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Nogen der har set dette interview med Redders
GANSKE INTERESSANT, JA...
Neil Redfearn: What Leeds United mean to me (This is the full transcript of an interview conducted in September:)
FORMATIVE YEARS:
I grew up in Birkenshaw, between Leeds and Bradford. At that point Leeds were the side, in England and in Europe. They were a big influence on me. My dad (Brian, now 81) was a pro for 15 years. He played for Blackburn, Darlington, Bradford City, Bradford Park Avenue. From a young age I had a dad and a coach as well.
I was fortunate to have my dad, because he always put that belief in me that I was good enough. And I always believed that myself. I instil that in other players as well, I make them feel they’re good enough.From seven or eight he used to take me to Leeds games. He was a Bradford fella but Don Revie had built this side that were the best in Europe. It was a great learning curve to watch these players, Clarke and Bremner and Hunter. We used to watch Leeds on Saturday and Bradford Northern, the rugby league side, on a Sunday. Just me and my Dad.
He’d pick out certain pieces in the game and say, ‘when the ball goes into Eddie Gray, watch how he takes it.’ When you’re seven or eight you can’t really see the mechanics of what they’re trying to do, just the quality in what they do, the touch. My favourite was Allan Clarke because he scored goals.
Not only was he a great player but he was prolific. Dad's favourite player was Bobby Charlton. Even in my mid twenties, I’d go out with this session my dad designed - it was about receiving and finishing round the box. It was based on Bobby Charlton when he’d pick the ball up, run with it and shoot from the edge of the area. It worked. Dad had worked out that if, as a midfield player, you could get 10 goals a season, then you would became a commodity.
I’m proud of my goal record – 181 goals from midfield – which is a lot, it's what a good striker would get. And a lot of that was down to him and how he worked. I look at some of the coaches I worked with during my career and he definitely had the quality. If it’s someone you really love, then you’re prepared to go that extra bit to try and learn how to do things, and I took that with me throughout my career.
LEEDS FAN:
We used to go in the West Stand, about halfway down to the right of the tunnel. We’d get the 226 bus onto Leeds Road and get off at the pub at the top and walk through the underpass. I can remember the excitement I felt. We'd get to the ground early and I'd just want to see the pitch, that green oasis.
There's one match I remember in particular - in the West Ridings Senior Cup. It was Leeds against Halifax Town and we beat them 4-1. I’ll never forget that night. It was rainy and thundery, close and warm. The pitch was immaculate. They were all blue and Leeds were all white. There were about 20 thousand there and it just got you, the theatre of it. It shapes who you are.
After school, we'd go out and play football, all in Leeds kit.
ALMOST A LEEDS PLAYER:
When I was at Barnsley, Leeds came in for me and apparently offered money plus Alfie Haaland when George Graham was boss. Barnsley turned it down because they thought they had a chance of staying in the Premier League so they kept hold of us. I learnt about that after. They also came in for us in the summer when I went to Charlton. I didn’t get to find out about that either, until it was too late. I had an agent, Mel Stein, and the Charlton deal was obviously best for the club.
BACK AT ELLAND ROAD:
A role with the academy became available and I thought it was a good chance to further myself as a coach. I took the Under 18s. It was my club. Simon Grayson had just come in as manager and was bringing it all together. He'd made some good signings and got some good backing. People might not like me saying this, but my experiences with Ken Bates were always good. I know how he is, that he has a ruthless side, but he was good, supportive. I can’t say bad about someone I’ve not had a bad experience with.
YOUNG GEMS:
I could see these young players coming through. Cook was under 13, Mowatt was under 14. Phillips, Taylor and Byram were in the under 16s. I was looking at the best ways to develop them as individuals within the team. We had a system – a diamond to start with – and they were learning together and bringing each other on. We won the under-18s. I could see how good they were getting.
With Alex Mowatt, we worked on how to get him round the box and getting those shots off. With Sam Byram, we’d work on these positions where we’d get him further forward and receiving it round the box. That comes from the stuff I did with me dad and the experiences I had with him as a coach.
My only concern was opportunity. Gwyn Williams could see how they were starting to develop. It’s about your manager being responsive to it. Neil Warnock didn’t really put kids in, he liked to bring in his own group – Brown, Tonge, Kenny.
I remember he came into the office one day and said ‘have you got any players?’ I laughed and said 'we’ve got about 300'. He said, 'I need someone to take to Cornwall for pre season. I told him, ‘I’ve got the best right back at the club – Sam Byram.’
I think he thought I was having him on, but he put him in and Sam took off, he was brilliant. Nothing phased him or flustered him. Then one or two others started getting in. They saw Sam and thought, ‘we can do this.’ They relaxed. There was the basis of a good side there for years to come.
Our smart targets were to get two from pro to first team every season. We were getting four or five. Warnock came in at the time we were in transition with the EPPP. The philosophy and coaching programme ran through the club and had to be agreed from the top. That's meant to be the identity of your football club, providing continuity. I wrote the club philosophy and coaching programme right through the age groups, from pro development to youth development to foundation.
It used to be on the academy website, but they took it down under Cellino because they associated it with me. When he got the hump on with me, they tried to cut off everything to do with me. It’s still there in place because, with respect, no-one there has the acumen to put it down. It was to be comfortable receiving and playing anywhere on the pitch and to play a structured passing game going through the thirds.
CELLINO ARRIVES:
I had a call off an agent and had to go down to Elland Road. Cellino was there and said, ‘can you take this group of players in the morning?’ I rang Brian [McDermott] after and said ‘what’s happening’ and he said ‘they’ve sacked me.’ I was like f**king hell. I took training Saturday morning before the Huddersfield game. It was a mess. The players were asking what’s happening and I had to say I didn't know.
That Friday, Cellino came in. The supporters barricaded him in at Elland Road. I remember first meeting him - there were all these people buzzing round him. I didn’t know who they were, they must have been agents. He said, ‘Neil, you need to take this group of players for tomorrow morning.’ He said Gianluca Festa was going to be in charge, with me helping him. He hugged me and said ‘you be my coach’. It was surreal.
Chairmen at English clubs are usually roast beef and Yorkshire pudding - you never see them. But there was this guy who looked like someone who was moving house and had been given two hours to do it. Everything was a rush and nothing made sense. Brian didn’t come to that Huddersfield game because GFH had advised him not to. They scored after about three minutes, through Danny Ward. I thought, 'f**king hell, we’re gonna get battered, it can’t get any worse', but then they went in one after another, 5-1. You can’t call it, can you?
I didn’t really see Cellino that much to start with. He'd come up to Thorp Arch now and again. His son Edoardo would come up, ‘just show him round the academy.’ So I’d sit down with this kid, who was going ‘wow,’ explaining 'we’ve got the foundation group, under eights, nines,' and he’d be ‘we’ve got a lot of players.’ And you’re thinking ‘what’s he going to go back and tell his dad?’
Cellino got one of the corporate boxes right at the end, like a makeshift office, with have Debra Ware’s office at the side. That was where you used to go in. That was where he had Benny Carbone based to start with.
SURREAL SUMMER:
It seemed they liked what they saw with the academy and I thought we’ll plough on with them and see how many of the lads we can get in the first team. But they were cutting costs. I thought ‘this is Leeds United, what are you doing?' Dave Hockaday came in - and, to be fair, he was a lovely bloke - and Junior Lewis was a nice guy too, but you’re thinking, 'jesus, you’re like lambs to the slaughter here.' Dave didn’t have a chance.
Then Cellino stopped everything at Thorp Arch - he closed the kitchen and stopped the food. But we had a duty of care to these kids, it’s in the contracts. Lucy started cooking so the kids had something to eat.
He drained all the water out of the pool. The pressure of the water had kept the tiles in place and they started buckling. It cost £25k a year to heat and treat and he said ‘we’re not having that.’ He made the cleaners redundant, getting the apprentices to do it. That’s when the bug went round. Spores from the swimming pool area caused a sickness bug. He got rid of security. On a night when we had hundreds of kids in, anyone could walk in. He was getting rid of people on £12k a year and still paying Paddy Kenny, who couldn’t stop a pig in a passage, £20k a week.
We had to have people deliver the food in the end from Elland Road, not refrigerated. Lucy was cooking for about 80 people a day.
We were leaving at about eight every other night following a 14-hour day. They brought in Mishcon de Reya to do the redundancies. They got all the heads of department to help in this. I met Andrew Umbers and he said, 'right, you’ve got to sit these people down and say they’re going to be made redundant.' I said, 'I’m not doing that, I’m a football coach.' The process was illegal, but you had cleaners who didn’t have the money to do anything and there was no union.
There was this fear and people did what they were told, even if they didn’t agree with it. I remember taking Benny Carbone to Thorp Arch and the grass was about three feet long. The whole place smelled. There was no electric. We were trying to sort out the running costs of the academy because he wanted it all cut down - and you’ve got Cook £5million, Byram £4million – it pays for itself for the next 20 years.
But no-one would ever dare say that to him, because you couldn’t question him. That first time I went down to see him, I said ‘you look like you need some help.’ And he said ‘yes.’ We got talking about football. He asked me about young players and said, ‘I love this system.’ He listened more. The more I got to know him the less he listened.
BECOMING MANAGER:
It was after Wolves at home and we got beat 2-1. I had an idea what was happening because I had the call from Nicola Salerno on the Friday, ‘come to the game on Saturday.’ I said 'do I need to? There’s an 18s game.' 'You need to sit with Mr Cellino.' I thought he’s gonna do him. Milanic had only had six games.
We went ahead through Antenucci and battered them and I thought 'good, I don’t want to be in the middle of this shitstorm.' But they scored again and Cellino got up and stormed off.He can’t sit still through a game - he’s holding your leg, twitching, shouting in Italian. Fans were calling up to him. This time he'd been even more agitated than usual.
I got to my car and had the phone call, 'come back in'. He said ‘you take the team. Get them in tomorrow.’ Cardiff was my first game. My dealings then were with Matt Child, so it was quite a sane environment. I said, 'if it gives me chance to get these young lads in and get em playing, then I’ll do it.'
Matt fought for me to get Thommo in. There was a clause in my contract that I’d pick the team. I think he knew it wasn’t the be all and end all for me, so he never had that hold over me. I just need the right people round me, like Thommo. And I knew what these kids were capable of. The first time we did the running the Italians were blowing. I used to say to the players, 'if you lose it, run after it and let them see you run after it. That’s it. We’ve got to be brave enough to pass it, I’ll give you a plan. This is your theatre. If they see you run after it you’ll be like gladiators.' If there wasn’t the influence of Cellino over the Italian lads, I would have helped them too, because you could see them thinking 'I like this'.
They’d speak to him. Perhaps in their culture that’s what happened. The president brought players in and the coaches came and went. They were always quite respectful. The bit I like is on the grass with the players. I’m a tracksuit manager. As a coach I’m at my strongest. I’m honest and genuine.
DOING IT MY WAY:
We beat Derby at home 2-0, then got beat at Derby. I’d persevered with the Italians, but our season is that intense it caught up with them all. They looked leggy. I said to Thommo 'we’re gonna have to radically change this and become a functional Championship side.' We played Murphy and Austin at Sunderland away and they ran the game.
Recruitment wasn't ideal. He’s brought Nicola Salerno in as head of recruitment, who is a very nice guy. But I'm not sure he understood the demands of the Championship or what it took to do well there. He said, ‘we’ve got this Albanian centre forward, he’s brilliant.’ I saw the footage on Scout 7 and got Alex Davies to do some more clips for me. He just looked raw and the level he was playing at just wasn’t good.
When he scored a goal you could hear one bloke clapping, because there was no-one there. Cani came in and trained and I’m thinking 'you’re miles away.' He was a nice enough kid. I think he was Bellusci’s mate. He worked hard enough but was nowhere near. I had people like Steve Morrison, who was not scoring but playing well and working hard. And he’s an experienced big man. He came to see us and I went ‘I’m sick of you. You think everything should be on a plate. Why don’t you man up and show us how good you are?’
And it was like a relief for him. He found himself again. I saw him grow as a person. He was massive in us doing alright. We played one up top and everything that went into him he got hold of it or shook it up. He was great for Mowatt and Byram. Billy Sharpe was itching to play but we weren’t strong enough to play 4-4-2.
I knew Thommo from when we played. We were good mates at Bolton and I knew what he’d bring - a human touch, which is what the group needed. The crowd is brilliant but harsh and hostile and between them you need some safe ground. Cellino would phone me up and say 'you don’t need an assistant. You’re my coach, we’ll do it together.' But we had 30 odd players. You’re like 'f**king hell, I'm doing this on my own.'
