Honesty, Surrender and ‘And Then What...?’: Drewe Broughton

From the young 8-year-old so excited to play he couldn’t sleep to the 33-year-old at the end of a seventeen-year football career bankrupt, alone, unemployable and contemplating life. Former professional footballer and now performance coach Drewe Broughton talks to us about honesty, surrender and ‘And Then What...?’.

Recently, somebody accused Drewe Broughton of being “very angry” - that’s not the words I would use to describe the former MK Dons, Rotherham United and Peterborough United striker as we sit down to talk one Sunny April morning. Brutally honest, yes but not angry.

“I’ve been through rehab, I’ve been through two lots of 12 step fellowships, I’ve done loads of inner child workshops. I’ve pretty much dealt with my S### and what’s left is not anger it’s passion,” Drewe explains to me when discussing that encounter with a top football psychologist at a conference where he was doing a talk.

We start by talking about Drewe’s football career and you can hear that passion for football in his voice, Drewe was spotted at 8 years of age and, after a short period at Luton Town. he moved to Norwich City.

“My Sunday morning manager was the area scout for Norwich, so I started training with them, every school holiday and then things progressed aged 12, then 13 - then you hit 14 and you’re a schoolboy and I’d get the train on my own from Milton Keynes, across London to Norwich. I’d met a lot of the lads at Liverpool street station, Craig Bellamy and the Welsh lads - Jamie Cureton, Darren Eadie and those guys from Bristol and we’d go over to Norwich and play games against all the other academies on a Sunday morning.”

At aged 17, Drewe made his first team debut for Norwich City, a week later on his full debut, he scored away at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Before he knew it, he had a three-year deal with Adidas and had been named in the 26-man squad for the England Under 20’s world cup squad, alongside the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, Emile Heskey and Jamie Carragher. He was clearly a very talented and gifted footballer, but to say he didn’t fulfil his early promise is an understatement. After 17 years and 22 clubs, his career was over. He says that in only around 5% of his 550 plus games did he perform at his optimal best.

“Generally, I had surrendered in those 25 or so games, they usually followed a run of ordinary performances after ordinary performances - getting dropped from the team, playing with the youth team and just wanting to give up. I was lost, broken and ultimately, I surrendered. Then there would be an injury, or a suspension and I was back; 9 times out 10 I was the best player on the pitch, but I didn’t know how I’d done it, which sadly meant I couldn’t replicate it”

This became a cycle for Drewe, there would be a run of four or five performances where he was at the top of his game, and then a voice would say: “you fraud, you can’t keep this up, having a good time and enjoying a pizza after a game. This is not how professionals do it, train better, train harder, get those diet sheets back out, be the best.”

And that would drag him back down; he’d be moved on to his next club, then the next and then it was over.

“The day the lid on my coffin finally shut on 6th May 2011. The coffin of my dreams, my passion, my love from a small boy. It was finally over.”

To Drewe, football was an addiction, he couldn’t replace, and this had consequences that led him at 33 to be bankrupt, alone and unemployable.

“My wife at the time couldn’t stand my misery, I don’t blame her, she was struggling too. I moved out; I had nowhere to go, so I sofa surfed for a while and I knew I needed serious help.”

Drewe spoke to Clarke Carlisle, then Chairman of the PFA (Professional Footballer Association) and he called Sporting Chance, a rehabilitation clinic set up by former Arsenal and England Captain Tony Adams. The clinic dealt with addiction and emotional breakdown, and during his time in the clinic, Drewe went through the twelve-step program. 

“The 12 steps ultimately lead you back to yourself, your lost self and step one is to surrender, I am powerless over X - whether that be alcohol, drugs or whatever.”

Following his time in rehab, Drewe built his business - offering assessments and solutions to repetitive injuries and physical issues by top footballers. “It started with a few mates, they all respected me and gave me my time before long I was working with 30 or so top Premier League and Internationals at their houses.”

A chance call from his brother led to him working with a young footballer ready to quit the game. After spending time talking to him and his dad, things turned around, and word of mouth spread. Now, Drewe is working as a performance coach with elite athletics in football, golf and business leaders using ‘surrender’ as a coaching tool.

“When a young footballer I’m coaching says something like ‘I’ve got to play well’, ‘I need this new contract’, ‘I need to stay in the side’; ‘there are three lads breathing down my neck’, ‘I need…’, ‘I need’…

“I say you need to surrender. Work with those voices in your head - those voices aren’t going anywhere, but you can silence them by embracing them.”

Drewe’s work as a high-performance coach goes beyond simply working in physical strength; he takes a more holistic approach to development of emotional strength as well, to help unleash what they are truly capable of. Where they are sportspeople, business leaders or someone wanting to become the best version of themselves, Drewe is available to help them to unlock that possibility.

‘And What Now...?’ is Drewe’s autobiography is a frank account of his career to date - from footballer to coach but it is also packed with powerful stories and lessons for anyone in any walk of life. The title Drewe gives full credit to his wife, “I was sat at my desk having just ended a phone call with a young footballer and she said why did you keep saying ‘and then what’ - you said it about ten times.”

Drewe explains that the young footballer on the end of the phone was telling him he only had eight goals and needed ten. Double figures would mean the clubs watching him would probably sign him. The question from Drewe was simply, “and then what?”

The young lad talked about moving up the divisions in his goal to be a Premier League footballer, to which Drewe asked, “and then what?” Drewe was trying to show him that the fear of not hitting scoring them goals could ultimately lead to him not fulfilling his potential, like Drewe himself. “I said to him: you are a fantastic athlete, you’re big and powerful, you time your runs naturally. Stop all the rubbish and be you.”

As I sit and talk to Drewe about his football career, his coaching, his book and his upcoming podcast, ‘The Gift Is The Curse’, I am talking to Drewe Broughton, not the footballer or the coach but the man himself. Open, honest and living what he coaches.

This is an extended version of the feature from the May/June 2019 issue of Niche Magazine