Iwelumo aims to be a hit by drawing on that miss
Budding coach finds positives in his personal nightmare
When I was getting shirts and pictures framed for my gym, the guy left out a shot of the miss. But I told him he had to put it in as the main image
AS PART of his Scottish FA A Licence coaching course in Inverclyde last week, Chris Iwelumo did a session on psychology — and being asked to play mind games soon threw him back to one match in particular.
The question of what was his best moment in football and what was his worst threw up almost identical answers and stemmed from very contrasting emotions in the same game.
October 11, 2008 and Iwelumo’s Scotland international debut against Norway is his standout high in football. The low, though, was to follow that same afternoon with a certain miss. It is fair to say you will probably remember it.
Iwelumo has given up trying to forget it. The picture of him openmouthed as the ball spun wide of an open goal is up in his personal gym at home at his own request.
What the now Watford striker wants to do is not only learn from the mixed emotions of that experience, but teach others how to overcome adversity in future.
If he becomes a manager and a player of his spurns a chance in front of goal, the message from Iwelumo will always be that he has been there. And his was worse.
‘In the psychology session we were asked what our best and worst moments of our careers were and I put that in both boxes,’ said Iwelumo. ‘I played for my country at a full Hampden on my debut, a dream, and then there’s the miss.
‘I’ve thought about it many a time and it was a long time ago now, but the month after it was a low point for me. If you took the miss away, my performance was perfect.
‘I would look to use the experience as a manager or coach. When you’re talking to younger players, it’s vital to speak about what you’ve been through first-hand.
‘When I was getting shirts and pictures framed for my gym, the guy had a shot of the miss but had left it out. I told him he had to put it in as the main image of that day.’
Iwelumo did play for Scotland again after his infamous gaffe, but his caps tally looks to have ended at four despite him still starting games regularly at Championship level.
He blames a lack of league goals last term for seeing him drop out of the reckoning, but insists he would never rule himself out of Scotland contention and is troubled that Steven Fletcher has done just that.
Iwelumo, a friend of Fletcher’s, can see both sides of the argument, appreciating from a coaching perspective that Craig Levein felt he had to take a stance on the Wolves forward as Scotland manager.
‘Sometimes your hand can be forced and there’s nobody more clued up at things like that than Craig,’ said Iwelumo. ‘He has a direction he wants to take and wants people with the same outlook.
‘I still hope they can get their heads together and thrash it out because Steven is a fantastic player and a great lad, but Craig is the leader so he has to go along with it.
‘Players have to be open to what a manager says to them. You have to have respect for the people giving you instructions, even if you don’t agree with them.
‘The day will never come when I myself would say: “Never again”. I’ll just fade away instead. I played a lot of games last season, but my goals ratio was disappointing. If you’re not scoring, your name isn’t out there and you’re only going to get picked if you’re on fire.’
The SFA provides education to thousands of coaches at all levels of the game every year and Iwelumo gained his B Licence at the sportscotland National Centre two years ago.
He cites the now deposed Wolves manager Mick McCarthy as being the biggest single influence in making him realise he had it in him to coach. Iwelumo has a year left on his existing Watford deal and, at 33, has no immediate retirement plans, but has been looking at the idea of management since breaking his foot in the summer of 2009.
‘It was pre-season and I knew it would be four months until I’d be back playing, so I started watching matches and Mick was great with me,’ said Iwelumo.
‘Whatever way he wanted Wolves to play, he’d ask my opinion on it. I’d have arguments and he shot me down most of the time, but he was always open to my thoughts.
‘For Wolves to remove Mick this season the way they did, without having anyone new to bring in, was a big mistake because, if anyone would have turned them around and avoided relegation, it would have been big Mick.’