Steven Bell: Ayr captain recalls slide from Scotland 19s to the supermarket

Steven Bell's Ayr United finished fourth in the Scottish Championship last season

One summer, Steven Bell was in Scotland's under-19 squad alongside Steven Naismith and Charlie Adam. The next, he was on the football scrapheap and ended up working in a supermarket.

Now Ayr United captain after a career that took in Stirling Albion, Dunfermline Athletic and Stranraer, the 35-year-old can look back on his chastening release by Dundee United in 2005 and empathise with the scores of players facing uncertain futures after being let go by their clubs.

"My confidence took a massive hit," he says. "From rubbing shoulders with guys like Billy Dodds and Charlie Miller at Dundee United, and being on the bench against some of the top teams, to scraping to save my career at the age of 20 was really tough to take mentally.

"All my friends had gone to college and got themselves apprenticeships. They were starting to climb the ladder in their careers and I was back to square one."

It was Allan Moore who gave Bell a way back into the game later in 2005 but the wages earned playing part-time for Stirling Albion were not enough to pay the bills. The then-midfielder needed a second job.

"I ended up working in a supermarket," Bell explains. "My role was reducing the food that was out of date. I used to get all the wee old age pensioners coming up saying 'will you reduce that for me son?' I'd reduce it more than half price for them, so that was my good deed for the day.

"I'm not degrading the job, not for a second. I met some lovely people; some great workers.

"If players need to go and get other jobs, they need to take the positives out of it, like what are they going to learn, or how can it help me when I go back into football. Or even how can it develop them as a person?"

Bell, who eventually returned to full-time football with Dunfermline in 2008, is urging footballers to embrace the prospect of seeking alternative employment.

He also warns about not letting perceived social media reputations be a barrier to that - something that wasn't an issue 15 years ago.

"Players will need to think about it as a short-term thing, and not have too many issues with pride - just swallow it a bit," he says. "Nobody's saying these players aren't good, it's just there might not be enough football jobs to go round.

"Players will need to just think about what's best for them and their family, and at that point it's just about earning an income."