How Alan Shearer, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler stopped Robbie Blake playing for England

Only six years after his debut as a professional footballer, Robbie Blake almost achieved the biggest dream. The Three Lions crest may never have been worn, but consideration for the national team was the second best thing. Competing against some of the top strikers in England during the year 2000 proved the factor which meant he couldn’t break him into the squad. Blake recalled the moment national boss Kevin Keegan called him. “He rang me up and basically said, ‘there’s two reserves for these upcoming games, if someone pulls out, you’re in!’” “I was so close to achieving international status, but I unfortunately just missed out. I looked at the forwards ahead of me and they were no mugs, I wasn’t surprised to miss out to these guys.” Competition ahead of him included Michael Owen, Alan Shearer and Robbie Fowler. Good form from Blake led to the potential call-up, including a double against Leicester City before the announcement. “Despite not making the full squad, to even be mentioned as a reserve meant everything,” he reflected. “It didn’t materialise unfortunately but to be considered was unbelievable, no-one can take away what I had managed to achieve.” As the years rolled by, retirement beckoned. Come 2013, Blake’s career had come to an end. From kicking a ball around professionally for almost 20 years, it was a hard pill to swallow for the striker. Acceptance was difficult and the bigger picture looked smaller than ever. How I caught the football bug and where it's taken meBlake said bravely: “I don’t think you ever brace yourself for retirement, I struggled for about 18 months. “Looking back on that time, I would probably say I was depressed and I didn’t speak to anyone about it when I should have. “But one day I thought to myself I need to get out of this and do something, I had to give something back to football the same way it gave me everything.” His coaching journey began in Belfast, aiming to achieve his badges, which he is still working this way through on the way to gaining his A-licence. Since Belfast, he has since moved to the south of England with his wife and three kids, a good 300-mile trip from his home town and the rest of his family. “Initially moving from Middlesbrough to Darlington it was around an hour away, so it wasn’t far but I was away from family. I loved it at Burnley - and the fans seemed to love me!“But now, when you’re older the family understand you may need to travel even further, but life goes on and we’re still in contact regardless.” Blake was part of Paul Cook’s successful spell at Fratton Park, working as coach at a time when Pompey won the League Two title. After Kenny Jackett introduced his own backroom team at Pompey, Jack Pearce invited Blake to Bognor and things swiftly moved forward from there and he has now just finished his second season at Nyewood Lane. He said: “I liked the set-up of Bognor when I visited for pre-season games with Portsmouth. I’m enjoying it so much and learning every day, hopefully it continues and I can achieve a lot here. “It’s fantastically run and the fans are incredible, these are the bedrock of English football.” Although he in his early days of coaching, Blake can see Bognor being his base for a good while yet and doesn’t want his journey to come to an end. A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton: In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers. With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers. Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis. Stay safe, and best wishes.