Alex Clapham was set for a job as an assistant supervisor at a Championship membership when Borussia Dortmund got here calling. He knew he needed to drop every little thing. “The first call was to my missus to tell her it was Germany rather than England,” he tells Sky Sports activities.
Fortunately, she loved the expertise and he discovered lots from his 18 months because the set-piece coach for the membership with the most important attendances in Europe. “It was crazy working at that level,” says the 37-year-old Englishman. “And it was not always easy.”
Clapham was there for what he calls a “six turbulent months” below Nuri Sahin. There was a Champions League recreation towards Actual Madrid the place they went two up and misplaced 5-2. “An atmosphere I have never lived before. The best I have seen outside Dortmund.”
Clapham pictured throughout his time as a coach at Borussia Dortmund
There have been video games residence and away to Barcelona, the rivalry with Bayern Munich. However for Clapham it’s all a part of a journey that has taken him to Getafe in Spain, Vasco da Gama in Brazil and Genoa in Italy. He’s now eyeing the subsequent journey – wherever on the planet.
How has this occurred to a younger man with no skilled taking part in background? It stems from a choice made to pursue a profession in teaching at 23. A transfer that took him overseas partly as a consequence of his obsession with Spanish soccer and partly by necessity.
“I was playing on muddy pitches in northern England and not enjoying it so I wanted to coach but I could not get on the courses in England. I almost gave up,” he explains. “I ended up doing all my coaching badges in Spain. It was an expensive sacrifice.” However it has definitely paid off.
“I remember a coach from Levante putting on a session, the detail around adjusting the players’ body shapes, and having to do all that in a second language, you can imagine. The methodology in Spain, the emphasis on psychology, it was completely different.”
He discovered Spanish in Barcelona and was working full-time instructing English earlier than leaping on the metro to take coaching periods. Finally, having saved doing his badges within the Spanish system, he turned Getafe’s U19 coach on the age of simply 30.
Regardless of having been impressed by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and the work of Marcelo Bielsa in Bilbao, Jose Bordalas’ strong Getafe outfit proved influential in one other respect. “What they did was stay solid, be compact, and then win off a set-piece.”
Clapham would watch the primary group practice on the pitch subsequent door. “I would stick around and typically they would be doing set-pieces. I took so much from what he did and what his staff did there.” He used these concepts in his subsequent job as a head coach in Sweden.
Brazil and past
“It just snowballed from there.” In Sweden, he crossed paths with Ian Burchnall and adopted him to Notts County as a set-piece coach. From there, he moved to Southampton earlier than changing into a sort of globetrotting set-piece troubleshooter for 777 Companions golf equipment.
He was at Vasco in 2022, teaching in Spanish. “Living in Rio de Janeiro was one of the most amazing experiences. The players were so open to ideas.” The top coach was Jorginho, a Brazilian World Cup winner in 1994. “He just gave me the freedom to work.”
Clapham was solely there briefly however performed a small half within the membership profitable promotion again to the highest division. “We scored five set-pieces in my seven games there.” He nonetheless recollects the understated response to the promotion. “I thought we’d celebrate,” he says.
“We flew back to Rio and everyone just went their separate ways at the airport. Unfortunately, you cannot celebrate finishing fourth [in the second tier] at Vasco. That was an eye opener and I really realised this was one of the biggest clubs in Brazil.”
Straight from there, Genoa’s sporting director Johannes Spors, now at Southampton, stated they wanted some assist. Clapham performed a task of their promotion too. The following season it was extra of the identical. “I was just going around different clubs,” he explains.
“They all had different cultures, different ideas, structures and mentalities. Sometimes you would be at a club one week, go away and then when you came back three weeks later, they had lost a couple of games and there was a completely different atmosphere.
“That taught me rather a lot about dynamics. Customary Liege had crushed Anderlecht however after I got here again it was all doom and gloom by that time. The coach was below strain and the employees had been nervous. It was a lesson in managing employees, teaching the coaches.”
Clapham takes the lead for Borussia Dortmund throughout a coaching session
Typically these teaching classes even come from the gamers. It’s simply one more reason why his time at Dortmund was such an schooling. When you find yourself working with the most effective defenders on the planet in Nico Schlotterbeck, it is advisable be as much as it.
“A lot of the players now have their own personal analysts, so they would be the ones coming to me with ideas. ‘What do you think about this? This opponent leaves that space. Can we get a block in there or should we screen there? Can we hurt them here?’
“You study extra from these gamers than the opposite manner round. They’re the academics. Pascal Gross, for instance, he’s going to be a coach on the prime stage. He has spent a lot time with Roberto De Zerbi. There have been three or 4 who would decide your mind.”
Learning from players
Clapham particularly enjoyed the relationship with Dortmund’s flying winger Karim Adeyemi, even if it tested him in other ways. “He’s an unimaginable man. What a personality,” he adds.
“As a coach, he most likely taught me greater than anyone as a result of I needed to work with him differently. It most likely took me till Christmas of the primary season to grasp that.
“Players will be fully engaged but do not want to express their feelings because there are bigger characters in the room. Maybe you have a coffee or speak to them when they are putting their boots on before they go out. It is the little chats, sometimes.”
Clapham throughout his time at Borussia Dortmund with participant Karim Adeyemi
Possibly the truth that Clapham enjoys these features of the job stems from his time as a instructor. “I probably took more from that than I imagined,” he admits. And it additionally would possibly clarify why he sees a future past being a set-piece coach. His pursuits are broader.
Clapham recollects in-depth tactical conversations with Joao Tralhao, then Dortmund’s assistant, now Jose Mourinho’s quantity two at Benfica, during which the Portuguese would ask why he was solely a set-piece coach. He has spent the previous months on research visits.
He went to Como to see Cesc Fabregas’ setup and admires Elche boss Eder Sarabia. “He is a future Barcelona head coach.” There are mentions too for Kim Hellberg at Middlesbrough and Kieran McKenna at Ipswich. “I am always looking for more detail.”
The function of assistant supervisor looks like the subsequent step, he insists as we chat over a espresso in Madrid. “As a manager, you might not want to be too close to the players. An assistant needs to be close to them. That is where I want to be for the next five years,” he explains.
The place that will likely be is unclear as a result of the world has opened up for him. However as reference factors from Sarabia to McKenna recommend, he nonetheless has one foot in Spain and one other in England. If Clapham does return residence, he does so with experiences few can match.
