Steven Reid winces. “We had a staff game yesterday so I’m feeling the effects a little bit. I’ve probably played twice in the last six months when we’ve been short of players. Actually the gaffer has been quite complimentary – playing that game yesterday I was thinking: ‘Tell you what …’ But you wake up the next morning and you know that’s just wishful thinking.”
A little more than 18 months after calling time on a career during which he underwent no fewer than 10 operations and racked up a more than a decade’s service in the Premier League as well as a World Cup finals appearance for Republic of Ireland, the former Millwall, Blackburn, West Brom and Burnley player has settled into the next phase of his career. Whereas most players hang up their boots without a plan about what to do next, it is no accident that Reid finds himself learning his new trade as Crystal Palace’s first-team coach under the tutelage of the former England manager Roy Hodgson.
“The original plan was to join the coaching staff under Steve Clarke at West Brom but I went on to have another season at Burnley,” Reid says. “It wasn’t a career that had great moments all the way through – for about five years I was probably about 50% to 60% of what I was when I had that season at Blackburn under Mark Hughes when we finished sixth. Most family photos I look through now I’ve got an ice pack on my knee. When I suffered my cruciate injury, that was the moment that my career almost took another path. I knew I needed to make a plan and that’s when my coaching journey began.”
The chronic pain caused by his injuries meant the all-action midfielder who had burst through Millwall’s youth setup under Billy Bonds was forced to adapt to a new position in defence in his latter years. But it was his conversations with Hodgson and then Clarke while at West Brom that convinced Reid to pursue a new goal. “In the last two or three years you almost become a coach on the pitch anyway as a senior player. Roy was an inspiration. It was a great time to be there. We have always had a very professional relationship.”
When Hodgson called six weeks after Reid decided to leave his first coaching post, at Reading last summer, he had no hesitation in accepting. “Roy wanted a young coach alongside him and it all just seems to fit perfectly. We have chats about all sorts of things. A lot of what he says goes over my head because he’s reading books and watching films that I’ve never heard of. We had a discussion last week about the languages he can speak – he learned French at school and then picked up Swedish early on in his career. A bit of German, Italian … and he makes it sound so easy: ‘Three or four months and I’ve got it.’
“We have a good bit of banter because of my age and the gaffer’s age. We can give each other a bit of stick. Often the perception with people who have not worked with him is massively different to the man that he is: still the most enthusiastic person that I’ve met in the game.”
That enthusiasm has certainly rubbed off on his apprentice. At 37 Reid is much closer in age to the majority of Palace’s players and often acts as a conduit between them and the manager, although he insists he is no pushover. “There comes a point where you have to be firm with the players and tell the truth,” he says. “At the moment there’s no time frame for the future – I know I’m lucky enough to be in this position now. If you look too far ahead you can come unstuck. You’re talking about 92 league clubs, so that means 92 assistants and probably half that for first-team coaches. It’s a difficult position to get into but I like to pride myself on doing things right, like I did when I was a player.”
With Chris Hughton the only manager in the Premier League from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background, does Reid believe the adoption of the Rooney Rule by the Football Association and Football League is necessary? “Obviously there is a problem when you look at the number of black players compared to the number in coaching or administration, particularly at the top end. It doesn’t make sense. I think the Rooney Rule is a good thing but we also need the numbers to make it work. It can’t just be an interview for an interview’s sake. We need more and more numbers getting into top-flight positions – not just coaching, but administration and those that are making decisions – to take us to that next level.”
Reid is halfway through his Uefa Pro-Licence course and pauses for a moment when asked whether he is the only BAME candidate. “There’s me, Jason Euell ... you’ve got me thinking now. So it’s a very small percentage of the group. Unfortunately most people who come out of the game can’t afford £6,000 for your A licence and another £8,500 for your Pro Licence.
“There is funding for BAME candidates from the PFA so perhaps more needs to be done to make people more aware of that. But the bottom line is that there has to be a desire to do it because it is hard work. If I can in a small way influence some of the black players who play under me to think, ‘Actually, there’s a path forward for me in this coaching game’, then that’s got to be positive.”
The only relegation of Reid’s career came in his final season with Burnley and he is confident Palace can avoid it this year. “We’ve shown that we can compete with the best in the league, so hopefully we can end the season in a good way.”
The Guardian Sport
