Doing the 92 is Daniel Storey’s odyssey to every English football league club in a single season. The best way to follow his journey is by subscribing here
The last thing I ask Tom Cleverley is whether he enjoys being a manager more than he enjoyed being a player and the answer comes emphatically, almost before I’ve finished the question.
England appearances, Premier League title, promotion, Wembley cup finals; none of it quite felt the same as this.
Part of that reflects the manner in which Cleverley has taken to football management and the strengths of his character that he believes it portrays.
He likes being accountable, he likes organisation and problem-solving and he likes developing young players.
Cleverley arrived at Watford in 2017 as a central midfielder, but quickly realised that might be the start of something, not the end.
Injuries hampered his ability to make the difference he craved on the pitch; something bigger replaced it.
By the time he had retired as a player in summer 2023, he had already done his coaching qualifications.
“When I came back to Watford I was in my late 20s,” Cleverley says.
“I saw a group of young players who, without intending any disrespect to anyone, likely needed a little guidance. That really got my juices flowing because, as a senior player, I could set an example.
“That set into motion me doing my badges in my early 30s in preparation for the moment that came. Now that moment came prematurely, through injury, but I was prepared enough to step up. The club got me into an academy role and then, eight months later, I’m in the hot seat.”
But the newfound love of management also speaks of an experience as a player that was not always positive.
When he was appointed as Watford’s head coach, initially on an interim basis in March, Cleverley made a comment about lacking ambition as a player that he says has returned double now.
Watford 2-0 Plymouth Argyle (Tuesday 27 August)
- Game no: 10/92
- Miles: 105
- Cumulative miles: 1658
- Total goals seen: 30
- The one thing I won’t forget in May: The way in which Tom Cleverley and Wayne Rooney embraced in the tunnel, two former teammates desperate to make it in a different game
For a player who made 13 appearances for England’s national team, and all the tireless work that requires, it seemed a startling statement to an outsider.
“I just feel more comfortable in my own skin in this world,” Cleverley says.
“As a player, I was far less sure of myself. I think growing up in such a big club, you can get a little drowned out by the superstars. In this climate, I feel at home.
“There’s a ‘fearlessness of the beginner’ principle at play here too. You can be experienced at something, but those experiences can be negative and can leave scars that never leave you.
“Perhaps if you’d ask me again in a decade’s time I might be a little more battle-scarred and a little less fearless. I’m not so naive that I think anything else would be the case.”
It’s interesting to hear Cleverley talk of “scars”, because that’s part of the reason I’m here.
In an interview last year, several months before he took the first-team job, Cleverley spoke of being scarred by criticism from Manchester United fans when he was still a young player that got him down and stuck with him for a long while.
There was a petition from England fans for him to be dropped that got 30,000 signatures; that also really hurt.
I wonder whether those experiences might allow him to help players under his stewardship.
“100 per cent,” he says. “I feel like I can nip in the bud players going through bad form or going through a difficult time off the pitch, because I’ve been there.
“I’ve got all the coping mechanisms for that stuff in my locker. From winning the league at Manchester United to finishing seventh, from playing for Everton at a difficult time, big character tests that I hope have made me more bulletproof.
“There are obvious mechanisms: Don’t read social media. Prepare yourself so that you feel like failure is impossible.
“If your preparation is as good as it can be then performance takes care of itself. Get back to basics off the field. But staying away from social media would be top of the list.
“I have massive respect for those guys who have done it for 10, 20, 30 years and you simply can’t buy or replicate their experience. I’m not one of those young coaches who might say that it’s exclusively a young man’s game. But I’ve gone through a lot of learning through my career in football, how to deliver that knowledge is the key now.”
If his United career ended in an opportune manner, Cleverley was given a decent education for man-management.
When he got the job as Watford’s Under-18 coach, Sir Alex Ferguson got in touch to offer some advice.
But as Cleverley says, the best advice was to play under him for three years and what that taught him: squad management, respect and the connections you cannot fake.
Still, taking your first footsteps in management in Watford could be described by some as a baptism of fire. They haven’t tended to stick around here for long.
Watford have appointed a new permanent manager in each of the calendar years stretching back to 2011 and have done so more than once in five of those years. Only one of the 18 managers before Cleverley have reached 50 games in charge.
Cleverley sees it differently. The one thing Watford haven’t really tried before is promoting from within.
Cleverley has already been here for seven years, going back 12 managers. He has seen what doesn’t work and what might. He has an affinity with the club’s supporters that means they have invested emotionally in a coach in a way that they may have not done for just another name.
“It massively helps,” Cleverley says. “Firstly, being so close to the players and learning their strengths and weaknesses, their personalities, made the transition so much easier.
“But more than that is the building of the relationship with Scott [Duxbury, Watford’s chairman] and Gianluca [Nani, the sporting director].
“I know how the club works, how to expect the operations in the transfer window to work, our goal to develop young players and the demands.”
It’s a valid point. Cleverley had held two jobs here before this one. Watford embraced his route through coaching qualifications.
Some of the players he is now coaching he has studied as teammates. If you want to bring calm to a squad, what better way than with some continuity.
Furthermore, Cleverley has outperformed every expectation. He has coached this team for 14 matches in all competitions and has only lost twice and is unbeaten at Vicarage Road.
This season, despite some predictions that Watford might struggle under a novice coach and with Wesley Hoedt, Yaser Asprilla and Ismael Kone no longer around, they have won all five matches in league and cup.
“By no means am I saying that we are a promotion candidate yet,” Cleverley says.
“But in the years we have been promoted the start was massive. It creates momentum, it creates belief and it reconnects the club and the supporters together.
“We will take time to reflect during the international break, but it has been a solid start.”
Reflection is a theme here.
It is a great shame that a young man who represented his country multiple times, and made almost 250 Premier League appearances, felt that he didn’t always fit in and wasn’t able to produce his best as a result.
After that experience, it would have been easy to walk away. Instead, he’s having the best time of his career as the youngest English manager in the country. It’s impossible not to wish him well.
Daniel Storey has set himself the goal of visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season. You can follow his progress via our interactive map and find every article (so far) here
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