'Everything I wanted to do': David Ornstein reveals he tried out for a Premier League club before becoming a journalist

David Ornstein has revealed he dreamed of becoming a Premier League footballer and even went on trial at a top-flight club before becoming a journalist.

The sports reporter is one of the best in the game and is a cult hero among football fans for his transfer updates and privileged information.

However, the transfer oracle once had a very different plan for his life and career as a child: he wanted to play the game, not write about it.

In a conversation with Manchester United legend Dwight YorkeFormer Bolton striker Kevin Davies and Daily Mirror editor Darren Lewis, Ornstein spoke about the football figures who have inspired him.

And he revealed that he spent a whole year on trial in Chelseaand later had a job at Pizza Hut, before deciding to dedicate himself full-time to a career in journalism.

“I just knew how to work hard. I had no academic intelligence and I failed a lot in school because all I wanted to do was play football,” he told the Dwight and Friends podcast.

“I was on trial for a year at Chelsea and my mind was set on becoming a Premier League footballer or a professional athlete.

“I saw relatives, siblings, cousins ​​getting top grades and going to college and I thought, ‘What the hell am I going to do here?’ At one point I worked as a waiter at Pizza Hut in my free time from school, but I thought, ‘You have to work harder. ’

“If you have academic intelligence or hard work, some people are lucky enough to have both and I, unfortunately, do not, but effort and hard work will always get you somewhere.

“If you don't take shortcuts and you put in the effort, believe it or not, you can work harder than others if you want to; that can take you a long way.

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“It all comes down to the people you admire along the way and the decisions you make, and in our case they are leaders like Mr Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Sam AllardyceBrian Little and so on.

“These people set the highest standards… and that rubs off on people like me.

“When you take that approach to your journalism, you hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty and diligence that you apply to your craft.

“People ask me, ‘How do you get so many stories right?’ and ‘How do you get so many things across?’

“But I would say to them (the players): how did you manage to score so many goals and play so well for so many teams and accumulate so many performances?

“It is because our inspirations have allowed us to learn and make decisions.”