Former Wolves captain Keith Curle talks about life after football once he had hung up his boots as a player.
How did you feel after retiring?
My experience will be different to most of the other players you speak to this season because I never retired from football, as I took on the job as player/manager at Mansfield, and then transitioned into being a full-time manager, so I’ve never really been out of the game for a substantial number of years. I was 39-year-old when I retired from playing having wrapped up over 800 league games, and I very quickly realised I couldn’t coach, manage and play because I was doing all three, so I got to the point where I wanted to focus on coaching.
Did it take time to adjust from being a player?
As a player, I found it easier because you’re on the battlefield and you’re in touching distance to do something about it. But as a coach and a manager, you’re more reliant on the information you’ve given players during the week and getting the messages on the pitch explicitly from the touchline. Football is a very simple game that’s made complicated by coaches and players. When you go down the divisions, the simple things seem to get discarded, although football is ultimately a very simple game.
How did you manage your time as a manager?
As a coach and a manager, your job is 24 hours a day, as you have to deal with every branch of the football club, whether that’s community, academy, first-team, directors, associate directors, chairman, owners, stakeholders and players. You are contactable 24 hours a day for all branches of the organisation, but as a player, you come in, you do your training, you’re answerable to the manager and yourself, and then you go home and prepare for the game. Your mental mindset is more about looking after yourself and making sure you’re ok within the team environment.
What did you miss most about football?
I miss there not being social media in football. When you read about some of the comments that get made towards professionals, I think it’s distasteful. I know there’s a case that you’re open to criticism because you’re in the public eye by being a professional sportsman, and I’ve never had an issue with being criticised, but now it’s a global effect that people just jump on bandwagons. There are people go along and shout all their feelings and emotions, which you can accept, but it’s the ones who haven’t even been to the game and spout stuff on social media and it grows legs.
What are the parts of football you don’t miss?
When I went into coaching and management, one of the things I stressed to players was that you’re self-employed within a team environment, so the better you do, the better you do. As a coach, it’s harder to define what a success is. If you take over at a football club that is declining and not being successful on the pitch and you don’t get the resources you need, you can be successful by staying in the division, but to the outside world, that might not look like success.
Do you still watch and follow your former clubs?
I watch and follow both Wolves and Man City. I do quite a lot of work for Man City TV, and I’ll be doing the game for them against Wolves, so I’ve been doing my homework on both teams. Wolves are always the second club that I look out for when checking the results because I spent four good years as captain with the football club.
Do you still catch up with your teammates?
I’ve done quite a few golf dos and trips with Bully, and I don’t know how he’s managed to get his handicap to what it is! It’s been difficult to keep in touch with everyone going straight from playing into management, and I’ve either been on the training ground, in the boardroom on sat in front of my laptop watching games and watching players. My time has been very much taken as you don’t get a work-life balance as a football manager.
If you could play again now, would you?
In a heartbeat, and I know I would be better for it second time around. I’d probably change from being an attack-minded player as I was as a kid and when I made my debut in the football league as a right-winger, I’d make that transition to defender earlier and I think I would have climbed the leagues quicker.
What do you hope you’re remembered for at Wolves?
It’s a difficult one because my Wolves career ultimately ended in disappointment because we should have got promoted when I was there. The team that we had under Mark McGhee and then Colin Lee should have got promotion and I think if the FA Cup semi-final we had would’ve gone to penalties we’d have won that. I had great times at the club but on a personal note, I was just gutted we didn’t give the fans that promotion that I felt we were good enough to do.
This article originally featured in Wolves' official 2023/24 matchday programme. Last season's programmes are still available to purchase online through retailers Curtis Sports.
