Former Huddersfield Town defender Anthony Gerrard says he is playing without pay as he bids to rebuild his career at Shrewsbury Town.
The 29-year-old claims he has been unfairly branded a trouble-maker in the wake of his departure from the John Smith’s Stadium club this summer.
Signed from Cardiff City in August 2012, Gerrard made 91 Town appearances, but only four of them were last season, and three of those were from the bench.
The former Everton and Walsall player ended the campaign on loan at Oldham Athletic, where he played six times.
It has taken Gerrard until now to find another club, his first game of this season coming as a substitute in Shrewsbury’s 2-0 League I win at home to Bury on Saturday.
And according to the centre-back, who has signed non-contract forms with the Shrews, he has paid the price for questioning why he wasn’t in the Town side last term.
“The money is the furthest thing from my mind,” Gerrard told the Shropshire Star.
“I just want to re-establish myself because you can get forgotten about really quickly in football.
“It was a case of no-one wanted to take me. I seem to have a bad press just for being an honest lad.
“Last year I spent the first part of the season in the wilderness at Huddersfield, then when I started asking why, I got bombed out.
“I had coaches bad mouthing me to coaches I’d worked with previously.
“It has been detrimental to my career but if you’ve got a manager who likes honesty – which this manager (Micky Mellon) does – I’m your man.
“In football people don’t like players who ask questions. They just want to be shepherds and the players to be the sheep – and I’m definitely not a sheep.”
