Tom Cleverley recalls Manchester United’s 8-2 win over Arsenal in August 2011 at Old Trafford as one of those moments when, even at the tender age of 22, he was aware that the quality of the team in which he played was something quite uncommon.
“An outrageous level of play,” he says with a smile as we discuss his new life as manager of Watford, in his office at the training ground in Hertfordshire. For all those United players, and a jubilant Old Trafford, it would have been inconceivable to imagine that less than two years later the empire left behind by Sir Alex Ferguson would be crumbling. It would take some United careers down with it, including that of young Cleverley.
Among the eight goals scored that day were three from Wayne Rooney, whom Cleverley faces as a fellow Championship manager on Friday when Watford go to Devon to play Plymouth Argyle. Another United player from that era, Michael Carrick, is in charge at Middlesbrough. Cleverley is too modest to mention it, but Watford have beaten the teams of both his fellow United alumni this season, having drawn Plymouth in the Carabao Cup.
His coaching career has grown wings since he was given the Watford job in April, first on a temporary basis and then permanently. The team are sixth in the table.
Cleverley’s playing retirement has opened a whole new vista at what is really the club of his life – Watford – where he spent eight seasons in two spells.
“That game against Arsenal [in 2011] I remember thinking that the level of play was outrageous,” he says. “I felt lucky to be part of that team, the amount of high-quality, world-class players. Everything that we hit was going into the top corner. Wayne’s a really good friend of mine, so is Michael. It is great to see them in these jobs and how passionate they are.”
Cleverley lived many different lives as a footballer. He was the United prodigy, a kid from Bradford who rose through the academy, via three loans, including at Watford, and into the first team. He was an England international, winning 13 caps in a spell from 2012 to 2013.
Then he was one of the first footballers to be vilified on social media as the post-Ferguson chaos set in. Life has been choppy at times, but now at 35 Cleverley says he has never felt more at ease with who he is and what he is doing.
“I have always said I have a certain set of characteristics that suit being the coach and manager. More than as a player. Work ethic, observation, empathy … I feel like I have a certain set of skills that suit my role now. I feel more comfortable in my own skin than I did as a player.”
That is borne out by the cheerful, considered soul who sits across the table. He retired from playing in the summer of 2023 after two promotions and two relegations with Watford and took over as coach of the Under-18s. The departure of Valerian Ishmael in April thrust him into the big job. Since then, he has gone 13 home games unbeaten, a remarkable run for a rookie coach. There have also been some away defeats in the volatile world of the Championship but Watford – without parachute payments, and having sold key players in the summer – are promotion contenders.
Cleverley estimates that apart than one season at Everton and another at Watford his playing career at six clubs in three divisions involved fighting at one end of the table or the other. Now, with the benefit of experience and as one of the youngest managers in the Football League, he can see the value of it.
“We can tag people as experienced quite a lot,” he says. “Someone like [Ryan] Giggsy who was at the same club, same demands to win trophies, high pressure and, yes, he is experienced. But he has not experienced relegation battles. I feel for my 400 games in senior football I experienced a lot of good and bad and that has made me thick-skinned going into my career.
“The league winning season [2012-2013] was the best experience. The next season was the worst. We suffered badly after Ferguson’s last season and personally I suffered badly. Then I continued that decline at Everton. Loved my time at Aston Villa, and then had seven great years at Watford. I came here as a Premier League player and I left as a Championship player. That didn’t sit right with me. I had some unfinished business with the club.”
He thrust himself into coaching qualifications – both Uefa B and A licences – and a place on the bespoke coaching course established by Gareth Southgate exclusively for former England internationals. Cleverley points out that he went through the full interview process to land the Watford Under-18s job, even though he was something of a club legend, and he saw the benefit in doing so.
“I am going through those processes of a new career,” he says. “I am trying hard to prove myself. I went through that as a young player and I am going through it again. I just feel 10 times more equipped to deal with criticism and poor results, and pressure. There were times in my career at United when that got the better of me and that has made me much stronger.”
As United went into decline, Cleverley was the one singled out by the wider English football public for criticism. Even to the extent that an online petition was launched to demand then England manager Roy Hodgson exclude him from the 2014 World Cup squad. It was the early rumbles of the avalanche of criticism that was awaiting players on social media, and Cleverley admits he found it hard.
“It’s something as a parent I wouldn’t want to see my son go through – to fulfil his dreams and get knocked down quite hard. I massively respect the players who have gone through that process [extreme social media criticism] and still come out at the top: Raheem Sterling, Harry Maguire. To play for United, the biggest club in the country, to play for England, and then for a petition to come out [trying] to get you out of the squad. That’s a pretty difficult process for a 23-year-old to go through.”
Looking back he can articulate feelings that he found difficult at the time. “They [footballers] are in privileged positions but sometimes – and I am telling you from experience – they won’t feel privileged with the pressure. I would say to my son if he wanted to be a footballer, ‘Be prepared that for every 40 or 50 bad days there will be one that makes it all worth it’.”
From his time with Ferguson he took the art of man-management. From the famous former United academy coach Paul McGuinness he learnt that the coach is always observing his players – on the pitch and away from it. “I empathise with players,” Cleverley says. “I like to process decisions and I am a good observer. There is not much I don’t see.”
However, tt was in Marco Silva, briefly his manager at Watford, that he saw the art of coaching. “The best tactically,” Cleverley says, “and the best coach.” He says Silva was capable of setting up a team so that “every decision made such sense to us as players”. “I went out every game knowing exactly what he wanted from me. He was clear and thorough with his message.” Watford played Fulham in pre-season. “We got a good serving,” smiles Cleverley.
He has set-up Watford with a back three, although he is not wedded to any single system. Having assessed the talent at his disposal he felt it suited the squad best. It has certainly lit the fire of two of Watford’s best creative talents, Georgia midfielder Giorgi Chakvetadze, and the German-born, London-raised, Ghanaian-heritage attacker, Kwadwo Baah.
“It’s a funny game trying to get promoted out of the Championship,” Cleverley says. “It’s such a hard thing to do and you use a certain set of skills. Then that completely has to change when you get promoted. You have to be adaptable.”
Certainly the 21-year-old Baah has attracted a lot of interest, and we reminisce about a moment when Cleverley was a similar age and making an early impression on the England team. Hodgson said at the time that Cleverley could be England’s Cesc Fabregas, which was meant as a compliment but became something of a millstone for the player himself.
“I think my dad has still got the picture outside the newsagents [with the headline] ‘Cleverley: the next Fabregas’,” he says with a grin. “It didn’t pan out too well! I will always be careful with that. On a smaller scale, players here get built up and knocked down. We have Kwadwo, from whom everyone is expecting big things every game. He is only a young player … he is doing fantastically well. His attitude is top. But I have to keep a lid on fan and board expectations. He is on the right track and I will always be patient, because I went through that process myself.”
For all that calm, one also senses a burning ambition in Cleverley. He points out that he had great success at the start of his career but that stopped very suddenly, and all his hopes of playing in the Champions League and more Premier League titles went with it. In his management career he sees the chance to start anew.
“One of the things growing up in the academy at United was that success was just so normal,” he says. “Being brutally honest, the dressing room at Sunderland when we lost it [the Premier League title in 2012 on goal difference to Manchester City], the pain wasn’t too bad. Because you always thought that the trophies were going to come at United.
“So when we won again in 2013 it was great and you just naturally felt you are going to back it up with [more] trophies. I did not think I was going to be sitting here 11 years later and they [United] are struggling even to challenge for one, never mind win one. It’s a difficult period, but the good times are ahead of them.”
In his new life there are long hours after the players have gone home when he is planning training or recruitment strategy and dealing with staff issues. As dusk rolls in at the training ground there are ever more knocks on the door and demands on his time. I venture that, like many of his 2010s peers, he has earned enough money to spend his life doing something more relaxing.
“Some can finish and get in the studio or on the golf course,” he says. “Not for me. I have to be in it. Smell that grass every day and hear the sound of the ball in the net. Hear the crowd from pitch level. It’s something I want to be in for as long as possible.”
