STRETFORD... WARRINGTON’S SPECIAL AGENT
FOOTBALL super agent Paul Stretford has enjoyed some big moments at Wembley watching Wayne Rooney and other clients – but last weekend topped the lot.
As the owner of Warrington Rylands he looked on as the non-league club with long-held family ties completed a magical journey to the famous stadium by lifting the FA Vase (right).
Stretford admitted the 3-2 victory over Binfield was “celebrated with a few – shandies.”
He added: “You go and watch your players in big games for their countries and in cup finals and you want them and their teams do well but that’s in my professional capacity. You do get emotional about it but the emotional attachment to something close to your heart is even more special. It’s also what you are doing for the community.
“The area and the community we are situated in is one of the poorer areas of Warrington and indeed the whole country, so to represent that community at
Wembley and to lift that trophy is a great feeling.”
Stretford, whose roster of big names includes Rooney and Manchester United’s Harry Maguire, has never lost touch with the less glamorous side of football.
“I played for Rylands and my dad was the treasurer,” he explained. “We only discovered recently, after finding a book at the club, that my grandfather played for them between 1919 and 1925. I always knew he had worked at Rylands but never knew he had played football there.”
It is why he could not say no when the club found themselves in financial trouble.
Stretford said: “I went there one Saturday and the chairman at the time told me they had a bit of a problem and as an ex-player did he think I could help? I started with a bit of sponsorship and it went from there.
“Five years later we’re at Wembley in the Vase final. We’ve had four promotions and next season we will be in the Northern Premier League Division One West [non-league’s fourth tier].
“Next season we can’t play in the FA Vase because of our promotion so it’s the FA Trophy.”
Rooney, on the management path with Derby, played a cameo role in the triumph and Stretford added: “Wayne has followed our progress for a few years and during this run he said if the manager [David McNabb] was OK about it he’d love to visit and speak to the players and that’s what he did.”