Charlie Ide: Battling gambling addiction at Brentford | OneFootball

After beating Wrexham 2-1 at the Racecourse on 3 May 2005, Brentford secured a place in the League One play-offs with a game to spare.

It was a complete contrast to 12 months earlier, when they had just about preserved their third-tier status in what became known as ‘The Great Escape’.

It goes without saying that Martin Allen had worked wonders in west London.

The Bees fans already loved him dearly, but he further endeared himself to them when, on the final day of the regular season, he gave several youth team products their first taste of senior football.

Among them were Darius Charles, Karleigh Osborne, Ryan Watts and George Moleski. The other was Charlie Ide, who came on as a late replacement for Jay Tabb three days before his 17th birthday.

The boyhood Chelsea fan, from nearby Sunbury, had been with the club since the age of 10 and was already travelling with the first team by 16.

He was held in high regard and impressed during short loan spells at Slough Town in 2005/06 and Sutton United in 2006/07.

So when Brentford’s form started to stutter at the end of October 2006 - following two highly successful but, ultimately, fruitless campaigns under Allen - Brentford boss Leroy Rosenior recalled the teenager in a bid to help revive their fortunes.

Ide thrived. In 26 league games, he scored seven goals and provided one assist. But he was one of the only shining lights in an otherwise miserable season that ended in relegation to League Two.

“I felt good stepping up to the first team, it just felt normal,” he says. “When the fans are singing your name, you get a buzz.

“I mostly played on the right wing that season and I had a good relationship with Jo Kuffour. I didn’t care where I played, I just wanted to play. Even when I didn’t score, I was playing well.”

There was interest from higher up, as you would expect. “I think it was Reading and Wolves. But it just didn’t happen. I didn’t have a good agent,” he concedes. Instead, he signed a new two-year contract in the summer of 2007 to keep him at Griffin Park.

Ide is open and honest about the money he earned at that time - and the problems it caused.

“Where I got through to the first team earlier, I was on quite good money at a young age,” he says. “I think I was bringing home a basic wage of about £1,200 a week at 16/17.

“With appearance money and goal bonuses, it added up quickly. I was still living at home and bringing home nearly £6,000 a month - and not paying any bills.

“But I didn’t have anyone for a bit of guidance. I got addicted to gambling on horse racing. Straight after training, I was in the betting shop and I got into a bit of debt with it.

“Now, you get a lot more help with the money and that side of things. I didn’t have any help at all, I was just chucked in there. We finished training early and there was nothing to do.

“You don’t realise how quickly it can be over. It did go to my head a bit, yes. You get a bit of money and you get a bit flash as well, don’t you? A bit carried away.”

While he had a good relationship with Rosenior, Ide believes it would have been different had he continued to work with Allen.

“If he were still there, I think he would have got me help. He would’ve kept me grounded. He wouldn’t have let me get above my station.”

Down in League Two, Ide started the season as a regular under Terry Butcher, who took over the vacant manager’s role after Barry Quin had ended the season as caretaker.

He had high hopes to build on a brilliant start to his Brentford career and told the Richmond & Twickenham Times: “Last season, I aimed to get at least 10 goals - this time, 15 might be a realistic target. Ideally, I want to get more than that.”

But once Butcher left in December 2007 and Andy Scott stepped up from his role as the former England captain’s assistant, the clock began to tick towards Ide’s own departure.

“I worked under six managers at Brentford - Martin Allen, Leroy Rosenior, Scott Fitzgerald, Barry Quin, Terry Butcher and Andy Scott,” Ide adds.

“When new managers came in, unless they liked you, you’d have to start again. It was hard.

“I tore my groin, which took a while to heal, and I think I did my hamstring as well that season.

"And [Scott] didn’t really give me a chance; I think he wanted to put his mark on it and get his own people in.

"At that time, I didn't want to go to training because I wasn’t happy. I couldn’t wait to finish and get home.

“I was hoping someone would come in for me, but I got injured and couldn’t play much, so I couldn’t get fit properly.”

Ide played only four times under Scott and ended the season on loan at Lewes in the Conference South. In the summer of 2008, he joined Grays Athletic of the Conference after his release by Brentford.

But only seven league games into a one-year contract, he asked the Essex club to cancel his contract. “I hated the Conference. That wasn’t good football; big brutes are just smashing into you.”

Before long, he was playing semi-professional football in the Isthmian League, where he found a balance that worked for him.

“I went to the Ryman and was picking up good money, like £400 a game,” he says.

“I was semi-professional, working full-time, then doing two or three days a week with them, so I was picking up nearly a grand a week doing that. I didn’t mind that.

“It was a good standard of football, a lot easier than League One.”

Ide played close to his roots in non-league - Croydon Athletic, Chertsey Town, Bedfont Green, Carshalton Athletic, Hayes & Yeading - before spells at the now-defunct Walton Casuals, either side of a move to Bromley in 2011.

Sadly, it was during his time with the Stags that his playing days effectively ended when, at 23, he ruptured his ACL.

“I didn’t have the surgery,” he says. “I couldn’t afford to have 12 weeks off work, so I just left it. I still get pain with it now when it’s cold.

“When you’re young, you just think you'll be playing football for the rest of your life, don't you? Then you realise how hard it is to actually stay in football.”

More than a decade on, Ide still works full-time in roofing and fitting log-burning stoves, as he was even before he signed his first professional contract.

“If Martin Allen had stayed, I reckon I would be just retiring now,” he adds. “People think I threw it away, but they don’t know anything.

“I do miss it. When I go and watch Brentford, I just imagine it being my name called out. I’d like to have had my kids see me play as well. I wish I’d knuckled down more, instead of letting it get to my head, but I don’t really look back.

“I’d like to have earned more money in football, too; but, if you don’t get to the Championship, you can’t retire when you’re 35.

“I don't mind going to work, though. I've got three kids now and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to pay the bills. I’m half-glad it happened to me early because I've learned a trade.”

If you feel you have a problem with gambling, please visit GamCare's website for help and advice at www.gamecare.org.uk, or contact the GamCare National Helpline on 0808 8020 133. Lines open 8am to midnight.