Opportunity taker

When I came through at Leeds United, young players were still being nurtured via the YTS scheme. There were none of the scholarships that have become common today. 

It was Paul Hart and Eddie Gray who oversaw my development, and that of so many other players. There just wasn’t the wealth of staff increasingly seen these days at clubs of that stature. 

Paul and Eddie were tightly knit. I remember my time under them fondly. The camaraderie made it one of the best times of my playing career, but it was tough. The discipline they demanded and values they instilled remain with me.

Ian Harte, Harry Kewell and Andy Gray were among those who came through alongside me. Jonathan Woodgate, Alan Smith and Stephen McPhail followed. We all benefited from the Leeds philosophy of not only playing football, but outfighting and outrunning our opponents. We had to play in the right way, but to complement that with being tough, robust and aggressive.

Paul made me captain of the youth team, and gave me a lot of responsibility. That has shaped how I was as a person then, and how I’ve since been as a coach. He could be scary; he was demanding of us as young men and it could be challenging, but he never crossed the line and I always felt supported. Eddie is an iconic figure at Leeds. Back then he’d still be in the running groups during pre-season, and leading from the front.

I made my first-team debut under Howard Wilkinson, as a substitute against Middlesbrough, in March 1996. He, too, valued discipline and the club’s mentality. 

He was replaced by George Graham, who gave me my full debut at Leicester six months later. George arrived with the reputation built on organising Arsenal’s famous title-winning back four of Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Tony Adams and Steve Bould. 

"every day of the week, i was coaching somewhere different – but i was burning myself out"

I was a centre-back at youth level, but George used me as a holding midfielder. The team had been struggling and needed a solid base and some clean sheets. I’m not convinced I had the skills to succeed there in the long term, but I still enjoyed it. 

There was a real emphasis on defending, and working as a unit. We were set up not to get beat. Sometimes even Lucas Radebe, the senior centre-back, played in midfield, meaning we’d have a total of four centre-backs on the pitch at the same time. We quickly became more solid.

By the time David O’Leary succeeded George in 1998, and built a younger, more attacking team, so many of the foundations Wilkinson had put in place were ready to mature. He’d moved the club’s academy to the purpose-built training ground at Thorp Arch. With O’Leary’s courage to pick the younger players, Kewell, Woodgate and Smith really blossomed. 

It was much later in my playing career that I started to consider a future in coaching. 

As a player at Scunthorpe, I undertook fitness and personal-training qualifications. When I left Scunthorpe for Kidderminster in 2005, and started living away from home, I started coaching kids in the community. I really enjoyed myself. It was then that I got the bug, and started pursuing my badges.

At Farsley Celtic, who I joined in 2007, I combined playing semi-professional football with being their assistant manager. I was also working as head of football at Leeds City College and helping with the Bradford City Under-13s, as well as at development centres and soccer schools. Every day of the week, I was coaching somewhere different. I gradually realised I was burning myself out. To develop, I needed to work at an academy. 

"bielsa's man-to-man football, and learning how he looked at the game, represented a real shift"

I felt at a crossroads when, in 2015, I learned there was a vacancy with the Leeds Under-15s and Under-16s. I phoned Paul Hart, and arranged to meet him at Thorp Arch. He was as scary then as he was when I was a player! He grilled me, but later that evening he phoned to offer me the job. 

Accepting it, financially, was a risk. I was in a stable position and had a family to take care of. But professionally, and from a football perspective, it was the opposite. It’s important to recognise opportunities – they’re around you every day – when they appear. Leeds had a high-performing environment, and I knew I could contribute to that and learn from it. 

They had continued to produce players. The group I started to work with was fantastic, and among others included Jack Clarke, Jamie Shackleton and Robbie Gotts. I was coaching alongside Andy Gray and under the academy manager Adam Underwood, who regularly looked for opportunities for me.

I progressed from the Under-15s and 16s to the Under-18s, and then the Under-23s. The position with the 23s had come up previously, but Adam had told me he thought it was the right job for me but at the wrong time. It was the second time around, when Marcelo Bielsa was first-team manager and Carlos Corberán had left the Under-23s to take over at Huddersfield, that I took that step up. 

By the time Bielsa arrived at Leeds in 2018, I’d been studying the methods of Pep Guardiola. Guardiola had been influenced by Bielsa, and it was then that I started to learn what I could about him. I also took the opportunity to watch him from afar while I was still working the Under-18s. 

Bielsa’s man-to-man football, and learning how he looked at the game, represented a real shift. At one point I even spoke to Luke Ayling and Stuart Dallas to learn more about the intensity from the players’ perspective. It was very, very high.

"in jesse, i got to work with a fantastic leader, great communicator and very good person"

When I started working with the Under-23s, I learned even more about how Bielsa’s system looked. As a coach, that was a real challenge. 

There was a pressure on the coaches to learn, because we had to coach in the same way. A lot of what Marcelo oversaw was drill-based, so you had to learn those drills. But from the number of players who featured for the first team that season, we had a successful first year.

In time, I knew I needed to pursue the next challenge. That came when Jesse Marsch succeeded Marcelo in 2022. Largely thanks to Adam Underwood’s influence, Jesse moved me to the first team. There, I could develop further and add value to the club I loved at first-team level.

Under Marcelo, I’d also learned about analysing the game and maintaining high standards. Now, in Jesse – who came in at a difficult time for the club, when preserving Leeds’ Premier League status was the priority – I got to work with a fantastic leader, communicator and a very good person. We got on well, and his background within the Red Bull coaching network meant he favoured a different style of football. That presented me with another opportunity to learn. 

I eventually left Leeds to become head coach at MK Dons at the end of 2022, but I was sacked at the end of that season. In September 2023, though, I was offered the same position at Central Coast Mariners in the Australian A-League. 

During the Covid lockdown, when I was still working with Leeds’ Under-18s, I took a webinar for another Australian club, Wollongong Wolves. Through that, I had become friends with the Mariners’ previous head coach, Nick Montgomery.

"i recognised that, despite the warm welcome, the fans didn't know who i was"

We stayed in touch. Then, when he later told me he was expecting to leave the club, he encouraged me to apply to replace him. Matt Simon, the sporting director, called to offer me an interview. Eventually, he and the chairman Richard Peil offered me the job.

The prospect of moving to the other side of the world made it a really big decision. As a family, we didn’t take that lightly, and spoke about it a lot. Crucially, it represented a real opportunity to work within a club where my values could be implemented. Instead of managing a big budget, I’d be giving opportunities to young players and working as I hoped to by implementing our playing philosophy. It certainly didn’t feel like a risk.

Danny Schofield and I had first got to know each other at Leeds, and he was sacked by Doncaster Rovers on the same day I got sacked by MK Dons. That led to us getting back in touch, and realising that we could work together. I told him about the opportunity to move to Australia, and he felt similarly about it.

It was on September 24 2023 – my son Lucas’ birthday – that I left my family behind to move, which wasn’t easy. Danny joined me 10 days later, and my family joined me in January. 

Being separated from them during that period was tough, but me and Danny had a lot of work to do. We didn’t have a proper pre-season and were having to oversee a rebuild of the team; that allowed us to immerse ourselves in the project we’d taken on.

Football in Australia is growing, without question, but I recognised that the fans didn’t know who I was. Despite the warm welcome I was given, I also recognised I was arriving in the aftermath of Nick’s unbelievable success, after the squad had lost five leading players, and as a coach who’d most recently been sacked. 

"we lost our first four games, but on the inside we were still confident"

The culture that was in place is something I was really enthused about. Matt and Richard wanted me to develop young players, and to implement mine and Danny’s style of football. To that end, they stressed that they were willing to give us time. 

Throughout that first season I was also studying to earn my Pro Licence, and my independent study focused on how a manager going into a club can develop a culture to create and sustain a high level of performance. 

We knew what we wanted to do – we wanted to be competitive, and had been set realistic expectations by the club – and we had the freedom to stamp our authority. That really helped when I realised very quickly how hungry the players were. Adapting to what we found and what we were attempting to achieve also forced me and Danny to evolve. It’s vital that you have that ability and remain open-minded.

We lost our first four games. Inevitably, those on the outside quickly became negative, but on the inside we were still very confident. If that seems strange, we could see what was happening within those games, which complemented the positive things we’d already been seeing in training.

The players were starting to understand what we were asking of them. “Don’t panic,” we thought. “Stick to the process.” Their attitude, and those of the staff around us, really helped.

Before the success came we had to navigate a lot of ups and downs, and a lot of obstacles. No Australian club had ever won the treble of Premier’s Plate, AFC Cup and A-League Grand Final, so to be able to do that in our first season represented a phenomenal team effort.

The Grand Final against Melbourne Victory, which we needed to win to complete the treble, fell on a Saturday. It felt phenomenal getting that victory over the line at our home ground, where we gave our supporters and community a night to remember. These nights are what you live for.

On the following Wednesday, I was scheduled to fly back to the UK to complete my Pro Licence via a presentation on my independent study. Those days were a total whirlwind. The magnitude of what we achieved only started to sink in when I flew back to the Central Coast. 

Author: The Coaches' Voice

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