Isaac Hutchinson reveals big call that led him to Walsall
In the winter of 2018, Walsall midfielder Isaac Hutchinson found his career at a crossroads.
He’d spent eight years at Brighton’s academy and knew that the next step was on the horizon.
It was at this point that he decided his future belonged elsewhere, and that’s when he got a call completely out of the blue.
“I had been there for so long, and it was the right thing to leave. I was going on trials at different places, and an agent, who dealt with clubs abroad, got in touch with my dad,” Hutchinson reveals.
“He said about going on trial at Sparta Prague. I went there for eight days to begin with and I loved it.
“The weather was unbelievable, Prague was beautiful, and it’s a top club out there. They’ve been in the Champions League and the facilities were amazing. They wanted me to come back, so I went home for the weekend, and then I flew back out there for another two days.
“And this game was the other side of the country. It was ridiculous – the longest weekend of my life – but on the way back they said they wanted to offer me a contract.”
The reality of the situation soon dawned on Hutchinson, who was just 18 at the time.
It was a big commitment to uproot to another country and live over a thousand miles from his family.
The flight home provided him with plenty of food for thought, as he was left with a difficult to decision to make.
“I got home from that, and my dad said that Southend wanted to offer me a contract as well,” the midfielder recalls.
“At the time, it was a tough decision because there was part of me that really wanted to do it, but at the same time, I was 18 and I would’ve been going out there on my own.
“It was a bit of a toss-up, and I thought staying in the English game would’ve been better for me to try and progress.
“If I’d gone out there it could’ve gone one of two ways. I could’ve either been flying and gone into the first team, or it could’ve been really tough, and I don’t know where you would go from there.
“If you go out there and fail, or you struggle and you’re mentally missing home. I don’t know where you go when you come back and that was my thought process. I think that was the right decision.”
