My boot camps toughened up Gareth
England’s manager has not forgotten his trips to an Army base when I coached him at Palace
dressing room, Gareth just went for John – if Chris Coleman had not pulled him off, who knows how it would have ended up. It was not unusual for confrontations to take place in the dressing room in those days, but it is proof that, behind the waistcoat, there is a core of steel.
Various incidents in Gareth’s life have helped forge that. He was released by Southampton as a kid, which I know cut deep. He also had to wait a long time for a senior start at Palace – I think he played over 100 reserve games before getting his chance – and then he was twice relegated with us.
Missing the penalty for England at Euro ’96 was clearly a scar, but I actually think almost as significant was his sacking at Middlesbrough in 2009. I was working with him at the time, and it was handled in a very peculiar way: we had beaten Derby 2-0 to go a point off the top of the Championship when Gareth was fired.
Gordon Strachan had apparently been lined up to replace him a couple of weeks earlier, which I still do not understand and I know Gareth felt the same. He would never go about his business like that and he could not get his head around what had happened. It took him a long time to process it.
I had concerns for Gareth when he was given the England job – not so much for him, but for the manner in which the Football Association had done it. It all seemed like a bit of a quick fix and that “good old Gareth” would come in and not cause a fuss. But Gareth does not work like that – he wants things done his way, and he can be quite obstinate when he wants to be. In the end, he managed to negotiate a deal that he was happy with and that made all the difference.
He has done the job in a different way to the likes of Sven-goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, who almost treated it as a part-time role. Gareth is in the office in Burton every day, preparing, planning and immersing himself in every aspect of the set-up, including the youth teams. That is what sets him apart – he treats England as a club team, and wants to build that club ethic. I am in touch with him most days. I was at the cricket at Lord’s last week and heard all the crowd singing his name and that “football was coming home” – at Lord’s! – so I told him about it. He just laughed and said he would rather not know – he feels quite uncomfortable with all the adulation. He actually said he prefers it when there is more aggression and edge to his work. But that is Gareth, always surprising you, and always impressing you.