Whatever Happened To... Thomas Pinault
Frenchman Pinault left the U's at the end of the 2003-04 season, after five seasons at Layer Road. At the age of 17 he was thrown into first team football by Mick Wadsworth, but didn't establish himself in the first team properly until 2001, under Steve Whitton. He went on to make 157 appearances for United, scoring seven goals.
Following unsuccessful trials at Northampton Town and Dundee United, he earned a contract at Grimsby Town. He spent a year with the Mariners, making 47 appearances and scoring seven goals, before having a season out of football with a leg injury.
In the summer of 2006 he joined Brentford on trial and secured a one-year contract. The Bees were relegated from League One that season and he was released, having made 31 appearances, scoring one goal.
He signed for Crawley Town in the Conference after leaving Brentford and spent three seasons at the Broadfield Stadium, making 109 appearances and scoring eight goals, before being released at the end of the 2009-10 season.
He then returned to his native France and joined his home town team RC Grasse who play in the Championnat de France Amateur 2 Group E (the French amateur championship), where he remains today.
Clubs since leaving the U's: Grimsby Town, Brentford, Crawley Town, Racing Club de Grasse (France).
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The bedraggled, bespectacled, and befuddled figure walked along the shoreline in desperate dismay. His ship had crashed on the rocks of Fowey Point. Skipperless and rudderless, the imminent disaster was only a matter of time. Ahead, he saw a barnacled figure covered in seaweed and bladderwrack. “Ahoy matey. Jack Butty here. Don’t worry, we can get a new skipper and a boat, and aroving again we will go.”