It's only right that we put new manager Gary Brabin under the spotlight on the eve of the new season, and learn more about the man who is highly regarded at many clubs up and down the land.

Appointed as manager here on Monday 23rd June, Gary was born and bred in Liverpool and has always supported Everton, so he was naturally thrilled to kick off our home games this season against Everton in our long-awaited pre-season fixture.

Football was his first love and as soon as he left school he joined Stockport County as an apprentice in 1977. Restricted to a couple of senior appearances, he then played in non-league with Runcorn while famously supplementing his income as a nightclub bouncer in Liverpool.

"While I was at Runcorn in the Conference I represented England for the national non-league side four times and I played at Wembley twice in the FA Trophy final, so I had a good three years at Runcorn in their time in the Conference," he recalls.

From Runcorn, he returned to the Football League with Doncaster Rovers who paid £55,000 for the 23-year-old midfielder, and he had almost two successful seasons there before making a 1996 deadline day switch to Bury, who paid £140,000 for his services.

He was joining a promotion-winning side as they ascended to the first division, but that summer Gary Megson swooped to take him to Blackpool and by this time the fee was £200,000 - "My value was shooting up!" Gary smiles.

"I had two-and-a-half good years at Blackpool but Gary Megson left and in my last year there I wasn't seeing eye to eye with the manager. I had a loan spell at Lincoln and at the beginning of January (1999) I signed for Hull City who were struggling at the bottom of the league.

"They were at an all-time low when I signed (for £70,000) but we had a successful finish to the season," he says of Hull's fight against relegation. "It's referred to as 'The Great Escape' and I'm proud now when I look at Hull and see how they've gone from strength to strength since then. It was great to see them go up to the Premier League this year and it's nice that I was part of the start of the recovery when it looked like they were going out of business.

"They looked like they were getting relegated and we didn't get paid for five months at one time, so it was a really tough time. People asked me why I was signing there but I knew it was a really big club, and I think more people realise now what a big club it is."

Still hailed as a legend by Hull City fans for his part in keeping the club in the Football League, Gary's next move was to Torquay in the summer of 2001, but at the age of 30 and with a growing interest in coaching it was too far from his Liverpool base and he couldn't settle in the south-west.

After a few months he was able to make the move back north to join Chester City in January 2002, where he spent the rest of the season and became the 'Player of the Year'.

"It was a similar situation as Hull because they were bottom of the Conference and I helped to keep them up, and they've gone into better things again," Gary adds.

After more than 200 Football League games he then spent two years from 2002 to 2004 with TNS in Wales, where he made 47 Welsh Premier appearances and made an impact on the league with his experience, hard tackling and motivational abilities.

"I fancied a little go playing in Europe," he smiles. "I was lucky enough to play against Man City in the UEFA Cup at the Millennium Stadium and the new City of Manchester Stadium, and I played in the Champions League against a team from Sweden so we had a good couple of years."

Gary was also filling a role as assistant manager but his playing career ended in February 2004 when he suffered a bout of breathlessness during a match. Medical tests revealed a heart problem and he was advised to quit the game.

"I think I was doing too much at the time and I think the medical people were a bit alarmed by what they were seeing on the ECG so they advised me to retire. They said my heart muscle was obscenely big and that was a really low time for me. I was out of football for about eight months and I was at a really low ebb."

He spent time as part-time assistant manager at Witton Albion and after further check-ups and pushing for the all-clear to get back into playing football he was eventually allowed to return to action at Halifax Town at the beginning of the 2005-06 season.

"I was never on any medication and I think my condition was just something that they'd never seen before, but now they're focusing on getting young kids screened for heart checks and regularly doing things that were never done ten years earlier," says Gary.

"After that I tried to help the people involved with mitral cardiomyopathy and I was encouraging all the lads in the Welsh League to get screened, and it's paid off," he adds. "There have been a couple of people whose readings have shown something that they've been sent for further checks on, and I think people are realising the importance of getting checks.

"Football has really changed a lot since I first started playing and fitness is a big part of it. Whereas years ago you could burn the candle at both ends and go out and live the lifestyle, nowadays the demands of the professional game mean you've got to think like a footballer and be a lot more professional with your fitness and your lifestyle."

Returning to the full-time game with Halifax at the age of 33, Gary admits, "I felt like I'd been given a new life and it was a great time for me. But although I felt great my knees felt differently and I ended up having an operation and being out for five months."

He resumed playing in early 2006 with Conference side Southport and again played a big part in a relegation battle: "I think I'd got into a habit of signing for clubs when they were bottom of the league and Southport were the same - they almost needed snookers to stay up! But we stayed up and I had a good time there."

When you research back through Gary's career as a player, it is noticeable that the fans at most of the clubs he has played for regard him highly, with several bestowing the 'legend' tribute on him.

"I think I've had a good relationship with fans because fans aren't stupid and they always appreciate good players," he says, "but first and foremost they want you to give them 100% and I think I've always been one of those players who will always do that, whether it's a good or a bad game. I think people appreciate that."

After Southport, he went part-time as assistant player-manager at Burscough, where he coached and was a key member of the squad that won two cups and clinched the Unibond League title in April 2007 to secure automatic promotion to Conference North.

Two months later he returned to football full-time as assistant manager of TNS, and when another former club Southport dismissed Peter Davenport in April 2008 he was appointed manager of the Blue Square North side.

"It was a move to a full-time club in a mostly part-time league and they were underachieving," says Gary. "They were struggling and it didn't look as though they were going to make the play-offs."

He was in charge for the final seven games of last season and led Southport to five victories, clinching fourth place in the Blue Square North and qualifying for the Play-offs, but they lost out on penalties to Stalybridge Celtic in the Semi-finals.

A month and a half later came the offer to take over as manager here at Cambridge United and he reveals that he had no hesitation in accepting: "I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. I've got ambitions now to move into management - I think that was the next step for me after what I've done.

"I've played for nine or ten years, I coached at the Everton Academy for 18 months after I had to retire and I enjoyed that, I've been working for my UEFA 'A' - and I think qualifications are a bit part of football now - and I also did 18 months of a Sports Science degree.

"I was doing a lot of fitness work with clubs over the last five or six years, working at Aston Villa and Leeds and bits for League Two clubs, and I can teach and assess gym instructors up to Level 3, so as part of all that I did 18 months of a degree that I didn't finish but it was a good experience and I learned a lot from that, too."

Having played under a variety of managers at his different clubs, the U's boss believes he has probably learned more from the bad managers than the good ones.

"I've learned things off all my managers. I know my players will be analysing me like I think all players do with their managers, and I think you try to carry on the things you've believed in as a player when you become a manager," he explains.

"I've got friends who are still in the game who are managers that I speak to all the time, and they're people that I learned a lot from, but there are also managers who I wasn't keen on but I think I learned a heck of a lot from them too - but more in terms of how not to manage people. There are things I think they should have done, or not done, and I've realised the importance of that, so I think I've learned more from them.

"But I think you never stop learning," he adds. "I know we have good links here with the people at CORE here in Cambridge, who deal with conditioning and strengthening athletes and sportsmen, and we're trying to build up those links to help our players here."

Looking to his new role here at Cambridge United and the challenge ahead, Gary concludes with his aims for the future.

"When I spoke to the board here I think we were all singing from the same hymn sheet," he says. "A lot of good young players have come through Cambridge through the years and some have slipped through the club's net and I want to work more closely with the youth set-up here. We all play for the same club and wear the same jersey but there has been a divide that I want to bridge.

"I think the board were also looking for someone who hasn't been through the mill; not one of those usual managers who goes from club to club. They weren't necessarily looking for experience and I think in me they saw someone young with fresh ideas, and I'd like to think people spoke well of me and gave them good references.

"Speaking to them as a board it was refreshing to see their ambitions and I think they thought the same about me.

"I want us to get back in the League but I also want to build good solid foundations and a good structure, I want training facilities in place and I want a good side out there competing in the top six and going for promotion, and I'd love to think that I can achieve that in the two year contract that I've signed."

Andrea Thrussell
web@cambridge-united.co.uk

*An edited version of this interview was published in the programme for the pre-season match against Everton on Saturday 19th July, 2008.

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