Open-top bus beckons for the route one master

Louise Taylor at the Millennium Stadium
Monday May 22, 2006
The Guardian

At the start of this season Adrian Boothroyd was asked how he intended to end the campaign. "On an open-top bus tour," came the reply from Watford's ultra- confident young manager who will spend part of today helping plan that bus's celebratory route.

Boothroyd is big on both planning and routes, or at least route one, his attention to detail and penchant for direct football having propelled Watford into a position where they seem certain to imbue the Premiership with a distinctly retro air next season. Remember Wimbledon in their pomp? Well, Boothroyd's charges are 21st- century clones of Dave Bassett's men; Watford make Bolton look like Barcelona.

As the ball repeatedly flew high through the air, conveniently bypassing midfield before crashing towards the corners, as long throws were launched into the "mixer" and three goals were scored from set pieces yesterday, it became increasingly clear that he is a footballing fundamentalist.

Intriguingly Boothroyd's evangelism has been disguised by a deceptively modernist image. On paper one of the best qualified managers in the game, the 35-year-old - whose previous role was as Kevin Blackwell's youth coach at Leeds - can boast not only the much vaunted Uefa Pro Licence but a further diploma in applied football management from Warwick University where Blackwell once sat alongside him in lectures.

Watching this one wondered whether John Beck is lecturing at Warwick these days. Beck's Cambridge were once as popular as the poll tax but at least the long balls unleashed at Abbey Stadium tended to be accurate and the crosses whipped in wonderfully early. Similarly Graham Taylor's Watford originals were rather basic but that default mode was lightened by glorious, and often improvisational, wing play from John Barnes and Nigel Callaghan.

Bereft of a single truly memorable passing sequence, most of yesterday seemed purely about long throws and set plays. Yet paradoxically Boothroyd and Blackwell - whose dead ball-reliant side suffered from a similar dearth of decent dribbling - are hailed as two of football's brightest emerging managers.

All badged up, the boy Aidy is something of a pin-up at the League Managers Association but witnessing Watford's admittedly superbly choreographed, version of painting by numbers was to reflect on what a travesty it would have been had the LMA succeeded in its attempt to prevent Glenn Roeder from becoming manager of Newcastle United last week due to his lack of the Pro Licence.

Where would have been the logic in barring Roeder - who has got Newcastle into Europe playing an inventive passing game - while admitting Boothroyd whose percentage-playing Watford will surely be on a mission to register the longest throws in Premiership history?

Granted one cannot help but admire a thirtysomething whose sheer force of will, self-belief and organisational powers have transformed him from "Aidy Who?" into hot property. Unfazed when the steward on the Vicarage Road gate initially refused to admit someone he suspected of being "an imposter" for his first match in charge, Boothroyd's mastery of detail threatens to turn him into a household name.

If it was dismaying to witness a rare moment of spontaneity backfire when Ashley Young fell over just as he threatened to beat his man, the positioning and movement Watford displayed at corners reflected much burning of the midnight oil. True, the dress rehearsal trip Boothroyd's men made to Cardiff last weekend - when they stayed in yesterday's hotel before eating a "pre-match" meal and boarding their team bus for a "familiarisation" visit to the Millennium Stadium - sounds a bit anorakish but he still puts some of his slapdash peers to shame.

Certainly Colin Gordon - Boothroyd's agent who also looks after Blackwell, Steve McClaren and Theo Walcott - knew what he was doing when he signed up the one-time journeyman defender. Gordon recognised that this cropped-haired Yorkshireman does not do shades of grey. A man whose bedtime reading consists almost solely of business or psychology manuals is apparently immune from self- doubt. "I have no fear," he explained. "I think we're a model for clubs who don't have a great deal of money; we're all about preparation, staff and hunger. I'm not into sexy big names; I'm into hard work. We just stopped Leeds functioning."

Which might ultimately prove a blessing in disguise for Blackwell. Having performed a minor miracle in rebuilding Leeds from the financial wreckage of the Peter Ridsdale era, he has created the framework in which more talented players such as Eddie Lewis and Robbie Blake might flourish next term. Blackwell entered the Watford dressing room to congratulate Boothroyd and his players after the game. It was a classy touch out of keeping with the afternoon but perhaps, deep down, he felt a sense of relief.

Do not bet against Leeds taking an open-top bus tour of their own next May - by which time even Boothroyd may be detecting the odd shade of grey.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer