In April 2015, Jose Mourinho had a third Premier League title in his sights.
A 2-1 win against Stoke pushed Mourinho's Chelsea a step closer towards their aim, but all anyone could talk about was a ridiculous goal from Charlie Adam. The Scot spotted Thibaut Courtois, one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, off his line and went for it.
Adam’s effort sailed from his own half and swerved high into the Stamford Bridge sky before looping over a desperate Courtois. Chelsea were silenced by a moment of magic. It also summed up the career of Adam, a player with a wand of a left foot, in a nutshell.
Now retired, Adam is hoping to bring that magic into his managerial career. The 26-cap international hung up his boots last summer and was named as Burnley's loans manager and a professional development phase coach for the U21s in October.
"I’ve always had an interest in the other side of the game - even when I was playing," Adam tells Mirror Football on behalf of the EFL’s Together - Supporting Communities initiative. "Coaching and management is something that I always thought I'd be interested in. That's been reaffirmed since I've retired - how much I enjoy it.
"Do I miss playing? No, I don’t. I’m loving what I’m doing at the moment, and that’s coaching the U21s and helping with the loan players at Burnley. It’s a busy time. It’s a great learning curve - I’m learning all the time - and it helps that the football club is going in the right direction after the relegation they had last season."
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Burnley are flying under Manchester City legend Vincent Kompany this season. They are 13 points clear of Sheffield United at the top of the Championship and need just nine points from their final nine games to guarantee an immediate return to the Premier League.
Burnley have a number of players out on loan this season - including Manchester United striker Wout Weghorst - and Adam analyses their progress in his role as loans manager. Weghorst has started all 18 of his outings for the Red Devils since arriving in January.
"I oversee everything – in terms of dealings with the other football club, getting the data in, speaking to the players, speaking to the managers, going to watch the players on the weekend and when they’re playing games in the week as well.
"It’s a busy time... meeting new people, new contacts, speaking to managers, speaking with agents who have players out on loan and telling them how they’re getting on. It’s been a great learning curve for me, in terms of going forward to eventually, hopefully, becoming a manager one day."
Although Adam wants to become a manager one day, he is enjoying learning his coaching trade at Burnley. "My aim is to become a manager; I want to progress into becoming a manager. How soon that will be? That’s up to the owners of football clubs and what goes on [behind the scenes].
"But at the moment, I’m loving what I’m doing... I’m at a good football club that’s helping myself and the younger coaches that we have to develop and get better every day. That comes from the top; that comes from the manager himself and his staff being open and transparent, in terms of allowing [the other] staff and coaches into what he’s doing, and what he’s doing with the first team."
Kompany has been praised for ditching Burnley’s long-ball merchants tag and playing free-flowing football, with the Belgian following in the footsteps of his mentor Pep Guardiola. Adam would like to adopt a similar philosophy when he steps into the hotseat, although he admits he will need to be pragmatic.
"Ultimately, it comes down to what players you have - in terms of coaching them on a day-to-day basis and getting them better, making them better on the grass every day.
"You always have a plan; you have a strategy of what you see is the perfect way of playing. But it’s not until you’re actually in a job until you go and see what you have as a squad, and you tweak it, and you add to it... the principles will always be the same in what I want to do.
"What I see from the manager and the staff is what I would like to see my team playing in; the same way."
Adam enjoyed a long and successful career. He made more than 550 senior appearances at club level, won trophies in England and Scotland and represented the likes of Rangers and Liverpool. His highlights include starting the victorious 2012 League Cup final for Liverpool and captaining Blackpool to victory in the 2010 Championship play-off final. Ironically, Cardiff lost both of those games.
"It’s only when people start asking you about your career when you actually sit down and reflect on what you’ve achieved. I had a good career, and I don’t want to expand too much.
"It was a lot of hard work; it was a lot of dedication. I always say to our players now in the U21s, ‘Whatever you put into your career, you’ll get out of it’... I put a lot of hard work into it over the years, and I got some good moments in my career that I enjoyed and can always look back on with a lot of pride... it’ll never be taken away."
The play-off final triumph was arguably Adam’s finest hour. He scored a superb free kick in the 3-2 victory to write his name in Blackpool’s history. Adam still lives near Blackpool, such is his association with the club, and will never forget their Wembley triumph.
"It was surreal because we were favourites to get relegated that season. We had a good group of players that had come together, with a manager that believed in us and had a way of playing. We managed to hit momentum; hit the play-offs at the right time. Over the games we had in the play-offs – and obviously the final – we played really well.
"It was a great piece of history for this football club – something we’ll be part of. It’ll be spoken [about] for years to come."
Adam was speaking at Blackpool FC for the EFL's ‘Together - Supporting Communities’ campaign, supported by EFL partner eBay through the provision of almost 3,000 match tickets. "They [Blackpool] support loads of families around the area," explains Adam.
"[It runs] five times a week, in terms of food and heating and bringing young kids to bring play games... just to help the community. It’s place where I live. I understand what’s going on in the area... it needs help and support, and the football club have reached out because the owner is a local lad and wants to get into the community.
"It’s a great initiative. At times, there’s 150 people. I think over the Christmas period, there’s 150 people turning up every night. Those numbers have slowed down a bit [as we approach the summer], but they’re still getting 50 or 60 people a night... It’s great the football club are willing to support this and help the community."
