Wolves and Burnley lock horns at Molineux on Sunday in a fixture already of mammoth importance for their Premier League fortunes. For Roger Eli, fond memories of both clubs came at a much lower level. As Paul Berry discovers.
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Wolves, Burnley and Leeds. Three clubs delighted to be plying their trade in the Premier League. And three clubs represented by Roger Eli with plenty of pride. Not to mention having spent time as a youngster with Nottingham Forest.
“My claim to fame is playing for the first team of those three,” he says with a chuckle.
“But seriously, all of them are great clubs with great histories and supporters.
“Even if I didn’t score a load of games or play 100 games for all three – and that was always my intention – I was grateful to have been a part of them.”
Eli had considerably more success with Wolves’ next opponents Burnley, where he did chalk up over a century of appearances and 31 goals, than he did at Molineux, or indeed Elland Road, albeit that came at the start of what turned into a versatile career.
Versatile in the sense of occupying so many different positions, but also injury-hit, through no fault of his own, with setbacks tending to come along at the most inopportune moments.
Eli turned 60 last month. He remains as busy as ever, in the world of business, in which he has been very successful since hanging up his boots some three decades ago.
He is currently seeking investors for a new tech initiative linked to football academies, effectively a wellbeing sports platform for both parents and children. Initially he went into the world of textiles, manufacturing materials for suits initially for the pristine clientele frequenting Savile Row, Regent Street and Kensington, before branching out globally to include basketball players in Malaysia. Then came an office supply business, before a printing company. A level of versatility in his business interests that matches his capability as a footballer.
“I think it’s always good in life to be able to learn, and to try to be entrepreneurial,” says Eli.
He has certainly achieved that.
Born in Bradford, his footballing ambitions first took him to the East Midlands and Nottingham Forest.
And, working with the first of many managers with a pedigree which matched the level of their success: Brian Howard Clough.
“I was with Forest probably from the age of 12, when I used to go down and train there once a week, and a bit more in the school holidays,” Eli recalls.
“They were flying at the time, a smallish club but a brilliant club, and we’d see Brian Clough around the place quite a bit.
“It was during the holidays that we bonded as a group of young players, not just in training but spending time around the city, going ice skating and bowling and that sort of stuff.
“When I was 15, I was often playing a few years up for the Under-18s, and remember once going over to play in a tournament in Italy.
“In the first game I came on against Juventus, and even though I was giving away a few years to most of the defenders, I was pretty quick and, playing as a striker, could get in behind.
“This one centre half was kicking lumps out of me, and then called me a racist name, eventually getting sent off.
“Brian Clough was actually over there with us, and I will never forget looking over to the dugout, where he jumped out, gave it his legendary thumbs up, and shouted ‘well done’.”
Eli was actually courted by both Lazio and Fiorentina during the tournament, who were keen to have a closer look at him, and Clough’s advice was to take their advances extremely seriously.
But the young hopeful was keen to return closer to home where he was attracting plenty of interest. And even though his promise didn’t lead to the offer of an apprenticeship with Forest – Clough showed he could see into the future by suggesting he would suffer too many injuries – he was soon snapped up, in his native Yorkshire, by Leeds United.
Having met Clough at Forest, he did the same with his managerial nemesis Don Revie in his early days at Elland Road, where he had been signed by one of his heroes, Allan Clarke.
“I’m a Leeds fan, and growing up, whenever I was playing football in the garden, I’d want to be either Allan Clarke or Peter Lorimer,” Eli recalls.
“So, it was quite surreal when Allan actually signed me!”
Clarke lost his job not long afterwards, with another Leeds legend Eddie Gray taking over, and, coming through the ranks, Eli was primed to make his first team debut only to suffer a cartilage injury playing for the reserves, the first of many such issues to afflict him during his career.
He did, though, make his senior debut from the bench against Wimbledon in December 1984, and by the time he made his first start a year later, Gray had been replaced by yet another Leeds legend in Billy Bremner.
“I’d just come back from a broken leg, another injury, and Billy was trying to change things by bringing in a few players from his previous club Doncaster,” says Eli.
“I had three months or so of playing some of the best football of my career, and Billy gave me my full debut against Brighton, but my opportunities were still limited, and then Wolves came in.”
Whilst at Leeds, Eli had already come into contact with several players who would go on to have affiliations with Wolves.
Terry Connor, future coach, assistant and manager, was a couple of years older, whilst Denis Irwin, future play-off winner, and Scott Sellars, later technical director, were within his age group.
But it was fellow Bradford-born mate Micky Holmes who had alerted him to Wolves’ interest, sparked by Brian Little, then working as assistant to Sammy Chapman.
Wolves, at the start of 1986, were on the decline, but that didn’t do anything to put Eli off.
“Wolves, like Leeds, were a massive club, even if they were going through a difficult time,” he recalls.
“I had also remembered being a kid, collecting football cards, and that great old gold kit.
“Billy said he would keep me, but I would have probably been released like Denis Irwin was at the end of the season, so I was keen to come to Wolves and play more regular football.
“I went into it with open eyes, and even though the crowds when I joined were around 3,000, that was still a lot more than the reserve games I was playing before, and it was going out with a result at stake in front of fans.
“I’d say the only thing that shocked me was that we had to wash our own kit!
“At Leeds I used to just turn up with a washbag as they had a laundry and people working on it but at Wolves, it was a case of sorting our own kit.
“I loved it though, that was my first regular taste of football with thousands of fans watching, and those Wolves fans were so genuine and supportive.
“Success isn’t always achievable, and we can’t always play well, but supporters pay their money and what I always did was to try my best for them.”
He did that in many different parts of the pitch. Having started out at Leeds as a striker, at Wolves he occupied shirt numbers 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 at different times as well as 12 from the bench. Those sorts of players are worth their weight in gold – excuse the pun – given their adaptability, but it sometimes comes at a personal cost denying the chance to build up a head of steam in a particular position.
“I’d always been versatile when it came to football,” Eli explains.
“Even in schoolboy teams, at county level, going to England junior camps, I played in many different positions and it really didn’t matter to me.
“I don’t want to big myself up or anything but I just felt confident I could play wherever I was put, and it was all about being able to handle the ball and also being physical.
“In Leeds youth team I played at centre back with Denis Irwin, in the reserves I played right wing or midfield and at Wolves it was the same.
“Then later at Burnley I went up front, which is where I started at Forest, and with hindsight maybe it would have been better to have stuck with that all the way through.
“But it really didn’t matter, I was happy to do a job wherever.”
On the pitch, it was a tough old time for the team. Eli’s 21 appearances, in those different positions, came as Wolves suffered a third successive relegation which took them from First Division to Fourth in barely the blink of an eye.
He moved on, just as the seeds of the famous revival were starting to be sewn. A broken metatarsal, which then recurred, damaged all hopes of being able to impress new boss Graham Turner, whilst he also jokingly blames his good mate Holmes for scoring in seven successive games and denying him a route into the team.
Dean Edwards and Andy Mutch provided much of the firepower, and then along came Steve Bull, but even amid an 18-month stay punctuated by injuries and poor results, Eli only looks back with fond memories. Particularly of his lodgings!
“I stayed with the legendary Jack and Olive Carr, who were amazing for me,” he recalls.
“Olive used to serve the most fantastic meals, piles of really healthy food, and Jack would tell all the stories about the history of the club – they were such perfect digs to stay in for any young player.
“But I did enjoy it at Wolves, playing for both Sammy Chapman and Brian Little, and playing in front of those fans…
- Express & Star subscribers can read the full feature here – https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/2025/10/23/the-former-wolves-and-burnley-man-behind-new-tech-initiative-designed-to-aid-wellbeing-of-academy-players/
