Phelan: I'm The Middle Man

Assistant manager Mike Phelan talks about his work with the boss and players...

In terms of your role, how do you assist Sir Alex?
You back up a lot of things and put things in place, becoming a buffer between the players and the manager. You also become a little bit of a sounding board for the manager at times and also for the rest of the staff. We have to communicate things with each other and get the message across. We make plans and, as an assistant, you do exactly what the word says and assist in every department and, hopefully, try and make things run as smoothly as you can.

Has your role changed over the years. Do you take more training?
I think the role has developed. Years ago, the assistant manager did do a bit more on the training ground. Certainly, when I was coaching out there on the training ground I was doing a lot of work out there but now we have different people to do different things. Rene [Meuelensteen] does quite a bit of the coaching and there's myself, who is hanging around with the manager to discuss coaching, the games and individual players. My role now is being in between everything. Sometimes that can be good and sometimes it can be frustrating as you want to do a bit more if you possibly can but it's important to be a good listener if you're an assistant manager.

Has the manager mellowed at all as some of the players suggest?
He has mellowed out, definitely. What the manager has created is a good working environment for people like myself and other members of staff to do their job. I think he's still in control of everything, still has the final word on everything but now has more of an oversee of everything that's going on and makes the major decisions. That's really important.

Do you have to treat each player differently?
I think you do. The modern player has now become quite open to situations where you have to think about them first. You need to give them an ear when they need to talk to you individually. You need to tell them sometimes what they want to hear and sometimes what they don't want to hear. You've got to get the balance right there. It's easy for players to find a member of staff who they can communicate well with. They know that they're not always going to get an answer they want all the time but we have that relationship amongst the staff and players. They understand what's required when they come to see a member of staff to discuss things and what they're being told is for their benefit.

How much has football changed since you played?
The game itself has not changed. It's still about individuals, the team and results. It's about being prepared well for the games. What has changed is the way we get these things out of them and become a little bit more about the individual and collective. The individual now has far more members of staff to use to get them to the peak performance - both in terms of fitness and mentality - and being available for football matches. That has changed a lot. In my time, you were either fit or unfit. You either trained or didn't train. Nowadays, you can find you're not fit to play but you are fit to train. It's a bit of a weird one and I'm not sure how it sits with me overall. But now the process is in place to take care of players and we have to use that facility to get them out on the football field.

Mike Phelan was interviewed for MUTV's Inside Carrington programme.