Aidy Boothroyd coached a golden generation of young English footballers. He was the manager of England’s youth teams for seven years, working with future stars such as Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden. At the youth programme, he shared an office with England manager Gareth Southgate. Before that, Boothroyd authored a remarkable turnaround story to take Watford to the Premier League from the brink of relegation in the Championship. He is now the coach of Jamshedpur FC, which reached the semifinals of the Super Cup in Kozhikode recently. Excerpts from an interview with The Hindu:
What drew you to India?
I absolutely love India. The whole point of me coming out here was an adventure. You know, I have thrown myself into it. My wife has moved over with me. I wanted to witness football on a different continent. I have played in and managed in all four leagues in England. I also did international work with England and I absolutely loved it.
It was a fairly long spell, too, with the England youth sides…
Yes, seven years. It is a long time for a football manager. Some managers don’t survive seven months or seven days.
How do you look back at those days?
I enjoyed it very much. When we first started we knew we had a lot of work to do because England wasn’t anywhere on the map we wanted to get to — the last stages of the World Cup finals and the European championships. We managed to do that by starting with a really young team, by looking at the Spanish and the German kids and what they did to get through to the team. We became probably the strongest European power from Under-17 to Under-21. We had an unprecedented period of success.
Some big stars have emerged from those squads.
Phil Foden will probably be the best player I’ve worked with. I could say [Bukayo] Saka, too. When I stopped and reflected, I found there were 27 players in that seven years that had come and got full caps for England.
Have there been some boys who did not do as well as you would’ve expected?
I think it takes some players longer than others. Dominic Solanke, for example. He was a bit of a slow burner to start with. Then he got to Bournemouth, found his Premier League legs, and off he went. And now he is scoring goals.
How was it working with Gareth Southgate?
I loved sharing the office with Gareth for five years. My job as the Under-21 coach was to produce players for Gareth to put in the first team. That weakened the Under-21 team. But that’s the job: to produce players, just like in any club. The youth-team coach’s job is to get players through to the first. I consider Gareth as a friend rather than a colleague. He is genuine. And I am not surprised by the success he has had because of the humility of the man, and the way he leads. He is a good guy. And he’s great with you guys in the media.
And he has turned the England team around…
And the expectancy level will go through the roof. I am delighted for him.
Apart from Southgate, which other managers have you looked up to?
Definitely Sir Alex Ferguson. Well, he used to frighten the life out of me most of the time, whenever I phone him up for a favour, because we had Chris Eagles and Ben Foster on loan [from Manchester United, when I was at Watford]. So every month I’d phone him up and tell him about how his players had done. So Sir Alex was a big influence on me. So was Jose Mourinho. Gareth would be right up there with them. They are probably the top three.
Talking of your stint at Watford, taking the club to the Premier League in 2006-07, after a gap of six years, must have been special for you.
We went from just avoiding relegation to qualifying for the Premier League through the playoffs in pretty much a year’s time. There was a bit of surgery needed. The management supported me completely. I had a good group of senior players. In that winning environment, we had development too, not just for the players, but for the staff and the people. When I look back on that, I think that was probably the most powerful thing that we did. We created leaders, we won games and we sold players and made money.
Your thoughts on Indian football?
India has got some really good players. You can see the levels getting better and better, from some of the things I have seen in the past to where it is now. Looking at people like Ritwik Das, who has got his cap now. What a talent he is. It could only take two or three Indian players to break into other leagues.
Besides Ritwik, who are the other Indians that have impressed you?
You cannot but be impressed by Sunil Chhetri, though he is not a young player. But he plays like one. And I am impressed with Sandesh Jhingan, too. I think the foreign influence in the ISL is a good thing. It allows the Indian federation, coaches and clubs to have a little look at what is happening overseas. Somebody once told me, if you want to be a good coach, you have got to be a good thief. So you have to take other people’s ideas, which I think the Indians have done really well. I know there is a fashion for Spanish or Portuguese coaches, but it is nice to see that a few English coaches are here.
English seems to have been the flavour of the ISL season as far as the coaches are concerned. There is, of course, a tremendous following for the Premier League in India.
I was in the league as a 34-year-old; that seems a long time ago now. It was a great learning experience for me. I learned so much in a short space of time, from the best managers in the world — Mourinho, Sir Alex, Rafael Benitez… All these guys that were top managers and competing against them as a young man, it certainly helped me to grow into the coach that I am today.
There are no easy games in the Premier League. Generally in a league, you get the ones that are up there and then there is a discrepancy to the qualities of the next teams. In the Premier League, anybody can beat anybody on the day. I remember looking around during the game against Chelsea one day, looking at their bench to make a change. And they had [Andriy] Shevchenko on the bench, who was worth more than my whole entire club. You have to live with that, and you have to find a way to win.
