Burkinshaw: I can't wait to get involved

14 April 2012

On the scale of football surprises, Adrian Boothroyd's appointment as the new Watford manager ranks a near perfect 10.

Yet his decision to begin his first managerial venture with Keith Burkinshaw as his right-hand man is even more of a shock.

While Boothroyd is a household name only in his own household, 68-year-old Burkinshaw had fallen so far off the footballing map that, despite his experience, any supporter below a certain age wouldn't know him. Yet suddenly the former Tottenham manager has been catapulted into the public consciousness.

How does he feel? "Excited, genuinely excited," said Burkinshaw. "I love to be involved with football on a daily basis. That is what I have missed most, that more than the matches themselves. I'm really looking forward to getting out there."

He explains why, beyond the age of retirement, he would prefer the daily grind of the training ground to pruning the roses at his home in the Hertfordshire village of Tewin.

"You are as old as you feel and I don't feel that old. I feel 35," he said. "With the experience I've got that I can play a part at Watford and turn things around. It's a challenge. I watch a lot of football. If you have Sky, you can watch six or seven games a week, from Spain, Italy, everywhere. I sit in one side of the house watching sport and the wife sits in the other."

Burkinshaw is fondly remembered by Spurs fans for his eight-year spell at White Hart Lane, which brought two FA Cups and one UEFA Cup to the club before left in 1984.

Spells with the Bahrain national team and Sporting Lisbon followed before he returned to England with West Bromich Albion, first as assistant to Ossie Ardiles and then manager.

On leaving The Hawthorns, he became a consultant for the English league management committee, from where he joined Aberdeen as director of football and then caretaker manager.

Burkinshaw ended his four-year association at Pittodrie in 2001 and has since combined semi-retirement with a scouting spell at Stoke, assessing referees in his role as a Premier League delegate and mentoring young coaches at management courses.

It was at one such course at Warwick

University that Burkinshaw first encountered 34-year-old Boothroyd three years ago. He was impressed by the ambitious young coach.

"I always thought he was a bright lad," Burkinshaw said. "He spoke about the game very well and his ideas were very different. He didn't go along with the trend. For instance, in the last two seasons a lot of teams have gone with five in midfield and one up front - it's amazing how many have copied that. He will buck the trend.

"I think he will be a top manager because of the way he thinks about the game and the way he can man manage people. As a manager, you have to persuade people to listen to you. Without that, you are nowhere. He has that something about him, people will always listen to him."

Boothroyd promised Burkinshaw that he would make him his No2 were he ever to become a manager and has kept his word.

Burkinshaw sees his role at Vicarage Road as an adviser. "I will be out there on the training field keeping an eye on things," he said. "I will have an input on what is going on and when the going gets tough, I will be there to help him."

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