Former Dundee star Steven Caulker has relived his “insane” time at Dens Park as he revealed joining Neil McCann’s Dark Blues saw his love for the game return.
In a wide-ranging podcast, the former England defender spoke openly about his battles with addiction.
Serious problems with alcohol and gambling addiction had derailed a promising top-class career that had taken in Tottenham Hotspur, Cardiff, QPR, Liverpool and Southampton in the Premier League.
Caulker arrived at Dundee as a free agent after leaving QPR mid-season, signing an 18-month deal in February 2018.
His problems were not gone but joining the Dark Blues rekindled his love for football.
‘Playing on tag’
However, it was far from a normal dressing-room with midfielder Paul McGowan wearing an ankle tag after being convicted of assault.
And plenty more going on as Caulker recalled to the Under The Cosh podcast: “My options were limited. I had one or two snippets in China but I wasn’t ready for something like that, I wanted some kind of normality.
“It was far from it! It was insane. Incredibly good, I really, really enjoyed it, but my God.
“I felt so normal there. I was looking around and thinking ‘If I’m f******, he’s f****** as well’.
“One of the boys, he’s playing on tag, he can’t play away games. This is great, I love it.
“That’s the icing on the cake, playing on tag. That sets the bar there.”
Setting off fire alarms
He added: “The boys just made me feel human, I was human there. I wasn’t going in there as Steven Caulker, I was just one of the boys.
“At Southampton I felt I was going in as Steven Caulker the failure from Liverpool. I felt the further down there was less judgement.
“When there is less money involved the boys are really together.
“It was mental. There was one guy, he was the captain.
“He got on the table at Pizza Express and said, ‘I don’t give a f*** what the gaffer says, we’re f****** getting on it today boys, we’re getting f***** smashed!
“That’s gone back to the gaffer, he’s taken the armband off him, gives the armband to me and it didn’t take long for the armband to be off me!
“I was setting off fire alarms at some hotel in Dundee after some mad night out.
“The next guy, he’s arrested and put on tag. So it’s gone through three people, and the gaffer’s like ‘I don’t know what to do any more’.
“We kept them up though, we went in with a job to do and kept them up.
“The boys were so together, we had a couple of good players like Glen Kamara who’s gone on to do well at Rangers.
“We had good players but it was just the togetherness.
“We’d go to the stadium, jump in a mini-bus, we’re driving the mini-bus to get to training.
“I didn’t have a license at the time but the banter was great. I got my love for football back.”
Rosenborg
So much so that Caulker turned down a big-money move to stick around at Dundee.
Norwegian outfit Rosenborg were in the market for a centre-back and came calling with a serious offer, as reported by the Evening Telegraph at the time.
But Caulker took the risk to wait for something better. It didn’t materialise and Caulker left Dundee on a free transfer in August 2018 after triggering a clause in his contract.
He played just 17 times for the Dark Blues before heading to the Turkish Super Lig. This season, however, he returned to the UK with Wigan Athletic.
“After five games I got an offer from Rosenborg, they offered £2 million for me to go there as transfer fee,” Caulker added.
“Everyone in Scotland was saying ‘that’s not true, Dundee would have accepted that’.
“It was true.
“Five games in Rosenborg were there, in Scotland, ready to do a deal.
“Part of my contract in going there because they obviously couldn’t pay serious money was 66% of any transfer fee goes to me.
“So I’m now sat there going ‘hold on a second, this is a good deal…’
“This was after five games, we thought there would be more to come.
“Rosenborg were a good team but it just felt like I’d just got there (to Dundee).
“So I decided to stay but come the summer there were zero (offers).”
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