I’m a Premier League legend but I now fix toilet seats and fill in rabbit holes as a volunteer at my boyhood club

11 months ago 90

A PREMIER LEAGUE legend is now battling to save his boyhood club and volunteers by fixing toilet seats and filling in rabbit holes for them.

Ruel Fox, now 55, first visited non-league Whitton United in Ipswich as an eight-year-old.

Ruel Fox burst on to the scene as a flying winger for Norwich City[/caption]

The star went on to play for Tottenham for five years in the Premier League[/caption]

He now earns his living as a personal trainer[/caption]

Fox is also chairman at Whitton United and performs numerous jobs in his volunteer role[/caption]

His love for them remained strong, even as his own playing career boomed, and now nearly 40 years later he is their chairman.

Fox burst on the scene with Norwich City and helped them to famously beat Bayern Munich in the Uefa Cup in the early 90s.

His displays at Carrow Road led to Kevin Keegan forking out £2.25m for the winger in 1994 as he headed to Newcastle to sign for a side dubbed the ‘Great Entertainers’.

Fox only stayed in the North East for just over a year as he headed back south to join Tottenham, and he enjoyed a memorable five-year stay at White Hart Lane.

Despite missing out on the team that won the 1999 League Cup, he is still remembered fondly by most Spurs fans for his displays down the flank.

Fox ended his playing career with a two-year spell at West Brom that finished with him helping them to secure Premier League promotion in 2002.

A brief stint as manager of Montserrat, whom he won two caps for having previously played for England’s B team, followed before he made his return to Whitton United.

Having been head coach and then assistant manager, he was then named the club’s chairman but his role is a million miles away from his glory days of torturing top-flight full-backs.

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Speaking to BBC Sport, Fox explained: “I am a local lad, even when I was playing professional football I was coming back to Whitton at weekends.

“I have an affinity with the place. That’s just the way I was brought up. It might be different for other people but I have always wanted to put back in and help out where I can.”

The Greens are currently second bottom of the Thurlow Nunn First Division North league with just four wins from 18 games.

And with Whitton unable to offer the same size wages as their rivals plus a lack of volunteers, Fox is fearing for the future of the club that was formed in 1926.

He said: “I am very worried that if we don’t get the help on that football side, then I don’t know if we’ll be having the same conversation again at the end of the season.

“I think it will be talking about folding the club and just hiring the pitches out to other teams.

“It’s a really strong community place but unfortunately we are going through hard times. We are just being brutally honest.”

Fox, who now works as a fitness instructor, is most likely to be found with tools in his hand while at the club.

He, manager Tony Lanni, 40, and a small team of committee members meet on an almost daily basis to carry out a wide-array of jobs.

And it is not just tasks to do with football – it includes repairing broken toilet seats, fixing dripping taps, filling in rabbit holes on the pitch as well as taking it in turns to wash the kits.

“It’s all about the highs and lows,” added Fox. That’s why I love the game – but we do need some drastic help down here.”