Big Interview - Grant Holt

He was still involved in football and did well at Workington, earning a chance at Halifax Town.

Eventually he ended up back at non-league Barrow, where he would work part-time in a factory, driving a stacker, to help make ends meet.

Nearly 600 professional football appearances were to come his way in just under two decades that followed, as well as plundering almost 200 goals as a lethal centre-forward.

Grant was to become the star that fired Norwich to the top flight and then shone in the Premier League in Canary yellow and green.

But the teenager on the stacker would have laughed in your face and told you politely to ‘shut up’ if somebody had suggested the path that lay ahead. Even at Shrewsbury Town, the club before Norwich, where he scored for fun in League Two, Holt didn’t know how much further he could take it.

Former Villa and Wolves frontman Holt has launched his autobiography A Real Football Life and it is fitting, as a sign-off, that he penned a letter to his younger self.

“He’d have said ‘shut up’ to be honest with you,” Holt told the Express & Star when asked what his teenage self would’ve made at what lay ahead.

“Even up until when I left Shrewsbury and went to Norwich in League One, I didn’t believe I’d go to the Premier League.

“I went there believing I knew they’d get promoted out of League One because we had a good squad.

“I knew we’d be competitive in the Championship, but I’d never dream of going back-to-back into the Premier League. I don’t think anyone had envisaged that.

“Even to myself now, I have goals and ambitions, I’ve been lucky and fortunate to have had a good career, a name in the game, all my badges ready to go on to the next step.”

Holt smashed in goals by the bucketload as Norwich achieved back-to-back promotions. He then helped the Canaries cause a stir in the top flight with a fine return of 15 goals before managing eight goals in his final full Premier League campaign.

It meant a total of 80 league goals in four seasons between League One and the Premier League.

Holt, now 38, pondered on his 15-year pro career before adding: “When you’re doing books and I was thinking about signing it off, I said to myself ‘Why don’t I write a letter to the guy that was sat on the stacker because that was the most important moment in my life.

“I’d had the first taste of it and I think it’s about just enjoying the ride. Make decisions – I was fortunate I made more good than bad – but if you keep true to your word throughout and believing in what you are then you’ll be all right and that’s how it turned out.

“I’m quite happy looking back now to that guy sat on the stacker. If back then I’d said I’d have the career and meet the people I met then would I be happy? Absolutely.”

Holt officially retired from playing last August but, when you hear his enthusiasm for playing the game he loves, it is no surprise he is very much still involved – and still pulling on the boots and the No.9 shirt when possible.

Player-coaching roles at King’s Lynn Town and Barrow were fairly shortlived before Holt took on a couple of roles, part-time academy work with Norwich City and director of football at Langley School in Loddon, Norfolk.

The Cumbrian knows he wasn’t the most talented player to grace the Premier League, but he knows the benefit of hard work.

“Without a shadow of a doubt I’d say that (I drained everything out into my career) about myself,” Holt stressed. “Everything I had I put in to get where I wanted to get.

“I don’t know if that’s desire or willingness that I wanted to improve. It was never to prove people wrong.

“The higher I got, the more I enjoyed it because there was less pressure on me.

“Every time a season started everyone thought ‘he won’t do it this year’ so for me it was just fun. I could just go and enjoy myself because no-one expected me to score 20 goals in the Championship and 15 goals in the Premier League.”

Holt was 32 when he joined Paul Lambert’s Villa, of the Premier League, on loan from Championship side Wigan. He wasn’t fit, by his own admission, and managed one goal in 10 games.

Another West Midlands spell arrived two years later, with Wolves in the Championship under Kenny Jackett. He played just four times.

But, from both clubs, he holds fond memories.

“Going to Villa was difficult,” he added. “We were in a predicament when they were near the bottom of the league. The gaffer Lambo had just had his budget cut again.

“He had to slim the squad with lads from the Championship but I still enjoyed it. It’s a fantastic football club, absolutely brilliant.

“As soon as I went through the door I couldn’t have felt more welcomed from everyone. I think you realise as soon as you walk in how big it is.

“It difficult for me, I hadn’t been playing and wasn’t match fit. I was only ever going to be back-up for Christian (Benteke).”

Holt continued: “I’d kind of gone to Wolves still injured after my ACL, I wasn’t 100 per cent. I thought I was right but I wasn’t.

“The team was just a little bit all over the place. But it was a great bunch in there, you look at lads like Doc now, Pricey in there, Conor Coady. A great group.

“I’m absolutely delighted for them because it’s a great club, another place where for years the fans have waited and for them to get the accolades and do what they’re doing now is great.”