Maximising potential

I’m probably watching more games now than I do when I’m managing.

As a manager, you’re focused on training, the next game and the opposition. Right now, I’m watching two or three games a day on Wyscout. I’m learning about squads, learning about divisions, preparing for my next job. I drop the kids off at school, go to yoga for an hour, and then I’m watching games.

In the evening I’ll go to a game as well. One evening recently, I went to Barnsley to watch them play Wycombe. Earlier that day, I had been at St George’s Park with Lee Carsley and his England Under-21 staff. 

I bumped into Lee when I went to see his England team play Northern Ireland. It was the first time we had met, but he had heard a podcast I had done and told me: “I didn’t know about your story before, but I’ve heard really good things about you.”

So he invited me along to a technical debrief with him and his staff, covering their previous Under-21 camp. It was a brilliant five hours.

"You think you know what you know, but I'm open-minded. It is a different sport than it was 10, 15 years ago"

You see, when you are between jobs, you can be in your own head a lot, so it is important to keep sharp. From Conference North to the Premier League, I’m going to games at all levels. I like to go to a game and then watch it back afterwards – you can spot things you didn’t see at the time. Pause, rewind, make a clip, make notes.

I have been watching Brighton a lot. The first time I saw them live was at Old Trafford a couple of months ago. I was so impressed, I went to watch them in Marseille in the Europa League. And I really enjoyed watching Leicester against Blackburn. The way Enzo Maresca has gone in there and got a real style of play going, that intrigues me. 

I’ve also been watching Ipswich in depth. Kieran McKenna became a sort of mentor for me, when he was at Manchester United. His Ipswich team were fantastic in League One. They barely recruited in the summer, but have carried on being dominant in the Championship. 

Tactically, I have been learning a lot. You think you know what you know, but I'm open-minded. It is a different sport than it was 10, 15 years ago. People talk about formations, but there are rotations going on all over the place. Leicester were man-marking Blackburn all over the pitch. You’ve got centre-backs going into full-back areas and crossing over; stuff that you were taught not to do 10 years ago.

When you are developing players now, they need so many different technical skills. Look at full-backs. They need to be able to receive the ball like a midfielder – like a Pep Guardiola, like a Sergio Busquets.

Gary Neville was a top-level player, but he was an up-and-down full-back. He would serve David Beckham and get round him. You could never imagine Neville playing in the pocket, like Trent Alexander-Arnold does.

"That night, I broke my leg at Sheffield United. It was a massive turning point in my career"

From a managerial perspective, you have to consider how you manage these developments. How would you set your team up against Maresca’s Leicester? If you go man for man, what does that look like? 

I am throwing myself these types of questions a lot, keeping myself in and around debates with football people. I regularly meet up with Anthony Hayes, my assistant at Charlton, who is just a brain of football.

We will sit over a tactics board and go through scenarios. What if we went in here and took on this job? Depending on the team you manage, you’ve got to play to the strengths of the players you’ve got, until you can get a transfer window.

At Charlton, we had Jesurun Rak-Sakyi on loan from Crystal Palace. He is a Premier League player, one of the best I’ve coached. There are players in League One who are good enough to play in the Premier League. Whether they do can be down to circumstances. Have they had an injury? Have they not had an opportunity?

As a player, I came through at Bolton under Sam Allardyce, back in 1999. I played 13 games in the Championship, aged 20, and things were going great. I didn’t find this out until a couple of years later, but Everton came in with a £500,000 bid for me. Back then, that was a few quid for a young player.

Then I broke my leg at Sheffield United. It was a massive turning point in my career; I was out for 15 months, broke it again, then broke it again after that. I gave absolutely everything I had to be able to play 427 games as a professional. I emptied the sponge, squeezing everything I could out of my playing career.

"football can be institutionalised. The game has come on a lot, but there are still huge gains to be had"

If I didn’t break my leg, I might have gone to Everton. Or I might have stayed in the Bolton team that went up to the Premier League, with Eidur Gudjohnsen, Jay-Jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff. So I understand how players might slip through the net into the lower leagues.

I like to get an understanding of players and their life story. Psychology fascinates me, understanding what every player needs. It’s not like it was, the old school, where the manager would come in and do a quick team talk. Then you had to go and find your way.

There weren’t many one-on-one meetings when I was playing, but I am big on getting to know what makes players tick. When you get that connection with a player, with staff, and you see them being the best they can be every day, it is really powerful.

That is why I have spent time studying leaders outside of football. Having worked in the game for 28 years, since the day I left school, I realise football can be institutionalised. The game has come on a lot, but there are still huge gains to be had.

That’s what you learn from masters in other professions and sports, particularly rugby and NFL. I went to see rugby coach Stuart Lancaster, who’s had great success with Leinster. He used to be a teacher and is a master when it comes to speaking with players.

I saw how he had a great way of asking questions that generated discussion and debate, but also knew when to close it off. As a manager, a lot of your time is spent in meetings: with players, with teams, with the press. So it was fascinating to observe a master like Stuart.

"I decided I wanted to encourage others to show leadership"

Straight after, I flew from Dublin to London to see former US Navy Captain David Marquet, speaking about his book, Turn the Ship Around. He spoke about how, at short notice, he had been put in charge of a badly performing nuclear-powered submarine. 

Nothing on that sub could happen without him giving permission. He had total control, because that was the way the US Navy worked. The problem was, he hadn’t had enough time to learn about the submarine, so he didn’t always know what he was giving permission to do.

That is why he decided to turn the leadership structure on its head. From the bottom up, he changed it from the crew having to get his permission, to them telling him what they intended to do. If he didn’t step in and say no, they did it. He wanted leadership to come from others, not just him.

The top brass told him: “You can’t do this, it’s never been done this way.” But that sub went from being a poor performer to outstanding. It changed the way the US Navy operated.

I was coaching at Bristol City at that time, where it was very much a culture of what the gaffer says goes. A culture of being dictated to. But along with my experience of working at Walsall with Dean Smith – who had a different approach – I decided I wanted to encourage others to show leadership. Not because it looks good, but because I genuinely believe in it.

After I took over as Bristol City manager, we won 11 of the first 17 games in the 2020/21 Championship season. Unfortunately, we ended up having 17 players with injury problems. I’ve never seen it before, and don’t think I will again. 

"Although the owners deserve to know what is going on inside the club, it is about picking battles at the right time"

Earlier that year, the players had stopped overnight because of the pandemic. We came back, had a couple of weeks to prepare for the rest of the season, then there was a three-week break before the next pre-season. Later, we had all these tendon issues. Injuries where hamstrings were being ripped off the bone in a really innocuous sprint.

I said: “Let’s look into this, because we don't want it to continue.” But there was a lot of off-the-field politics going on at the time. You want people in the building who say: “I didn’t spot that, nice one.” No agenda, no ‘stay in your lane’. That’s how I am.

It was my job to raise concerns to the people above me. But it was at a time when we had lost five games on the spin, so my position was weak. I don’t regret doing it, because senior players were coming to me and raising their concerns. Now, I would handle it differently in terms of how I approach going to the owner of the football club. Although the owners deserve to know what is going on inside the club, it is about picking battles at the right time.

After Bristol City I went to Stoke, where I worked with Michael O’Neill. It was brilliant. I got a lot of autonomy, in terms of team meetings that I took, media responsibilities and so much coaching, because Michael wasn't necessarily on the grass all the time.

When Michael left, I took charge of the first team and oversaw a first away win of the season. Unfortunately, the new manager Alex Neil didn’t want me to stay on when he took over, The chairman, John Coates, was very good with me. I enjoyed working for him, loved it there and would relish a return, because it feels like unfinished business.

As a leader, you have to be the example, to behave consistently with your values and beliefs. I’ll be first in and last out, every day. That’s a given. I feel like I have this camera on my shoulder, checking that I am working hard enough, treating people in the right way and making the big decisions. I always feel that if I don’t do that, the camera would get me at some point and go: “You’re cheating yourself.” That comes from my upbringing.

"we took a little bit of the risk away from playing out from the back. We had so much speed in that top area of the pitch"

It’s about the details, not leaving things to chance. Today needs to be as good as it can be. It’s not like you just rock up on a Saturday with a good team and win.

Tactically, I want to see my team dominate possession, but play forward and play exciting football. If we lose the ball, the players must show the fans what they're representing – a team that gets after the ball and is committed.

When I took over at Charlton, before we started on any tactics it was about bringing people together. When you take over a struggling team, there will be players who have been discarded, staff members who have lost a bit of love for the job because they've not been involved, stuff like that.

I was genuine. I’m not someone who hides away, Mr Important with a PA bringing me a cup of tea. I get out and get my hands dirty. I think that got a little bit of respect and, all of a sudden, there was a buzz about the place.

We went from 18th to 10th. The team had been playing heavily possession-based football, but it was difficult to play out from the back as much as I would have liked. Confidence was low, and the pitch at The Valley was really poor. When they pulled the covers off before a game against Bristol Rovers, part of the pitch even ripped off. The groundsman said it never recovered for the second half of the season.

So we took a little bit of the risk away from playing out from the back. We had so much speed in that top area of the pitch and really good creative midfielders: Scott Fraser, George Dobson, Corey Blackett-Taylor, Tyreece Campbell, Miles Leaburn – one of the best young players in the country – and Rak-Sakyi. It was about getting our better players on the ball at that end of the pitch.

"The messages of support I’ve had from Charlton fans have been absolutely phenomenal"

In my first game in charge, I dropped the captain, Jayden Stockley, and gave the armband to Dobson. I also played 18-year-old Daniel Kanu up front. Kanu is rapid and wants to run in behind, and he got the assist for our goal that day. I played young players because I felt they deserved to play, would excite and get us out of the trouble we were in.

We moved on four senior players in January, which lowered the wage bill, and over the summer we tried to reshape the squad. Five loans had all gone back, including Rak-Sakyi. We also had the new ownership being sorted through the summer, which made it more difficult.

We won the first game of the new season, then lost key players to injury, including Fraser, the best number 10 in the division, and Campbell. Leaburn was injured in pre-season. We lost the next four games by the odd goal. There were two letters from the FA apologising for not giving penalties that should have been given. That is not an excuse; it is just life as a manager.

Peter Storrie came in as chief executive in February. He was brilliant to me, and very good at communicating with the fans. When the new owners came in, we were working under a two-year remit to get out of League One – ideally in the first year – and playing younger players developed from within a great academy. The owners didn’t want to go up and then come down with an experienced team.

My successor, Michael Appleton, has a brilliant opportunity there. We did so much work in the community, as a club, to engage the supporters. They were all-in. The messages of support I’ve had from Charlton fans have been absolutely phenomenal. It means a lot to me and my family, to my young kids, it genuinely does.

Other managers have been really supportive, too. Steve Cooper, Dean Smith, Thomas Frank, Kieran McKenna, Chris Wilder, Lee Carsley, those guys have been very good.

It all gives me confidence that I am ready to go again. I couldn’t quite get to the top as a player, but I believe I have the credentials to become a really good manager. I am obsessed with planning and preparing for the next opportunity, and I will be ready for the right one.

Author: Craig Bloomfield

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