It helps when your fiancée is a Manchester United player and you find yourself without a club when the new season begins.
Given that Tom Pett and Hannah Blundell, the defender for England, were longtime friends, it should come as no surprise that their first formal date entailed watching a football game on TV.
“Most people would get together for dinner or drinks, but that wasn’t the case for us.” Pett makes jokes.
They became together as the nation was coming out of the Covid lockdowns, got engaged last summer, and are getting married later this year.
Pett, a midfielder, left Port Vale in June and was not re-signed by Darrell Clarke until the beginning of November.
He was then a free agent. Han could handle the mortgage, so I didn’t have to rush into anything or accept the first offer, he claims.
All the teams who called me were usually from the south, but I wanted a club up north. I continued to hold on since I was still okay with it in September.
The hardest aspect was forcing yourself to work out every day because it’s simple to fall back into poor habits and decide to put off going to the gym in favor of lounging on the couch with Netflix.
Though I am quite diligent, it could have been difficult mentally. Having Han there was excellent because she was getting up and going to training.
She made sure I exercised as well, and we would occasionally train together at the nearby fields in addition to doing a lot of running and working out at the gym.”
Pett kept in constant contact with Clarke during his time off, and the two enjoyed promotion to League One together in 2021–2022.
“I used to ask him about the offers I had received, and he was always honest with me,” says Pett. “Any chance you getting a job, or what?”
I asked him. He assured me he would let me know when he did, which is exactly what happened.
