Willy Wordsworth joined the club last summer as Chief Scout and helped to assemble this season's squad, then became Jimmy Quinn's assistant manager at the end of January following Alan Lewer's departure to Weymouth.

His football career began as a non-league footballer with Northwood, Harrow Borough and Aylesbury before he moved to Australia and spent six years playing and coaching there.

The move overseas came about through his ongoing friendship with Dave Bassett, who he had first met when doing some coaching for Wimbledon in their Southern League days.

"My left knee went and I couldn't play over here any more, but I was working at Kodak at the time and wanted to go to Australia and Dave had a contact in Perth in Australia who offered me the chance to coach over there," Willy explains.

"I ended up playing over there too because my knee made a recovery and the tempo of the game was much slower because it's so hot, and I had six fantastic years over there.

"The lifestyle was absolutely brilliant and I still own a house there," reveals Willy, who is a distant relative of his famous poetic namesake. "I'll go back to Australia if and when I can. My youngest daughter, Leanne, was born there and my other daughter lives in my house out there with my sister."

Returning to England for family reasons, Willy returned to the game with Yeading Football Club and was there from 1988 to 1993, initially as youth team coach, then reserve team coach and finally assistant manager. Along the way Yeading won a number of promotions and the FA Vase in 1990, which he remembers fondly.

"We drew at Wembley against Bridlington then won the replay 1-0 at Elland Road, but after winning the Vase and then the league, which took them up to the Ryman Premier, a lot of the players got too old and moved on and I was approached by Hayes to go there as assistant manager."

Willy was initially assistant to Clive Griffiths, a friend from when he lived in Watford, but about five months later he was replaced as manager by Terry Brown, who Willy had grown up with, and they worked together for nine years until 2002.

After three years in the Ryman Premier league they won promotion to the Conference and stayed there for six years, during which time they attracted national attention with some televised FA Cup ties and Willy first worked with Jimmy Quinn as a player.

"That's how I got to know Jimmy," he recalls. "We asked him to come and play for us and score goals and help us stay up, which he did, and then when Terry left to manage Aldershot I was asked to manage Hayes, which I did for four years and thoroughly enjoyed."

Willy also enjoyed FA Cup success during his time as manager, getting beyond the qualifying rounds to the second round of the competition, finally leaving near the end of the 2005-06 season.

"(Grays Chairman) Mickey Woodward had chased me for about a year and things were going a bit sour at Hayes. The chairman was never around, he was always in America and I was always struggling to balance the wage bill and trying to move players in and players out. Mickey asked me to go to Grays to do the academy and the commercial so I went there for a year."

At the end of last season Willy left Grays and was set to go to Australia for three months, but then came the call from Jimmy Quinn to join Cambridge United as Chief Scout and, in his own words, "I jumped at the chance."

"Obviously this is a big club and from the management point of view it looked like it was going in the right direction, and so far that's been proved right. I've only been assistant manager for four games so far but it's been an easy transition because I did a couple of training sessions with Alan or Jimmy when one of them was off ill or had other commitments.

"So I knew everybody already and we tend to have a good atmosphere, which is important at any football club. When we're training and playing games then everything is serious, but in between times we have a laugh and the bonding is absolutely fantastic; all the players get on really well and I get on really well with the players. I'm not saying it's easy and we have to keep them on their toes, but it's very enjoyable."

Having had such a direct involvement in helping to recommend and bring in new players since last summer, Willy admits he is delighted to have the opportunity to work with them on a daily basis and be involved in every game now.

"I've been involved with bringing in about half of the squad, Ben Farrell being the latest one, and he's been particularly pleasing for me because I watched him a few times before recommending him to the Gaffer. We took our time with him and he'll be a good player; he'll get better all the time.

"He's a fit lad and he's made the step up without too many problems. Every time I watched him at Bedford he was one of the fitter lads and he was all over the park, but I watched him four or five times and I've got to say he had a couple of poor games. It was worth taking our time though, because he had more good games than poor ones and when the Gaffer went to watch him he decided he would take him.

"There were a lot of teams watching him and I know Histon and Cambridge City both offered him a lot of money, but he decided to come to us for the right reasons because we're going in the right direction."

Willy also gave a fascinating insight into the process of selecting a player. Jimmy Quinn has always said that the character of a player is of major importance to him and he checks thoroughly into a player before signing him, and Willy confirmed that the scouting process isn't confined to the football pitch.

"When you've been in the game as long as I have and the Gaffer has you can tell a good player within 15-20 minutes, but how he fits into our plans and suits the way we play is the important thing. If you spot a talented player but he doesn't suit your style of play then he'll be no good to you.

"We watch a player a minimum of three times but it could be five or six games because teams can play differently away to playing at home, with different systems, so you need to see him playing in those different games.

"We'll also watch them afterwards in the bar, even though we can't talk to them directly, because it's important to see how they conduct themselves off the pitch and whether they're having a few drinks or if they just sit quietly, and we both have a lot of contacts in the game and we'll ask around about people."

Sharing his doubts that agents have a role to play at our current level of the game, Willy adds, "I don't think we should have agents operating at this level. I don't want to criticise them too much but they've messed things up with a couple of players, and although they can be important in some ways and we have to work with them, I don't really think they're necessary at our level."

As might be expected, plans are already advanced for making additions to the squad for next season and Willy confirmed, "We've targeted five or six players already for next season and the Gaffer will have to sit down with the Board and see what's available, and the other important thing is to see what league we're in as well. I know what league we're all planning for and we've targeted a certain amount of points to get us in the play-offs and a certain amount of points that will win us the league, because that's the aim.

"The supporters have been absolutely fantastic and I like to have a laugh and joke with them, and the Gaffer said when I came here 'you'll love the supporters because they support you, and when we had a blip they supported us'. The supporters have tugged us along in the tight games and no one's more appreciative of them than the Gaffer and the players and myself."

With Willy now working as assistant manager, he and Jimmy Quinn are covering the scouting between them for now. After training in the morning, that can sometimes mean watching a reserve match in the afternoon and a league game in the evening as they keep tabs on their potential targets and check out new ones.

It means a lot of travelling and some late nights before starting again the next day, but there are no complaints here: "It can be tiring and stressful but we do it because we love it, and with the ways things are going it's very satisfying to put those hours in."

He admits he is delighted with the way the season is shaping up and with United's recent return to form, and is pleased with three wins and a draw in his four games as assistant manager.

"Consistency is the key," he states. "We've had our blip and hopefully Aldershot will have theirs pretty soon, and Torquay for that matter, because we haven't given up on winning the league. We're not going over the top on it and finishing in the play-offs would be an achievement in itself, but as management we want to win it first of all and if we can't do that we want to make sure we're in the play-offs.

"The team spirit is really good, we've dealt with the injuries pretty well, and we've added players in January like Paul Carden, Lee McEvilly, Ben Farrell, Wayne Hatswell and Mark Beesley who are all good signings for us and fit straight into our system.

"I think the consistency is there for everyone to see and what we do from here is in our hands. We want to win it and we need to make sure we win our games and hope that Aldershot and Torquay will slip up at some stage."

I'm sure there aren't many people reading this who would disagree with those aims!

Andrea Thrussell
web@cambridge-united.co.uk

*An edited version of this interview was published in the programme for the match against York City on Saturday 1st March, 2008.

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