Where are they now? Former Spurs and Everton midfielder Simon Davies

Joining us as ‘one for the future’ at the start of a new era for the Club, Simon Davies made almost 150 appearances for us during his five years in north London and was named our Player of the Year for the 2001/02 season before leaving for Everton in the summer of 2005. We recently caught up with the former Wales international to discuss his time at the club, his journey since and find out what he’s up to now.

Simon’s footballing career has gone full circle. Having enjoyed his first moments on the pitch with his local team AFC Solva on the Welsh Pembrokeshire coast before breaking through into the professional game at Peterborough United, Davies ended his playing career in 2013 with a swansong stint back at non-league Solva before then returning to Posh five years later to begin learning a new trade as a coach.

A midfielder that played out on the right, he had emerged as a real talent when he came through the youth system at London Road in the late 1990s. Impressing as a teenager in Division Three, Simon, alongside fellow Posh graduate Matthew Etherington, was soon on the move to north London as he joined us in January 2000.

Signing for us during a time of real change for the Club, the Welsh international settled in well in N17 and went on to excel in our colours, especially following the appointment of Glenn Hoddle in March 2001. Making just shy of 150 appearances for us over a five-year spell, Simon was a central figure in our run to the Worthington Cup Final in 2002 and, at the end of that campaign, his endeavours were rewarded as he was named our Player of the Year. His progress in a Spurs shirt, however, was then hindered by a series of niggling injuries – difficulties which played a part in his later departure to Everton in 2005.

Lured to Merseyside with the opportunity to play in the UEFA Champions League, ‘Digger’ – as he was known - spent just 18 months at Goodison Park before he returned to London in January 2007, to join Fulham. It was during his time at Craven Cottage that the Welshman enjoyed some of the most memorable moments of his career, including hitting the target in both the semi-finals and final of the Europa League in 2010. A persistent hip injury, however, saw him finish his professional career in west London at the age of 33.

Yet, his playing days were not quite over as later that year, he agreed to turn out alongside his brother and close friends once more for his local team Solva in one last hurrah. And then, after a few years away from the professional game, Simon decided to return to where it all began to take up a career in coaching as he joined Peterborough’s youth academy set-up in 2018 to link-up once again with his former team-mate and good friend Etherington.

“Solva was where I grew up. It’s where I began playing the game with my mates and my brother,” Simon recalled as he discussed his decision to return to AFC Solva in 2013. “My brother was still playing for them in goal and one of my best mates was also still there. I was retired from the professional game and was obviously spending more time there seeing my parents with my family, so I just decided to sign up and play a few more games just to finish my playing days off back where it started - and it was lovely.

“I think I played five or six games and it was just as you would imagine – playing Sunday league football with your mates and then going down the pub and having a few beers and a laugh. I have always loved my golf though, so I’d always said to my wife that when I retire, I was going to spend a couple of years playing golf and just enjoy the things I hadn’t been able to do since the age of 14 really. I have two kids as well, so I just enjoyed my time being with them as well.

“After maybe three or four years of that, I thought ‘I’ve got to get back into doing something’, so I decided to do my coaching badges and I am now close to completing my A-Licence. I was lucky enough to get a job back at Peterborough. Matt Etherington had done his badges before me and got the Under-18s job at the club. We’re obviously still really good friends and see a lot of each other and there was an opportunity for me to go back there when a vacancy came up. Barry Fry was still there - he was our manager during our playing days there - and he was like ‘what’s Simon doing?’ and I thought, ‘why not? Let’s give it a shot’.

“It’s great being able to give something back to the club which helped us start with the Under-18s and try to help develop them, as well as ourselves, and learn a new trade that is coaching. It’s totally different to playing as you would imagine. I’ve been doing it for two years now and I’m enjoying just trying to get better at it.”

The 2001/02 season was undeniably Simon’s best campaign in a Spurs shirt as he played an integral part in the side under Hoddle. Yet, despite the highs of the season, it was also a campaign which he believed marked the beginning of the end to his time at the Club with the frustrating onset of injuries. While he remained with us for the next three years, the Welshman admits problems with his hip and ongoing shin splints kept knocking him back – the latter being an issue that hindered him until midway through his stint at Everton when his injury luck turned by virtue of a rather everyday item, which transformed and ultimately prolonged his career.

“Towards the end of George Graham’s time at Spurs, I was really starting to feel comfortable and settled at the Club, and I believed that I could make an impact. I was really pushing around that time to get into the team. It just happened that Glenn came in kind of at the perfect moment for me. He saw something in me that he liked and from there I was pretty much a regular for the next two-and-a-half years and I played my best football in my time at the Club. I was lucky enough to win the Player of the Year award in 2002 and play with some great players at the time who I got on great with – the likes of Teddy Sheringham and Darren Anderton.

“That same season though, I started to pick up niggling injuries which held me back for the next couple of years at Spurs and that was disappointing for me - the way it ended after having felt like, at one point, a really important part of the team.

“I had struggled with a hip injury and then I really struggled with shin splints. I wasn’t really training much; I was in and out of the team and then (in 2004) Martin Jol became manager. I think he wanted out-and-out wingers in the way that he saw the game and I was more of a midfielder that played out wide. So even though I still tried my best, I don’t think I was his type of player. I had just signed a new contract the year before, but I just felt at that time, Everton had just qualified for the Champions League and it seemed like a really good opportunity to play in that competition – so I decided to make the move.

“As a new signing, I knew I needed to make an impact, but I was struggling again, and I was in and out of the team. People don’t realise sometimes those other sides of football. I was still really struggling with my shin splints and I had been to see so many specialists, but no one could help me, so I was really in pain every game. My first season was quite disappointing, and I remember speaking to the manager about it in the summer.

“Luckily for me, a new doctor came in at Wales who had been working with the Olympic team and he was all about how the bones and muscles in your legs worked in relation with your boots and stuff. One day he gave me this insole. I tried it and it was just unbelievable. From having that pain for 18 months to not having any at all after just putting this certain insole in. It was just an unbelievable moment as I was pain free. And simply, that was that.”