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A Taxi For Alex Rae At Dens Park Was Too Soon Says David Farrell


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Almost exactly seven years ago David Farrell found himself out of a job after he followed close friend and manager Alex Rae out of the door at Dundee.

Working on a shoestring budget, the pair led the Dark Blues to third and second-place finishes in the First Division in each of the previous two seasons.

Not bad for a club that had teetered on the brink of extinction a few years earlier and, when they arrived in 2006, was still facing huge challenges.

And although the 2008/9 campaign started poorly, the Dark Blues had lost top players like Kevin McDonald the previous summer but were not too far away from the promotion race.

Getting his jotters was another valuable lesson in a 28-year football career that’s seen him take to pen and paper to write an eagerly-anticipated book, Taxi for Farrell: Football Between the Lines.

Before turning to that, he admits he feels what happened to himself and Alex Rae was harsh. But without taking another breath, he adds that’s football.

“I hadn’t actually realised it was seven years ago this month,†admitted the man who, as well as driving a taxi in his native Glasgow, writes a blog on the internet.

“Time flies but I have good memories of Dundee. Like everywhere in football it was a learning experience.

“The big thing I learned there is it’s a game where all that matters is what you’re doing now. Not in the past or what you might do in the future.

“Alex got the sack and then I went but we should have been given longer.

“As I’ve put down in the book, at the time Dundee was a club that still had problems from being in administration, big ones.

“Despite that, we got a couple of decent finishes in the league and in our second season our points tally (69) would’ve been enough to have won it the season before and the season after.

“Alex and I had also progressed the club. They were low when we arrived and I think they had bottomed out.

“We weren’t able to get them back up to the Premier but we did make progress and that was important because when clubs in that position do bottom out, it can be for four or five years or they never recover.â€

Taxi-For-Farrell-COVER-563x870-WP.png-37David Farrell has written about his experiences in the game.

While the pair have both gone on to find other jobs in the game, Farrell admits he finds it amazing Rae has never been a manager in his own right since.

“Alex has worked at some big clubs with some big names because he has a good reputation down south.

“But he also had a good record at Dundee and should have had the chance elsewhere.

“That’s another thing football teaches you. When you’re out it’s hard to get back in and, if your name’s not on the list that’s in fashion, it’s even harder.â€

Farrell has been out of the game since leaving English outfit Celtic Nation, where he was assistant to Willie McStay, as the now-defunct club were hit by a cash crisis last year.

That’s given him time to write his book and gain financial stability through driving his own taxi.

“There’s a perception in Scotland that if you are involved in full-time football, or even a decent-sized part-time club, that’s you made for life.

“For the vast majority of us that was never the case.

“The book shows what I earned throughout my career and, at times like when I went to Dundee, I was actually giving up financial stability.

“For most of us football is a situation where you can be out of work and without a wage at any time.

“I still miss it but now I have that stability from the taxi and I don’t forget that. But would I say no if a job came up? Who knows?

“Usually on a Saturday at 3, I’m just starting a shift in my cab.

“Happy as I am, the football is on the radio and I won’t say I don’t think I’d like to be in a dugout somewhere.â€

Taxi for Farrell: Football Between The Lines, is being published by Dundee based Teckle Books next month.



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“Happy as I am, the football is on the radio and I won’t say I don’t think I’d like to be in a dugout somewhere.â€

If that's the level of the writing in the book, I think I'd find it hard going!  :)

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