John Curtis: Big Interview
THE Valley provided the stage for John Curtis’ farewell, an exit from the Premier League at the age of 25.
Unbeknown to the man once feted as a future England captain, a 20-minute cameo from Pompey’s bench at Charlton would signal the end of his top-flight presence.
There were more matches, other clubs, even a spell at Gold Coast United in Australia’s A-League. Curtis’ career did not disintegrate on that August afternoon in 2004.
Yet the Manchester United FA Youth Cup winner, who graduated to feature in two Premier League-capturing campaigns under Sir Alex Ferguson, never fulfilled the mighty expectations lavished upon him.
He departed the Premier League that day – and within six years had been released by League Two Northampton.
Curtis told The News :‘I am sat here in America, overlooking the garden and will get a glass of wine in a minute – I don’t have regrets.
‘How do you even measure success? One person’s gauge will be entirely different to someone else’s. I consider myself a success and that’s really all that matters.
‘You can look back on any situation in your life and think about going back in time to change things, to do things differently.
‘No doubt you could be much better with the ladies at school if you went back. As ever with hindsight, you would improve the past.
‘Cristiano Ronaldo would say the same thing, Lionel Messi would say the same thing. They could analyse a game and say “I should have been better, even though I scored a hat-trick”.
‘These are two greats. Could they have improved? When looking back they would say “Yes, absolutely”.
‘I loved my career as a player, I had a great time, I met a lot of good people and got to play with a lot of greats – and against them too.
‘Do I regret anything? No. Would I change things if I could go back in time? Yes, but who wouldn’t? Everybody would.
‘I don’t look back and think “If only I had done this, if only I had done that”. Not at all. Those lessons I didn’t learn aged 23-25 were learnt at 33-35.
‘Everybody else’s perspective is irrelevant, but most people remember John Curtis as the next big thing and say “What a failure. What a lot of potential gone to waste”. That’s not how I see it, not at all.’
Today, Curtis, pictured below playing for Pompey by Steve Reid, lives with his family in Fairfield, Connecticut, and oversees a thriving coaching business braced for further expansion.
As a youngster, such was his immense potential, he attended FA’s School of Excellence at Lilleshall and proceeded to represent England at every age level from the age of 15.
Coveted by Blackburn, Leeds, Arsenal, West Ham, Liverpool, Everton and Aston Villa, he was eventually lured to Manchester United after attending their title-clinching win over Blackburn in 1993.
Within two years, he featured in Eric Harrison’s side which claimed the 1995 FA Youth Cup, defeating Spurs on penalties in front of 20,190 at Old Trafford. Skippered by Phil Neville, the triumphant team also included ex-Pompey assistant manager Ashley Westwood. By the time he departed for Championship side Blackburn in a £1.5m move in June 2000, the 21-year-old Curtis had made 19 appearances for the Red Devils and represented England B .
‘Looking back, I was a very good Championship player and thoroughly average Premier League player,’ he added.
‘If you don’t improve, you go backwards, because the level of the game increases. My rate of development wasn’t as fast as the games, so I went backwards as a player.
‘I was a better player at Northampton in League Two at the end of my career than a 19-year-old playing for Manchester United in the Premier League. The difference was, I hadn’t developed as quickly as the game had developed. I had actually gone backwards.
‘As a coach, that’s the lesson I teach players – you must continually grow to actually go nowhere.
‘Watch the footballers from the Harry Enfield sketch running around, then watch the 1966 World Cup final. Then watch the 2018 World Cup final – the game changes. So it’s common sense that players must also. Not all players see that.
‘You have to train even harder, become more dedicated, push yourself to get better. If you can’t maintain that weight of improvement then you go backwards. The players which embrace that development go on.
‘There are very few footballers which feature in the Premier League for 15 years. You can count them all, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard come straight to mind. That’s how difficult it is to continue improving and evolving.
‘My time at United was fantastic, I absolutely loved it, and, looking back, the skills I learnt in that environment completely shaped me as a person. The attention to detail and the quality of the environment that Sir Alex and his henchmen created was brilliant.
‘However, I almost had it too easy coming through. I was