Keith Curle: fighting, battling, surviving

Liz Byrnes interviews former Blades player and coach, Keith Curle.

Words: Liz Byrnes

Keith Curle had a very rude awakening to life in Sheffield when he first arrived in the summer of 2000.

The 36-year-old joined up with Neil Warnock after leaving Wolves following a fine career during which he became Manchester City’s record signing and at £2.5million, the joint-costliest defender in British football.

He was called up to the England squad by Graham Taylor in 1992 and made three appearances against Denmark, Hungary and CIS, now the Russia national team.

Given Curle played for clubs who had intense local rivalries - think City/United, Wolves/West Brom, Wimbledon/Crystal Palace/everyone and Bristol Rovers/City - you may think he’d seen it all.

But he was ill-prepared for the special ‘welcome’ he was about to receive from those of an S6 persuasion when he ventured out for a drink with the manager of the Hilton Hotel, where he was staying.

Curle told The Pinch: “My first weekend in Sheffield, I’ve ended up fighting outside Kingdom nightclub.”

I’d had an evening meal, gone out for a drink and was walking down outside the club and the next thing I’ve got a group of lads calling me a piggy bastard. 

I didn’t even know – I knew there was a Steel City rivalry – but I was like ‘why is he calling me a pig? Where has all that come from?’

The next thing I know there’s a few verbals and there’s a skirmish.

Then I’m getting called into Neil Warnock’s office two days later because someone’s told one of the directors who has told Neil.

So I was like, ‘I’m not going to be lying but I’m walking down the road, some kid’s said something, I’ve said something back, he’s come across the road and it’s ended up going down an alleyway.’

I got fined a week’s wages and then about six weeks, two months later, I’ve gone in Champs and some kid’s come up to me and said ‘I owe you an apology. I’d been out that night and had a few drinks and I was a little bit out of order and so and so. I’d like to buy you a drink’.

I went ‘you can’t buy me enough drink for what it cost me so thanks but no thanks.’

The idiot.

That was my first introduction to Sheffield.

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After being appointed manager in December 1999, Warnock inherited a team in the relegation zone and a club in crisis. He steered them to 16th but needed experience and leadership on and off the pitch. Warnock tried to persuade Curle to join him while manager at Bury but the player had two years left on his contract at Wolves. But come July 2000 and Curle arrived in S2 where he would combine playing with taking his first steps into coaching.

Having played against United, Curle’s perception was of “a massive football club that had under-achieved.”

I think the year we came in it was a transitional period bringing in players like George Santos, Patrick Suffo – it was going through a rebuilding period of players coming in. 

Were there aspirations to finish in the top two or three that year? 

No, there wasn’t because Neil knew there were players going, I think quite a lot of players went and they were bringing in new ones.

All clubs go through transitional periods where they’ve taken a group of players as far as they can take them and now they need to make another step.

Among the arrivals were Carl Asaba, Peter Ndlovu and Paul Peschisolido while a number of young players were waiting in the wings in the form of Phil Jagielka, Michael Tonge and Nick Montgomery. Jagielka played in Stoke’s FA Cup win at Hartlepool last season when Curle was manager of the then League Two club.

But rewind 23 years and Curle played a significant role as Jagielka – then 18 – was starting out in the professional game. 

I gave him his debut in the reserves because I was reserve-team manager. 

He played centre midfield. I remember having conversations with him saying ‘Jags, you’ll have a career as a centre-back, you’re not quick enough to play midfield.’

Technical ability? Yes, at that level lower end of the Championship or League One, he could get away with midfield but he didn’t have the mobility or the dynamism to make it in my opinion in the Premier League as a central midfield player.

Good game understanding, good technical ability, could head the ball, was physical enough but needed to play in the right team at the right time and play at the back.

He stood out at the time, not only because of his natural ability but also because of his attitude, so too Tonge and Montgomery. Curle pointed to the influence of United’s youth team coaches, saying: “Tongey, Jags, Monty – they came with glowing references from Ron Reid and Kevin Fogg and it was one of those, they had had a very good upbringing not only on the pitch but off the field. 

“How they conducted themselves, hard work was never going to be questioned, they enjoyed playing football, they enjoyed all the aspects of the ugly side of the game but they also had ability.

“Ugly? Like running and tackling.”

Montgomery then was the master of ugly things: a phenomenal work-rate, always up for the battle, covering for others. Someone whose impact you noticed when they weren’t there and now the manager of Central Coast Mariners, winners of the A-League.

Curle said: “I think Monty probably came into it before the GPS systems... He’d be off the scales every day.” 

He loved running around, loved the physical side of it, loved training, loved gym work, the prep work going into it. 

The ugly side of the game, that was his gold star. 

You wouldn’t go and admire Nick Montgomery’s ball technique – he’s never going to get bums off seats because of a defence-splitting pass or an inch-perfect diagonal ball.

But if you want to go and see a challenge and you want to go and see somebody run somebody else off the ground and cover every single blade of grass in a bid to get the ball back, you’d have Nick Montgomery in your team.

You can’t have all Georgi Kinkladzes (ex-City teammate) who were all absolutely phenomenal players when you had possession of the ball but were a liability and you had to do extra to cover for them when us as a team didn’t have the ball.

A perfect teammate, then?

“To go and play alongside a Georgi Kinkladze - imagine if you had a combination of them, phenomenal.”

The partnership worked well, says Curle, because he loves coaching while Warnock loves managing – not only the players but also managing up – the club, the board, the chairman. So too does Warnock quickly identify players he wants to work with, those he thinks he can get more out of and those he doesn’t think he’ll have a reaction from.

You can have a conversation with Neil and he’ll know whether he can get you to buy into him.

It doesn’t mean he needs immediate trust and immediate belief, but if somebody exhibits doubt or questions him…..

Because Neil has got fundamentals and basics, if he sees someone pulling out of a challenge or out of a header, he understands it on a Friday but if he sees somebody pulling out of a challenge or pulling out of a tackle on a game day, you ain’t for Neil. 

Because he knows further down the line when he’s bringing success to that football team, he needs people that are going to win challenges – individual challenges and collective challenges – and Neil doesn’t like people that take a backward step.

It was about buying into Warnock’s vision, even during the final minutes before a game if he sensed the warm-up wasn’t quite right.

The next thing he would absolutely blast somebody about something……..and he’d jump right out and the whole changing room would go ‘fucking hell, he ain’t happy’.

By digging one person out, he could have an effect on the whole changing room. 

He’d get players up – he’d go ‘I’ve got this feeling you’re not right, you’re not right’ – he’d say right everybody on their feet, and he’d go on the count of 10 and everybody would have to do this sprint on the spot and he’d be like one, two, come on, more.

It’s fair to say Warnock isn’t everybody’s cup of tea although Curle says that means little to the Huddersfield boss. Ruffling feathers has been par for the course during a management career that has so far spanned 43 years and non-league through to the top flight.

According to Curle, Warnock was interviewed for the managerial role at a Championship club where he was asked about whether his style of play would suit the fans. To which Warnock replied: “Well, my style of play is that I like to win so maybe that wouldn’t suit you.”

He didn’t get the job.

One of Curle’s most vivid memories – and a real low point – during his time with United was the Battle of Bramall Lane.

Simon Tracey, Georges Santos and Patrick Suffo were sent off before Michael Brown and Rob Ullathorne went off injured. With only six men on the field for the Blades, the match was abandoned with West Brom leading 3-0.

Curle played golf the next day, where he bumped into Gary Megson, the Baggies boss who he knew from their Man City days greeting him with “what the hell was all that about?”

When the phone rang later on, there was a het-up Warnock on the other end, saying: “You’ll have to come round because they’re getting lip-readers in.

“What did I say to you on the touchline?”

“I don’t know,” replied Curle. “Probably something about what we were doing because we only had eight players.

“We would have carried on with six players…..it was a very quiet dressing room afterwards.”

United were fined £10,000, Suffo and Santos were each handed six-game bans, Curle was also given a two-game suspension and a fine with Warnock fined for improper conduct towards the fourth official.

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Curle left United at the end of the 2002 season before a short spell at Barnsley – where he recommended a certain Chris Morgan to Warnock – was followed by a move to Mansfield Town where he became player-manager.

He reunited with Warnock at Crystal Palace and his managerial journey so far has included spells at Carlisle, Northampton and Hartlepool. The 59-year-old – who lives “in the red part” of the city - retains links with United.

What of the upcoming Premier League season at Bramall Lane?

They need new players, they need a goalscorer and players with the right mindset because they’re going to go three, four, five matches without winning.

So are they going to go and make wholesale changes to the dynamic in that dressing room? I don’t think so. 

They’ve got good coaching staff who like to see things done the right way.

Paul Heckingbottom has done a fantastic job but Chris Wilder put down some great foundations. 

It is, says Curle, “a survival mission.”

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Liz Byrnes is a freelance journalist working across football and Olympic sports. Her work has appeared in the local, regional and national press.