‘Foden, Saka the best I’ve worked with; Chhetri plays like a young man’ Premium

Aidy Boothroyd has been involved in fairytales as a manager, at Watford and with England’s youth teams. He has now thrown himself into an Indian adventure, taking the reins at Jamshedpur FC. Sharing an office with Gareth Southgate, having the life frightened out of him by Alex Ferguson and training young Indian talent — Boothroyd talks about a fascinating career

Aidy Boothroyd coached a golden generation of young English footballers. He was the manager of England’s youth teams for seven years, working with future stars such as Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden. At the youth programme, he shared an office with England manager Gareth Southgate. Before that, Boothroyd authored a remarkable turnaround story to take Watford to the Premier League from the brink of relegation in the Championship. He is now the coach of Jamshedpur FC, which reached the semifinals of the Super Cup in Kozhikode recently. Excerpts from an interview with The Hindu:

I absolutely love India. The whole point of me coming out here was an adventure. You know, I have thrown myself into it. My wife has moved over with me. I wanted to witness football on a different continent. I have played in and managed in all four leagues in England. I also did international work with England and I absolutely loved it.

Yes, seven years. It is a long time for a football manager. Some managers don’t survive seven months or seven days.

I enjoyed it very much. When we first started we knew we had a lot of work to do because England wasn’t anywhere on the map we wanted to get to — the last stages of the World Cup finals and the European championships. We managed to do that by starting with a really young team, by looking at the Spanish and the German kids and what they did to get through to the team. We became probably the strongest European power from Under-17 to Under-21. We had an unprecedented period of success.

Phil Foden will probably be the best player I’ve worked with. I could say [Bukayo] Saka, too. When I stopped and reflected, I found there were 27 players in that seven years that had come and got full caps for England.

I think it takes some players longer than others. Dominic Solanke, for example. He was a bit of a slow burner to start with. Then he got to Bournemouth, found his Premier League legs, and off he went. And now he is scoring goals.

I loved sharing the office with Gareth for five years. My job as the Under-21 coach was to produce players for Gareth to put in the first team. That weakened the Under-21 team. But that’s the job: to produce players, just like in any club. The youth-team coach’s job is to get players through to the first. I consider Gareth as a friend rather than a colleague. He is genuine. And I am not surprised by the success he has had because of the humility of the man, and the way he leads. He is a good guy. And he’s great with you guys in the media.