The photo on the wall

Managerial suicide. That’s what people called it.

But I thought the job of Central Coast Mariners head coach was perfect for me. I've always enjoyed the challenge. 

Nobody thought the Mariners had a chance in Australia’s A-League. They’d finished bottom in four of the previous seven seasons, and third last in two others. Five managers had come and gone in that time. With the lowest budget in the A-League, people said they couldn’t hope to compete for the championship.

A-League clubs can only have five foreign ‘visa’ players, so the reality is that you need Australian players. The better ones tend to get offered the biggest salaries and they move from club to club, but I never believed chasing those players was the way to go.

I’d coached in the Mariners’ academy, and we had good young players. I’d seen young talent at other clubs not get opportunities because their clubs brought in experienced players and visa players from top leagues around the world. They just needed an opportunity, like Neil Warnock gave me at Sheffield United.

I broke through at Sheffield United at the age of 18, but I’d already fought hard to keep my ambition of being a professional footballer alive. I grew up on an estate in Leeds, and was with Leeds United’s academy from the age of 10. All I wanted was to be a footballer. 

Then, in my last year at school, I got glandular fever and tonsillitis, which affected how much I could train. Paul Hart was head of the Leeds’ academy, and he told me there was no guarantee that I would get a scholarship. I asked Leeds to release me so I could sign for another club.

My mum handwrote letters to numerous clubs, and Sheffield United invited me to a trial match. Youth team coach Russell Slade – who went on to manage nine EFL clubs – pulled a group of us aside afterwards and offered a two-year scholarship. I took it with both hands. 

"i scored a hat-trick for the reserves on the wednesday. neil was in the stands. on thursday, i trained with the first team"

But my scholarship didn’t go to plan. The first year I dislocated and broke my ankle at Bradford City. It was a mess. I asked the surgeon if I could play again, and I’ll never forget what he said: “Hopefully, but we’ll have to see.” I only had two years to get a pro contract, and I was out for eight long months. 

In the second year, I arrived at Bramall Lane for a youth-team game with the worst headache and started throwing up. The physio told me to go home, then the club doctor came to see me. Next thing, I was in an ambulance going to Sheffield Children’s Hospital. I had bacterial meningitis and spent two weeks on a drip, having lumbar punctures.

Thank God I survived without any serious long-term complications, and bounced back to playing just as Neil Warnock came in. I broke into the reserve team and scored a hat-trick against Stockport, with Neil in the stands. It was a Wednesday night, and I got a phone call saying: “You’re training with the first team on Thursday.”

On Friday we travelled to Norwich, and I was in the first-team squad. Neil pulled me down on the bus and said: “If I offer you a three-year professional contract, will you sign it?” I said yes. He said: “Good, because if you’d told me that I had to speak to your agent, I’d have probably sent you back down the bus!”

I was on the bench and Norwich were winning 4-2 with 15 minutes to go. Neil threw me on, and for the rest of the game I was involved in everything. I hit the crossbar, and was non-stop. After the game, in front of all the first-team boys, Neil said: “He showed more effort and desire than you lot did in the whole game.” I won over my teammates and was in the first team from that moment. 

I spent 12 seasons in the first team at Bramall Lane, and made nearly 400 appearances. We had a lot of good times, as well as tough moments. Getting promoted to the Premier League in 2006 was a highlight (above), but in 2011 we were relegated to League One. 

"australia is a beautiful place. i felt a new environment would benefit the girls after a tough start to their lives"

The season we got relegated, my twins were born three months premature. It was one of the hardest times of my life. They spent a lot of time in hospital, and one of them was quite sick. I missed a lot of football because I was down at the hospital every day.

Unfortunately we lost the 2012 League One playoff final on penalties, and I decided it was the right time to move on. I’d always wanted to go to a different country, and Sheffield United had a connection with the Mariners through the owners.

I had offers from Championship clubs. Neil Warnock offered me a one-year deal at Leeds, and there was also a chance to go to the MLS, but I took the offer of a three-year contract in Australia. It’s a beautiful place, and I felt a new environment would really benefit the girls after a tough start to their lives. It turned out to be the best thing I ever did.

We arrived in 2012 and, as a player, I helped the club win its first championship that season. I had some good times, but the ownership changed, the budget was cut heavily and the Mariners struggled for a number of years. 

I retired in 2016, and started coaching in the academy. There, I brought in Sérgio Raimundo as my assistant – one of the best coaches and people I have ever met. We rebuilt the academy, implementing a new game model and structure. Within two years, we were producing players for the first team.

Then, in 2021, I became the head coach. My number-one priority was getting my staff right. We needed to recruit the right type of people, who understood the culture we were trying to create. That meant an honest, hard-working, development culture in which we try to improve everybody. An environment that helps people grow.

"at times, you have to be ruthless. i was a selfless player, and i don't like selfish players"

At that time, we needed to sign eight players because of A-League rules – but there was only a quarter of the budget left. Straight away, I brought in youth players from the academy on minimum-wage contracts, who’d not trained with the first team. I put full belief in them. I knew that, with a bit of time to accelerate their development in a full-time environment, they would be ready to challenge and go past some of the more senior players. 

There were some senior players in the team who I didn’t sign and who weren’t my type of players. At the start, though, you have to manage what you have and adapt. Just after the midway point of the season, I made some big changes. I removed players who had been signed by the previous coach, and who probably thought they were untouchable.

At times, you have to be ruthless in the best interests of the team. I was a selfless player, and I don’t like selfish players. The team was galvanised, and we won eight and drew two of the final 11 regular-season games to reach the A-League finals. We also got to the Australia Cup final for the first time in the club’s history.

In that first season, we ranked number one in the Asian Football Confederation, and 17th in the world, for academy graduates playing in the first team. I also gave Garang Kuol his debut at 17. He became the youngest player in the World Cup knockout stages since Pelé, before transferring to Newcastle United.

As well as bringing players through our academy, I have had to sign good players who have fallen by the wayside elsewhere. Jason Cummings is a wonderful player who had made a few bad choices and had been discarded by Dundee. In the 2022/23 season, he scored 21 times in 29 games for us, including a hat-trick in the Grand Final against Melbourne City. He also achieved his goal of playing for Australia at the World Cup.

Going into my second season, I recruited Nectarios Triantis. He'd played five minutes for Western Sydney Wanderers before they let him go, but he played in most of our games. Brian Kaltak, who had never played a professional game, came in and featured heavily. I also picked up the Brazilian boy, Marco Túlio. At one time he had a massive buyout in his contract at Sporting Lisbon, but we got him on a free transfer. He scored 10 goals for us, and became one of the best attacking players in the league.

"as the wins started coming, belief grew. more of the boys wanted their face on that photograph"

Big teams with big budgets started the season better than us, because we had a lot of new players who were still developing. Six games in, and after our third defeat, we were down to eighth. But as the season progressed, the players improved – tactically, technically, mentally and emotionally. I also brought in three players in the January window, which really strengthened what we had. A run of six wins and a draw put us in the Grand Final.

I stuck up a photograph of the 2013 championship-winning team. “Every time we win a game, we’re going to add two of your faces to the photograph,” I told the boys. “At the end, that’s where we’re going to be – we’re going to win the championship.”

At the time, some people may have thought it was unrealistic. But I told our sports psychologist, Ezio Mormile, what I wanted to do. He backed the idea. As the wins started coming, belief grew. More of the boys wanted their face on that photograph.

In the final, Melbourne City were big favourites. They had won the A-League Premiership three years in a row and are part of the City Football Group, one of the biggest organisations in world football.

Nearly everybody wrote us off going into the final, but we were the form team. The only game we hadn’t won in the previous seven was a draw against Melbourne City, and I felt we should have won that one too. The boys had full belief, and we were relaxed going into the final. We knew we were more than capable of beating them. 

But to win as emphatically as we did, 6-1, was extraordinary. I don’t think anyone believed that was possible, because Melbourne City were a very good team. The Mariners had also qualified for the AFC Cup, Asia’s equivalent of the Europa League, for the first time.

"as a player, i wanted to appear on match of the day. as a coach, i want to work in the premier league"

It was the result of a lot of hard work from the staff and the players, while I was responsible for the culture and making them believe. As part of the championship-winning team from 10 years before, my face was already on that photograph. Now everybody from 2023 had their face on there too, just as we had visualised when I first put the photo up.

People ask me how we gauge success for the Mariners. Winning trophies is a great way to do that, but it’s not always possible. Success is also selling players so that the club is sustainable, and reinvesting some of that money back into facilities to stop the club from losing money – which most A-League clubs do. 

Five of the starting team from the final were sold overseas, which is amazing for the club. Cummings left to become one of the highest-paid players in the Indian Super League. We sold Triantis to Sunderland, Sammy Silvera to Middlesbrough, young goalkeeper Anthony Pavlesic to Bayern Munich, James McGarry to Aberdeen, and Béni Nkololo to Al-Orobah in Saudi Arabia.

Of course I want to win. I’m ambitious, but I’ve never been in a crazy rush to move to the next thing that comes along. As a player, I wanted to appear on Match of the Day. A lot of people doubted me, so to play in the Premier League is something I’ll always cherish. I made it to the best league in the world as a player, and as a coach my ambition is the same. I want to coach in the Premier League one day. What that journey looks like, and how I get there – right now, I don’t know. But I’ll keep my head down and keep working hard. 

I’ve had a lot of interest from clubs around the world, and I’ll know if the right opportunity comes. In football, things change very quickly. So all I’m concentrating on is developing players, rebuilding the squad and bringing success to the Mariners again. 

I only think of the next game, and the next training session. That’s the way I’ve always been. If you are always thinking of the future, you don’t enjoy the here and now.