Sheffield United’s former Premier League central midfielder Nick Montgomery has some blunt advice for young players coming through A-League academies in his adopted home of Australia.
The now 38-year-old youth coach says young Australian players coming through the A-League must show more grit if they want to make it in the dog-eat-dog world of professional football in Europe.
“One thing I’ve noticed these days," the former Sheffield United favourite tells FTBL, "especially so in Australia, they don’t have the resilience that you see in other countries.
“In other countries, football’s the be-all and end-all and a way out of certain lives and lifestyles."
The now-retired Montgomery, 38, is three years into a coaching career at A-League club Central Coast Mariners Academy.
And he's impressing many with his coaching nous.
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More importantly, "Monty" knows all about resilience having come back from potentially career-ending injuries as a youth talent to go on and play a decade at Sheffield United, including in the English Premier League.
“Obviously it’s the best lifestyle in the world here in Australia," he adds.
“But if they [young players] don’t make it they don’t really have that desire that you see around the world.
“It’s not like it used to be. It was pretty old-school and ruthless when I was coming through.
“I have a lot of players I coach from U16 to U23 level, they say they want to go abroad and it’s their ambition, but I tell some of them they have to be realistic and they are miles off it at the moment.”
While Australia continues to qualify for World Cups - the Aussies qualifying for each one since 2006 - the number of Australian players in the top leagues of Europe has dwindled significantly over the last decade.
Interestingly, right now, the number of Australian coaches is on the rise.
“I say, ‘When you got to Europe as a player, there are hundreds and thousands of kids more hungry than you’,” says Montgomery, a hardman midfielder during his days with the Blades.
“You’ve got to be prepared if you go.
"It’s about making sure that when they do go to Europe - if they do go - they are at a level where they can have a chance, not just be a number that instead has a holiday after realising it’s too hard.
"No point in going if you’re not prepared for what’s coming ahead of you.
"It is a dog-eat-dog world and you’re going there to take their position."
Over 400 appearances with Sheffield United between 2000 and 2012 gives him credibility in coaching and man-management.
Montgomery moved to the A-League to play for the coastal club at the end of 2012 and went on to make 116 appearances for the yellow and blue, including winning an A-League Championship in 2013.
The Yorkshire-born Scot oversees the A-League club's youth operations and is assistant for the senior A-League team, giving Montgomery a pivotal role in the transition from youth to senior football for young Aussies.
The Sheffield great says from what he’s seen, A-League clubs need to invest in youth academies.
“Not one A-League club has a full-time academy. Whereas you go to poorer countries and they have full-time programs,” he says.
“The system here doesn’t create that mentality of ‘the best survive’.
"Having said that, I’ve seen some kids here who have that desire and desperation to make it."
One such player could be African-born striker Alou Kuol, who has caught the eye at the club and has already played in the senior A-League side after being spotted in Victorian country football.
“I learned from one of the best man managers in the game in Neil Warnock at Sheffield United.
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"He was a little bit crazy but his management style got the best out of players and he won promotions numerous times to the Premier League.
“To have worked under coaches like Warnock, then come over here [to Australia's A-League] and worked under possibly one of the best in Graham Arnold, I’ve been lucky to have worked with good people with different characters.
“As a coach, what defines you is taking the good stuff from the people you worked with and sticking true to your own beliefs and principles."
Monty and his young family have remained on the Central Coast since his playing retirement in 2016.
The Sheffield United great is now an Aussie having received his citizenship, though his accent remains as Yorkshire as the Dales (despite his youth caps for Scotland).
The former Leeds lad is finishing his UEFA Pro licence in Ireland with another coach on the rise in former Leicester City defender Paddy Kisnorbo (though it has been put on hold due to the COVID-19 crisis).
“Nothing can prepare you for that transition from playing full-time to coaching," he notes.
"But I was always passionate about coaching as a player and I began preparing for life as a coach while I was playing.
“For me, a lot of players fall because they haven’t had that guidance a real man-manager can do to push them and make them really improve."
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