The assistant manager hasn’t been immune to football’s frantic growth spurt. A modern number two’s remit has evolved from fancy dress and banter to psychology, data, book deals and even subtle Machiavellianism
Words Si Hawkins Additional reporting Arthur Renard
ASSISTANT MANAGERS
Nobody grows up wanting to be an assistant manager. Even Tord Grip probably dreamed of train driving, rock stardom or brain surgery, before hitching his wagon behind Sven-Goran Eriksson. This job is neither sexy nor safe. Do well and your boss gets the credit, but if they get sacked, usually you follow them out of the door. Most management teams break up eventually – and even if you get on famously, that can also be intense.
“He’s never off the phone to me,” says former Republic of Ireland international Stephen Ward, who’s brand new to the number-two business. A long-time Premier League left-back for Burnley and Wolves, the 37-year-old is now assistant at sixth-tier Brackley Town, and he’s busy. “I can’t go to bed at night without the last text off him, thinking something about training, or that game,” Ward tells FFT. “We speak more to ourselves than we do our own families.”
This may be a good season to join the ranks, however. Assistants are suddenly getting a rare go in the spotlight. Gary O’Neil and Michael Beale have taken their old gaffers’ jobs at Bournemouth and Rangers. Pep Lijnders’ new book is all over Liverpool’s club shop. Manchester United have even commissioned a statue of Jimmy Murphy, the greatest assistant in their history. Then there’s Pep Guardiola helping his former assistant, Mikel Arteta, to take Arsenal top of the Premier League at Christmas by selling him Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
It’s about time, too. Let’s be honest here: few of us really know what these people do each day. Most roles within football are pretty self-explanatory – physio, analyst, first-team coach – but assistant managers? As Lijnders himself will later suggest, their jobs are defined by each boss.
Ward’s Brackley gaffer is his former Wolves team-mate, Roger Johnson, and the dynamic is clearly working. They joined in September, Johnson having been on the backroom staff at Bromley, and have spent a large part of the season top of the National League North.
“I’ve seen managers with assistants over my career, and they’re not what Wardy is to me,” admits Johnson, during a revealing three-way discussion with his number two and FFT. “I trust him with my life.
“Football is an industry where people are out for themselves. They’re a bit slippery
