Nile Ranger says timekeeping is the main reason for holding back his career following prison and Southend sacking
Former Newcastle striker spoke exclusively to SunSport in his first interview since having his contract terminated in January
NILE RANGER has added to his rap sheet more than his goals tally during a chequered career.
But English football’s biggest bad boy believes only one thing is holding him back . . . his timekeeping.
It sounds a fanciful claim after endless brushes with the law dating back to when he was convicted for his part in an armed robbery aged 15.
Yet you then remember Southend stuck by Ranger when he was suspended for a failed drugs test and jailed for online banking fraud.
And they only sacked the striker in January because of his inability to turn up to training on time!
In his first interview since leaving the League One club, Ranger said: “I’ve been sacked from a few clubs, which is obviously not good.
“But I haven’t been in trouble for ages. Southend only got rid of me for lates, which was stupid on my part.
“It’s self-inflicted but I know what I have to do. I’ve got to be earliest into training and leave latest.
“Getting in on time is something you learn from being a scholar. I am a grown-up so I should know better than that. I’ve got to sort myself out.
“Everyone is late now and again but I can’t be. Simple as.
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“I look in the mirror and I’m like, ‘You are actually growing up but you have to work on your timekeeping’.
Ranger, who signed a four-year contract when he joined Southend in 2016, puts his timekeeping troubles down to his sleep patterns.
He used to kip after training, then go on his PlayStation or Instagram late at night . . . and not nod off until the morning.
Ranger, who arrived for this interview in North London fairly punctual by his own standards, added: “I would wake up late and try to sneak into training in the back entrance.
“There were times where I would be up to an hour late.
“The players were getting on to me saying ‘Nile, stop taking the p***, you need to get with it because you are turning us against you’.
“The gaffer, Phil Brown, was telling me the same thing. They just wanted to help me but I wasn’t listening.
“I racked up quite a few fines and we used it for the Christmas party . . . so we had a good one!
“But eventually the chairman, Ron Martin, pulled the plug and said enough is enough.
“I can have no complaints. Ron bent over backwards for me. Players wondered why I got special treatment but he just wanted me to get back to the top.
"He once told me ‘You are going to end up rich or broke — there is no middle ground’.”
Indeed, Ranger, 27, has seen both ends of the financial spectrum.
He got a lucrative five-and-a-half-year deal at Newcastle when he was only 19 but is now unemployed for the second sustained spell of his career.
And money problems are the reason Ranger ended up behind bars last year after admitting his part in a 2015 bank fraud which saw a woman lose more than £2,000.
The one-time England Under-19 starlet was sentenced to eight months in London’s Pentonville prison in May 2017, serving ten weeks.
Ranger admitted: “I got caught up in something and it got messy. I think I just wanted to be a bit greedy.
“Lockdown in jail was stiff. I was banged up for 23 hours a day with cockroaches coming through my cell. And the food was shocking.
“I think some of the guvs knew who I was and some would try and mistreat me but I just got through it.
“I knew a few people in there and I know how to hold my own.
“There was a little incident when I got my cousin to post on Instagram about Cheick Tiote when he died.
“I spoke to him on the phone and gave him my password but I didn’t know at the time my cell-mate had been hiding a phone.
“They thought it was me that posted it on Instagram. I had an adjudication and they said I was not guilty and because I behaved well, I did only two-and-a-half months and then came out on a tag.
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“My time inside made me reflect and think ‘I need to focus’ but I came out and lateness let me down, which is crazy.”
Ranger has not kicked a ball in nine months and is currently nursing a knee injury.
But he remains confident of reviving his career, insists clubs have been “sniffing around” and claims he has not touched alcohol for months.
Yet he knows it will take a leap of faith he does not necessarily deserve to get a chance back in football.
Asked why a club should trust him, Ranger replied: “You know what, they shouldn’t.
“But things can be put in my contract so they can get rid of me if I mess around.
“No one has a problem with me on the field, it’s always off the field.
“I know my ability and I could play at the top. I know there is another chance coming but I need to make sure this one works.
“I’m 27 now and there is no more time to be messing about.
“I’ve thought about quitting loads of times but then I say, ‘No, I am too good to stop, that would be a waste of talent’.
“I know what I have to do, I’ve just got to get the opportunity. And I will.”