Looking at whole new ball game

English FA Premiership: Jon Brodkin looks at what might lie in store for Southampton players if Clive Woodward takes on a role with the first team

Without being overdramatic, Clive Woodward said recently, "I am trying to create the perfect footballer."

The former rugby union coach has been beavering away on that mission in the relative obscurity of Southampton's reserve and youth set-ups, but a grander stage could soon await. If Harry Redknapp's return to Portsmouth goes through, Woodward's role with the first team at St Mary's could expand. It would present a stern test of his skills sooner than many imagined.

There seems no chance of Woodward being made Southampton manager when he has stated he will need at least a couple of years to prepare himself. Yet the notion that he could work alongside an established coach is realistic. He has built his reputation more as a co-ordinator and extractor of world-class performance than as a hands-on coach, and Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe could want to tap into that. The club insists talk about Woodward's future is redundant until Redknapp's is sorted out.

Woodward will feel his ability to identify specialist coaches, such as vision or fitness experts, could be transferred to football, and a more direct responsibility for the Championship club's first team would hardly daunt him. Sceptics will wonder about a man who won the rugby World Cup for England just over two years ago playing a key role in Southampton's efforts to reach the Premiership, but that was far from mocked yesterday by Arsene Wenger.

"It's not the way I see it, but I don't see why it can't work," the Arsenal manager said. "If he's surrounded by football people who do the training sessions and decide how they work on a daily basis, then why not? If he chooses the right people around him he has a chance. The players respect those who make them improve.

"Rupert Lowe might see qualities in him to make him a successful manager. You should never exclude people. We live on the results and quality our teams produce. How we get there is down to everybody in a different way."

Woodward's ill-fated partnership with the skills coach Simon Clifford indicates the sort of route he has in mind and he will surely revisit his plans to use a vision coach if Redknapp departs. That has been put on hold but Woodward has described the eye as "the most important muscle in your body".

He has never questioned Southampton's fitness but has said: "You need to be fit athletes if you want to play in a certain way and I like football to be very pacey, very quick, the ball on the floor."

Woodward's attention to detail is renowned and he is forever looking for ways to find the extra "one per cent" which he feels can make the difference. His extensive work with ProZone, which he has at his flat in Southampton, underlines that. ProZone's managing director, Ged Holmes, outlined yesterday the depth of Woodward's use of the programme.

"He was asking us to do some quite specific research into various events that happen during a game and he really went into a lot of depth," Holmes said. "For example, he would look at hundreds of corners, throw-ins, set-pieces and different scenarios. You can see what had worked well and what didn't work well."

Woodward wanted to see, for example, whether there was a definite advantage in taking throw-ins quickly and asked so many questions of ProZone that they had extra work placement students to conduct the research he wanted.

"I think managers in the heat of the battle probably don't have the time to look at that in the depth he has," said Holmes. "But he wants to have the maximum amount of analysis possible to prove or disprove theories."

Woodward's involvement at Southampton has involved drawing up programmes for reserve and youth teams and he has taken a keen interest in the first team. That has included attending matches, watching training and going into the dressingroom on occasion, with Redknapp's permission. Having got his Uefa B coaching badge, he is working towards the A version.

Former Ireland rugby coach Brian Ashton (1996-98), and a backs and attack coach with England's rugby union squad from 1998-2002, recalled working with Woodward.

"Every single thing that you could possibly think of in a week leading up to a match, he would make absolutely certain that it was covered," he said.

Ashton believes Woodward would allow those around him to get on with their jobs. "When you appoint someone to do a job then he lets them do it," he said.

"His managerial strengths are outstanding, there is no doubt about it. I don't know about football but I'm convinced (his skills) can be transferred. But whether football is ready to accept them I've no idea."

Guardian Service