England’s new assistant manager has had an eventful journey which saw play in the lower leagues before embarking on a successful coaching career at club and international level
England’s new assistant manager once quit a club after just one training session – before going on to have a successful coaching career.
New England boss Thomas Tuchel has recruited Anthony Barry as his right-hand man, with the pair officially starting work on January 1. The 38-year-old has built an impressive reputation as a coach and the Three Lions job will be his third as Tuchel’s assistant after Chelsea and Bayern Munich.
Barry has also worked under Roberto Martinez with Belgium and Portugal, having kicked off his coaching career at Wigan Athletic. During his playing days in the lower leagues and non-league, Barry had two spells at Wrexham, although the first was over in the blink of an eye.
In 2010, he was signed by the Red Dragons, then of the National League, who were being managed by ex-Wales and Liverpool striker Dean Saunders. According to Saunders, Barry requested to leave the club after just one training session, having received an offer from another club.
Saunders recalled on talkSPORT this morning (October 16): “He told me, ‘Fleetwood have offered me double the money’. I said, ‘Well, it’s too late, you’ve signed for us now’.
“He said, ‘Yeah but gaffer, come on, I can’t turn that down’. I said, ‘No, you’ve signed for us’. There had been back page headlines with the shirt on and everything.
“I couldn’t believe it. I sat there for a couple of days and thought, ‘If you don’t want to be here, if you want to be somewhere else, you might as well go’. Then he went to Fleetwood.”
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Barry did actually turn out for Wrexham at the end of his playing days before going into coaching, where he has clearly flourished. Saunders added: “The next time I saw him, he was on the bench at Chelsea. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on there?’ Apparently he met Frank Lampard on a coaching course, ended up helping Frank and working his way up.
“That is a story of how you can get on, from the bottom to Bayern Munich and he’s now England assistant manager. Amazing. A nice lad as well, by the way.”
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