I left Premier League club after playing 36 times in 10 years, I was doing TV work but now I’m chasing EFL promotion
JED STEER has been lucky but also unfortunate to work with some top keepers.
The Peterborough stopper can boast World Cup-winner Emi Martinez, Pepe Reina, Shay Given, Tom Heaton and Sam Johnstone among his former team-mates.
So Steer finally left Aston Villa in the summer having only played 36 matches in 10 years.
He said: “I’ve been fortunate to work with some top keepers – but unlucky these guys have been ahead of me during my career.
But he has also had to play second fiddle to such an array of talent over the past decade he has barely had a look-in.
“Working with all of them was a privilege because I could pick up pieces from them all.
“Emi is the most recent I’ve worked with. He’s a World Cup winner and the best keeper on the planet.
“The way he worked daily on the mental side, his professionalism and obsession on getting better every day is something you cannot ignore.
“A lot of footballers will turn up to training – some enjoy it, some don’t. Many do what’s asked of them and that’s it.
“But Emi is 100 percent. If he concedes a goal in training, he’s disappointed and thinking, ‘Why did I concede that goal?’
CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO WELCOME OFFERS
“That along with all the work he does with the analysis and psychologist guys. He has worked on every aspect of his game to try to get the most out of it.”
But Steer has many regrets about his career with Villa because of his lack of first-team opportunities.
And for someone who is now 31, 126 career league starts is not a great return – although he did star in Aston Villa’s promotion-winning campaign in 2018-19 as they returned to the Premier League.
The only problem was that as soon as they were back in the top flight, Villa went out and bought Tom Heaton.
Steer said: “I have a few regrets about the past decade.
“I went to Villa as a young keeper. I knew I was going to have to learn my trade, go out on loan, do the yards there as well as be a sponge and learn from the keepers we had ahead of me like Shay and Brad.
“I came back from loan at Huddersfield and Villa had just been relegated to the Championship. I was thinking, ‘Will I get a shot here?’
“It wasn’t to be, I was loaned out again to Charlton in League One. My contract was running out and I thought I was done at Villa.
“But then Orjan Nyland got injured and the club recalled me to play on New Year’s Day against QPR at Villa Park. ”That went OK. We drew but the club had already brought in Lovre Kalinic to play. Yet before I knew it, I was in the team playing for the rest of the season, we went on a 10-game winning run and got promoted in the play-off final against Fulham.
“But new owners came, invested hugely and Tom arrived so frustratingly I returned to being back-up again.”
Yet it was while playing second fiddle to Heaton that Steer learned so much and he believes it has helped give him the tools to kickstart his career.
He said: “I’ve so much respect for Tom and he’s a close friend of mine.
“Being behind him, made me realise what it would take to be a No1.
“I learned a lot from him not just as a footballer but as a human being.
“It was just things like the way he conducted himself and the values he has … off the pitch as well as on it.
“Tom was captain at Burnley of course and has those leadership qualities. That was one thing I was able to take from him off the pitch – be a leader.”
The highlight of Steer’s career will always be winning the 2019 Championship play-off final against Derby.
It was a vital win as Villa almost certainly would have faced an uncertain future with the club in financial trouble but gaining Premier League football has not only seen new owners come in but also establish themselves as a side fighting for European football.
He said: “To win 10 games on the spin to sneak into sixth was unbelievable in itself. The games just kept coming and we built a winning mentality.
“And then we reached that Wembley final. Being part of a club of Aston Villa’s size in the Championship, setting up that day and then winning promotion, was phenomenal.
“It was a day I’ll never forget. I was hoping to repeat it with Luton a couple of years ago but got injured and the team lost in the play-off semis.”
Steer left Villa in the summer and had been working as a pundit for the club’s in-house TV channel.
And the keeper had not played since getting injured at Luton two years ago before joining Peterborough in January.
Today they host top-of-the-table Portsmouth, sitting four points off the two automatic spots but with a game in hand. Posh also are on a five-match winning streak.
He said: “I’m 31, back playing again and still have hopefully some years left in me.
“As much as I loved the play-offs with Aston Villa, automatic promotion needs to be the route we go down.
“But if it does end up with us in the play-offs, I have the experience and know what’s needed to get across the line. There’s a lot of football still to be played.”