Gillingham defender Sam Gale was told he was never going to make it as a professional footballer, aged 12 – but look at him now!
The emergence of the central defender was one of the highlights of a season where Gillingham struggled as a team to live up to expectations.
Gale started out in Arsenal’s academy where he was regarded as one of the brightest young defenders in the country. Not everybody agreed, however, and in a game of opinions, he faced the brutal reality of football at an early age.
He hasn’t forgotten the words of the coach at the time.
Now 20, Gale said: “I was the starting centre-half at Arsenal, aged 11 or 12, and we got to the national final, losing on penalties to a Manchester City side that had Rico Lewis and Nico O’Reilly in the team.
“I was seen as one of the best centre-halves in that Premier League tournament and we barely conceded any goals, but we went into the next season and the manager decided he didn’t like my temperament.
“I have always had that will to win, and sometimes when I was younger it would go over the top a little bit. As a kid, sometimes you don’t know how to manage it. I remember a coach telling my dad that I didn’t have the temperament to be a professional footballer and I would never be one.
“I didn’t play much that next season and that hurt. It was a big commitment from me and my family, I was getting taxis from my school at Tunbridge Wells to go and train in the evenings, doing day release, and for someone to tell me at 12-years-old that I was never going to be a professional footballer was certainly interesting.
“The words from that coach certainly stuck with me and has driven me on over the years. That was one bad experience but I also worked with some brilliant coaches at Arsenal, some great people. That was just one guy and it shows how brutal football can be.
“We have had managers in the past at Gillingham who haven’t been overly fussed with me – it is certainly a game of opinions!”
Gale focused on making it into the pro game at Gillingham and thrived in the youth team at Priestfield, turning professional and ending this season with 21 straight starts, becoming a fully-fledged member of the first-team.
Making it as a pro is no easy task. At Arsenal he was in a squad full of technically excellent players, admitting that was something he had to work at.
He said: “I was always technically behind a lot of the boys who had done pre-academy from the ages of six, which I never did, I was plucked from Sunday football to go to Arsenal.
“The technical standard from some of the boys, even from the age of nine, was excellent and the pressure from coaches to be technically excellent, I have never seen anything like it. It was a challenge but really good for me.
“It’s where I really got that passion to defend, coming up against some of these boys who are technically good and almost disrespecting me with some of those skills but I had the mindset that, ‘You might be all this but you’re not going to get past me!’
Some of his age group players have made it – but not many.
Sydie Peck played in the Championship play-off final for Sheffield United last month, Will Lankshear is at Spurs and was on loan at West Brom during the second half of the season. Kieran Petrie is at QPR and there are a couple of others playing in 21s football.
Gale said: “It shows the brutal reality of academy football. From a 15-16 man team there are only a few of us playing league football.
“I played in the same team as Cruz Beckham for a few years as well and football is definitely in his genetics. I think he knew he wasn’t going to make the grade but he’s well set for a good career doing something.”
It’s at Gillingham where Gale is now forging a path in the pro game. He was named young player-of-the-year after breaking into the first team and staying there, a task made even harder with the three managers he had to impress.
He said: “When I came back from the loan at Chelmsford in December I had to prove I could make the grade and I put that pressure on myself.
“It was unbelievable for me personally and I didn’t expect it, especially going out on loan at the start of the season, but I am grateful for the opportunities.
“I remember going home after Mark Bonner had been sacked and thinking ‘I have got to prove it to another manager now.’ He went the day we would have been playing Chesterfield. I was meant to have started that game but it was frozen off.
“It can be really hard for a young player because sometimes new managers go to what they know, which can be experienced players, but thankfully John Coleman came in and put me in the team after a couple of games and I played every game from then on.
“I had the same feeling when Gareth Ainsworth came in. There is always a bit of worry, thinking how he is going to look at it, will he want to play a young centre half who is still relatively unproven? He stuck with me and he’s been brilliant for me.”
Loans spells at Sheppey United, Hastings United and Chelmsford City had served the young defender well in preparing him for life in the Football League.
He said: “Some of those non-league strikers might not be the best athletes but they can be physical and make themselves a decent living off being good old school no.9s, holding the ball, knowing where to be in the box, being a presence. It was a challenge.
“I don’t think I would have put in the performances I have had if I was chucked into the first team at 18 (without that experience). There are a few extreme examples like Lamine Yamal (at Barcelona). He is probably the best player in the world but in League 2 not many players can just step in from the youth team and tear it up.”
Gale became a firm favourite with the Gills crowd, who love to see a homegrown talent shine. Getting stuck into life in League 2 was something the defender absolutely loved, even if it was a little painful at times.
He said: “I love the physical side of the game – I thrive off it. I might not look the biggest in stature, in terms of upper body, but I have always been a believer that strength is in the core, it’s in the legs and if you are strong in that department you’re not going to get outmuscled. I like to think I haven’t been.
“I remember playing against (Swindon striker) Harry Smith, he was a handful, in terms of being aggressive. One time I tried to block him off a set-piece and he hit me with the stiffest elbow I’ve ever had in my life! My ear was ringing for five minutes.
“Newport striker Courtney Baker-Richardson was another one who was strong and a good player. They all offer different challenges in League 2 and the bare minimum is to be physical and I always have to expect that but they can mix it up.
“I have been a defender for as long as I remember, since I started playing football. I love to defend, I love to tackle, I love to be that dominant presence, I like to let my man know, ‘You’re not winning this battle!’
“I have never really had the interest in going up the other end and taking the glory. Defending and playing football is what I wake up in the morning to do, even in training to a certain degree I will be roaring into tackles and trying to stamp my authority. I love it.
“I love nothing better than a big tackle and I remember making one on the last game at Port Vale late on. There is no better feeling of hearing the crowd respond to the tackle and rise to their feet, it’s amazing!”
Gale is heading into the 2025/26 season with a whole different mindset now from last year.
He said: “Going into last season it felt like it was a free hit, with nothing to lose. I will still have that same hunger but there is a lot more at stake now and I have to prove I deserve to keep that place – that is my priority.
“I felt like I was out in the cold for the first part of the season and that maybe my future lied away from the football club, as I was in the last year of my contract and I thought, ‘This might be the end of my time at Gillingham but I did well on loan, came back and I haven’t looked back.
“I am not taking anything for granted though and just I want to help the team have a successful season.”
Gillingham have managed to produce plenty of decent centre-halves in recent years, whether coming out of the youth team like Gale, Jack Tucker (MK Dons), Matt Baker (Newport) and Emmanuel Fernandez (Peterborough) or progressing as young pros like John Egan or Conor Masterson have done.
Many, like Gale, have done so alongside Max Ehmer, who this summer ended his long association with the Gills.
“Max Ehmer deserves a big credit for that success,” Gale said.
“I spoke to him privately when he left the club about how good he was for me and the other centre-halves who played alongside him, going back to Jack Tucker and now Conor Masterson, Shad (Ogie) and myself.
“Playing alongside an experienced centre-half like that is really important and I think the environment at the club just breeds defenders!
“I look at Gillingham as a team that works hard first and we are going to be horrible, we’re not going to be nice to play against. Our fans can make Priestfield a horrible place for the opposition and I think that all links to being a strong centre-half, defending your box, having that passion, I think that has a lot to do with it.”
Logan Dobbs is another centre-half who has been given chance as a professional this summer, having just celebrated a promotion out on loan with Burgess Hill Town.
Gale said: “He’s a good lad, a strong defender, a good passer and it’s a really good league and to have got promoted out of it is a great achievement. He is good on the ball, strong and definitely the next off the line to come through.
“Kent is a massive county and we have it to ourselves, in terms of being a professional club, and some of those young lads coming through the youth team are so strong.
“From what I hear of the lower age groups, 14s, 15s and down to the academy there are some really good players and then there’s obviously us older lads who have just graduated, having had to wait a while for our opportunities.
“Joe (Gbode) has had a few loans out, but never had an extended run, he has had that now and Taite (Holtam) came in and did brilliantly.
“Harry Webster was brilliant when he had his opportunity and even younger lads who haven’t come to the fore, it is really strong and the fans love that because we are Gillingham through and through.”
Gale is now enjoying a well-earned holiday but will be relishing his return and another stab at League 2.
He said: “In terms of next season, we have spoken about it a lot as a group before we went away. This season wasn’t good enough, we accept that, a part of it was putting pressure on ourselves and outside noise.
“We are not putting a label on what success is, but we are going to be competitive and we want to win and we want to be a successful side.”
