Coming full circle

It was a big decision for me to go to Nottingham Forest in 1998, but it wasn’t a difficult one. 

I’d also gone on trial with Manchester United, Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Stoke. But I always felt Forest was the place for me.

For somebody coming over at such a young age – I was 15 – from Dublin, it was important my parents also felt it was the right place. When they came over and met everybody, it felt right for them as well. 

I felt like I was part of the club; at other clubs, I was one of 50 triallists. Straight away, Forest felt that it was the place I wanted to go to. Even today, I don’t think that those big clubs are right for every player. 

Back in Brian Clough’s days at the club, there had been young Irish players coming through. Roy Keane hadn’t been too much before me, and my family in Ireland had an affinity for the city of Nottingham. Frank Clark was the manager, and there was a real personal touch; a feeling that if I performed, I’d get a chance. 

Before that happened, there was a shake-up of the youth structure. Paul Hart came in from Leeds and took over as academy manager. 

The first time I saw Paul he looked scary, but he had a real impact on shaping me as a footballer and a person. He’s one of the best developers of young players I’ve seen. There’s things I do today that I picked up from him. 

His attention to detail was complemented with a really good way of getting things across to you simply. You were always really clear about what was expected of you, both on the training ground and the football pitch. 

"paul hart had been a father figure to so many of us. when he lost his job, i was devastated"

David Platt gave me my debut against Sheffield United in November 2000, when I scored in a 2-0 win. That was a real dream, but when he left the following summer Paul stepped up. There were players, like David Prutton and Jermaine Jenas, who had also made their debuts around that time. When Paul took over, the first team became almost an extension of what we’d been doing in the years before that. 

We all knew exactly what was wanted, and the squad had a mix of experience and youthful energy. We played out from the back through a diamond midfield; we very rarely kicked it long, because our goalkeeper Darren Ward was under strict instructions not to.

The two centre-backs split, Riccy Scimeca or Gareth Williams would come and get on the ball from the base of the diamond, the full-backs would go high, and the wide players in the diamond would be slightly narrow. Teams found it very difficult to play against us. 

Sometimes I was at the tip of the diamond, and sometimes I was on the left. The left suited me perfectly, giving me freedom to come into the pockets and half-spaces where opposing full-backs didn’t want to follow. It was one of the most enjoyable times in my playing career, and it became really easy to slot in because we’d been doing it since we were 14 or 15. We had a lot of high-scoring games that were really, really good to watch. 

We had some really, really top-class players. Michael Dawson and Marlon Harewood both made it to the Premier League, and if I was on the left Darren Huckerby played as the number 10. So it was a big disappointment not to get promoted to the Premier League at the end of the 2002/03 season. We had goals all over the pitch, but Sheffield United under Neil Warnock managed to get the better of us in the playoff semi finals. After that, we couldn’t keep the squad together. 

The late Nigel Doughty was a fantastic chairman, but at that stage he couldn’t commit the funds we needed to stay together and maybe add two or three. When Paul lost his job, after Coventry beat us 1-0 in February 2004, I was absolutely devastated. He had been a father figure for a lot of us, and so influential for so many of us. It was a huge blow. 

"alan pardew really got me, which i really liked – he gave me opportunities to be a leader"

Tottenham had been trying to sign me and Michael Dawson for 18 months, and in January 2005 we both packed our bags and headed to London. I was 22, and with my ambition and how I was playing at the time – I was regularly playing for Ireland under Brian Kerr – I needed that challenge. 

Martin Jol was the Spurs manager, and he was very hands-on. He was passionate about the job, and so energetic – he had desire and drive, and I really liked him. He was also helped by having Chris Hughton there. Chris was a really good coach who did a lot of the possession coaching – the rondos, and what a coach might call the “dirty work” – so Martin could take the match preparation. 

After 18 months I moved to Charlton, where Alan Pardew became another of my favourite managers. I got on really, really well with him. In the summer of 2007 I was at a stage where I needed to mature, so I worked really hard in the off-season, got myself really fit, went to see him, and said: “Gaffer, I want you to make me captain. I want to have a real good go at this.” 

He was very, very good for me – he got me, which I really liked – and I’ve tried to take those things into my coaching. Trying to understand what a player is feeling, and trying to understand what that player is feeling towards me. Alan understood what I was all about – my qualities as a footballer and person – and he gave me opportunities to become a leader by putting me in certain situations. 

In January 2008, 18 months into my time there, I got a phone call from him to say Charlton had accepted a bid from Sunderland. “Gaffer, I don’t want to leave. I’m captain, and we’ve a great chance of going back up.” 

“Reidy, I’d love you to stay, but the club aren’t in a great situation financially and the board feel like they have to take the money.” 

I was very disappointed to leave – and especially to leave Pards, and the way he worked on the training ground. He was very, very clear in what he wanted – he could be straight, which I didn’t mind – and he was a fantastic coach and a really good manager. I really enjoyed working with him. 

"i felt the way trapattoni set the team up downplayed the ability of a lot of the players we had"

Roy Keane was my first manager at Sunderland, and I knew him from playing together for the Republic of Ireland. We weren’t by any stretch mates, and people often look for something bad to say about him, but he was always very good to me and I loved my time at the club. He signed me, treated me well, played me the majority of the time and was very, very straight.

It was generally getting to the stage in football where that straightness, and maybe an aggressive tone from a manager, was something a lot of players were starting to struggle with. But I never minded it. With Roy, I always got on with the job, and enjoyed working with him. It was an experience; he could be feisty, and had no problem letting you know if you weren’t doing something, but for me that was fine. 

Steve Bruce was Roy’s permanent successor. Until I got injured, I had a spell of around six months, after a really good off-season, when I did really well and enjoyed playing in the team he put together. Eric Black did a lot of the coaching, and he was a top coach I had a lot of respect for, while Steve managed the team and the club, and did a lot of the match prep. Steve has always done a decent job – he’s managed a lot of games and had a lot of success – and doesn’t get the credit he deserves. 

By then, at international level, it was pretty clear Giovanni Trapattoni didn’t fancy me as a player. It’s very difficult to argue against the record he has and all of the trophies he’s won, but my biggest gripe about his time as Ireland manager wasn’t to do with me.

I just felt the way he set the team up downplayed the ability of a lot of the footballers we had. It was very defensive, and at times very direct, when they could have been a lot more flexible and fluid. He has been very, very successful, though. 

Before that, Brian Kerr had been very supportive of me. As with Paul Hart at club level, with Ireland I’d worked with Brian from the Under-16s. He later gave me my debut for the senior team, but he was given a raw deal. He had a very good record – we narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2006 World Cup – and he deserved longer. I still speak to him; he’s been another important figure in my career, both as a player and coach. 

"how steve worked on the training pitch was elite. the way he spoke about football really intrigued me"

I was still having a tough time with injuries when, in 2011, I got a phone call from Steve McClaren to discuss going back to Forest. Like the first time around, it just felt right. I needed a bit of a spark to kick me off again, and I was going back to somewhere I still had a home. It was a city and a football club I had such an affinity with. 

I really enjoyed listening to him – his plans, and how he saw things going – and it was brilliant to be able to go back. In some ways the club was very, very similar to when I’d left, but I was also told how much they wanted to have a go at promotion. They’d also brought in Jonathan Greening and George Boateng, and Steve had wanted more. 

He ended up leaving very quickly, which was disappointing because I really rated him as a coach. How he worked on the training pitch was elite, and some of the ideas he had on how football should be played, and how he spoke about football, really intrigued me. His ideas and how he got them across – he really got the game. 

One of Steve’s successors, Billy Davies, was another of the very best I worked under – on the grass, how he set teams up, and his man-management on the football side. He was a fantastic coach who saw the game, and set teams up with really top-notch match preparation. He struggled with the media and managing upwards, but his work on the training pitch was absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed working under him. 

He put together a really good side, and in 2013/14 we were in a really good place to make an assault on promotion. Then we got a couple of injuries, and suddenly it felt like we were miles away. Forest have had so many times like that. 

"we were flying when my groin gave way. that turned out to be my last first-team game"

I also look back on working under Stuart Pearce. My first season at the club was his last as a player, before he went to Newcastle, and he was rightly held in such a high regard because of everything he’d done. He’s one of Forest’s best players and captains, and I had a huge amount of respect for him. 

I got on really well with him – I could listen to him talk about football all day – and we were unbeaten and flying when, in September 2014, we played Derby at the City Ground. Chris Cohen injured his cruciate ligaments in the first half, and my groin gave way.

We were influential on and off the pitch, but Chris was ruled out for a year and that turned out to be my last first-team game. That team, and Stuart in particular, was very, very unlucky. 

There had been different owners at Forest, and so many different managers. There were times we felt we nearly had it right, and others when we were miles away. 

But it was around that time that I realised it would be difficult for me to return to the levels of fitness I needed to perform. 

When I knew I wasn’t going to get back playing, I knew it was time to get into coaching.