Cowley on life after Portsmouth, learning from De Zerbi and the EFL's new trend
Danny Cowley has only been out the dugout for 10 months, but the landscape of the Football League has drastically changed during his absence.
Cowley, 45, and his brother, Nicky, parted company with Portsmouth back in January after an all-consuming two-year stint at Fratton Park failed to yield a return to the Championship.
Since then, Pompey, like numerous other clubs in the EFL, are riding the crest of a wave after turning to an untested head coach in John Mousinho. More and more fledgling first-time coaches are being given an opportunity to make their mark ahead of those - like Cowley - who boast an established body of work. And while that means vying with a whole new pool of personnel for roles going forward, Cowley only sees positives.
"I look at football and I think it's great the way the game is going," Cowley tells Mirror Football. "The modern game is such a tactical one: not only are you trying to outwork and outfight opponents, now you're trying to outthink and outwit them.
"You're seeing a lot of clubs adopting that model of a director of football which then enables a head coach to focus on the work on the grass and improving the team.
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"You look at the younger ones coming in but then you've also got the likes of Ange Postecoglou; look at what he's doing at Spurs with that group at Premier League level. The way he's stripped it back, the way he communicates and his language is fantastic.
"It just shows you that there are many different ways of having success. He very much is probably a little bit more old school; a little bit more around man-management and forging that connection with the player. Mine and Nicky's ambition is to live somewhere in the middle: a modern way of working with the old school values."
Cowley's spell out of the game has given him and his brother, Nicky, the rare opportunity to plough time into their own development rather than focusing on others. He looks and sounds refreshed as we delve deeper into how he's used his time.
Cowley and his brother, Nicky, left Portsmouth back in January (Robin Jones)The break has, most notably, given him the opportunity to visit and study other coaches, including Brighton's Roberto De Zerbi, whose principles have left a lasting impression. Cowley adds: "He's pretty much reinventing the game at Brighton. Some of his ideas are just incredible. We're always trying to tweak our ideas and our ways to find a better way of working.
"We talk a lot about philosophies now - I'm never quite sure that football is that complicated. If you look at the likes of Johann Cruyff, Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and in more recent times somebody like De Zerbi, they all have their own philosophies that they've created. They're geniuses at work and it's always a pleasure to be able to watch them; I think with the rest of us, there's probably a bit of imitation. That's okay as well."
The opportunity to reflect and evolve their own ideology is something which Cowley hopes will stand him and Nicky in good stead when they do return to the dugout.
While their stint at Portsmouth didn't result in promotion, he still views the experience as a positive one. He and he and his family are still based in Hampshire. Nicky's son still plays for Portsmouth's academy while Cowley's own daughter, Isabella, is now on the books at Chelsea and recently made her England debut at the UEFA development tournament.
Cowley's stock was sky-high after a successful stint with Lincoln City (Chris Vaughan/CameraSport)He describes that moment as the pinnacle of his family's involvement with football; a run which stretches back to his own grassroots days, where his father would coach his and Nicky's old teams. His mother would take on all manner of jobs from washing kits to cutting up half-time oranges.
The tables have turned now, somewhat. Cowley is the one driving Isabella to Cobham four times a week and he still coaches her old team, Atalanta Sports, whenever he can in a bid to give something back to a game which has been generous to him.
He adds: "When you're working in elite sport with the pressure that brings, sometimes going back to that grassroots level can be so much fun and reminds you of why you fell in love with the game in the first place.
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"I've missed football but I've cherished this time with our families. The job can be all-consuming: you're playing every Saturday, Tuesday, and Saturday, so it becomes really operational and you don't always get the opportunity to develop yourself.
"All of a sudden, you go from making however many decisions you make in a week as a head coach to waking up without any decisions to make. You go from being 100mph on that roller coaster to zero in a matter of moments, really.
"As a head coach, your ambition is always to develop those 22 players; you're just a servant to them, really. All your focus is on them and their development and you can sometimes forget your own, because at the end of the day it is the players' game.
"We've managed to have a bit of self-care, which is something I've really tried to improve because I definitely haven't done that well enough in the past. Everything works again when you take the plug out - when you reset. I think human beings are the same."
While Cowley has been reinvigorated by his period out of the game, it's apparent how badly he has missed football during his time out.
That desire to return has not been deteriorated into desperation, though. Cowley recently turned down an approach from Bradford City after much deliberation. He maintains he and his brother are content to wait for the right opportunity to present itself.
The Cowley brothers also had a brief stint in the Championship with Huddersfield Town (PA)By his own admission, Cowley knows his stock isn't as high as it was when he and Nicky left Lincoln City off the back of two promotions, a historic FA Cup run and victory in the EFL Trophy. He maintains that despite the manner of his Portsmouth exit, he is a far better manager today than he was back when he was one of the Football League's most sought-after commodities.
"I suppose for us, it's a case of hoping somebody can see that," Cowley adds. "Success doesn't always happen in a straight line.
"For me, our next step is finding somewhere with good people who have the club's very best interest at heart. The thing that I love most about football management is knowing that you wake up every morning knowing you're involved in an organisation that means so much to so many people across so many different levels.
"I know what these clubs mean to the community. Football clubs are sometimes the only place where people can go and feel really safe and part of something. It's literally religion and family. To know that you're involved with something as big as that is powerful."
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