Tony Reid was announced as the new manager of Corinthian-Casuals on Sunday, and after posing for his unveiling photo shoot pitchside he sat down in the home dressing room for an interview with Dominic Bliss about his new role and his footballing journey to this point…
Tony, welcome to Corinthian-Casuals. How does it feel to be appointed manager of this historic club?
Words can’t explain, actually. Being at Step 3 is where I wanted to be, so I’m relishing the new challenge. I haven’t slept since it was confirmed yesterday – even though I’m a Liverpool fan and they obviously lost the Champions League final – because I’ve been on Cloud 10. I woke up extra early this morning, immediately started thinking about my plans and what I’m going to be doing. So, yeah… it’s back to work for me!
What attracted you to this club?
The history. I used to play here when I was a youngster, so I know the history of the club inside-out. I came here in the youth team, then I shot straight up into the reserves and in the end I managed to get a couple of games of first-team football.
I was a left-winger back then – that was before I was even a striker, that’s how young I was. I remember the striker in those days was Westy [Cliff West], and he was an absolute beast up front!
When you’re young, you’re quite naive to men’s football so I didn’t really interact with anybody. I just used to come and train, play football, do what was required. I remember leaving to go to another club, but I came back here on loan later and I had a good start – I scored a few goals.
Then, more recently, I’ve come to watch a few games here when I wasn’t in a job, just to watch the football, and I’ve always liked the atmosphere, the crowd, the fans. It ticked all the boxes for me.
So it was a case of being affiliated to the club, coming back here and having good memories. During my interview for the job, they said it was a family club and I love it when people say that. It’s not about themselves, or a business. When you mention a family club it’s quite sentimental and that attracted me as well.
Tell us more about your background in non-league. You’ve got vast experience as both a player and a coach.
When I was a player, would you have said I would become a manager? No. I think a lot of people would say I was an ugly player. I was a bruiser, yes. I was ugly. I was a big, strong, powerful centre-forward – that description fitted.
Falling into management happened by fluke. I was just in the right place at the right time. I was still young, I was learning my trade, but you learn from each experience you have, and you take it on to your next role. Every time I’ve progressed, I’ve learned something about myself and I think where that became evident was at Westfield, where I went in at the bottom and we came up.
I played numerous teams from Step 5 all the way up to National League in that period and a lot of people complimented my footballing style, how we played and my ethics. I get embarrassed and reserved about it when people do that – I’d rather somebody be horrible about me in a way because I’ll stand up to that! If you’re going to be complimentary to me, I’m quite shy with it. I’m quite a humble guy and I think I have to work harder than anybody else because I put a lot of pressure on myself.
It all drives you on, though, presumably…
It drives me on, because I want more. I’m like a player in the sense that I like to wear my heart on my sleeve. This is my next project, my next venture. I’m here for the long haul, and I’m already putting pressure on myself. I know where I want to be, what I want to do and it’s whether the players can do it now. I’m quite confident, but listen, time will tell.
Tony, welcome to Corinthian-Casuals. How does it feel to be appointed manager of this historic club?
Words can’t explain, actually. Being at Step 3 is where I wanted to be, so I’m relishing the new challenge. I haven’t slept since it was confirmed yesterday – even though I’m a Liverpool fan and they obviously lost the Champions League final – because I’ve been on Cloud 10. I woke up extra early this morning, immediately started thinking about my plans and what I’m going to be doing. So, yeah… it’s back to work for me!
What attracted you to this club?
The history. I used to play here when I was a youngster, so I know the history of the club inside-out. I came here in the youth team, then I shot straight up into the reserves and in the end I managed to get a couple of games of first-team football.
I was a left-winger back then – that was before I was even a striker, that’s how young I was. I remember the striker in those days was Westy [Cliff West], and he was an absolute beast up front!
When you’re young, you’re quite naive to men’s football so I didn’t really interact with anybody. I just used to come and train, play football, do what was required. I remember leaving to go to another club, but I came back here on loan later and I had a good start – I scored a few goals.
Then, more recently, I’ve come to watch a few games here when I wasn’t in a job, just to watch the football, and I’ve always liked the atmosphere, the crowd, the fans. It ticked all the boxes for me.
So it was a case of being affiliated to the club, coming back here and having good memories. During my interview for the job, they said it was a family club and I love it when people say that. It’s not about themselves, or a business. When you mention a family club it’s quite sentimental and that attracted me as well.
Tell us more about your background in non-league. You’ve got vast experience as both a player and a coach.
When I was a player, would you have said I would become a manager? No. I think a lot of people would say I was an ugly player. I was a bruiser, yes. I was ugly. I was a big, strong, powerful centre-forward – that description fitted.
Falling into management happened by fluke. I was just in the right place at the right time. I was still young, I was learning my trade, but you learn from each experience you have, and you take it on to your next role. Every time I’ve progressed, I’ve learned something about myself and I think where that became evident was at Westfield, where I went in at the bottom and we came up.
I played numerous teams from Step 5 all the way up to National League in that period and a lot of people complimented my footballing style, how we played and my ethics. I get embarrassed and reserved about it when people do that – I’d rather somebody be horrible about me in a way because I’ll stand up to that! If you’re going to be complimentary to me, I’m quite shy with it. I’m quite a humble guy and I think I have to work harder than anybody else because I put a lot of pressure on myself.
It all drives you on, though, presumably…
It drives me on, because I want more. I’m like a player in the sense that I like to wear my heart on my sleeve. This is my next project, my next venture. I’m here for the long haul, and I’m already putting pressure on myself. I know where I want to be, what I want to do and it’s whether the players can do it now. I’m quite confident, but listen, time will tell.
How will you approach the task of putting together a squad, in terms of working with the people who are already here and bringing people in?
The player side of things, I think, is relatively easy. Of the squad that’s here, and that I hope to inherit, I hope that some will stay. I know there have been a few rumours and people are always going to be a little bit apprehensive about it, but I will assure everybody that they will get the opportunity. I will work with them, I will raise their game by 10-15 per cent. They probably won’t like my training regime, especially with fitness!
Why’s that?
[Grinning] I’m hardcore when it comes to fitness. I’m so hot on fitness. It’s one of my strongest points – I like a fit team, because the way we play is quite high-intensity. Everybody can play football but what they forget is that it’s about their fitness as well. We’ve all done it as a young kid, we get a football, we’ve kicked it against a wall, learned our trade, how to do stepovers, Cruyff turns, et cetera. But one thing they don’t teach you is your fitness, how to control it and how to manage it.
If a player doesn’t do a full pre-season, you will find that he will break down at some stage during the season. So to prevent that I like to build their strength and their physical conditioning up, so they can try and last a full season. The only way they will have something will be a tackle, or a strain, or a pull, which is to be expected, but that’s the emphasis I put on the player and what is required of him physically as well.
There were some parallels between what you experienced at Westfield and what we’ve experienced here over the last few years under James Bracken’s management. You took over a team in the bottom half of the table, got them up the table, achieved promotion and then stabilised at the next level up. In that sense, you’re walking into a club that’s experiencing something you’ve previously been a part of.
Yeah, so it just matches right. You’ve got to give credit to James for what he’s done here, and each time a rumour mill has got going when there was job at hand, me and James have always been mentioned in the same bracket. We’re different personalities, of course, but I think we’ve both got the same mentality about where we want to be in football. We’re winners. I’m a winner, a serial winner at that, and that’s what I will bring to the club.
How are you going to tackle the challenge of managing an amateur team in a competitive semi-professional league?
[Laughs] It’s going to be second nature. It’s going to be no different to the other clubs I’ve managed – all it’s going to be is a different calibre of players, better players.
It’s easier to attract players to Step 3 than it is to Step 4 or Step 5, for the simple fact that they want to excel themselves, whether it’s reaching the National South, the National League, or pro football. This is a better standard of starting point for them, so…hey, let’s see the rollercoaster!
So the league we’re in, coupled with the club’s identity, is enough of a pull?
Oh massively. I was only appointed yesterday and I’ve already had phone calls saying, “I want to stay,” or, “I want to come back.” Or, “Oh, you’ve got the job – congratulations!”
Automatically, there’s a pulling power straight away here. Would I have got this at Step 4 or Step 5? No disrespect, but I don’t think I would.
The lower you go down… you’ve got to have money to attract bigger players, but when you’re at a good standard like this you don’t have to have the financial resources because you’re there already. I think that’s the pulling power, and with the history that Corinthian-Casuals has, it just makes a bit easier for me.
You’ve mentioned that the atmosphere here was part of the attraction for you. What’s your message for our supporters?
I know for a lot of fans it’s going to be the unknown, with a new manager coming in, and I can only talk so much about what I’ve done before. The past is the past, it’s what I do now that matters, and how I go forward with it. I’ll let the football do the talking and I will win them over, without a doubt. With the football that I will bring to the club, we will create something really good.
[Gesturing to the board behind him, depicting the fans as the ‘12th Man’] I hope they will be our 13th man because I’m going to be the 12th man! I want the fans to stick by us because we’re going to have our ups and downs, it is football. I’m not going to say that we’re going to win every single game, because it doesn’t happen like that, but I’m not going to lose many.
