From Zero to Hero

[Laudrup19]

Chapter one

At the age of 19 I had sustained 3 injuries to my knee ligaments and after a lengthy recovery and rehab I visited the specialist for the last time bursting to get back onto the pitch and compete in a competitive match. As I walked through the door of Dr Murphys office his usual happy attitude had vanished and he looked at me with a hint of dread, sit down said beckoning me to sit opposite him. I sat down and we went through the normal small talk and then as we finished laughing he looked at me and gave me the worst news I had heard. I'm sorry he said looking at me sympathetically but your not going to be able to continue your career as a footballer, the damage to your knees are far to severe and the risks are far to high for you to continue. I pleaded with him to sign me off and to give me a chance to continue but he wouldn't do it, asking me if I wanted to risk my ability to walk ever again and he was right, how was I going to earn money for my family if I had lost the ability to walk.My life as I knew was done, I had lived my dream by making my debut as a 17 year old for my childhood club Rangers and this news was the worst thing that could have happened to me as my life revolved around football but this was the end of my playing days but I was not going to let this beat me and had decided after a few days of feeling sorry for myself that I was going to do my coaching badges and my club Rangers were going to fund me.

In the 3 years that followed I worked as a coach to begin with and then worked my way up to u23s manager all while doing my coaching badges, obtaining my continental C licence and upto this point I had enjoyed myself but I had become weary of being an U23s coach and had decided that I wanted to try my hand at senior management. I had set up a meeting with Rangers manager Steven Gerrard and informed him first of my intentions of applying for senior management jobs and he was very happy for me and said that he had expected this to happen and couldn't wait to see how I would get on. That night I sat and down and was having a look around the the available jobs in football at the moment and the only jobs available were in the lower league of english football and I had wanted to try and get higher but i knew this would have been hard so had accepted that I would apply for the Kidderminster Harriers job and to my surprise I got a call the next day for a telephone interview with the chairman Richard Lane, we spoke at length about his objectives for the club and where he seen the club in 5 years, he asked me what I wanted from being a football manager but that was an easy question for me because I lived and breathed football it was all I had. After 3 hours I came off the phone and was happy with how the interview had went and really thought I had put myself in pole position for the job.

In the week that followed I was in constant communication with Kidderminster, going down to meet the chairman and on my last visit on the 10th of july my agent informed in the hotel that night that the club had made an offer and wanted me to be there next manager, I instantly said yes. My agent wanted explained that it was less money than what I was on right now but I didn't care this was it, my chance to start from the bottom of the pyramid and make my way to the top of the world.

 

[TaymuirFC]

Nice start to this. Like the story feel to this as well as it gives the story more depth. I'll be reading. Good luck.

 

[Laudrup19]

Chapter Two

On the 13th I left Scotland for the last time to head down to Kidderminster, I had found myself a nice 3 bedroom how to rent for a reasonable price, my wife and kids would be staying in Scotland due to school and my wife's business but would be visiting me regularly. I arrived around 3pm and my managed to get my office set up as the broadband provider had been out to install the internet and TV, I always had an interest in data scouting and and using the data to identify players that are being under utilised, so I had made sure that my internet and TV systems were installed for me arriving. I walked through the door to the office after being on the phone to my life to let her know I had arrived and was safe, as you walked in to your right there was a corner desk with a computer that I had bought specifically for moving into senior management, surrounding the desk there was 4 screens and 2 TV mounted onto the wall, now you might ask why would someone in lower league football need all this but I would point out to you that my ambition was not to stay at non league but only be here a short time and wanted to make my mark in a different way than I intended to.

On the 14th I arrived at the training ground bright and early, I knew I was in for a busy day having witnessed first hand seeing a new manager come into a club so I had mentally prepared myself for this and was raring to go. I walked in the front door and was met by Richard the chairman and a few of the staff members that I had hand picked to be part of my backroom staff, we greeted each other and made out way into a boardroom of sorts, it had a long table and many chairs surrounding the table, we all sat down and started discussing what was to be happening today, I had to meet the media, the squad, the U18s and then training was going to be going on in the background, In the days leading upto me taking charge I had started to analyse the squad and make decisions on who was going to kept around and who would be leaving. This in part was hard because without prior knowledge I was like a blind man trying to find a corner in a circle room, I had decided the guys out of contract would be given a year to prove there value to me and to force there way into my plans and the loan signings made by the previous management would also be given that chance.

As the day dragged on, I had met the squad and laid down the expectation I had agreed to previously with the chairman, informing them that we would need to fight bravely and stave off the drop as this was unacceptable and they all agreed, I laid out the fine system that I had in put in place with the U23s at Rangers and that would be staying as I believe you should always be held accountable if your late so If you were late, Missed training without a valid excuse, sent off(2 bookings) or straight red then you lose half a weeks wage in the first instance, second instance 1 weeks wage and 3rd and 4th would be 2 weeks wages and after that your done and out the door. I had asked the players to be here for 8am the next day for a full tactical briefing and asked them to take the rest of the day off and enjoy the weather. The media were next and was met by a fans group podcast and the local newspaper, there asked me why I had came from a place like Rangers U23s competing regularly in the Uefa youth league to non league English football and I had explained that this was the first step on the ladder for me to really push and test myself, they asked all in all 12 questions and we were done, I thought it went well but we would see tomorrow when they released the papers.

In the coming weeks I got the players to buy into my philosophy in training, if the worked hard for me then I would work hard for them. We would set up with 4 at the back, 1 holding midfielder, 2 centre Mids, 2 wingers and 1 central striker, I would ask the lads to keep the ball on the ground as a default and we would work the ball around to look for the best chances possible, we would pass the ball short and out tempo would vary based on opponents, in transition we would press relentlessly and force mistake to win the ball back and then move quickly to create chances. The players bought straight in and I could see it in the friendly results as beat Worchester City comfortably 2-1 and then beat Stourport 3-1 and I could start to see out identity form in these games and was pleased as we pushed forward to the first game of the season against Spennymoor.

 

[Laudrup19]

Chapter Three

As the first game sneaked up on me, I was becoming nervous, this was the beginning to it all, to my rise to the top of football. Our first game was against Spennymoor on the 3rd of August, as we approached I had managed to scrape together some basic footage of there preseason games and was confident we could this game with the players we had at the club. The day before the game against Spenny my scout had been come to me with a player he was confident we could sign for a minimal amount from Blyth Spartans has name was Gary Haggett, he was a left winger and would fit the system we were going to deploy, he was only 16 and would possibly be ready to make step up but we weren't quite sure having only seen him play U18 football. We contacted Blyth with to check what we could do in terms of his transfer status, they were open to letting him leave and wanted £2,000 to let him go, we instantly contacted Richard to authorise the purchase and after showing him the reports and giving our thoughts on the player he agreed and by the end of the day he was a Harrier, signing a 3 year deal.


Saturday 3rd of August 2019 - Spennymoor 0 - 2 Kidderminster Harriers

The morning of the 3rd and it was game day we arrived at Brewery Field a tad early and instantly that game day mode that I used to go into as a player kicked in, on the way into the stadium I still had my air pods in and was walking behind the 22 players that had travelled with the squad on the bus. In the dressing room we had all got ready and were now starting to get into the tactics on the board, I instructed my wing backs to get up and support the wingers to really stretch the game but to make sure if the ball was lost to be in position to win it back, In the game footage we had got a hold of we had noticed that they had played quite a high line when they were on the ball so we instructed Austin Samuels our starting striker to play on the shoulder of the last defender and our midfielders that if we won the ball back to instantly look for Austin, the referee came into the dressing room after our warm up and gave us our briefing and after that we were ready to go.

As the game kicked off we approached the game the way we had anticipated, absolute chaos! the ball was flying end to end and the everything we had practised the last 3 weeks had went out the window, that was until the ball went for a corner and I had managed to get a hold of Oliver Shenton my midfield dynamo as I called him, I asked him to try and pass on the message to the lads to keep there heads and get the ball on the deck and pass it around and they wouldn't stand a chance against us. After this the lads got the ball down and pass triangles around Spenny and in the 21st minute it paid off as we managed to cut them open with a chipped ball over the top of there high line and Austin Samuels was one on one with the goalkeeper and smashed it into the top right hand corner, I jumped out of the dug out and started going mental, thats exactly what I had told the lads to do. The rest of the game past by me like a blur we held onto possession and very rarely gave it up and on the 71st minute the exact same scenario happened we had caught Spenny napping at the back again and a chip through ball over the centre back and Samuels coolly slotted pas the keeper. The game fizzled out and we won my first professional game.

Tuesday 6th of August 2019 - Kidderminster Harriers 2 - 1 Kings Lynn Town

3 days is all we had to prepare for Kings Lynn and prepare we did the team were on a high after a convincing win against Spenny and were dialled in in training, we worked on being slighty more direct and practised some long shooting as in Kings previous game they looked susceptible to a fast paced move and long shots. When I took over as manager I had already watched the U18s play some friendly game against some local sides and one player had really caught my eye and I had decided that I was going to keep an eye over him and have him train with the first team squad, this young man was an 16 year old left back James Dutton and after training with the first team for 2 weeks we decided as we were light at left back that he would start today, the game day came fast and on the Tuesday we felt we had prepared really well and that we could come away with another victory today. We followed the same process as before we looked over some of the tactics and we advised the guys that if they had the chance they were to shoots and to try and play with a bit more tempo to there game. This time when the game kicked off Kings Lynn were ready for us they sat back and defended as a back 5 and really tried to frustrate us and for 40 minutes thats what they did until we managed to move the ball quickly from defence to attack and got the ball down the line to James Dutton out debutant and he jinked past the right back and swung a delicious ball into the box for Ashley Williams to head past the goalkeeper. Halftime rolled around and went away and we started to slack off we were misplacing passes and being to lax with out play and on the 61st minutes we were made to pay as Adam Marriot nicked the ball of out centre backs and slotted past mannion in goal to tie the game level, I went berserk and berated the team for the carelessness but straight after the goal from Kings Lynn we got the ball wide and on the 62nd minute Ashley Hemmings smashed an absolute howitzer from 35 yards into the top left hand corner, after this the game sort of past by without incident a bit of a midfield battle after this and we were 2 and 0 as a manager.

Saturday 10th of August 2019 - Leamington 1 - 2 Kidderminster Harriers

This game rolled around what felt like the next day from the Kinds Lynn game but we rolled with the punches, this game was a tricky one as we couldn't find any footage from there previous games and only had the analyst who was at there last games to go off and even at that it was difficult because they used a different formation in the 2 games and mostly different players so it was a guessing game as how they would line up and my advised t the guys was to go out and play our game and I believed this would lead to victory. The game kicked off and it was pretty even and quite early in the game a lovely passing move which ending with Gary Haggett slotting home into the bottom corner on the 8th minute, after this Oliver Shenton decided to get himself sent off on the 26th minute and then this allowed Joe Parker to score a lovely header into the top corner, the leamington team started to get on top in the game and then out of nowhere Jack Storer 2 footed challenge on Austin Samuels got him an early bath and from then it was an end to end game both teams down to one man. In the 83rd minute Leamington had a corner cleared away and the ball has fell to Samuels he has dropped his shoulder and left the centre back for dead and got clear on goal cheekily lifting the ball over the onrushing keeper. This won the game and we celebrated quite emphatically as this made is 3 wins from 3.

Saturday 17th to Saturday the 24th of August Kidderminster Harriers 1 - 1 Boston United, Gateshead 1 - 1 Kidderminster Harriers and Kidderminster Harrier 0 - 0 Hereford

Pretty straight forward these games we were sloppy in these games, we took the lead in the first 2 games but only sloppy defending allowed the equalisers both in the last 10 minutes of the games. The Hereford game was horrible to watch, the pitch was flooded and the ball was getting stuck quite a lot so we were at a disadvantage in this game considering our game revolved around keeping the ball on the deck, so naturally quite happy to draw this game.

Saturday 31st of August 2019 Kidderminster Harriers 1 - 3 Alfreton Town

As we geared up for the 7th game of the month and on a 6 match unbeaten run we were naturally confident heading in but boy were we made to regret this, Alfreton Town annihilated us and we literally had no answer to stop them, they moved the ball quickly and when we had the ball they sat in a low block with 11 men in front of the ball and then broke out quickly and scored on 3 times from 5 total shots, it was a terrible performance from my guys and I let them know at the end that this sort of performance would not be accepted and if they wanted to remain at this club!

 

[Laudrup19]

Sorry guys save corrupted as well as the back ups!