‘Hard graft and long hours, but I am loving life. It’s so exciting’
DARREN O’DEA reveals how broadening his horizons as a player and a coach have helped him earn his break at Swansea
As a player, Darren O’dea just wanted first-team football every week.
During his career he signed for clubs in Ukraine, India and Canada to make sure he was at the heart of it on a matchday.
And then, at just 31, his desire to learn about coaching overtook everything and the former Celtic and Republic of Ireland defender hung up his boots.
Motherwell offered him an opportunity to get involved in their academy and he took it. His salary was less than £22,000 per annum and he worked 14 hours a day.
He knew this was the start of the proper graft and was willing to put the hard yards in.
Very quickly he was carving out a strong reputation and Celtic took him in and he had various roles within their structure.
Now, seven years on from that opening session at Fir Park, he is assistant head coach to Alan Sheehan at Swansea City in the English Championship.
He’s enjoying life at the ambitious Welsh club – who have Luka Modric (below) as an investor – and hopes he can help to lead them to the Premier League.
O’dea, 38, told The Sunday Post: “I’m at a really exciting stage of my career and being involved with Alan at this level is really enjoyable.
“I always wanted to stay in the game when I finished playing and I hung up my boots at 31 to start the next stage of my career.
“Motherwell offered me the chance to be assistant to Mo Ross at their youth team and I accepted.
“But I was also given the chance to be up close to first-team manager Steven Robinson and observe him. I took it all in. Steven was great at tapping into every resource available to him. I was allowed to help him and he would ask for opinions from his staff.
“That was a brilliant period for me. I would leave the house at 6.30am and get home at 10pm.
“I remember my wife saying to me one night that she hadn’t seen me this happy in years at my work.
“Celtic asked me to join them as their under-18 coach and that was the next stage. I then moved up to become B Team Head Coach.
“The coaching was great and enjoyable. The young players at Celtic were first-class.
“An opportunity then came up to become Player Pathway Manager. It was a new and fresh challenge.
“It was something I wanted to challenge myself on and add another string to my bow. I really embraced it and I was all in.
“I was dealing with chief executives and directors of football at top clubs all over Europe.
“I was looking at different set-ups for loan moves for our players. I was making contacts and building relationships all over the game.
“I was seeing the game from a totally different perspective and it was another great learning curve for me.
“It meant I was having meetings and conversations with the Celtic hierarchy. They were brilliant to me.”
O’dea also got up close and personal with Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers.
The experience was invaluable and O’dea said: “Where I am now is down to seven years of really hard work.
“What I learned at Motherwell and Celtic has been superb.
“Brendan was a pleasure to work under and he was so helpful and generous with his time.
“Ange was incredible. He was a huge influence on me. He mentored me and I’ll always be appreciative of the insight and knowledge he passed on to me.
“My time at Celtic was great. It’s a brilliant football club with an unbelievable fan base.
“I’ll always look back with great fondness of my few years there in the various roles.
“I’m also very proud of the relationships I built with some of the young players there such as Dane Murray, Colby Donovan, Ben Summers, Ben Mcpherson and Sean Mcardle.
“Others moved on to clubs around Europe such as Rocco Vata, Matthew Anderson, Ben Gannon-doak, Bosun
Lawal and Daniel Kelly. We stay in touch and they all have first-class attitudes and a real desire to succeed.”
With an impressive CV, O’dea is studious and humble. His own desire to maximise his own potential as a coach isn’t in doubt.
The natural progression is that he will one day become a head coach. It would seem he has the knowledge and temperament for such a responsibility.
But, for now, he is fully focused on giving Sheehan his all to make Swansea a success.
The American ownership also includes Snoop Dogg and they are incredibly ambitious. Modric keeps a close eye from Italy and is in regular contact.
They are providing a healthy transfer budget to move things along at a pace and that included the funds to sign Adam Idah from Celtic for a significant sum.
He said: “We are a very ambitious football club. The ultimate aim is to get us back into the English Premier League
and we are building towards that.
“The owners are great and have been incredibly supportive to Alan and the staff.
They are intelligent, dedicated and driven.
“We’ve had some really good results this season and it’s about finding that level of consistency.
“We knocked Nottingham Forest out of the League Cup recently. We face Manchester City in the next round later this month.
“To pit our wits against Pep Guardiola and his squad is an exciting challenge and our stadium will be rocking that evening.
“The coaching staff and players will be ourselves that night. We will go into the game with zero apprehension.
“That’s the mentality Alan wants from the players and staff in every game. He demands drive and aggression to win. I love it.”
I was making contacts and building relationships all over the game