Last
week, we caught up with Andy Cook, former Head Coach of the newly formed WSL2
side Durham WFC and an FA Tesco skills coach. Having previously coached Arsenal
Ladies’ Reserves and Under 17s sides, Andy has a built up a wealth of
experience in the women’s game. Here we found out about Durham, his thoughts on
the FAWSL and his future plans.
GOTB: So if
you don't mind us asking, why are you no longer at Durham?
AC: The management took the choice to release
me from the position. Everyone at the club is fantastic but it was out of my
control. It is never great to hear you have been released especially with the
fact that it was obviously a new thing for Durham and I felt I could do a good
job to move them on, but it's one of those things, you have to respect the
decisions that people make and move on.
I suppose it was a little bit of a
conflict of ideas in the sense of how we wanted to move things forward. I am really disappointed and gutted to have
been told to leave but I accept the decision. At the end of the day, they said that
it's within the best interests of the club.
But
I am still involved in Durham University coaching the university team.
GOTB: And
what’s happening there?
AC:
So I am coaching the university team still and obviously they have just
won the league so there is no bad blood between anyone.
GOTB: How
was it going, preparations wise, for the WSL because it's been a pretty
exciting time?
AC: Yeah,
everyone that has come into Durham and everyone that's been involved were really
buzzing. Every time we were there, I
felt it was getting better and we were working towards our start date in April
and working through friendlies. Some of the friendlies that the club has got
now are fantastic. So it will give them
a bit of a test before they hit the league but the preparations were great and
we managed to get some fantastic players.
There are a couple of young players in
there, Zoe Ness and Beth Hepple, who are fantastic young players that came in
through South Durham and Cestria which is the grass roots club. The guys have
done great work with them and brought them up. But then with the senior girls
we have managed to get in, Stacy Crooks from Newcastle and Seana Cooke from
Ireland, who was previously at Arsenal and Raheny. They were the sort of players they managed to
bring in and there was a couple of players that don't have big CVs but when
we've seen them playing and training they have big personalities and would have
been good leaders. Such Caroline Dixon who came from
an American University in Boston and then Jen King who has come from Scotland.
She was ex-under 19's and from Hamilton.
So there is a good core of players there that can really push on. For me
that was the thing, I was enjoying trying to build a young team that is hungry
to be successful.
GOTB: You were building kind of from scratch really compared to some of the other teams in the WSL.
AC: Yeah pretty much. It was very much from scratch because the General Manager put a lot of work in in terms of the grass roots club and he drove it and managed to get it alongside Durham University. And that's where I came into the coaching side. It was a fantastic opportunity because it was the kind of project where you build a team from nothing and you have a blank canvas so you can do whatever you want. You could try things out and no one was going to think we did it like this in the past and it worked because you didn't have that history. It was just a freedom to work.
GOTB: At the moment, the WSL has two models where you have the clubs with the backing of the men's side and the clubs, like Durham, Bristol and London Bees, who have the university/college approach. Do you think it's nice that we have a mix like that or do you think one model is better that the other?
AC: No, I don't think one is better than the other. Coaching wise, I think it's brilliant for competition. Manchester City, for instance, have come into the FAWSL from nowhere and managed to find some fantastic players with Toni (Duggan) and Steph (Houghton). I know from some of the people at other clubs that I have been at, Arsenal and Bristol and clubs like that, they're on their toes because they have now gone and matched them.
So not only is it making it better on the field but also off the field. Coaches like Matt (Beard) at Liverpool and the guys at City, they're full time guys. Therefore, you can have more contact with the players; the competition for places and the quality that you will get proves, for me, that there is no right or wrong way. And as you say, with the model that Durham and Bristol and London Bees have in place that link to education, a facility where you can bring in staff or the staff that are there, with the potential of making full time positions.
On top of that the likes of Bristol are very similar to Durham in that five years ago, no one really knew them. But within five years Mark (Sampson) did a brilliant job. I think that five years is what Bristol, Durham, and London Bees need. Whereas Man City and Liverpool (Liverpool showed it last year) can go in and establish it straightaway and basically go and win the league. It's a different model but at the end of the day the success is going to be either short term or long term and it depends on how you look at it. You could say Bristol are more successful than Liverpool because of the fact that they have been managed to go from nothing to Champions League football, two FA cup finals and a second place finish. Mark wanted players from Bristol and wanted that home grown element and I think London Bees and Durham will be the same.
GOTB: The FAWSL in general, do you think it's a good model? It seems to us that it's really sparking the way forward for women's football in this country and really taken it up a level but of course there are other who feel the FA have not gone about it the right way and could have done things differently.
AC: Yeah. I have seen from the periphery at Arsenal, how well the WSL league is run and I think it's a good model. I think the FA have done well to promote it as they have and they have tried to build it, instead of throwing money at it like in other countries around the world. The fact that it has increased to two leagues is fantastic because it addresses that issue of promotion and relegation, which in terms of the fans and everything else makes it more appealing.
I think it has to be slow progress. To sustain it like the men's game over 70/80 years, you need to have that slow buildup and that's one of the issues. Everyone wants everything now - the fans and even myself. We have to sustain it a little bit and then go and grow and keep building like that.
I know it has upset a lot of people outside the 18 clubs, which is understandable because you're never going to keep everybody happy. But I think the FA did the fairest thing that they could do, in that they opened up to everyone and everyone had to bid. It is a bit of an American thing in that you are almost buying into a bit of a franchise but everything has to be right. I know going through the process with Durham, we were asked about every little thing and everything was scrutinized. It wasn’t a case of well you’ve got Durham University alongside you so we'll give you the license. It was a case of how are you going to get players? What is your training going to do? How is it going to look? So I was questioned as a coach, like, if you have university players are they going to play for university? If they play for the university, are they going to play for 12 months? When are they going to rest? How much rest are they going to get? The questions I was asked and the Director of the University were asked were really detailed and we had to make sure that the facilities were as good as they could be. The process was very thorough. So I think the FA couldn't have done much more and you are always going to upset some people but I think it's a good model and it will sustain itself.
GOTB: So what is next for you as a coach? We know you said you are going to be coaching the university team. Do you want to partake in the WSL possibly or go to another team or what would you like to do?
AC: Yeah. I would want to work in the WSL again definitely because I want that chance to prove what I can do as a head coach within the leagues and the top leagues in the country. Laura (Harvey) and the guys at Arsenal gave me the chance to manage the reserve teams and the under 17s and quite a number of those girls that we had have now gone on to play with Arsenal. They were in the teams that I coached there and even some of the other girls are at different clubs, like Bristol and Birmingham; you know there are players dotted around the country. I suppose, Arsenal has been a good breeding ground for women's football and I learned a lot there. To try out what I’ve learned as head coach would be fantastic and obviously, that was the goal with Durham and the goal posts have changed slightly. But it gives me time to reassess and see what comes up in the future.
I don't have a bad word to say about Durham and everybody has been fantastic so I suppose I’d just like to have that chance again.
GOTB: What do you think your best attributes as a coach are?
AC: I’d probably say honesty is my best attribute. If you ask any of the players that I have coached over the years I would say they would agree. I always try to treat players as individuals and build teams around each individual's attributes.
Also passion - I think the passion that I have to win and succeed. I am only in my late 20s, so I’m young and hungry to succeed. And I want to be successful in my professional career. I will pretty much do anything that it takes to be successful. I will go on the courses and read the books and speak to people and constantly ask the questions. So that’s what I’d say, honesty and the little individual touches that I try and find.
GOTB: Ok, last question. Recently we found out from Mark Sampson that he was a Connect 4 champion and we were wondering if there was something that people don't know about you?
AC: Do you know I haven't played Connect 4 in years. I know Mark well so maybe he’d be up for a game.
Something that people don't know about me ‑ well I don't know whether my fiancé would agree but I like to think that I'm a hell of a cook. I have a few Gordon Ramsey recipe books and a few Mary Berry recipe books so I like to think I am a bit of a chef. If there is ever a barbecue and you are up in the North East, I'll rustle up something.
GOTB: We'll hold you to that definitely!