by Matt Badcock
THE sunshine and paradise of Florida might not seem like the obvious place to put in foundations for a winter on the training ground of a League Two club, but for new Cambridge United manager Shaun Derry it's proved the perfect prep.
Sitting on a small two-seater in a meeting room at United's Abbey Stadium home, the 37-year-old explains how he made the most of his enforced sabbatical from the dug-out.
Sacked, harshly in the eyes of many, from his first manager's job at Notts County eight months ago, he was able to use the time to enjoy his family before swotting up on the other side of the pond at MLS side Orlando City.
Watching the likes of Brazil star Kaka up close in training has fuelled the fire to bounce back from leaving his hometown club.
“A lot of time to reflect,” he says, on his time out. “You have to draw a line under it and let it go. As soon as you are able to let it go, you're able to move forward. For the first couple of months, I wasn't bitter, there was no bitterness, I just felt they made a mistake. Simple as that.
“I stand by, and back myself, to this day that they made a mistake and now I've got another opportunity to be a manager again.
“It gave me options. The chance to be a better dad, be a better husband and spend time with my family who I care about more than anyone ever in the world. It's my family first, always has been and always will be.
“I had some great holidays, spent some valuable time with them and then at the right time I visited people and went to a different country to look at football.
“I went over to the States and watched a few teams over there. They open their doors. We have a tendency to shut ours whereas the Americans, with all the sport they have over there, incorporate different sports which I feel is really important and something we can hopefully take advantage of here at Cambridge.
“I went to Orlando City and watched some of their training. The facilities they've got, the openness of the training environment and how much they are a family as a group of men.
“They spend a lot of time with each other and trust each other, as opposed to a player coming in, training at ten o'clock in the morning and leaving at 12.
“The club make sure there is an environment there that is community based. I think we've got something similar here, I really do. There will be conversations, away from the football field, where hopefully I can help the club.”
It wasn't just football minds he was able to tap into in America.
“I also went into the IMG Academy – a sports academy in Bradenton,” he says. “I looked at the different sports they have there, the golf and the tennis.
“I had a day there at the academy which is phenomenal in terms of facilities and the people coaching there. It's so different to what we do over here. The Americans really strive for excellence.”
Striving for the best is what he will ask of his inherited players. When he took over at Notts County in November 2013, the then-League One club where he started his playing days was going only one way – League Two.
But, falling back on his old school values of hard work and sacrifice, he turned it around and the club survived the drop.
Last season started well too until they hit a rotten run of three wins in 24 and Derry was axed.
He keeps his counsel on what happened, but it's clear he's arriving at a club in a much better place than the one he turned up at on day one of work at Meadow Lane.
After nine years in Non-League football, Cambridge finally won promotion, and the FA Trophy, under head coach Richard Money in 2014. Money, often a divider of opinion, then famously guided his team to a replay against Manchester United in last season's FA Cup.
However, the club hierarchy decided to make a change as they look to keep the momentum going.
Despite sitting 18th in the table at the time of his appointment, United are just six points outside the play-offs. And Derry says he isn't planning big changes.
“In terms of can this be massively polar opposite to Notts County, I think it is,” he says. “This is a settled group of people working at the football club who are keen, hungry and want to achieve. I've been brought in by chief executive Jez George and the chairman, Dave Doggett, we've all got common ground and I think that's so important.
“I'm just one of many leaders at the football club. So I have to make sure we all get on properly because I can't do it on my own. They can't do it on their own. We all have to do it together.
“I wasn't a player who stood out on the right wing, dropped a shoulder and bent one in the top corner. I wasn't a striker who hit 35 goals. I was a team player. And that's what I'll bring to the football club. Being part of a team.”
In Michael Calvin's new book Living on the Volcano: The Secrets of Surviving as a Football Manager, Derry tells a story about his playing days at QPR.
A stickler for being on time, one day the traffic into training from Kent got the better of him.
Brazilian keeper Julio Cesar proffered the idea of getting a helicopter.
Derry jokingly asked Luke Young how much a chopper would set him back. “You can get one for £150,000,” Cesar replied, misreading the seriousness of Derry's enquiry.
“One hundred and fifty grand!” Derry says in the book. “I drove to training in a VW Golf! It was ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.”
For Derry it was a sign of the club losing its identity after all the hard work to get to the top. Derry himself had fought for every inch and success of his career – he won promotion to the Premier League twice – and it translates into the former Crystal Palace and Leeds United midfielder's management beliefs.
“Organised, enthusiastic, professional, actually make sacrifices for not just myself but for my team-mates,” he says about his approach to playing. “That's what I'm asking these players to do. I'm asking them to make sacrifices to achieve.
“To not be a Non-League player. To not be a League Two player. Think outside the box a little bit. I want us to be, not arrogant – there will be absolutely no arrogance – but that level of confidence where they believe they can go and achieve.”
His enthusiasm for the role shines through at his first Press conference, held in a brand new development built into the back of the club's main stand.
On the walls are pictures of former glories of a club looking to make the next step and keep pulling in the support of a city Derry promises to represent.
“It's so important, I need to make sure I embrace the city and hopefully the city will embrace me,” he says. “I'm very loyal towards my background, but I've lived away from Nottingham since I was 20. I've been fortunate enough to live on the south-coast, in London, Yorkshire and back in Nottingham for a short time.
“Now I've got the chance to see something very different and I can't wait. I live in London so it's commutable but I'll be spending time in Cambridge, that's for sure.
“And I'd love one day for one of my pictures to be up on the wall so they say, ‘That person developed the club and helped us grow'.”
