Embracing change

Football’s been my life since I was seven years old. 

I left home in Northern Ireland at 16 to join Manchester City. In the 36 years since, I’ve been totally engrossed in football. No matter where I’ve been, my enthusiasm for the game has remained. 

I was a leader as a player, and count myself lucky that I was a number six. A lot of top coaches played a midfield role where they could see the whole pitch – Pep Guardiola, Xavi, Carlo Ancelotti, Didier Deschamps and, at times, Gareth Southgate. As a six, you are always engaged with what’s going on, with your strikers, distances with your centre-halves, your full-backs. You are the fulcrum of the team. 

Sometimes managers said to me: “Stand still. The ball will come to you.” So I became really brilliant at standing still! It was an all-round picture I developed on the pitch. My game intelligence matured, and I took that into coaching: all that experience of big games, opposition, title runs, relegation battles, playoff finals. I’m not saying I have all the answers, but that knowledge is certainly beneficial.

There are a lot of changes in the game and you have to evolve with that, even if the fundamental basics are the same. A lot more teams are playing out from the back now. I find the risk and reward of that really interesting.

"it was fantastic to watch – the rotations in midfield and the understanding between the strikers"

I’ve watched a lot of games where teams are trying to play out and they cut their own throat. Recently, I watched a game where a team conceded two goals from losing the ball in really bad areas, having been in the ascendancy. There has to be a balance. 

You can play out from the back at times, but play through the lines as quickly as you can. In the current game, I would look to play a 3-5-2 shape. It gives you that defensive structure. When I went into coaching at Celtic, we used a back four – 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 – and we had great success. In Scotland we were the dominant team, and it worked for us, but I do like two strikers in a team. 

When I took Celtic into the last 16 of the Champions League, we played Juventus with Antonio Conte in charge. They played a 3-5-2 and it was fantastic to watch – the rotations in midfield and the understanding between the strikers. Conte brought it back into vogue, because a lot of teams were going with one striker. 

It does help when you’ve got good players. Conte had Andrea Pirlo, Paul Pogba, Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Gigi Buffon in goal, Carlos Tevez up front. But the way they implemented it was brilliant. I like the fluidity of that formation when you get it right. 

"I always look at a player when they’re losing, and what their character is like"

Whatever level you’re managing at, recruitment is vital – getting the right players, specific to the way you want to play. Have they got football intelligence? Do they see things before the ball comes to them? Are they scanning? What’s their movement like?

At Celtic, I brought in Gary Hooper from Scunthorpe for £2.4m, and the club got around £6m for him three years later. I knew after 20 minutes that he was the type of player I wanted. Hooper had everything for a goalscorer – with his back to goal he was brilliant, and he was a fantastic finisher. With Fraser Forster, I liked his size. He could make saves other goalkeepers couldn’t. I got him for £2m and he was sold for £10m. Virgil van Dijk was a no-brainer at £2.4m. I watched Jeremie Frimpong play in a bounce game at Celtic’s Lennoxtown training ground, and saw a lot of potential. He was fabulous for me for a year, and then he was off to Leverkusen. 

When I was at Bolton, the bottom fell out of the club financially. Players were being sold, we couldn’t bring many in, and we had to use youth players. We brought in young players like Zach Clough, who did really well, and Rob Holding, who went to Arsenal. We brought Gary Madine in on a free and he went for £6m, so we were bringing money in, and talented players, but it just wasn’t enough. The Championship is an attritional league, it’s very unforgiving. That was a different aspect of the job that I learned from.

Sir Alex Ferguson told me one thing he always looked for in a player was enthusiasm for the game. That’s one thing I look for straight away. I always look at a player when they’re losing, and what their character is like. Some players can be sulky and streaky, while other players just love the game and challenging themselves. The good ones come to the fore, regardless if they’re winning or losing.

"For all that they are tough and obsessed with winning, they have a human side"

In my first spell as Celtic manager, I emailed Sir Alex to see if we could have a look round Manchester United’s training ground. He said: “We’re renovating Carrington at the minute, but I’m going to be in Glasgow in a couple of weeks. I’ll pop into Lennoxtown.”

He came up one Sunday morning, we got him some crumpets, and he sat with me and my staff for two hours. It was like having 20 years with somebody else. He shared his experiences: coming through at Aberdeen, specific, big moments at Manchester United, how he felt, how he dealt with things. He would always go out of his way, and I can’t thank him enough for that.

When I was going through a difficult period during the pandemic at Celtic, José Mourinho was one of the first to contact me. These are things that people don’t know about these managers. For all that they are tough and obsessed with winning, they have a human side; they understand what you’re going through, because they’ve gone through it themselves. The higher up the food chain you go, you’re going to have great successes – but you’re going to have huge disappointments as well.

In 2020, at Celtic, I became the first person to win a domestic treble as both player and manager. It was a great achievement, but also surreal. Due to the pandemic and postponements, we didn’t actually secure the treble until the December of the following season – and there were no fans there to see it. It’s really hard to celebrate something like that. You have to have fans in the stadiums, particularly at big clubs like Celtic, Liverpool, Rangers – it makes such a difference.

Going through the Covid season, we had lots of problems that were not football-related. How to deal with a pandemic and a lockdown is not in the manual. To have no fans there was almost like playing a bounce game every week. Then there were players going down with Covid, protocols being broken – just zero momentum.

We suffered, and I resigned because it wasn’t great for the club. Previous to that, we’d won five trophies out of five since I’d come back – we were absolutely flying, but the momentum was curtailed by the pandemic. Having said all of that, there were things going on around the world that were much more important at the time.

"I had a great analyst, whose work was fantastic for me going into and after games"

After leaving Celtic, I took the chance to work outside of the UK for the first time, with Omonia in Cyprus. I spoke to the owners, the chief executive and the director of football – who was very supportive – and looked into the background of the club. They’d won the league the previous year, under Henning Berg, and had some really good players. It was a challenge I could get my teeth into.

When I arrived in March 2022, they were seventh in the league and lacking confidence. The brief was to go as far as we could in the Cypriot Cup and build for next season. The players responded brilliantly to what we asked them to do. They needed to be more physical, quicker with the ball, more attack-minded, and they bought into that. 

We went on a really good run in the league and got through the cup quarter finals. In the semi finals we played Anorthosis, who were a really good team under Temuri Ketsbaia, over two legs. We played out of our skin at their place, beat them 2-0, and got through the tie 3-1 at our stadium in Nicosia. 

I absolutely loved the challenge of the technical side. You have different coaches – Spanish, Scandinavian, Slovenian, Greek, Cypriots – and they all play a different style. I had a great analyst, whose work was fantastic for me going into and after games. 

The technology in the game now is incredible. I like to go and watch the opposition if I can, but sometimes you don’t have that luxury. If you look at the way the coach’s role has evolved, you’ve different departments now: medical, sports science, analysis and coaching. Players like to know what they’re doing before every session, and why. Back in the day it would have been: “Right, we’re doing this, let’s just get on with it.” Now, I’d get the players in a huddle before the session, or maybe do a bit of analysis on the opposition beforehand, and then go into a specific session for what I’ve just shown the players. There’s always an understanding there.

We went on to beat Ethnikos in the cup final. It was the first time Omonia had won the Cypriot Cup in a decade, and the fans gave us a spectacular reception. Victory earned us a Europa League qualifier in August against Gent, who’d won the Belgian Cup. I was able to go and watch them, and felt with a bit of physicality and speed we could hurt them. We won 2-0 in Belgium and 2-0 back in Nicosia. The place erupted.

"My principle is always: how do I win this game of football? No matter where I go, it’s about results"

Then we got an unbelievable draw in the group stage: Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sheriff Tiraspol. It was a group of Champions League quality. A year or so after leaving Celtic, there I was walking out at Old Trafford, going up against Erik ten Hag.

There was no chance we could play 4-3-3 against United or Sociedad. We’d have been murdered down the flanks and in midfield. We needed a good defensive structure. I had three good boys in midfield who had the legs, and an out ball down the flanks with my strikers, who were powerful and could run the channels to give us a breather. But you have to try to score, no matter who the opposition are. Even against superior teams, you have to be positive in your approach, not passive.

When I was at Hibernian, the first time we played against Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic, I went with one striker. I didn’t do it again. They played out through us too easily, so I changed the formation to stop their two centre-backs dominating the ball. We pressed them quite high and forced them to kick long. They didn’t have a physical presence up top, so we were able to recover the ball, or play 50-50 football, rather than be passive and have them play through us. You learn.

My principle is always: how do I win this game of football? No matter where I go, it’s about results. Always results. If you stick to the same philosophy and it’s not working, then that’s on you. 

Away at Sociedad in our second group game, we got to 1-1 but conceded in the 80th minute. In the next game we took the lead against United in Nicosia, but they edged it 3-2. We played really well at Old Trafford, and it took a 93rd-minute goal to beat us. We were just a little bit short. We just didn’t have that little bit of game management that more experienced and well-rounded players would have.

"I’ve had almost 600 games as a manager. An ambition would be to get to 1,000"

We were playing away in Europe on Thursday nights, and then in the league on Sunday, and that was hard on the boys. In league matches after our group games, we won three and lost three. It wasn’t disastrous – we lost a couple 1-0 where we played well and should have won. But the owners were a bit antsy about the league form, and decided to make a change.

In Cyprus, they have a culture of chopping and changing very quickly. Yannick Ferrera came in after me, and he is a very good coach, but he lasted three months. Anorthosis had three managers that season, and APOEL have had 20 managers in 10 years. I knew going into it that there was a problem with short-term thinking, but I loved the experience and the culture. I view my time at Omonia as a success. To win a cup, get into Europe, draw Manchester United and bring the crowds in, it was spectacular.

At 52, I’ve had almost 600 games as a manager. An ambition would be to get to 1,000, but I don’t take anything for granted. I’ve been offered a couple of jobs and was grateful for the interest, but it wasn’t the right moment for me. I owed it to my family to spend a bit of time with them, having been away for so long.

I’m now ready for my next challenge. I know I can make clubs better, make teams better, and I certainly think my best years are in front of me.