by When his recent Manchester derby winner is buried, Tom Huddlestone starts to laugh. “I’ve seen the stat: nobody was born on the field that day when I made my professional debut,” he says. “That wasn’t great!”
The “park” was not Old Trafford, or indeed the Etihad, but the Leigh Valley Sports Village. And the game was not in the Premier League, but it is the under-21 equivalent.
Now, Huddlestone’s stat is technically inaccurate – Manchester United team-mate Dermot Mee almost had one when 16-year-old Huddlestone made his Derby bow in August 2003 – but it still begs the question: why is there a former england international. Huddlestone, now 37 and with almost 250 top-flight appearances, playing for the under-21 side?
Simple. Despite Huddlestone’s last Premier League start two years ago, he hasn’t quite retired. Huddlestone is still a full-time footballer, but his eyes are on the future. While Huddlestone can be found captaining Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League, or looking to add to his four English championships, the main goal now is development – United’s Academy talent and his new coaching career.
That said, the occasional Pope John Trophy tour is an opportunity. “Even if it’s only three or four miles,” he tells Telegraph Sport, laughing. “It gets the juices flowing again!”
Huddlestone’s former Hull team-mate Paul McShane previously held Huddlestone’s hybrid player-coach role. Jay Spearing has a similar position at Liverpool. The concept? Bridge the gap between playing and coaching in a mutually beneficial way.
For Huddlestone, it happened, if not by accident, certainly not by design. After the summer 2022 release by Hull, “…he had the initial idea of continuing to play. But none of the offers floated my boat”.
Secretly, the retiring McShane recommended Huddlestone as his successor. “We were talking during the season,” Huddlestone explains. “Maybe he thought I was hinting!” Huddlestone subsequently signed deals with United Academy senior team Travis Binnion and Mark Dempsey.
His days are much fuller now than when he was just a player. Huddlestone arrives early for a planning meeting. He will set up, participate in the warm-up, and then lead part of each session. “Say mine’s a passing drill at the start, I’ll take that and, if I can get my breath back, go in. Then I’m a player helping the lads from the inside.”
Twice a week, Huddlestone holds job-specific sessions. The hardest part is measuring numbers. “Maybe I have something in mind that I need eight players, but I have two or three left,” he says. “The challenge is to find the balance and adaptability to still go after the same result.”
Academy colleagues, Erik ten Hag and the wider first team all welcome Huddlestone’s inquiries. He is mastering new computer skills and is clearly loving his new role, describing it as “perfect for senior people who still want a competitive edge but want to see behind the scenes”.
“So much detail goes into everything. As a player, I took that for granted. I don’t know where I thought the information at staff meetings was coming from but it wasn’t there. You don’t realize the hours the team put in!”
Huddlestone admits there is a difference between coaching at academy level and first team level. The first is “mainly about developing players on their own”, hopefully – like Kobbie Mainoo, who is mentioned as having a Huddlestone purification – they graduate to the second. The focus is then on “the team and getting three points”.
Reserve team football used to be in the space between the two, and Huddlestone still believes it would be a welcome step forward. As a 15-year-old, he would not pass the double dollop of Physical Education and graphics on Thursday morning to train with Derby. When he left school, he achieved a regular Championship. “But if I hadn’t played maybe 12 reserve games at school, I don’t think I would have had the confidence to play men’s football,” explains Huddlestone.
“Teams were proud to win the league. We played Forest once and Wes Morgan and Des Walker played. That’s my one, not to get into football, but I think the jump is now, especially at Premier League clubs, from the under-21s to the first team.”
Marco Silva, Hull’s head coach in 2017, inspired Huddlestone’s new path, after five months working with the Portuguese left an impression for life. “Even though I was approaching 30, he was doing things that nobody had done with me in the previous 14 seasons,” Huddlestone says. “It was almost no-nonsense; ‘this is what I want’. I’ve had some great managers, but I don’t think I’ve ever had the detail that Marco has. Wherever the ball was, I knew where I and the other nine players were off the field.”
Do you have to be obsessed, like Silva, to coach? “I think.” Are you? Another laugh. “I’ll be driving while thinking about possession, running drills, or having flashbacks to the last game – it takes your mind.”
Huddlestone speaks with assured clarity – including of his ambition. “Ultimately I want to manage,” he says. “If I didn’t give him a bash after 20 years of playing, I think I’d regret it in my 50s.”
Huddlestone realizes how much he still has to learn, though. “I’ve seen people jump into jobs too soon – I don’t want to do that.” Ideally, he explains, the next step is to lead an under-18 team or help out at under-21 level.
Currently, the FA’s International Player course is helping to develop it. Modules include the most obvious – like one on the importance of the backroom team – and no less – “fake interviews…I’ve never had one!”
Until he retires, Huddlestone has an ear in both playing and training camps. And so he avoids “b——ing the players as if they were a whole team,” admitting “…once I become a manager, I might have to add that to my Arsenal!”
For now, niggles like the one that ruled Liverpool out of Friday night’s contest are still hazards. “It would be nice to get back on the pitch at Old Trafford,” admits Huddlestone. Undeterred, he says “there will be a good crowd and hopefully we will get a positive result.” There would be a manager, for sure.
