighton & Hove Albion.
It was the same before League One Blackpool’s shoot-out victory over West Brom when he kept out penalties from Kyle Edwards, Darnell Furlong and Matheus Pereira.
“You look at previous penalties and stuff like individuals and their personalities and you can make assumptions based on those factors,” says Maxwell, who was playing for the first time since contracting Covid-19. “But throughout my career I’ve done research that’s worked and research that hasn’t. Without being too philosophical, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
It is easy to think of this time in the spotlight as a reward for the hard yards Maxwell has put in. He started out at Wrexham, followed by spells at Fleetwood Town, Cambridge United, Preston North End and Hibernian before moving to Blackpool a year ago.
There was also a loan period in the Welsh Premier League as a teenager, which toughened him up.
“Wearing a pink kit, being from Llandudno and playing for Connah’s Quay against Rhyl wasn’t a great mix, especially on a Friday night,” Maxwell says with a smile. “You think you’ll get away with it when you change ends but the fans follow you.”
At Wrexham, he twice played out of goal because manager Dean Saunders wanted to develop his skills with the ball at his feet. He was deployed as a right back in the second half of a friendly against Colwyn Bay and as a central midfielder against Aberystwyth.
There is rumoured to be a headline, although Maxwell has struggled to find it, regarding those forays where Saunders posed the question, “Maxi or Messi?” Blackpool’s progress hints at better times after a turbulent recent past. The owner, Simon Sadler, has been determined to forge the links with the community Maxwell outlined and, on the pitch, the manager Neil Critchley, lured from Liverpool Under-23, is making strides.
“In 15 years of full-time football, this was the hardest pre-season I’ve done,” Maxwell says. “Not physically, but tactically. The amount of information the manager gave us and challenged us with, the way he wants us to play, the way he wants every individual to know every other individual’s job was amazing.”
Knocking out Brighton would further validate Critchley’s work and, just as important, allow Maxwell to carry on giving something back.
“During tough times like Covid, when people are getting laid off, kids aren’t going to school and we are in lockdown, those little glimpses of enjoyment are important,” he says.
“Blackpool as a football club are doing their best to provide that. Whether it’s donating money to fundraising or giving good performances like we did against West Brom, it makes a difference.
“Every single player in our dressing room, and every staff member, will be desperate for that to happen again.”
He has raised the issue of literacy among schoolchildren and, specifically, the challenge of persuading them to ditch iPads and pick up a book. It is a subject on which the 30-year-old speaks passionately, as the interview moves away from those three spot-kick
saves against West Bromwich Albion that set Blackpool up with the chance of another Premier League scalp today.
Maxwell has immersed himself in community projects wherever his career has taken him and, prior to the pandemic, he visited schools in the Blackpool area to encourage youngsters to put down their gadgets.
“In this day and age, the majority of kids are glued to iPads or PlayStation or TV and the number of kids who don’t read on a daily, and weekly, basis is rocketing considerably,” he says.
“For example, one of the times I’ve been to schools, the children are saying they don’t read. I said to one boy, ‘What do you like?’ ‘I like PlayStation.’
“ ‘What do you play?’ ‘I like the Avengers.’
“ ‘So you like the Avenger films then?’ He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’
“I said why don’t you go home and ask your dad if you can get an Avengers comic book. Six weeks later at the end of the season, that same child was there at the game, on the barrier, and his dad was with him.
“His dad said, ‘This is my son, do you recognise him?’ And I did, and he said, ‘He reads a lot now. I got him a few comic books and he enjoys reading.’
“If kids don’t want to listen to their parents, maybe it is uncool, and they don’t listen to their teachers, I thought, ‘Would they listen to players in my position at football clubs?’
“If we, as players and as a club, can get messages like that across, then even if you made a difference to one child in each class in each school it would be beneficial.
“You only have to look at Marcus Rashford and what he is doing. When you are given that platform you want to use it for the greater good.”
Maxwell, who has a young daughter, Mila, takes his status as a role model seriously. He credits the values instilled into him by his mother, Jen, and father, Ian, who was a chief inspector with North Wales police, for fuelling a determination to achieve as much as he can.
There is a desire to move into management, he already helps out coaching the under-14s and under-15s and he is also studying business management with a view to taking a course in sports directorship.
Maxwell also uses Wyscout, the platform that provides football analysis, as he looks to arm himself with as much information as possible before today’s fourth-round trip to Brighton & Hove Albion.
It was the same before League One Blackpool’s shoot-out victory over West Brom when he kept out penalties from Kyle Edwards, Darnell Furlong and Matheus Pereira.
“You look at previous penalties and stuff like individuals and their personalities and you can make assumptions based on those factors,” says Maxwell, who was playing for the first time since contracting Covid-19. “But throughout my career I’ve done research that’s worked and research that hasn’t. Without being too philosophical, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
It is easy to think of this time in the spotlight as a reward for the hard yards Maxwell has put in. He started out at Wrexham, followed by spells at Fleetwood Town, Cambridge United, Preston North End and Hibernian before moving to Blackpool a year ago.
There was also a loan period in the Welsh Premier League as a teenager, which toughened him up.
“Wearing a pink kit, being from Llandudno and playing for Connah’s Quay against Rhyl wasn’t a great mix, especially on a Friday night,” Maxwell says with a smile. “You think you’ll get away with it when you change ends but the fans follow you.”
At Wrexham, he twice played out of goal because manager Dean Saunders wanted to develop his skills with the ball at his feet. He was deployed as a right back in the second half of a friendly against Colwyn Bay and as a central midfielder against Aberystwyth.
There is rumoured to be a headline, although Maxwell has struggled to find it, regarding those forays where Saunders posed the question, “Maxi or Messi?” Blackpool’s progress hints at better times after a turbulent recent past. The owner, Simon Sadler, has been determined to forge the links with the community Maxwell outlined and, on the pitch, the manager Neil Critchley, lured from Liverpool Under-23, is making strides.
“In 15 years of full-time football, this was the hardest pre-season I’ve done,” Maxwell says. “Not physically, but tactically. The amount of information the manager gave us and challenged us with, the way he wants us to play, the way he wants every individual to know every other individual’s job was amazing.”
Knocking out Brighton would further validate Critchley’s work and, just as important, allow Maxwell to carry on giving something back.
“During tough times like Covid, when people are getting laid off, kids aren’t going to school and we are in lockdown, those little glimpses of enjoyment are important,” he says.
“Blackpool as a football club are doing their best to provide that. Whether it’s donating money to fundraising or giving good performances like we did against West Brom, it makes a difference.
“Every single player in our dressing room, and every staff member, will be desperate for that to happen again.”
Dark_Side_of_the_Lune
Well-known member
What a good man
Bispham_Seasider
Well-known member
Great read, and well done Chris Maxwell.