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“It’s tough, it’s stressful, it’s completely draining … but I absolutely love my role,” states the Slough Town boss, sitting in an empty dressing room waiting for his squad to arrive for training. Since 2022, Davies has been the player-manager of Slough Town who, positioned third bottom of the table, are the lowest-placed team left in this season's FA Cup.

Balancing Two Worlds: Coaching and Education

A few squad members are stuck in traffic; the session was shifted forward to the evening to make way for a local team’s match. When the session gets under way in bucketing rain, the non-league outfit are using the artificial pitch with a junior team. “I always thought it would be great to be a coach of a semi-professional team and have a job on the side,” notes Davies. The 37-year-old has opted out, instead observing from the sidelines, with a tactics board positioned in front of him.

“We continually emphasize the significance that our role extends beyond coaching: we’re life coaches, we’re counsellors, role models,” he states.

On the previous day, he is at a local school for his other job. During 45 minutes, he quietens a classroom of sixth-formers with a sobering talk on how a gambling addiction ruined his professional journey as a footballer, put a strain on his relationships and brought him to the brink of ending his own life.

A Path Off Course: The Descent

After going into rehab a decade past, Davies has been bet-free since and is now an advocate on the dangers of gambling. He recounts to students how, when he scored a free-kick against Chelsea’s Petr Cech in a summer match, he thought he had made it. But by then, at age 21, his gambling was out of control.

The talented midfielder, then featuring in Championship football, was sneaking out of training at the earliest chance to visit the bookmakers, often making up excuses to leave. Upon being questioned by his manager to prove it, Davies could not. He was not picked by his club again.

During a loan spell at Wycombe, Davies thought he was on his way to Leeds. When he learned they had bought another player, he went to the bookmakers and lost £7,000 in a single day. Later on, at Crawley, he started betting on his own matches and would disappear into a restroom at the interval to wager. Then, at yet another team, he would stay up all night to place bets.

The Turning Point

By the age of 26, Davies’s career was in decline. He dropped three divisions to play for Dunstable. His first game was an away trip that passed his former club’s ground. “It was a moment of realisation,” Davies says. “I remember looking at the ground from the bus and wondering: ‘How did I get here?’ I will always remember that moment.”

His mentor from that time is now his assistant at Slough and the pair have created an environment where players can speak openly about anything, breaking down the barriers of macho culture that were prevalent when Davies was a young player and was afraid to discuss his problem.

The Perfect Customer: The Vulnerability of Athletes

While every case is individual, Davies believes prospective professionals are susceptible to becoming problem gamblers. The money, the spare time, a driven personality, and the perceived insider knowledge in sports betting were all factors in his addiction. “When you put all of those things together, you create the dream client for a bookmaker.”

In the week leading up to Sunday’s second-round tie, Davies is addressing two elite teams’ academy sides. “I do feel like there is a moral obligation to protect the younger generation, the ones that are coming through, and that’s why I do the job that I do,” he says.

Future Ambitions and A Historic Run

Currently content, with a family and the dad to a young child, Davies is yet to hang up his playing boots and is planning to begin his advanced coaching badge. “I have many regrets but the beauty of recovering and moving on to management is that I’m going to right the wrongs of my time as a player.”

Slough have navigated four rounds but have never reached the next stage of the Cup. Given the financial rewards, drawing a Premier League club in the next round could bring a windfall in seven figures for a team whose roster includes builders, fitness coaches and educators.

The idea of facing managers such as Pep Guardiola is a strange one for Davies. “I don’t think there would be any complex plans. It’s one of those a game you’d be happy to be defeated just for the occasion.

“It’s incredible to see the non‑league teams that get drawn against some of these powerhouses. You see it and you ask yourself: ‘Someday, could that be us?’”