MONEY CAN BUY YOU LOVE
Richard’s back, refreshed, and ready for his next challenge
IN A hotel just off the A14, and a corner kick away from the club where he had his most recent first team success, Richard Money’s eyes light up.
The former Walsall, Luton Town and Cambridge United boss is explaining just why his hunger for management has been reignited. He’s refreshed, revitalised, full of ideas, and ready for his next adventure.
“It would be very simplistic to say it’s the result, the buzz of the game,” Money says about just why he wants to jump back into the fire pit. “But it’s more than that. It’s being accountable, being in charge of your own destiny, being involved in the decision-making process, being the key decision maker. All of those are the appeal of the job.”
Money hasn’t been sat at home twiddling his thumbs since leaving Cambridge United in November 2015.
The 61-year-old had an opportunity to go straight back in with another English club, but he knew the toll of taking Cambridge from the lower reaches of the Conference to the Football League and a fourth round FA Cup replay at Manchester United in just three years meant time for a break.
In April 2016, he accept- ed an opportunity to launch MLS start-up club Atlanta United’s Academy. They had a multi-million dollar facility and are set to move into an incredible new stadium in the city, but Money’s remit was to form an academy from scratch.
They had no players, no coaches and no paperwork. He enjoyed it but family was calling and a return to hometown club Norwich City to become their Academy manager was too good to turn down.
Treading water
With the arrival of new sporting director Stuart Webber and German boss Daniel Farke, Money accepts that the Canaries are now going in a new direction. After positive discussions with Webber he says his departure earlier this week is genuinely mutual consent.
But it’s also because the fire to lead a team has returned. At two of his last three clubs – Walsall and Cambridge – he has achieved promotion.
When he arrived at the Saddlers, the club were sliding towards Non-League football. In his first season they won the League Two title.
Money had quickly discovered there were some gems at the club. Within 12 months Scott Dann Troy Deeney and Dan Fox were in the first team. All have gone onto play in the Premier League
At Cambridge he spent six months identifying and targeting players to mount a promotion push the following season.
Talents like Ryan Donaldson who he’d guided at Newcastle United, and Tom Champion, where he lured from part-time Dartford and admits he let go from the U too soon, turned the club from treading water to returning to the Football League after nine years away. They also lifted th FA Trophy at Wembley in remarkable double-winning season.
Before that, at Luton, high tenure was also about helping