A sit down with... Phil Marsh ex Manchester United

A sit down with... Phil Marsh

Phil came through the Manchester United academy system making 1 1st team appearance in his time against Crewe Alexandra in The League Cup. After United Phil spent a bit of time in the football league before dropping into the non league pyramid pulling on the shirt for some of the biggest non league sides in the north west. 

Firstly Phil, thank you for your time in answering the questions below about your career. Speaking personally. You've lived my childhood dream! 

Let’s start with United. You joined United at aged 11 Just how was it coming through the ranks with the cream of the crop of talent at the cliff and Carrington?

Joining the club at 11 from Wigan was amazing and really helped me fine tune my game playing with some of the players we had in the team at that time was of a really high quality. Having the top coaches and training facilities from such a young age really helped me develop massively. The repetition and competitive nature we had in every training session was brilliant and was great to be involved with 2-3 times a week.

 

Once you got the chance to train and interact with the first team, what was that like? did you look to build relationship and tap into the knowledge of the pros you were around? 

The biggest and most memorable experiences from being part of youth team and turning pro was having a large involvement with the first team and the manager Sir Alex Ferguson, having regular contact/conversations and general interactions was brilliant and you was able to feel part of the club which mentally is massive as a young player trying to break into the first team. Every opportunity you got you would be asking questions or doing finishing drills with the players in your positions because you wanted to learn from the best. RVN (Ruud van Nistelrooy) was a really great role model for myself along with Ole who I got on really well with as we was out injured at the same time for a year so we became close from doing are rehabilitation together.

 

Your 1 senior appearance came away at Crewe alongside players such as Ole Solskjaer, Alan Smith, Wes Brown & Gabriel Heinze, How much in advance were you told that you’d be starting and how proud are you to be a Manchester United academy product who has played competitively for the club? 

Playing that game was a dream come true after the huge set back having the car accident a few years prior the hard work and determination I had to endure was all worth it for that moment, to share a dressing room with those players and to play for the club at that time when the squad was littered with international superstars was incredible for me and made all the sacrifices worth while. I was told a few days before I would be training with the first team for a few days and then the day before the game Mick Phelan told me I was starting in a 4-3-3 with Ole and Alan smith … Amazing!

Phil & United team mates, that night in Crewe

 After spells at Blackpool and bury, you dropped into the non league pyramid. I would say most well known for spells at FC United and Staylbridge Celtic. Did it take much adapting from being at United in 06/07 to just 2/3 years later turning out for FC United? 

After leaving United my next few years was really unfortunate as I had bad injury at Blackpool after a good start and then financial issues at Bury which meant I ended up dropping into non league. Fc United and Stalybridge was great clubs that gave me the opportunity that I wanted to play regular football and be able to express myself, yes the standard of football was not the same but strangely if felt like it was harder at times as you didn’t get any respect and people would want to hit you, tackle you and do anything in order to get you off your game which I really enjoyed and once I adapted had some really good seasons scoring goals and enjoying my football.

 

Footballing Dinner party. Phil Marsh & 4 guests dead or alive. Who’s getting an invite? 

My footballing dinner party 4 guests would have to be other players I’ve not had the privilege of meeting. Ronaldo (R9) was my favourite player growing up and for me one of the best to ever play the game injuries stopped him being even better. Thierry Henry for me he’s the best premier league striker and had everything he would be great to chat too and learn how he looked at the game. George Best for me I never got to see him as much as I would have liked but watching some of the videos and from what I’ve been told I think he would be great to have over for dinner he would have some great stories I’m sure. The last one would be Paul Gascogne purely for the banter and to keep us all laughing with his 1 liners and tell us some pranks he’s played over the years he wasn’t a bad player either.

 

Your all time 5 a side team of players you've played with? 

Best I've ever played with is easy...

1 keeper - Edwin van der Sar

1 defender - Gerard Pique

2 midfielders - Paul Scholes & Cristiano Ronaldo

1 striker - Wayne Rooney

Phil in his FC United days

For those that don’t know, at 17 you were involved in an horrendous car crash. Amongst other injuries you broke your leg and a bone in your upper back. Firstly, after the crash did you ever think you'd play for United and just how much support did United give you throughout this time? 

The crash was a massive set back and I was lucky to be alive after what happened. When I was in hospital and for months after I struggled mentally and never thought I would get back to playing at the level I was at previously, after months of hard work and working with the physios I finally got back into training but didn’t feel the same for a long while. It was a really hard process for somebody at that age to go through what I went through and to try and get yourself back into a position we’re your even kicking a ball let alone trying to break into the first team, but luckily I managed to do that with hard work and dedication. The club was brilliant with me and I had players/manager, coaches visiting me in hospital and at home and I was given the best treatment to give me the best chance to recover as well as a extra year put into my contract as the crash was not my fault.

 

I must ask about Sir Alex. As a young lad coming through the system what was Sir Alex like? And did any other figures at United have an influence on you? 

Sir Alex was brilliant with everyone at the club he mad you all feel welcome and treated everybody the same no matter who you was, he was always great with me and visited me at home during my time when I was injured and reassured me I would be back and the club would do everything to look after me. He gave me an opportunity to play in the first team which I am forever grateful. He was so successful because his man management skills was brilliant and had every players wanting to run through brick walls for him. Another coach Rene Meulensteen had a big impact on me as he put a lot of trust and faith in me whilst playing in the reserves and gave me the Confidence after my crash to get back playing to a really good level and which eventually got me my first team call up.

A huge thank you to Phil for offering his time for the interview above. I'm sure everyone reading this will agree there is some fantastic insight from Phil. 

Personally having somebody on who has lived my team and put on the shirt of Manchester United in a game is something I didn't expect when starting out these interviews. 

If you would like to feature on a future interview drop me a message on twitter and I would love to share your football story through the blog. We all have a footballing story to tell and I’m really enjoying putting these together with some more exciting future guests to come.

 

Until the next one 

Peace 

Luke @PL2NL