Phil Jagielka: My secret to playing at 40? Avoid the gym

“I obviously still love playing football because I wake up and I’m sore, ankles, knees, back, and I want to play. I can get out of bed but the walk to the toilet takes longer than ten years ago. It’s a given I’m going to have arthritic knees and ankles. That’s a price I’m prepared to pay.”

It’s why he has gone in goal on occasion. “Throughout my career, I always got on with goalkeepers, you have to be bonkers to be a ’keeper so it must be that. I’d join in with the ’keepers at Sheff U, and they’d go, ‘Who does Jags think he is?’ Got no gloves on. I’d be diving, saving, and they’d be like, ‘He looks half decent. Come and do a session.’ It was ‘Goalie Wars’, 20, 30 yards apart. It was me and Andy Leaning, the goalkeeper coach, against Paddy Kenny and Phil Barnes, the No 2. I was better in goal than their goalkeeping coach! It got super-competitive. I stayed behind twice a month to play ‘Goalie Wars’.

“When Paddy got injured at Crystal Palace just before half-time, ‘Pesch’ [Paul Peschisolido] said he’d go in but he’s tiny, and we laughed saying, ‘You can’t touch the crossbar.’ So I ended up going in. I had to come out in front of their crazed fans and do some handling, so you can imagine the abuse I’m getting. But my handling was that good. We won 2-1. My pure competitive nature got me into that situation.”

He most famously kept a clean sheet against Arsenal when Kenny got injured in 2006, denying Van Persie. “He was a right little spoilt brat,” Jagielka said. “Arsenal hated us. They were a bit arrogant and we were the polar opposite being from Sheffield. We were trying to wind them up.” Warnock was delighted in his emergency ’keeper thwarting Arsenal, and later observed: “He’s a very competent ’keeper, but he’s the sort of bloke who’d be world class at tiddlywinks.”

“I’m very competitive. Every single sport. Everything I do,” Jagielka says. Even when playing football with his son Zak, now a 15-year-old forward with Liverpool, in the garden. “I’m not going to smash the ball in the net. But I’ll roll them in the corner,” he says. “He’s got to try to keep them out. My dad was the same with me. I was playing up front, score a hat-trick but in his eyes not play very well. I’d come in the car happy yet knowing I was going to get a telling-off. There was enough love there. It was always about how my performance was.

Jagielka, now at Stoke, was last year managed by Rooney, who is younger than him

NEAL SIMPSON/SHUTTERSTOCK

“That’s what I try and give my son now. I watched him last night in training and he did really well. I’m saying, ‘I’m really happy for you, keep doing that, but your next level is pass completion or holding the ball up. I can be really nice to you or I can try and be productive [with constructive criticism]. He’s looking at me thinking he was probably top goalscorer tonight, ‘Give me a break.’ That’s how my dad was with me. He was trying to get me to a place where I could play [professionally].

“I play pool with my son. I will beat him unless he plays well. If he then comes the next day after he beat me and gets chirpy it’s, ‘Game on, you’re going to lose.’ I played tennis with my dad and he had me chasing round the court. Table tennis, exactly the same. He hated losing. Like me. We play golf and, with our handicaps, it’s very competitive, especially on the shorter courses in Portugal. He’s 71.”

“We play darts downstairs here. I turn up to be competitive. I don’t go home and practise for 12 hours a day but I make sure I practise a little. I’m good mates with Billy Sharp. I battered him at darts. And then he annihilated me at pool.” Losing hurt.

“Whenever I’ve lost a game, I’d go home and it was, ‘Just leave me in a dark room.’

“Neil Warnock used to send me in at training because he could see me getting grumpy if my team wasn’t doing well. ‘Jags you’re annoying me now, just go in.’ I can spit my dummy out. I want to win. People around me have to be patient.”

Jagielka hails from resilient stock. His grandmother left Poland when German tanks began rolling across the border. “She knew Poland wasn’t a place you could grow a family, it was a case of getting out and her journey took her over to England via Africa, via trains, walking and then a boat.

“She was tough. She didn’t pass too long ago, in her late nineties, still doing the garden,” he says. “The drive’s there. My dad and his brother would have been Polish-speaking lads at English schools, the odd ones out, their last name would have stuck out a mile and I imagine there would have been bullying. I’m ridiculously proud that my middle name — Nikodem — is Polish. My daughter’s got my grandma’s name, Krystyna.

“My family taught me, be grounded, be very respectful and remember that no one’s going to give you anything, you’ve got to earn it. My motto before the start of every season is to play as many games as possible. Some players are comfortable dipping in for a few games, then dipping out. I’ve played through injuries and lack of form.”

He’s played against the best. “I had the [Fernando] Torres era. I really enjoyed playing against him and did OK but he still scored. Then I got the [Luis] Suárez era and that was really tough. He’d run through you and still end up with the ball and finish. He’d fight you, he’d try and cheat you and do all sorts. Didier Drogba on his day was unplayable, then you go to another level, you go away to Bolton, you’ve got Kevin Davies. It was all part of my development as a centre half. What’s going on here? He’s just elbowed me four times. I’m nearly concussed so I’m going to give him some back and he collapsed, then they get a free kick and whip it in and nearly score and then you can see your manager going crazy. I think to myself, ‘This is not fair. Wow, he’s clever.’ He knows what he’s good at and lot of people wouldn’t see him as a great footballer here but he’s amazing at doing this, getting a flick on, getting fouls and being an absolute pain in the bum.”

Jagielka enjoyed playing against Torres and, in his words, did OK

THE TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER

He admires the likes of Ronaldo for playing on. “Ronaldo and people like that, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], you have to hand it to these people,” he says. “Thiago Silva, Ashley Young in the Premier League. But it’s not the norm. I’ve had good role models, at Sheff U, I had Stuart McCall, Wayne Allison late thirties, Craig Short. At Everton, I had Tim Howard, Sylvain Distin, playing later. Tim Cahill went on.”

He looks after himself. “But I don’t weigh my food. I have a life-balance. I can’t order a takeaway on a Friday night. That would be stupid. I’ve not been a gym bunny. I’ve seen a lot of people that have been great in the gym but then broke down.”

He laughs at his longevity. “I’m institutionalised. I’ve been doing it for so long. I’ve been told what to do for the last 20 years. What am I going to with nobody telling me what to do?”

Last year, Jagielka was managed by Wayne Rooney, who is younger than him. “Wayne’s played more games than I have,” he says. He started at 16. He probably looked older at 16 than I do now. People throw it at him that he retired too early but he played so many games, the velocity and the aggression that he showed through those games, he was never going to be able to continue until he was 40.”

Entering his fifth decade, Jagielka cannot wait for this weekend. “The FA Cup’s special because you can play anyone. It just gives everyone an opportunity to have these amazing moments. There can be banana skins and giant-killings.” He’s endured frustration in the cup. He converted the penalty against Manchester United in the 2009 semi-final that took Everton to the final. “Unfortunately I snapped my knee a week later. It was horrendous watching the final,” he says. “I was in a suit, six weeks post op still uncomfortable. It was roasting hot, sweating, and I remember Chelsea winning, and just being numb afterwards. I was just sat in my suit, me Mikel Arteta, who had done his knee, and Victor Anichebe, three bigger players, and we would have had an impact on the game.”

“I did expect Arteta to be a manager but I didn’t expect him to be where he is this early. He’s very competitive. Great lad. When we went out from Dubai in the pre- season he was coming back with his family. I could see in his eyes that he’s ready for action. I could see that desire. He’s been allowed the time.

“There’s no patience. I remember being at Everton, finishing 13th and it was considered a disaster. The Premier League’s crazy but the Championship’s nuts. Alex [Neil, Stoke’s manager] is the tenth-longest serving manager in the Championship and he’s not even been in charge six months. He should be judged over a longer period, and with a transfer window. If the results aren’t good, you and I both know it will be a hard place to play in and everyone is going to be getting edgy.”

He understands the fans’ frustration. “The transitional period [bouncing back from relegation from the Premier League] has probably taken too long and it’s still not quite out of it yet,” he adds. “FFP [Financial Fair Play] is an issue. The owners could literally compete with the top dogs in the Premier League but the rules suggest that you can’t just go and spend £15 million. That’s the frustrating thing and I know the fans would like to see more [spent]. But now we’ve got a stable club, stable manager, stable squad.”

Are the younger players aware of Stoke’s history, even in the Premier League. “I’m not sure,” Jagielka replies. “I remember coming here, playing here, scored own goals, being beat up. Football changes so quickly that half the changing room would have been in their teens or not even in their teens when the club was at that level.”

He admires Harry Souttar, the Australian centre back. “Everyone’s got a really high opinion of him here,” he says. “We all watched him in the World Cup. He will be very good. He’s 6ft 5in, very good on the ball. I’d be very surprised if he’s not playing in the Premier League very shortly.”

In the meantime, Souttar will learn from Jagielka, who’s really taken to Stoke. “I’ve been lucky. If you look at the clubs I played for, Derby’s a one-city club and it blew my mind, we were having nearly sell-outs because the fans got behind the team when they felt . . . I wouldn’t say victimised because there was [FFP] rule-breaking,” he adds.

“What I’m happiest about with Everton, Sheff U Derby and Stoke is these clubs mean so much to the community. Everyone’s working class and behind you. That’s why Stoke’s a perfect fit for me. People don’t come here for a day out to go and buy a souvenir. They are coming here, proud as punch in the colours waiting to get autographs with the kids, polite as anything, but really happy to be there. Obviously there are signs of frustration. I’m not daft. They’re also desperate for success.” And that’s what drives Jagielka.

Hartlepool United v Stoke City
Tomorrow, 2pm kick-off