YEOVIL TOWN BOSS DARREN WAY PLOTTING A SHOCK WIN OVER MANCHESTER UNITED
“I feel very fortunate to be alive today,” says Yeovil Town boss Darren Way. “I’ve had 28 operations on my injuries and I’m due to have more. I’ve got another one coming up after the Manchester United game.”
On 17 December 2008, Way, a midfielder in his third spell with the Glovers, was on his way to collect items for his new home when the van he was a passenger in was involved in a serious collision with another vehicle on the A3088 just outside Yeovil.
He was airlifted to hospital with injuries including a broken left femur, broken left kneecap, broken and dislocated right elbow and broken and dislocated left hip.
Plymouth-born Way spent most of 2009 in a wheelchair and had to learn to walk again, while coming to terms with the devastating end of his playing career at the age of 29. Nine years and one month on, the scars remain and the visits to hospital continue.
Yet Way has since forged a new career for himself in management and on Friday he has Manchester United in his sights, three years after being beaten by the Red Devils in the third round.
The 38-year-old hopes to mastermind one of the great FA Cup shocks by steering League Two Yeovil - the lowest-ranked side left in the competition - to a famous fourth round win over the 12-time winners at Huish Park, a tie you can watch live on BBC One.
“You never know what life will bring you,” Way tells BBC Sport. Way’s playing career started at Norwich City and included a stint at Swansea City under Kenny Jackett and Roberto Martinez.
Yet he has spent the most of his working life in the Somerset town of Yeovil - 17 years in total as a player, coach, number two and, for the past two years, manager.
“The only league I haven’t done with Yeovil is the Premier League,” added Way, who was part of the team that won promotion to the Football League in 2003 and first-team coach when they played in the Championship in 2013-14.
However, the Glovers have gone from the second-tier to League Two survival in the space of four years.
Way was appointed manager, following Paul Sturrock’s departure in December 2015, with Yeovil bottom of League Two, two points from safety, before leading them away from the relegation zone.
They currently sit 21st in the fourth-tier, two points above the relegation zone and 86 places below Jose Mourinho’s United on the league ladder.
Gates have dipped and finances are tight, but Way believes the mental and physical hurdles he overcame in the aftermath of his accident have helped shape him as manager. ”The resilience that I built after the accident certainly prepared me for football management,” he said.
“I was already quite determined and I had a strong willpower before it happened. That increased 10-fold with what I went through.
“I battled against the odds just to walk again.
“To be confined to a wheelchair and not being able to walk is not nice. To only having access to one arm is not nice.”
Yeovil is a world away from the glitz and glamour of United, who have topped the table of the world’s 20 richest football clubs for the second year in a row.
Way’s squad is made up of young, hungry free transfers, swelled by youngsters on loan from Liverpool, Southampton and Bournemouth, who have yet to break into their respective teams.
Way said: “Being at Yeovil with no head of recruitment, no chief scout, no CEO, no director of football… it’s just me and the chairman doing a lot of the work to keep the club in the Football League.
“I go to work at 6:15 in the morning and I really enjoy it.
“We’re basically an under-23 team in League Two. We’re a development club. We’ve helped develop the likes of Shane Duffy, Steven Caulker, Ryan Mason and Andros Townsend… they’ve all been through our system over the last few years.”
Alexis Sanchez could make his United debut at Huish Park after joining from Arsenal, in a swap deal with Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
The Chile forward, 29, has signed a four-and-a-half-year deal worth £14m a year after tax - a figure Yeovil’s players can only dream about.
A 9,000-plus crowd - around one-fifth of the town’s 45,000 population and around oneeighth the capacity of Old Trafford - is expected to fill Huish Park.
“It’s going to be a little bit different for him,” added Way when asked what Sanchez can expect should he play.
“The crowd is going to be on top of the players and he won’t be playing on a carpet, that’s for sure.”
This is the third time Yeovil have hosted a Premier League club in the FA Cup since winning promotion to the Football League 15 years ago.
Way played when Liverpool beat the Glovers 2-0 in the third round in 2004 and was coach when Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United won by the same score at the same stage in 2015.-BBC