Anthony Barry had to submit a thesis to obtain his FA Pro license. The young coach therefore studied 16,380 throw-ins and presented his findings to his classmates, including Frank Lampard and Michael Carrick.
It was 2020 and it would prove to be a formative moment in his career. Lampard brought in Barry – then League One assistant manager Wigan Athletic – to work with him at Chelsea, and the Liverpudlian coach remained under Lampard’s successors, Thomas Tuchel and then Graham Potter.
Tuchel was so impressed that when he joined Bayern Munich he ‘bought’ Barry from Chelsea for £1 millionand put the Englishman in charge of all his set pieces. In the meantime, Barry worked as a coach under Roberto Martinez in Belgium and then with the Portugal national team, alternating between club and country roles with a laptop for each job.
So, as Tuchel was announced as England’s new manager on Wednesday, it was no surprise to see Barry named his assistant. Tuchel has at his side a trusted friend and colleague who knows English football and the FA, who has previously coached captain Harry Kane, who has worked with world class players, international teams and has already appeared in a FA Cup. world.
For Barry, it is not only the opportunity to coach his national team and perhaps deliver the long-awaited silverware, but also to work with his mentor.
“I have no shame in saying that I fell in love with him as a person,” Barry said The times last year, of his relationship with Tuchel. “He quickly became a friend and a role model. From a functional point of view, we have similar ideas. He dedicated a lot of time to helping me develop as a young coach.
“From a football point of view, he’s a genius. Working alongside Roberto and Thomas, I understand the Spanish idea of the game and the German idea and the way these guys see football, break it down, analyze it and rebuild it is an education. They talk about positional play, spaces and a lot of behavior rather than structure. It’s different from the English idea.
Barry’s playing career could be categorized as journeyman, with spells at eight clubs, mainly in League Two and the National League. He played in the same Everton youth teams as Wayne Rooney and later in the same Fleetwood Town team as Jamie Vardy.
But Barry found his calling as a manager and spent three years at Wigan before his big breakthrough at Chelsea. He was 33 when he began his professional degree, and he went to extreme lengths to feel ready to appear in front of former top players, give talks in schools and prisons, and join a speakers club to improve your speech. He got the best grades in his class.
The 38-year-old’s ultimate ambition remains to become a manager in his own right, but he is building a strong knowledge base across Europe. “My job is to immerse myself in that and develop myself, to try to become one of the most complete coaches in the world,” he said. “Where I end up, football will decide.”
Football has now decided its next step, and there are few coaching roles more important than that of England’s number 2.
“We are delighted to have hired Thomas Tuchel, one of the best coaches in the world, and Anthony Barry, one of England’s best coaches, to support him,” said FA chief executive Mark Bullingham. “Our recruitment process was very thorough. Before the Euro, we had a contingency plan and outlined exactly the qualities we were looking for in a coach.
“Thomas was very impressive and stood out for his vast expertise and dynamism. Anthony is a leading English talent and also has international experience with the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.
Four years after making that in-depth presentation on the sidelines, Barry is back at St George’s Park.
