As he nears the end of his playing career Mark Kennedy is in no mood to highlight — and definitely not discuss — mistakes he has made along the way. Dublin-born Kennedy, who will be 36 next month, has decided to call it a day after close on 600 games for club and country to accept an invitation from Town manager Paul Jewell to join his coaching team.
Kennedy sees it as part of his remit, apart from trying to improve players, to alert the younger ones to the potential pitfalls that await them and which, he admits, occasionally claimed him as a victim in the past.
But when asked to elaborate the former Millwall, Liverpool, Wimbledon, Manchester City, Wolves and Crystal Palace player refused to give anything away.
Kennedy said: "If you haven’t heard about them by now you don’t know enough about me and I don’t have to repeat them. If you go into any dressing room up and down the country you won’t find one person who hasn’t made a mistake in life.
"I bet you’ve [the media] all made mistakes in your lives. We’re not all angels — nobody is. We’re human beings and everybody makes mistakes. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t make a mistake. Bill Clinton made a mistake once and he was president of the biggest country in the world.
"We all make them and it’s about how you respond to them and put right your wrongs. We all know that. We’ve got a great bunch of lads and we’ve got a great dressing room. Things happen, people make mistakes, but hopefully these young lads won’t.
"If they’ve got the right guidance and the right people around them hopefully we can help them from falling into that trap. But from my point of view I don’t think we should even be discussing that because we’re trying to pick up on the positives. We’ve got a great bunch of lads, a great squad and a very good thing going on at the club here. We want to continue that.”
Kennedy is far more willing to discuss his role as a mentor, adding: "When it comes to passing on tips and advice to younger colleagues that is something I have been doing for a long period of time. As a senior pro that is your responsibility.
"We’ve got a few senior lads who are brilliant with the young lads, not just myself. I could reel a few names off. It’s part and parcel of being a footballer to help out the young lads as much as you can, take that little bit of pressure off and give them bits of advice, either during games or off the pitch altogether.
"You don’t have time to hear all the names of people who helped me in my career. There are loads and loads of them and it would be unfair to name one over all the others, from my parents to my managers, my friends and past girlfriends. I’ve learned a lot about being a decent person and stuff like that.”