By Andrew Rogers

AR: You went from one massive club to another massive club in Sheffield Wednesday, how did that move come about?

CLICK HERE to read Part I of this two part interview.

Simek: I was out of contract with Arsenal a couple of season ago and I was looking for a new club and to be honest with you there wasn’t a lot on. Sheffield Wednesday gave me the opportunity just to go on their pre-season tour to Scotland.

I accepted and after the pre-season tour I sat down and signed a contract with them, it all happened pretty quickly, but I knew Sheffield Wednesday, I knew that it was a good big club and I was more than happy to sign.
 
It meant dropping down a level but it also meant getting a lot more playing time than I had been getting.

AR: You talk about it like just walking down the road, but in pre-season when you step on that bus with those players there is a huge amount of competition and in that trial environment it is tough isn’t it?

Simek: Oh without a doubt especially at that time, I was out of contract with Arsenal so I didn’t have a soccer contract and I was looking for a club.

When I did get invited to go on the tour I desperately wanted to be offered a contract and obviously there were other guys on trial there as well, and you had the guys there already signed up who were in your same position, but that’s football, that’s how it is.

AR: What would you tell the fans in America about Sheffield Wednesday?

Simek: They are a massive club, you look at our stadium and it’s a premiership stadium, our fan base is a premiership fan base and all that’s missing is for us to be in the premiership.

I think the finances aren’t there yet you know, there is still a massive debt at Sheffield Wednesday but if we can manage to keep progressing over the next couple of years I think we could be building something special.

We’ve got the main things the stadium and the fan base and hopefully we can get there in the next few years.

AR: The other thing is that you’re now in Sheffield, I mean do you eat meat pies, and drink bitter?

Simek: Not yet no, but I like Sheffield, obviously I was down in London before and London is such a huge city. Sheffield is a bit smaller and it’s a good city to live in, right now I’m really enjoying myself.

AR: Let’s talk about that first season and the relegation situation. Obviously in US sports you can do badly but you don’t go down. What is a relegation dog fight like?

Simek: That first relegation season was my first season as a professional playing first team football and it turned out that we were in a relegation dog-fight until the last 2 or 3 games of the season when we finally got out of it.

But there is a lot of pressure you know, if you go down the money is just not going to be there, the fans are going to start going away again and it’s a lot a lot of pressure. But looking back on that I think it was good because its not every season your going to get into a relegation dog-fight, and it teaches you a lot about the game and how to go about playing the game.

AR: But one season on you’re involved all the way and you’re only three or four points away from the play-offs, it must have been agonizing?

Simek: It was yeah, it was very disappointing especially as we lost at Birmingham and that was a game we needed to win. But to be so close and to miss out was a huge disappointment but at the same time I think we showed that we are a good team and the improvement from the season before was so dramatic that it was a good season for us.

AR: Of course those performances over the season were noticed by EPL scouts and managers and then there was this talk of a move to Everton. Can you tell us about that?

Simek: There were quite a few rumours over the summer, I was actually away with the national team at the time so I was kind of out of the loop, but there was the Everton things and I think there was a couple of other names thrown about as well. But at the end of the day nothing came of it, I honestly didn’t take too much notice of it, I couldn’t as I was traveling around the country with the national team. But it is nice to hear your name linked with clubs like Everton because they are a premiership team and a top six team in that league. If you’re getting mentioned with the likes of them then you have to be doing something good.

AR: Lets talk about the international side of things, your first international call up, did you get a phone call, did the club tell you, how did that work?

Simek: I actually found out when somebody from Sheffield Wednesday called me and then I got an e-mail that same day from the US soccer people. To be honest I wouldn’t say I was expecting it but I was hoping, I was hoping I was going to get called in. Thankfully I did get called in and it was last season and I made my debut against Guatemala.

AR: And how was it at the Gold Cup?

Simek: The Gold Cup, yeah that was good. It was over the summer and it was a really good experience to be involved with but that was the first tournament that I was involved in with the US and to win something was very special.

AR: Of course Soccer 365 has the midas touch when it comes to people being called up to the US national team. Has Bob Bradley had a chat with you recently? What did he say?

Simek: He just said that I’m still in his thoughts, but we don’t have an international for little while now but you know, I’m always hoping to be called up I want to play as many times as I can for the US.

AR: And of course there is always going to be transfer speculation, now I don’t know if you’ve heard but apparently there is going to be an MLS franchise in St Louis, they will be looking for some of the big names who have come out of the area, is that something that interests you?

Simek: Not at this moment in time. I think I want to stay over here and try and get in the Premier league with somebody. But I did hear there was going to be a team out there, I still know some soccer people from St Louis and they are telling me all about it, but its cool St Louis is a great soccer city.

Interviewer: Finally, the NFL who is it going to be?

Simek: I think you’ve got to go with the Patriots. I’m just a bit disappointed because the Rams had a bad year. But to look at the Patriots they are just running over people; you can’t argue with that.

Interviewer: You can’t argue with that, and we wouldn’t want to argue with Sheffield Wednesday getting promoted this year either.

Simek: Yeah I hope so, I hope so. I think the odds for the Patriots to win the Super Bowl those are better odds than us getting promoted but we will give it a good shot. We proved last year that we weren’t too far off and hopefully this year we can do something.

Andrew Rogers can be reached at andrewrogers@optonline.net