Neil Ryan interview: The ‘wrench’ of leaving Manchester United, player goodbyes and England challenge
When Manchester United announced Neil Ryan’s departure from the club after 19 years, his phone buzzed with a flurry of messages. One came from Anthony Elanga, who reflected on having Ryan as a coach from under-13s to under-23s. “I couldn’t get rid of you,” Elanga wrote, with a few laughing emojis.
He also recalled an occasion in his early teenage years that had left an impression. “I’ll always remember that time in Mallorca,” he said. “Sorry for keeping you awake with my snoring.”
Ryan stayed overnight with Elanga in hospital after he had sustained a neck injury in an under-14s game on the Spanish island. “It was in the days when we didn’t have many staff so I was head coach, tour leader, player welfare, the lot,” Ryan remembers. “Anthony hurt his neck on the AstroTurf. The ambulance actually came on the pitch, I ran on, and obviously he couldn’t go to hospital on his own. The physio had to stay with the game.
“Your instincts kick in. I’m sure there were players in that group who were higher flyers than him at that point. He wasn’t the star, just another boy injured you care for. We got there and he had to stay overnight as a precaution. He had fallen and they were unsure. He got this neck brace.
“I had to sleep in a chair, I gave him my laptop so he could watch movies, Marvel or something. I couldn’t sleep, I had to ring his mum every 10 minutes. He was a bit upset, in hospital abroad, alone and uncertain what would come from his injury. We just had a laugh, I kept telling jokes to keep his spirits up.
“I’d forgotten that story before he texted. It was just another day. You look back and go, ‘Wow, that’s the reason you do this’. I got some amazing messages from players and staff, some I didn’t know all that well.”
Another touching message came from Scott McTominay, who thanked Ryan for his contribution at Carrington over the years and signed off with a nod to the 48-year-old’s new role: “Don’t make them England boys too good!”
After nearly two decades at United coaching through the age groups, including, lastly, the under-18s and under-23s, Ryan this week began a new role at the FA as England coach working with under-18s. Ryan found it hard to move on from United — the club his father Jim served for 28 years, including as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson — but he is excited at a fresh start working with the best young players in the country.
“Leaving United has been such a wrench,” Ryan says. “I didn’t know how hard it would be until the final day. I did a speech to all the players and staff at Carrington in the indoor pitches. I got a few gifts from the club — a signed shirt, a nice box, a framed collage of photographs from all my years of coaching. You don’t always get to say goodbye in football. Now this next step is moving on. I don’t feel sad I’ve left the club, but it was a really emotional thing.”
Ryan heard there were opportunities at the FA and, following an interview process, was offered the job by technical director John McDermott and head of coaching Tim Dittmer.
“It was 19 years of pleasure at United, but I was maybe hitting a ceiling of my development with the club,” Ryan explains. “In the sense of going from under-11s right the way through to 23s, I’ve seen the whole spectrum — pretty amazing. What’s the next thing? You either step up to a first team, and with United that option wasn’t there, I didn’t expect that. Or you go to international football. The excitement is there, the juices are flowing. It’s not something you can truly be prepared for until you’re in it. I spoke to a lot of coaches who have done the role — you need to get in there and find your feet on a day to day.”
Ryan started last week and, after his induction at St George’s Park, travelled to Slovakia for the under-19s European Championship to scout opponents and meet colleagues in an intimate setting. Longer-term, his focus is on developing England players.
“I’m really comfortable because I’ve worked so long with those ages,” he says. “It will be a different challenge to not having them day in, day out. But I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit — after 19 years it feels like you’ve been on this treadmill. It’s brilliant but it takes its toll.
“This is gonna be the same sort of work, but you’ll have those breaks to get out to other clubs, see them train, see other coaches, academy managers, heads of coaching. At United, I have been quite cocooned. I make the point, lucky. Really good staff around me for so many years. Quite tight. Subsequently you don’t tend to get out and about to too many other clubs.
“I enjoy speaking to people, looking at new methods of development. There are loads of different ideas. There might be an untapped diamond who hasn’t quite got the recognition. Maybe we get them in, give them the opportunity, help the national team that way.
“You might put boys up into a higher age band because that is where they get truly tested. To do that you might need to sacrifice having the best player in your team. Results should be important, of course they are, but are they the be-all and end-all at international level? Performance under pressure, in the big games, is more the major aspect to develop these young boys.”
Ryan has been able to tap into the mind of British football’s greatest manager during this period.
“I spoke to Alex Ferguson on the phone — he was brilliant,” Ryan says. “We spoke about me leaving the club, the reasons why, and I asked him for advice. One of the main things he spoke about at international level, rather than tactics and day-to-day coaching, was how we’ll be really able to affect the mentality of the players.
“He’s been such an amazing guy to me personally — my dad worked with him. Leaving the club I wanted to make sure I spoke to as many people as possible who had really impacted my time there. Of course, he impacts everyone’s time at Man United.
“He’d speak to you about the young ones coming up. I’ve got some amazing pictures of Marcus Rashford as a 12-year-old and the manager is talking to us all at the table, he’s leaning in. Schoolboys in for the day training. I snapped it — a timeless photo really.
“Sir Alex has his eye on the ball with it all. Whenever I’d see him he was always saying, ‘Who is the next one coming through, Neil?’. He always made that effort to talk to us. He is such an engaging guy. I’ve been fortunate to sit at a game with him — the greatest manager ever — and he’s so humble, open, he listens to you. I was like a sponge soaking up everything he was saying.
“He’s still so sharp and bright in his observations. I take how he worked around the building — it’s gold dust.”
Ryan should still work with United players. Tyler Fredricson, Kobbie Mainoo, and Habeeb Ogunneye are on England’s radar at under-18 level. Importantly, Ryan will bring with him a wealth of knowledge about handling youngsters in the modern era.
“When you see the journey of all these boys, it isn’t just a straight line — it is ups and downs, different challenges. They’re Generation Z, but really Generation Why, we call them. ‘Why are we playing that system? Why am I not playing there? Why is he in the first team? Why do we have to wear these shoes not trainers?’. Everything is questioned, which is fine, but you’ve gotta be on the ball with it. Generation Why, so you need to have the answers.
“I think one of the best things you can have as a coach is common bonding. You go through a lot of experiences together — highs and lows — and if you get that over a number of years you see the pressures they are dealing with outside the game.
“I never had that as a young player myself. I was a youth player at Luton Town. These players have agents, social media, in-house club media, national media, mates who are famous, parents, family, friends — the spotlight they are under all the time of being judged. Of course, coaches. You give them feedback on what they do well, what they’ve got to improve, they are constantly like, ‘Everything’s coming at me’. How do they handle that?
“Can you imagine being the breadwinner for a family at the age of 16, or even younger? The house they live in is because of you, the cars they drive is because of you, their income is because of you — that is a huge thing. I don’t know how I would have coped with that at that age. That is going on all around the country, not just Man United. That is the skill of the coach to be mindful of it, wary, but also understand what that player is going through.
“Now I am going to the international level — as an international player you’re getting all types of people influencing you. Whether it is a good or bad influence, how do you know until you get to that individual? That will be the important bit: getting to know all the players, what makes them tick — everyone is different. ”
Ryan clearly cares passionately about youth development.
“It’s important you get a good relationship with parents. I got a nice message off Charlie McNeill’s dad. I was quite tough with Charlie in his first year. He got a load of goals and he did really well. But I’m like, ‘You can do better, you can do more, you can train better, you’ve got to get yourself to Champions League level. It can’t be enough to think you’re gonna be the best in England — you’ve got to be best in the world’. Get that kind of mentality, which he is still working at.”
Ryan has had numerous instances where players needed pushing and sometimes that led to tension.
“The parents are the ones who realise it in the end,” Ryan says. “If you were tough with the boys it’s because they were getting too much fluff, too much nonsense. They need, ‘No, to be a player you need to do this, work harder in training, listen to the coaches, do the extra work, behave right, dress well, time-keeping, the standards, non-negotiables.’
“That’s just your job — you do that with every player, but some could be challenging. Certain coaches might think, ‘I’ll leave that one’. I’m like, ‘No, if they want to be a top player they need it more than most’.
“I knew from the top, Brian McClair or Nicky Butt (academy heads when Ryan coached younger age groups), they are backing you because they know you’re doing things for the good of the player.”
Before leaving, Ryan told United’s under-23s they have a chance to impress a new manager in Erik ten Hag. “I’ve said it to a few of them, ‘Show him in training what you’ve got’. I’m pretty sure he’ll want to bring good numbers in for pre-season for rotation. Players have left the club, so there are spaces. There will be new signings, but those players are at a level — with senior players around them — to shine.”
Ryan believes Shola Shoretire could be ready for Ten Hag to take a proper look. “He has an amazing maturity for such a young lad — he has always been thrust into the older age groups. Not always every decision to do that based purely on what the coach thinks. A lot of different factors have come into that, almost fast-tracked at times.
“I think it could have been balanced better; have him in his own age at certain times. It would have been nice for him to be involved in the Youth Cup last year (which United won at in front of 67,492 at Old Trafford) — he has missed out on some big moments there.
“He is technically gifted, he is quite ruthless and tough as a boy, got a good mentality — for me personally never one problem in the five, six years I worked with him.
“He can play left, right, No 10, as a false nine, he can play deeper midfield as well. Towards the end of the season he was one of our best playmakers from deep. In some of the games where teams would drop to a low block, he could find those passes that penetrated. We’ve spoken to him — he needs to add more goals to his game because he can score. He still has a way to go.
“He loves football and plays with a smile on his face. He reminds me of Angel Gomes — he was head and shoulders best in class at his age, and just so small. Shola is the same. They are slightly different players, but similar in the sense they are brave, they want the ball, they work hard and are selfless; they will play in different positions for the team.”
Ryan chuckles as he recalls Shoretire’s final message at Carrington. Encouraged by Teden Mengi to speak during a feedback session with Ryan and under-23s manager Neil Wood, who has since left to take charge of Salford City, Shoretire plucked up the courage.
“Shola said, ‘Right Neil, I’ve gotta say something. Remember a year ago being in here and you got hit by a ball?’. We were in the dome. I’m like, ‘What?’. He said, ‘You got smashed in the head with a ball’. They’re all giggling. ‘You said it was me and to stop messing around’. I said, ‘Must have concussed me because I don’t remember it’. I think he pointed to Teden. ‘Before you go, I wanted you to know that it wasn’t me’. I said, ‘That has made my day — that’s the thing that’s been on your mind for more than a year?’.”
A different kind of memory lingers for Ryan when conversation turns to McTominay. “Scott can be a tremendous player for the club,” Ryan insists. “He has taken a hell of a lot on his shoulders, borne the brunt of a lot of criticism, but put him in a successful playing group he’ll hopefully flourish.
“His mentality is second to none. His character is the X Factor for him. He had a lot of injuries as a young boy. He hardly played in the youth team because of injuries. I remember him telling me about leaving training at 17, getting picked up by his dad, crying in car on the way back home. ‘I’m never gonna be a footballer because of my injuries’. He fought through that.
“There have been times when he’s been outstanding, times when it’s been tough for him — that is the pressure of a Man United player. That’s his challenge. I’m sure he’s up for that.”
Ryan also feels Rashford can rebound from a difficult campaign. “He is one of the best talents in the country, I believe that.”
Ryan plans to keep watching. He has bought two season tickets to Old Trafford for him and his son and will be going to games when the England job allows. For the first time in nearly 20 years though, his primary focus is away from United. “My idea is to impact England 18s and these age groups to get success, breed winning habits, affect their mentalities. That is a really exciting proposition.”
https://theathletic.com/3375889/2022/06/28/manchester-united-neil-ryan/
Neil Ryan interview: The ‘wrench’ of leaving Manchester United, player goodbyes and England challenge
When Manchester United announced Neil Ryan’s departure from the club after 19 years, his phone buzzed with a flurry of messages. One came from Anthony Elanga, who reflected on having Ryan as a coach from under-13s to under-23s. “I couldn’t get rid of you,” Elanga wrote, with a few laughing emojis.
He also recalled an occasion in his early teenage years that had left an impression. “I’ll always remember that time in Mallorca,” he said. “Sorry for keeping you awake with my snoring.”
Ryan stayed overnight with Elanga in hospital after he had sustained a neck injury in an under-14s game on the Spanish island. “It was in the days when we didn’t have many staff so I was head coach, tour leader, player welfare, the lot,” Ryan remembers. “Anthony hurt his neck on the AstroTurf. The ambulance actually came on the pitch, I ran on, and obviously he couldn’t go to hospital on his own. The physio had to stay with the game.
“Your instincts kick in. I’m sure there were players in that group who were higher flyers than him at that point. He wasn’t the star, just another boy injured you care for. We got there and he had to stay overnight as a precaution. He had fallen and they were unsure. He got this neck brace.
“I had to sleep in a chair, I gave him my laptop so he could watch movies, Marvel or something. I couldn’t sleep, I had to ring his mum every 10 minutes. He was a bit upset, in hospital abroad, alone and uncertain what would come from his injury. We just had a laugh, I kept telling jokes to keep his spirits up.
“I’d forgotten that story before he texted. It was just another day. You look back and go, ‘Wow, that’s the reason you do this’. I got some amazing messages from players and staff, some I didn’t know all that well.”
Another touching message came from Scott McTominay, who thanked Ryan for his contribution at Carrington over the years and signed off with a nod to the 48-year-old’s new role: “Don’t make them England boys too good!”
After nearly two decades at United coaching through the age groups, including, lastly, the under-18s and under-23s, Ryan this week began a new role at the FA as England coach working with under-18s. Ryan found it hard to move on from United — the club his father Jim served for 28 years, including as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson — but he is excited at a fresh start working with the best young players in the country.
“Leaving United has been such a wrench,” Ryan says. “I didn’t know how hard it would be until the final day. I did a speech to all the players and staff at Carrington in the indoor pitches. I got a few gifts from the club — a signed shirt, a nice box, a framed collage of photographs from all my years of coaching. You don’t always get to say goodbye in football. Now this next step is moving on. I don’t feel sad I’ve left the club, but it was a really emotional thing.”
Ryan heard there were opportunities at the FA and, following an interview process, was offered the job by technical director John McDermott and head of coaching Tim Dittmer.
“It was 19 years of pleasure at United, but I was maybe hitting a ceiling of my development with the club,” Ryan explains. “In the sense of going from under-11s right the way through to 23s, I’ve seen the whole spectrum — pretty amazing. What’s the next thing? You either step up to a first team, and with United that option wasn’t there, I didn’t expect that. Or you go to international football. The excitement is there, the juices are flowing. It’s not something you can truly be prepared for until you’re in it. I spoke to a lot of coaches who have done the role — you need to get in there and find your feet on a day to day.”
Ryan started last week and, after his induction at St George’s Park, travelled to Slovakia for the under-19s European Championship to scout opponents and meet colleagues in an intimate setting. Longer-term, his focus is on developing England players.
“I’m really comfortable because I’ve worked so long with those ages,” he says. “It will be a different challenge to not having them day in, day out. But I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit — after 19 years it feels like you’ve been on this treadmill. It’s brilliant but it takes its toll.
“This is gonna be the same sort of work, but you’ll have those breaks to get out to other clubs, see them train, see other coaches, academy managers, heads of coaching. At United, I have been quite cocooned. I make the point, lucky. Really good staff around me for so many years. Quite tight. Subsequently you don’t tend to get out and about to too many other clubs.
“I enjoy speaking to people, looking at new methods of development. There are loads of different ideas. There might be an untapped diamond who hasn’t quite got the recognition. Maybe we get them in, give them the opportunity, help the national team that way.
“You might put boys up into a higher age band because that is where they get truly tested. To do that you might need to sacrifice having the best player in your team. Results should be important, of course they are, but are they the be-all and end-all at international level? Performance under pressure, in the big games, is more the major aspect to develop these young boys.”
Ryan has been able to tap into the mind of British football’s greatest manager during this period.
“I spoke to Alex Ferguson on the phone — he was brilliant,” Ryan says. “We spoke about me leaving the club, the reasons why, and I asked him for advice. One of the main things he spoke about at international level, rather than tactics and day-to-day coaching, was how we’ll be really able to affect the mentality of the players.
“He’s been such an amazing guy to me personally — my dad worked with him. Leaving the club I wanted to make sure I spoke to as many people as possible who had really impacted my time there. Of course, he impacts everyone’s time at Man United.
“He’d speak to you about the young ones coming up. I’ve got some amazing pictures of Marcus Rashford as a 12-year-old and the manager is talking to us all at the table, he’s leaning in. Schoolboys in for the day training. I snapped it — a timeless photo really.
“Sir Alex has his eye on the ball with it all. Whenever I’d see him he was always saying, ‘Who is the next one coming through, Neil?’. He always made that effort to talk to us. He is such an engaging guy. I’ve been fortunate to sit at a game with him — the greatest manager ever — and he’s so humble, open, he listens to you. I was like a sponge soaking up everything he was saying.
“He’s still so sharp and bright in his observations. I take how he worked around the building — it’s gold dust.”
Ryan should still work with United players. Tyler Fredricson, Kobbie Mainoo, and Habeeb Ogunneye are on England’s radar at under-18 level. Importantly, Ryan will bring with him a wealth of knowledge about handling youngsters in the modern era.
“When you see the journey of all these boys, it isn’t just a straight line — it is ups and downs, different challenges. They’re Generation Z, but really Generation Why, we call them. ‘Why are we playing that system? Why am I not playing there? Why is he in the first team? Why do we have to wear these shoes not trainers?’. Everything is questioned, which is fine, but you’ve gotta be on the ball with it. Generation Why, so you need to have the answers.
“I think one of the best things you can have as a coach is common bonding. You go through a lot of experiences together — highs and lows — and if you get that over a number of years you see the pressures they are dealing with outside the game.
“I never had that as a young player myself. I was a youth player at Luton Town. These players have agents, social media, in-house club media, national media, mates who are famous, parents, family, friends — the spotlight they are under all the time of being judged. Of course, coaches. You give them feedback on what they do well, what they’ve got to improve, they are constantly like, ‘Everything’s coming at me’. How do they handle that?
“Can you imagine being the breadwinner for a family at the age of 16, or even younger? The house they live in is because of you, the cars they drive is because of you, their income is because of you — that is a huge thing. I don’t know how I would have coped with that at that age. That is going on all around the country, not just Man United. That is the skill of the coach to be mindful of it, wary, but also understand what that player is going through.
“Now I am going to the international level — as an international player you’re getting all types of people influencing you. Whether it is a good or bad influence, how do you know until you get to that individual? That will be the important bit: getting to know all the players, what makes them tick — everyone is different. ”
Ryan clearly cares passionately about youth development.
“It’s important you get a good relationship with parents. I got a nice message off Charlie McNeill’s dad. I was quite tough with Charlie in his first year. He got a load of goals and he did really well. But I’m like, ‘You can do better, you can do more, you can train better, you’ve got to get yourself to Champions League level. It can’t be enough to think you’re gonna be the best in England — you’ve got to be best in the world’. Get that kind of mentality, which he is still working at.”
Ryan has had numerous instances where players needed pushing and sometimes that led to tension.
“The parents are the ones who realise it in the end,” Ryan says. “If you were tough with the boys it’s because they were getting too much fluff, too much nonsense. They need, ‘No, to be a player you need to do this, work harder in training, listen to the coaches, do the extra work, behave right, dress well, time-keeping, the standards, non-negotiables.’
“That’s just your job — you do that with every player, but some could be challenging. Certain coaches might think, ‘I’ll leave that one’. I’m like, ‘No, if they want to be a top player they need it more than most’.
“I knew from the top, Brian McClair or Nicky Butt (academy heads when Ryan coached younger age groups), they are backing you because they know you’re doing things for the good of the player.”
Before leaving, Ryan told United’s under-23s they have a chance to impress a new manager in Erik ten Hag. “I’ve said it to a few of them, ‘Show him in training what you’ve got’. I’m pretty sure he’ll want to bring good numbers in for pre-season for rotation. Players have left the club, so there are spaces. There will be new signings, but those players are at a level — with senior players around them — to shine.”
Ryan believes Shola Shoretire could be ready for Ten Hag to take a proper look. “He has an amazing maturity for such a young lad — he has always been thrust into the older age groups. Not always every decision to do that based purely on what the coach thinks. A lot of different factors have come into that, almost fast-tracked at times.
“I think it could have been balanced better; have him in his own age at certain times. It would have been nice for him to be involved in the Youth Cup last year (which United won at in front of 67,492 at Old Trafford) — he has missed out on some big moments there.
“He is technically gifted, he is quite ruthless and tough as a boy, got a good mentality — for me personally never one problem in the five, six years I worked with him.
“He can play left, right, No 10, as a false nine, he can play deeper midfield as well. Towards the end of the season he was one of our best playmakers from deep. In some of the games where teams would drop to a low block, he could find those passes that penetrated. We’ve spoken to him — he needs to add more goals to his game because he can score. He still has a way to go.
“He loves football and plays with a smile on his face. He reminds me of Angel Gomes — he was head and shoulders best in class at his age, and just so small. Shola is the same. They are slightly different players, but similar in the sense they are brave, they want the ball, they work hard and are selfless; they will play in different positions for the team.”
Ryan chuckles as he recalls Shoretire’s final message at Carrington. Encouraged by Teden Mengi to speak during a feedback session with Ryan and under-23s manager Neil Wood, who has since left to take charge of Salford City, Shoretire plucked up the courage.
“Shola said, ‘Right Neil, I’ve gotta say something. Remember a year ago being in here and you got hit by a ball?’. We were in the dome. I’m like, ‘What?’. He said, ‘You got smashed in the head with a ball’. They’re all giggling. ‘You said it was me and to stop messing around’. I said, ‘Must have concussed me because I don’t remember it’. I think he pointed to Teden. ‘Before you go, I wanted you to know that it wasn’t me’. I said, ‘That has made my day — that’s the thing that’s been on your mind for more than a year?’.”
A different kind of memory lingers for Ryan when conversation turns to McTominay. “Scott can be a tremendous player for the club,” Ryan insists. “He has taken a hell of a lot on his shoulders, borne the brunt of a lot of criticism, but put him in a successful playing group he’ll hopefully flourish.
“His mentality is second to none. His character is the X Factor for him. He had a lot of injuries as a young boy. He hardly played in the youth team because of injuries. I remember him telling me about leaving training at 17, getting picked up by his dad, crying in car on the way back home. ‘I’m never gonna be a footballer because of my injuries’. He fought through that.
“There have been times when he’s been outstanding, times when it’s been tough for him — that is the pressure of a Man United player. That’s his challenge. I’m sure he’s up for that.”
Ryan also feels Rashford can rebound from a difficult campaign. “He is one of the best talents in the country, I believe that.”
Ryan plans to keep watching. He has bought two season tickets to Old Trafford for him and his son and will be going to games when the England job allows. For the first time in nearly 20 years though, his primary focus is away from United. “My idea is to impact England 18s and these age groups to get success, breed winning habits, affect their mentalities. That is a really exciting proposition.”
https://theathletic.com/3375889/2022/06/28/manchester-united-neil-ryan/