I lost my career and now I can’t even go for a run
As he looks to shock Swansea former Fergie f ledgling Michael Appleton on the injury that still drives him in management and rebuilding his reputation at Oxford
IT happened more than 14 years ago, the incident that still scars Michael Appleton, still drives him, still gnaws at him, still makes him hungry to be a success, still gives him the determination to realise the dreams torn away from him as a player.
It happened in November 2001. It threw his life into a spin — but it has done him one favour. After the series of vicious curveballs his early years in management threw him, what happened at the West Brom training ground on the northern outskirts of Birmingham has given him the strength and resilience to rise again.
Football has kicked him hard several times as a player and as a boss. He is still only 40 but, one way or another, it would have finished other men.
It got close with Appleton too. If he had failed at Oxford United, who have been revitalised by his management and play Swansea in an FA Cup third-round tie today, his dreams of being a leading boss would have been over. If he had not learned how to overcome despair, maybe he would have crumbled.
Appleton was a good trainer as a player. A conscientious man. A model pro. Born in Salford and part of the Manchester United youth team that followed the Class of 92, he was working his way back to the top after making a few appearances for United under Alex Ferguson and then being sold to Preston.
He refused to be written off as football flotsam. He excelled at Preston, then joined West Brom. He established himself as a force in their midfield and, when they were about to be promoted back to the Premier League, he was attracting attention from bigger clubs.
In a training game in late 2001, he stole the ball from his team-mate, Des Lyttle, with whom he had shared a lift into the training ground that morning. Appleton was too quick. Lyttle caught him and Appleton’s knee hyper-extended. ‘I felt something pop,’ he says.
He had torn his posterior cruciate ligament. His surgeon, Medhat Mohamed El-Safty, decided incorrectly that he needed an operation. Appleton worked and worked to recover from it but he never could. He retired at 27. He sued El-Safty and won £1.5million. Ferguson testified in court on his behalf.
He sank into what may have been depression for a time but gradually he recovered. Soon, he had built himself a reputation at West Brom as an outstanding young coach. A free thinker. An innovator. A man-manager. Someone who improved every player he worked with. Roy Hodgson, then West Brom manager, and current FA technical director Dan Ashworth were among those who were impressed.
HE awaited a management opportunity and chose Portsmouth. He was excited by the five-year plan of the Russian owners. But the job turned into a nightmare. The owners were not what they seemed. Portsmouth sank into administration.
Appleton emerged with plenty of credit from that farrago, winning plaudits for what he achieved under such difficult circumstances and working with dignity and class. Then he jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. Twice.
He was drawn to clubs labelled ‘Do Not Touch With A Barge Pole’. He went to Blackpool and stayed for 65 days. Then he left for Blackburn Rovers and the chaotic embrace of the Venkys and was sacked after 67 days. He had three jobs in 15 months.
‘Getting a double administration in your first job was a little bit difficult to take,’ he says. ‘I have made a couple of poor choices in my management career but I have been very unlucky as well.’
However you chose to read it, the man who had been tipped as one of the talents of a new managerial generation was staring at the scrapheap. And so the cycle began again. He was in trouble. He was down. Just like he had been when he was sold by United. Just like he had been when that tackle popped his knee and that surgeon ended his career. But as before, Appleton stared down adversity and, in the summer of 2014, he took over at Oxford and started the climb back up.
Now, he nods when it is suggested some of the best managers are driven by slights or misfortunes suffered as players. ‘There’s definitely a frustration,’ he says. ‘Initially, when I retired, there was anger. I felt I had lost 10 years of my career and, at the point it ended, it was looking up.
‘What drives me is the frustration of the aftermath. Not only do you lose your career but the reality is now I can’t run, I can’t do anything weight-bearing on my knee, I can’t join in five-a-sides, anything like that. It not only cost me 10 years of my career but, without getting too heavy, from a life point of view, I can’t get up in the morning and go for a run and clear my head for an hour. I have to go on a machine with soft impact in a gym for that to happen. I’d be in agony if I went out on the street.
‘There is a frustration that drives me to do well in management. The years I was playing full-time, I was always with successful sides. I was used to being in the play-offs every year and getting promotions. That drives me. I want that feeling again as a manager.’
Appleton took over at Oxford 15 months after he was fired by Blackburn and brought a new, attractive, passing style to a crowd that had become used to the long-ball tactics of previous long-term boss Chris Wilder. Results took time and some fans grew impatient but he has always enjoyed the unequivocal backing of Oxford chairman Darryl Eales and now the club lie third in League Two and fans are starting to dream of the glory days of John Aldridge, Trevor Hebberd and Ray Houghton 30 years ago.
‘When I got here, there weren’t enough winners in the building,’ says Appleton. ‘We played Cambridge last year in front of the Sky cameras and we lost 5-1. After the game, I asked the players a question. I said: “How many people in this dressing room have been relegated?”. There were only two people who didn’t put their hand up. It was a scary moment. I did a study for my Pro Licence a long time ago and it
was around players coming through. You tend to find the best players, who can sustain a career at the top level, are used to winning. They have been in successful sides previous to getting in the first team. Whether that be youth team or reserve teams, they are used to that feeling of winning.
‘It becomes psychological and they want it and they crave it. That’s an easy way of finding characters
Appleton talks a lot about the culture he has introduced. He has just finished a recruitment meeting with his assistant Derek Fazackerley and the club’s full-time video analyst Dan Bond. There is also a head of football logistics, Jonty
Castle, and a sports science department. Appleton is keen to instil more independence in his players too. He wants to try to rid them of the fear of responsibility that is the Achilles’ heel of so many British players. There is a leadership group of four players and he encourages them to conduct match analysis on the Mondays after games.
‘It’s one thing them having a view and an opinion but with a view and an opinion comes accountability,’ says Appleton. ‘So we said, “We are quite happy to hear your voice and see what you think but, when it goes wrong or it doesn’t quite happen, you have got to be big enough and bold enough to take it on the chin”.
‘If there’s a decision that has to be made and there are discussions and it’s getting a little bit fluffy, I step in and deal with it. I will have the final say on everything but they will have an opinion. When they first did it, they came up with some stuff that was too basic. But now it has got into more of a discussion and a debate. They might have been saying “We’re hitting it long too much”. Right, OK, why are we hitting it long, what’s happening before that? What’s making us hit it long? It has improved a lot.’
His own ambitions are soaring again too. He is studying for a masters degree in sport directorship at Manchester Metropolitan University. Former England cricketer Ashley Giles is on the same course.
People are starting to remember that Appleton was once said to be destined for great things. Interest from other clubs has been rekindled but he knows the value of what he has at Oxford. ‘I have learned in a very big way that the grass isn’t always greener,’ he says. ‘I like to think we have started something here and that, as long as we are backed and given a fighting chance, we can go on and achieve something over the next two or three years.
‘I am enjoying the opportunity I’ve been given here. We have a chairman who believes in me and the style of football I want to play and the culture I want to bring to the football club.’
Some may think he has ideas above his station. This is League Two, after all. Isn’t it supposed to be spit and sawdust down here? No room for airs and graces and analysts and psychologists and masters degrees in sports directorship?
Appleton smiles. ‘The easiest way to put it is that we may not be a Premier League or a Championship side but there is no way we will allow people to stop us acting like one,’ he says.
Appleton got lost for a while but it is good to have him back.