Jonathan Woodgate has been important at Carrington since joining Michael Carrick’s backroom staff at Man Utd.
Woodgate beats Solskjaer to the ball in 2002.(Image: PAUL BARKER/AFP via Getty Images)
“I was crying leaving the training ground because I didn’t want to go – I was absolutely devastated,” Jonathan Woodgate said of his £9million transfer from Leeds to Newcastle.
Woodgate grew up supporting Middlesbrough and joined their academy as a boy, but moved to Leeds when he was 16. “I was happy at Leeds. I loved the club, and it was like a family to me,” Woodgate reflected during an interview with The Times a few years ago.
When Woodgate was one of Leeds’ crown jewels, he would never have imagined that he would end up working for their bitter rivals, Manchester United, but he joined Michael Carrick’s coaching staff in January.
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Leeds fans’ stomachs have churned watching Woodgate celebrating in his United tracksuit. A handful of United fans were uneasy when it was confirmed Woodgate would work with Carrick, saying that it would never sit right that a former Leeds star had such an important role at the club.
The excellent results since Carrick and his coaching staff began work should have won them over, though. United have won seven games in the Premier League, drawing twice and losing just once, putting them in pole position to secure Champions League football next season.
Carrick credited his backroom staff, along with the players, when he picked up the Premier League manager of the month award in January. Woodgate has played a key role behind the scenes at Carrington, making what Carrick described as “inroads” with defenders through individual work.
Woodgate is now a United first-team coach.
Woodgate first worked with Carrick in 2022 when he returned to Middlesbrough to serve as a first-team coach following Carrick’s appointment as manager. Woodgate had previously managed Boro and Bournemouth, but he put aside managerial ambitions of his own to join Carrick’s staff.
During their time at Middlesbrough, Carrick said: “Woody has been massive ever since I’ve walked through the door. The impact on me and around the place is massive… his character, knowledge and love of the game. He sees things a little bit differently than me, having obviously played at the back.
“We feed off each other in a good, dynamic way. He’s constantly looking at different things to what I might see and helping the boys develop. Defence is one of the things we’ve really been conscious of and trying to focus on. Woody does a lot of work with the back four, and credit to him for that.”
Leny Yoro, Diogo Dalot and Harry Maguire have been among the players to credit the coaching staff with helping United to improve, and Woodgate has been in the thick of the action during training.
United spent the first half of this week in the Republic of Ireland. Woodgate was standing yards away when Maguire rifled in a goal into the mini net during a training drill, and he shouted: “Oh H! H!”
Woodgate has been popular with the players. “Chuffed for Woody. Hope you get a chance to speak to him at some point. He’s good as gold, brilliant fella,” was the message from a north-east contact when he was confirmed as part of Carrick’s coaching staff.
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The younger members of United’s dressing room will not remember how much of a good player Woodgate was. It’s not hyperbole to say he had the talent to be remembered as one of the finest English defenders of all time, but injuries ultimately curtailed his career.
Woodgate believes he played his “best football” at Newcastle, where he spent a season before joining Real Madrid. Woodgate is remembered for the sending off on his Madrid debut, however, he became a man in Spain.
“I wish my body hadn’t let me down,” Woodgate said. He was capped by England just eight times, but had the ability to reach a half-century of appearances for his country if he’d had the rub of the green.
He tried to immerse himself in the culture during his time in Madrid, attempting to speak Spanish at his initiation, while Michael Owen, who signed in the same window, chose to speak English. And Woodgate can still speak Spanish, which has helped him in his coaching career.
Woodgate battles Forlan in 2002.
After playing for Madrid, Woodgate represented Middlesbrough (twice), Tottenham and Stoke, but there was a club at the end of his career which still held a place in his heart alongside his boyhood team. When Woodgate managed Boro at Elland Road in 2018, Leeds fans serenaded him.
“During the game, the whole stadium was chanting my name. I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “They were singing, ‘You’re Leeds and you know you are.’
“I am as well, you know. I am Leeds. Listen, I’m a Middlesbrough lad, but I’m Leeds too because I grew up there. I learnt so many lessons at that football club.”
Woodgate’s strong affinity for Leeds means Monday night’s game at Old Trafford should be an interesting experience for him, as he will be in the home dugout when the West Yorkshire club come to Manchester.
United-Leeds is a bigger fixture for Leeds fans than it is for United supporters, but it will always be a game with a degree of spice. “It’s our biggest game of the season,” a Leeds fan was heard saying at Elland Road in January when a steward asked him to take his seat instead of standing up.
Leeds’ travelling support will give it out again at Old Trafford. The TV cameras might zoom in on Woodgate, who may sit uncomfortably.