PW interview

[Bombadel]

The “Lower league look” have done a PW interview. Pete Wild joins Liam and Grant to discuss his unconventional route into football, his career to date and his future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PnAUPVTu9I

[ossickbluebird]

Very interesting stuff, Peter's journey into football from mechanic to tree surgeon to pub manager to football manager!! What comes across for me is his enjoyment of hard work in whatever he's doing. One thing I think is certain is he will leave the club in a better place than he joined it. Impressive guy.

[saltcellar]

Great interview this.
Very long though 1hour 40 minutes.
He manages his sons under 8 team on a Sunday morning.

[Theythinkitsallover]

Interviewers Saturday job....
the face behind the Bradford Chicken!! lol

[saltcellar]

During his interview, Pete talks about this part of his life which I found interesting.

Pete Wild's three years in charge of the England amputee football team took him on a journey he will never forget.
The Barrow boss took the team to two World Cups, finishing fifth in Russia in 2012 - "we should have done better but lost out to a dubious penalty" - and then Mexico in 2014 - "we didn't live up to our expectations" - when they finished 10th.

But that's only part of the story.

It all started with an invitation from Wild's friend and England manager at the time, Adam Temple.

"He asked me if I fancied going to Dubai for six days to do a bit of coaching just before Christmas 2011 - dead right I will!

"Then he phoned me around February 2012 to say he'd resigned but that he'd put my name forward for the job.

"I did a lot of disability coaching when I was younger for the FA and various people, but I got on well with the amputee lads, and ended up moving into that and loved it.

"We went to 15 countries, two World Cups, three or four tournament wins along the way. I loved it, it was great.

"It taught me about dealing with players away from home, dealing with squads, dealing with adults with a range of needs, and looking after staff.

"I was only late 20's but it taught me a lot about life."
Wild, like his players, was not paid, with the team raising funds through donations and sponsorships.

"We had to beg, steal and borrow to get facilities, drive up and down the country because lads had to pay their own petrol to come to training weekends, so we'd try to make them as central as possible," said Wild. "So we'd have one in the north and one in the south, try and get venues for free.

"They didn't have a full-time training model so we had to rely on them doing their own work, and some did it and some didn't.

"They all pay to travel, they have to raise their own money, but you come up against teams like Turkey, who get paid about 10,000 Euros.

"Considering where we are as a charity, we've punched well above our weight.

"In 2006 the FA dropped the amputee team and weren't funding them anymore, generally because they're not a paralympic sport and the world governing body of amputee football is shocking.

"So we went on our own, we set-up our own charity and completely detached from the FA.

"In my final years, because I worked for the FA, I brought them closer together, but I believe they've just turned down the FA's offer of coming back under the FA banner.

"When you've got so much autonomy and you run things your own way, to go back under an organisation that want to do it their way, the grass isn't always greener."

Wild's first tournament in charge was the Club World Championship in May 2012, in which they lost 5-0 in the final to Russia, who had also beaten them twice in the International Wheelchair & Amputee Sports Federation World Games 2011 in Dubai for which Wild had accepted the invitation.

Also in 2012 there were tournaments in England, Poland and Russia, before a return there for that year's World Cup.

The following year saw competitions in Ireland and Poland and in 2015, another tournament in Poland before the World Cup in Mexico.

"We were in Culiacán, which is the sixth most dangerous place in the world," Wild recalled. "There were armed guards wherever you went, 16 days of looking after 18 players and staff thinking 'oh my god, we could all get kidnapped at any point'."

Players would become part of the team through a range of circumstances, says Wild.

"It was generally through illness or injury. We had a lad called Jamie Tregaskiss who was in Manchester City's academy, he fell in the school playground, got a cyst on his knee that turned cancerous and had to have his leg amputated.

"You learn about all these great people. I'd love to get them to training at Halifax one day and do some five-a-sides with them, hopefully we can at some point.

"It'd be great for our lads to show them what life is really like."

Wild left the role in January 2015, but retains a huge fondness for the team and his time in charge.

"I had to give it up because I went to Oldham full-time, but it taught me a lot about people, how to deal with people, manage people. A really good experience.

"I met some unbelievable people who I still speak to today and people I still have a fondness for.

"I keep my eye on what goes on. I don't get to training or games as much as I'd like to but what an unbelievable organisation.

"I'd like to think I helped put structures in place - there's a national league going now, there's a player base which Owen Coyle Jnr has taken on and he's flying.

"They got to the European Championship finals, they did well back in Mexico in the (2018) World Cup, and they travel to Poland next summer for the Euros."

[Jim]

Very interesting and entertaining interview. Lasts almost as long as a football match!

[SKIPPER]

Sums up exactly what we are now and what we could become. The triumvirate Wild Temple Wood might sound like a hotspot dreamt up by Wordsworth or Beatrix Potter but it is certainly a gem on the edge of the Lakes. The only problem will be that any success they have will eventually be noted further up the food chain. Hopefully when that happens we will already have achieved or better still they will reject material gain to continue our progress.

[ossickbluebird]

Pete would certainly be a special person if he did that Skipper

[behind the goals]

Really good interview about Petes career at Oldham and Halifax but really interesting hearing about how he manages us. talked about his contract and the board, but he explained how training in Manchester suits all the players who can be at home after training and about Friday in Barrow before home game on Saturday, I can remember several on here wanting the squad to train in Barrow well after listening to that interview it will never happen unless we get a full local team playing in the North West Counties League.

[Main Stand SeasonTct]

Really good interview about Petes career at Oldham and Halifax but really interesting hearing about how he manages us. talked about his contract and the board, but he explained how training in Manchester suits all the players who can be at home after training and about Friday in Barrow before home game on Saturday, I can remember several on here wanting the squad to train in Barrow well after listening to that interview it will never happen unless we get a full local team playing in the North West Counties League.

It wouldn’t surprise me if in ten years time the hybrid model we use is adopted by more clubs in the lower leagues.

[Pedro]

Firstly Peter comes over as a decdnt human being.
A keen football fan.
He is along with his staff are developing and changing our methods of succeding.
Reminds you of the few old type of Managers willing to do any task to develop his club and himself
I think back to Managers in non league Roley Howard who managed Marine till 70 and is in the Guinness Book of records as the longest serving manager while still keeping his window cleaning round on
Bill Shankly a pure football Manager who really never looked after himself career wise unlike Ferguson.

There is no limits to the journey we are on with this style and no reason why our Management Team cannot rise through the leagues with this board.
Hopefully a good run in the cup to help finances and a plum draw away to a little team like Liverpool ,Arsenal or Manchester City away and promotion this season.
Football is about dreams and while relationships come and go you cannot divorce yourself from the team you support.