Sonny Bradley on tragedy, triumph and talk in Spain that had Derby County’s attention

Latest Derby County news from Derbyshire Live brings you an exclusive interview with Sonny Bradley about the loss of his father, what motivates him and his hopes for this season

Sonny Bradley has just finished his lunch at Derby County’s training ground when he sits down in a chair that has been placed in the middle of the media room.

For the next 25 minutes, he speaks with great eloquence about subjects both personal and professional in what proves an emotional and captivating interview.

Primarily he is here to discuss his move to Derby this summer, just months after helping Luton Town realise their dream of securing promotion to the Premier League.

Having also lifted the League One title, Bradley is a commanding defender who is well-versed in triumph.

But during a wonderful career, there has been tragedy too. In December 2021, while he was captain of Luton, he lost his father to Covid during its second wave at the age of 57.

Ray was a huge influence on his career, his number-one fan, and as he discusses life and loss, he was simply his “best mate”.

“My dad caught Covid and within six or seven weeks he passed away,” Bradley told Derbyshire Live in an exclusive interview.

“It was a shock to my whole family and it’s still so raw for all of us. But he was my best mate and I probably never said that to him because I didn’t really know it at the time. But I spoke to him pretty much every day about anything and everything.

“He would ring after training to ask how the day had gone, and if there was ever anything that I needed to get off my chest then I would speak to him.

“I was captain of Luton when he passed and the shock of him not being there to talk to anymore was hard to take. I spoke to him so much for every day of my life that I can remember and know in certain situations what he would say to me.

“When those situations come up now, it’s like I’ve already got the answer. It’s a bit weird that you are talking to yourself, but that way I carry a bit of him with me every single day.

“I’ll think about what kind of advice my dad gave me in this situation, I’ll tell myself and I’ll go with it.

“But what’s helped massively are my circle of friends, my family, my football friends, because that’s all clearly separate, everywhere I go, I’m surrounded by really good people.

“That’s ultimately what’s helped me deal with it. Luton were magnificent with me at the time and they give me as much space as I needed, but I didn’t want it.

“From the outset, I said to the boys that I didn’t want anyone to change around me. I just wanted everyone to be the same. Just let me just come in and do my stuff. We were having a decent season too and I think we finished mid-table in the end.

“Naturally, I had good days and bad days when I could be really emotional in the car on the way to training. But I then had a responsibility in that once I got there, I did not want to let anyone down and I didn’t.

“You kind of put that mask on and you do it for everyone around you. It was all right for me to be upset in the car by myself, but in training, I wanted to be strong for the people and the players around me.

“But I’d get back in the car after the day had finished and I’d be upset again. The 20- to 25-minute drive to training every day was my time to release some emotion. That worked for me and I was happy doing that.

“Looking back, I think I took a couple of weeks off to go through the necessary processes when someone dies after it happened then I was straight back on it.

“That doesn’t mean to say that I don’t think about my dad because I do, every single day. I just found a coping mechanism that works for me essentially.

“But on an ordinary day, I don’t really like someone just bringing it up because I could be having a really strong day and I don’t want to get emotional around everyone.

“That’s just my preference. It is the way I deal with it and people around me respect that. I’m not saying I’m not going through something, but I’m mentally and physically strong again. I’m in a wonderful environment here at Derby with a great group of lads.”

Football shares a strange relationship with grief in that nobody ever seems to talk about it in a sport full of machismo nonsense.

But players and managers are not impervious to the pain of loss. Paul Warne will testify to that when, in 2019, he lost his own father, Russell, for whom he spoke with a great deal of emotion when he first arrived as Derby’s head coach.

In his first home game in charge, on a blazing hot day against Port Vale, his dad’s love of the sun was a poignant time for reflection. After the game, he fought back tears when he wondered how proud his father would have been to see him in the dugout of a club boasting such grand tradition.

Understanding the personal backgrounds of every member of the squad, as well as his staff, has carried great importance for Warne ever since his appointment last September. It is easy to understand why. If the players are aware of what makes their team-mate tick in a personal capacity, then in the hard games when backs are against the wall, you want to run further and tackle harder.

During their recent pre-season tour to Spain, Warne required every player to stand up in front of the rest of the group when they would discuss who or what motivates them to be successful.

There were some “really deep” stories, according to Derby’s head coach, and not one player was distracted by their mobile phone when each of them stood up. Bradley was among those to talk and the 31-year-old naturally touched upon his family. Three pictures would then appear on a screen behind him that told everybody in the room why he is at Derby.

“Instead of all the boys singing a song, which is a pretty standard initiation, we did life stories,” he says.

“Throughout my career, I’ve never had to stand up and tell everyone a bit about myself and I can’t believe I’ve got to 31 and never been in a team that has done it.

“The manager and Richie did theirs, and they obviously have emotional pasts and I don’t think they necessarily wanted everyone to go up and speak about the bad things, but it kind of just fell into that.

“People started to talk about why they were motivated and using their family. From my point of view, it just made me realise – and it was comforting – that I’m not the only one going through something.

“Until you actually do this, you don’t realise what people are going through and every single player in the team who stood up has something going on in their lives and they need the support of everyone else just like I do.

“For me, it was an amazing thing to do. You have the younger boys who are stepping up from 17 to 21 and I’m not sure I could have done it at that age, but for them to step up and speak as well as they did, it was something that I felt really proud of.

“I’d only been at the club for a week at that time, but I was so proud they did that. I felt like just off the back of that we’ve already become so much closer.

“Like the manager has said if you know something personal about a player, I now realise what they’re doing it for, why are they giving 100 per cent, and why they are pushing themselves.

“I spoke a little bit about my family as did all the players, but then I also put up three pictures of myself. One of them was winning the League One title with Luton. Another was from back in May when he lifted the Championship playoff trophy and one was from promotion with Plymouth from League Two to League One.

“I put those three pictures on the wall and I said to the rest of the boys that this is why I’m here. This is what I’m doing it for. This is the feeling that I’m chasing because being successful and lifting a trophy is the best feeling in football. I said I’m here to do it again.

“It’s the only reason I’m here because I want to be part of something successful and I had the attention of everyone in the room and everyone knew how serious I was.

“I just let them know that I’m willing to do anything for them to get there because not only do I want to go back to Las Vegas, I want that feeling of lifting a trophy. To the rest of the boys and the staff who were in there, I made my feelings perfectly clear.”

Bradley was Derby’s chief defensive target this summer and it is easy from listening to him to see why he has been regarded as one of their most important summer signings.

He was given the captain’s armband at Luton because of his leadership qualities, but on the pitch he has quickly proven that he will significantly improve the Rams’ defence too.

Bradley was hugely impressive in the 3-0 win over Stoke City at the weekend when he proved a towering presence. Having been promoted from League One, his experience will be invaluable in a season when Derby are expected to be challenging for automatic promotion.

They just missed out on the top six last term in what was a remarkable effort considering they only had five contracted players at the start of pre-season due to the club only being taken over by David Clowes four weeks before the campaign began. But in summer free of those anxieties, it is hoped that this time next year, Bradley and the rest of the squad will be preparing for life back in the Championship.

“What we have to do first is obviously improve on last season’s finish,” Bradley continues. “I know it’s pretty obvious, but if we do that, then the minimum is we should be in the playoffs. That’s the ambition, but there’s no guarantee that it will definitely happen.

“We’ll come in, we’ll be confident and we’ll be bold in everything we say, but we have to work incredibly hard to be able to go out there on a Saturday and perform. And this division is tough by the way. I haven’t played in it now for four years because we got promoted with Luton.

“But I’m well aware that in that time, I think this division has got harder and the standard has improved, physically and technically. From my point of view, there will be a lot of games this season, and hopefully at home as well, where we dominate teams.

“You saw it last season, I watched games and I saw Derby dominating. They went on a good run toward the end and did well. And really we should be having days like that because of the quality of players that we have.

“But, for me, if we want to finish in the top two places, the main results are the ones away from home in the middle of January or February when it is cold and freezing in midweek. You’ve got to dig in for a one-nil win and you cannot underestimate the importance of those types of games.

“When I started my journey at Luton five years ago, we were in League One and yes, we had a very good team, but a lot of people seem to think that we dominated possession every week, we scored loads of goals and we blew everyone else out of the water.

“But that wasn’t necessarily the case. There were lots of times, lots of games when we were at home and away when we really had to dig in and fight for three points. They were scrappy games where you might only get one or two chances, but you have to take them. You’ve got to be solid at the back and keep clean sheets.

“You’ve got to put runs together even if it’s just seven or eight games here and seven or eight there. If you can do that and you can put runs together through the season, you give yourself a good chance of being up there in that top two.

“It’s about being ruthless and relentless. I do know how to do it and I feel like I am part of a team here, and a part of a group, that has got it in them to do it too.”