Following spells in Slovakia and Hungary, former Man United midfielder James Weir now finds himself working as an independent travel agent.
January 12, 2016, is a date former Manchester United midfielder James Weir will never forget.
After being signed by United from Preston North End at the age of 13, Weir, who was highly rated by Sir Alex Ferguson as a youngster, made the matchday squad for the very first time.
United were facing Newcastle United in the Premier League at St James’ Park and just 24 hours earlier Weir was playing for the Under-21s against Reading at Wycombe Wanderers’ Adams Park. He sensed something was not right when he was substituted with 75 minutes on the clock.
Recalling how it felt to make the matchday squad for the very first time, Weir told the Manchester Evening News: “That was an absolutely surreal moment. We were playing away for the reserves on a Monday night, against Reading, and I came off after about 75 minutes and I was like, ‘why am I coming off?’
“I was captain and it didn’t usually happen; I usually played the full game. Warren Joyce, the manager, told me to go and get a shower and that I was needed to be on the bench for the first team tomorrow. I was like, ‘what?’
“They had a car waiting and I was saying to myself, ‘oh my God, this is crazy’. I knew that I was unlikely to come on in the Newcastle game as I had just played 75 minutes the day before. It was an incredible situation to be in the dressing room and see my name on the back of the shirt.
“Also, it was Newcastle away, an iconic ground, and it was a great game of football. It was special.”
Weir was an unused substitute on two further occasions before making his debut. However, at the fourth time of asking, he got the shout from Louis van Gaal to get himself ready.
He made his United bow on the same afternoon Marcus Rashford marked his Premier League debut with two goals to help the Reds beat Arsenal 3-2 at Old Trafford. Most remember that game for Rashford’s brace, but Weir remembers it for Van Gaal’s touchline theatrics that saw him throw himself the floor to try and point out a dive from Alexis Sanchez.
Recalling his United debut, Weir, who replaced Ander Herrera in the last minute, said: “To be honest, it was a big blackout. There was that much emotion and adrenaline.
“When people ask me what I remember about that game, I always remember it as the game when Van Gaal fell on the floor! I think a lot of people remember it that way.
“But for me, it was absolutely incredible. Coming on for Ander Herrera, that made it an extra special moment. Coming on, I was like, ‘this is it’.
“When you get the call down the touchline and you’re getting ready, it is just surreal and everything you have dreamt of as a kid. And to do it at Old Trafford in front of 75,000, and against Arsenal, which is an iconic fixture, with my parents in the crowd [was special]. Bar playing a bit longer, it could not have been much better.”
Unfortunately for the former midfielder, now 29, that proved to be his only first-team appearance for United. Following the conclusion of the 2015/16 season, which also saw Weir captain the Under-21s to the Premier League 2 title, United offered him a new contract, but Weir was conscious of getting caught up in the loan system, and instead he wanted to try and establish himself as a first-team regular elsewhere.
Hull City signed Weir in the closing stages of the 2016 summer window, offering him the opportunity to try and make his mark as a Premier League player with the opportunity of securing regular minutes.
Unfortunately for the former England youth international, his Hull career was plagued by injuries, limiting him to just seven appearances.
Explaining why he made the decision to swap Old Trafford for the KCOM Stadium, as it was previously known, Weir said: “I think United had just signed Paul Pogba, we had Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Herrera… loads of midfielders.
“Jose Mourinho had come in and I had only trained with the first-team once in pre-season. I think the club wanted me to sign a two-year deal, go out on loan and do all that sort of thing. But I always thought you could get a bit lost in a loan system, and Hull were offering a good contract, and they had a great squad.
“Some of the players they had there were great characters to learn from. I thought it was a great opportunity.
“I should have got more first-team football, but I think the problem was that, when I went, I had literally played one minute of first-team football. The club were in a relegation battle, and it was always difficult for them to throw someone without too much experience in.
“I don’t regret going, but with the injuries, it obviously didn’t turn out how I wanted it to.”
Weir, who had a loan spell at Wigan Athletic during his time at Hull, suffered a knee injury in November 2017, ruling him out for the remainder of the 2017/18 season. The following summer, he aggravated the injury and was ruled out for another six months.
“I don’t want to say it was a dark place, but it definitely wasn’t a good place,” Weir said, opening up on his injury difficulties. “It was the fact that it happened then, and then happened again. It was absolutely gutting, and it is not what anyone wants.
“I couldn’t prevent it. That is what frustrates me sometimes when people are saying, ‘he’s always injured’. You don’t mean to be.
“Maybe muscle injuries you can control by what you eat and stuff, but mine was always cartilage, and I couldn’t really do anything. It was possibly hereditary; I think my dad’s side of the family has got a really weak cartilage. It was just one of those things and I had to get on with it.”
Weir left Hull following the conclusion of the 2018/19 season and joined Bolton Wanderers, being signed by now-Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson, who had tracked him for quite some time. However, Parkinson resigned less than a month later, with Wanderers in administration.
Bolton-born Keith Hill replaced Parkinson and that quickly saw Weir’s Wanderers career head south, resulting in him leaving the club in January 2020, less than six months after joining the League One side.
Addressing his time at Bolton, Weir said: “To be honest, Keith and I didn’t really get on. It was nothing on my end. Keith is a bit of a character and it just didn’t go well.
“I think I had the odd [injury], but I wasn’t really injured when I was at Bolton. It was just a case of he had his players and that was it. He wasn’t up for changing his mind and I knew in January that I needed to get out of there because it wasn’t great at all.”
Following his exit from Bolton, Weir found himself without a club and wondering how he could get his foot back in the door. Alongside his agent, he decided that he wanted to experience playing abroad for the first time in his career.
A little over a month after leaving Bolton, he joined Slovakian side FK Pohronie. However, the Covid-19 pandemic was just beginning to take hold and Slovakia went into lockdown. Weir had been in the country for fewer than two weeks and he knew he had to get back to England to be with his family.
“I can remember that I was there for about ten days and then Covid hit,” Weir recalled. “They went into a really strong lockdown and I was like, ‘no, I’m not staying here’. It was an unprecedented situation and nobody knew how long it would last.
“I got one of the last flights back. It actually got cancelled to Manchester so I think I had to fly to Dusseldorf and back to Gatwick. But as long as I was on English soil, I didn’t care.
“I think I stayed in England until about the end of May and then the season restarted. There were no flights going so I had to get the ferry from Harwich over to Holland then drive over.
“That was a mad experience in itself and I think I got a speeding ticket two miles into the journey in Holland! That was all good and then we only had five games to keep Pohronie up and we managed to do that.”
On his time at Pohronie, he added: “To be honest, it was a small club. The league was alright, it was in a good location in central Europe, so you could get viewed by better leagues, which is eventually what happened when I moved to Hungary.
“But I really enjoyed my time in Slovakia. My teammates were just genuine lads, they weren’t well paid, it was just about having a good time, being together and have a good laugh. I just wanted to get back to playing football and that was key for me.”
Weir spent just over a year at Pohronie before moving to Hungary to join MTK Budapest in May 2021.
“I signed a pre-contract agreement for them in January and they said that they were set for that season, but they wanted me to come the following year to help them,” he said. “Hungary was a generally better league, better pay and better facilities, so I was keen to make the move there.
“They approached me and I was quite happy with it. I really enjoyed my time in Hungary; Budapest is an amazing city.
“For the first five months, I think the sporting director said I was the best player. But I got an ankle injury and it really wiped me out. I think I got it in mid-December. It was in a game where my brother had flown over to come and see me and it happened about 33 minutes into the game.”
That injury setback was a crushing blow for the former United youngster. It marked the end of his time in Hungary and he ended up returning to Slovakia to join FC ViOn Zlate Moravce.
However, the move did not work out well and it ended up in convincing Weir to call time on his playing career.
“I was feeling fit, playing well, part of the team and starting every week, so it was really good,” Weir said, reflecting on his time in Hungary. “But I didn’t realise how serious it was until after months after.
“I had an operation, but I had it done in Hungary and I probably should have come back to the UK and had it done. The club got relegated and they have a thing where the Hungarian government gives them a big bonus if they use Hungarian players in the second division, so basically every foreign player needed to leave.
“I left that club and was still majorly injured. I had to get the PFA to help me with the operation. I got all that sorted. To be fair to the PFA, they were absolutely spot on.
“I think the guy who did my surgery did Neymar’s as well. It got sorted but obviously 18 months out the game, and I had already had another 18 months out with my knee, so that is essentially three years out the game from 21 to 27 – it is just difficult.
“When I went back, I did get offered a contract in Slovakia but I just wanted to try and stay in England for personal reasons. Eventually, I signed for ViOn and it wasn’t great, I didn’t enjoy it. That was when I thought it’s not really working out anymore and I have pushed it too much.”
At the age of just 28, Weir knew the time had come to hang up his boots, making the announcement public in February last year. After returning to England after his second stint in Slovakia, he knew he had to do something, but he was not sure what.
Following a discussion with a friend of his sister’s, Weir learned about the possibility of becoming an independent travel agent backed by the globally acclaimed Travel Counsellors. As a keen traveller, he was sold on the idea.
“It was around the time I had just come back from Slovakia, it was New Year’s Eve, and I was speaking to one of my sister’s friends who worked for this company in the head office,” he said. “She was telling me about it, explaining that I could run my own business and that it was essentially a franchise, but you work as much as you want.
“I have always really liked travelling and I have been lucky enough to go to places in Europe and all around the world when I was younger with Man United; I went to Brazil and Singapore. I have always been one for going to different destinations which might not be on everybody’s to-do list.
“I do enjoy that side of it and I like the idea of the freedom to run your own business. In football, you are constantly told what to do, when to do it, which is part of the game, but I like the idea of being a bit more flexible.
“I am really enjoying it. It is hard and it is a gradual thing, where you’re building your business and your clients. But I am really enjoying it and I think I made the right decision.”
Backed by Travel Counsellors, whose head office is located near the Trafford Centre, Weir is tasked with putting together unique holiday experiences.
Explaining what needs he caters for, he said: “You can do literally everything. You can, for example, do Majorca for a week.
“But we are designed for the bespoke special trips where you are going from this destination to that and having a special experience which you might not have heard about. But we get constant emails and training on these sorts of things.
“They are more bespoke and personalised to whoever it is. They are not just off-the-shelf packages. We have a conversation, listen to what the person wants and try and create something special. It is more tailored.”
Weir, who works from home, has had calls from former teammates to come up with unique holidays for them, saying: “I don’t want to name names but quite a few, which is the road I want to go down, helping ex-players and stuff like that.
It is always this time of year that is a busy time for me because footballers, I think, always like to book last-minute. They don’t know if they’re in the play-offs, the latter stages of the FA Cup or whatever.
“It is always around this time that it starts to pick up for me, even though it is my second year, but I am just starting to learn that and I am experiencing that at the minute.”