He is critical of the Professional Footballers’ Association and has complained to it about the lack of work it does in this area.
He has ambitions to become a goalkeeping coach, vague thoughts of becoming a manager, but, like a sailor in a shipwreck, he cannot let go of his buoyancy support. He wants to play on.
“People kept asking, ‘Have you retired?’ and I just felt reluctant to say that,” said Harper, who looks lean and trim in his Sunderland training kit.
“I just couldn’t let go. I had lots of phone calls in the summer, three clubs in India, one in Denmark. There was talk of a move to Tottenham Hotspur and QPR, on the proviso Rob Green left, but he didn’t and that fell through. That was the start of August. Then the calls got fewer and far between.
“I bottomed out when I found myself playing tennis with my wife and a couple of friends on a Wednesday morning. I thought: ‘I need to get back into football.’ She’ll laugh about that, I hope.
“I was a 40-year-old, out of work footballer and it is brutal. To go from the regimental routine of football, to having nothing to do with your days… It’s like being in the military without the risk to your life.
“The structure, everything is provided and done for you. To come out of that, overnight. It’s horrible. Thankfully I could see it coming. I knew the warning signs.”
Harper has friends in the game who have suffered with mental illness. Not all of them have recovered. He has seen their marriages break up and the money run out. He has seen them become dinosaurs in a technological age. He lashed out at the PFA at a charity dinner, accusing it of failing him. It has got in touch to check he is OK and to point out the courses it runs. He still feels more can be done.
“You think you’re prepared,” Harper added. “But it just leaves a gaping hole in your life. It tests you mentally, it really does.
“I was diagnosed with depression in my early thirties at Newcastle. I spoke to good people. I had a mild case. Not being in the side, it got on top of me. I was in a bad place for a while.
“That experience undoubtedly helped me, because I could feel myself slipping back into that dark hole, where life feels as though it is closing in on you. I think that prevented it happening again.
“A lot of players aren’t so lucky. I was in a position to do the necessary things to stop it engulfing me, but there was a gaping chasm in my life and I needed to fill it.” He has filled it, for now, at Sunderland. But he knows he will have to go through it all again at some point.
He would like to go into coaching “but everyone is told to do their badges, everyone thinks about that towards the end of their career, but there are a finite amount of jobs and they very rarely go to first-time applicants”.
Harper continued: “I was at a dinner recently and the PFA had a table there. As a former PFA representative, I tore into them. I said: ‘You do a lot of fantastic work for players when they are playing, but too many people of my age, or a year or two older, are either getting divorced, going bankrupt or struggle with depression.’
“They have been in touch with me since and told me about the courses they do, but I was PFA rep and if I don’t know about them, more needs to be done to support players in that transition.
“It needs to addressed at 17 or 18. Even if you are lucky enough to do this for the next 15 years, you’ll live for another 50 years, probably, and what are you going to do next?
“It’s easy to forget it’s not just a case of saving for a rainy day. It’s a case of saving for the rest of your life. Retirement is like a very long monsoon season and you need to build an ark to get through it. It’s not just money, you miss the dressing room, the banter, the comradeship.”
Sunderland will benefit from Harper’s presence. He is a father figure in the dressing room, after all he is the same age as some of his team-mates’ parents.
Harper, though, admits he is still saddened that Newcastle United, Sunderland’s biggest rivals and the club where he spent 20 years, effectively abandoned him.
“I’ve got a PhD in Newcastle United,” said Harper, who played in every club competition during his two decades at St James’ Park. “I could probably be a university professor in what it takes to be a footballer in the North East.
“I was sad that Newcastle chose not to allow me to pass on that experience. I went through everything you could do with them, title challenges, cup finals, relegation, playing in Europe.
“I like to think I know what you need to be successful as a Newcastle player. Hopefully, I can pass that on in the Sunderland dressing room now, because the two clubs, the fans, have far more in common than they do differences.
“If the players here want to ask me anything, I’ll always try to help. I hope I helped Tim Krul and Fraser Forster come through at Newcastle and they are both international goalkeepers now.
“Jordan can do the same. He is keen as mustard. He has had a taste of the first team and he wants more. I want to help him achieve that.” Pickford needs to listen to his mentor.
- Telegraph