Former Rangers and Dundee midfielder has hankering for a challenge - whether as boss or set-piece coach
There isn’t much Charlie Adam couldn’t cross, including, it recently proved, the Merseyside divide. Blessed with a left foot as cultured as his, it was perhaps just a matter of time before he joined the growing band of set-piece coaches.
Recruited by David Moyes last season, the former Liverpool midfielder’s short-term deal as Everton’s set-play specialist has ended. He’s now ready to take his next career step as he closes in on reaching 40 at the end of this year.
It didn’t take much to link him to the then vacant Dundee manager's job a few weeks ago, especially when footage of someone who looked very much like Adam speaking to Dens Park technical director Gordon Strachan started circulating in the days after Tony Docherty had lost his job. It was quickly deemed to be either Adam or England Under-21 coach Lee Carsley, another middle-aged and smooth-headed man.
Charlie Adam was manager of Fleetwood Town last season.placeholder image
Charlie Adam was manager of Fleetwood Town last season. | Getty Images
It seemed likelier that Adam, a boyhood fan of the club who went on to finish his career with Dundee, would be interested in taking over at Dens. Carsley is currently in charge of about £600 million worth of talent at England Under-21 level.
The mystery has deepened, however. It wasn’t Adam on the grassy knoll – or at least it wasn't him who was ‘papped’ on the banks of the Tay meeting Strachan in the car park of a coffee shop. “Unfortunately not,” says Adam unequivocally. He did, though, apply for the post as soon as it became available.
“Ultimately I never got an interview,” adds Adam, speaking on behalf of Free Bets. “That’s just the way football is. That video was not me. A lot of people messaged me to see if it was me. But it wasn’t.”
Dundee decision surprised Adam
It definitely wasn’t Steven Pressley, who was appointed a few days later. “I was surprised to see Tony get sacked,” says Adam. “But again, I'm not privy to what goes on inside the football club. There's reasons why John (Nelms), Tim (Keyes) and Gordon made that decision (to sack Docherty).
“This is me speaking as a supporter now. At the end of the day when you get top six and then finish, okay they took it to the last day, but survive....You make decisions that you feel is right. Obviously there was a bit of an issue or coming together with John and Tony. They made a change and now Steven’s in charge. It's now a big moment inside the football club in terms of where the club's going and what they're trying to do.”
It's a big moment for Adam, too, as he weighs up his options. He reveals he’s had talks with a couple of foreign clubs specifically with regards a set-piece coach role. “I've had a couple of Zooms with some big clubs abroad that were out of the blue,” he says. “Because I'm supposedly a set-piece coach now, it's not a big thing in certain countries abroad….A club reached out to me last week (wanting to try it). I had a Zoom with them. I'm open to that. Ultimately, I'd like to manage or coach again one day.”
Charlie Adam applied for the Dundee vacancy - but never got an interview.placeholder image
Charlie Adam applied for the Dundee vacancy - but never got an interview. | Getty Images
It sounds as though he’s still unpacking being sacked by Fleetwood Town at the end of last year after a run of five defeats and following some signs of promise in the dugout. “When you get sacked, you're obviously in a predicament in terms of what do you do because you've never been sacked before," he says. In the event, he was only out of a job for around three weeks before David Moyes, who had just been reappointed at Everton, got in touch.
“We live five minutes from each other,” explains Adam, speaking on behalf of Freebets. “So we’d had a coffee a few times and discussed football. And he said, if the opportunity ever came to take you in somewhere with me, I would like to try and do that. Obviously I was delighted when he got the Everton job.”
There was one niggling worry. The 36 games Adams played for Liverpool between 2011 and 2012. He didn’t score against Everton for the Reds but he did hit the bar in a derby at Goodison. He scored for Blackpool there. “I was thinking, is it going to happen, obviously because of the Liverpool thing? It was obviously a situation that you have to think about.”
Everton injury hampered Adam
As in Dundee, where players have moved directly between the two main city clubs, it doesn’t present an insurmountable problem in Liverpool, where families are often split between blue and red. Adam felt accepted although his efforts to improve Everton's set-piece productivity were not helped by the loss for several months through injury of their best dead ball striker, Dwight McNeil. “A lot of clubs now have somebody within the group who are specialists within set plays,” Adam explains. “They've got people that can deliver the ball where you want them to deliver it. So that's where we found the biggest challenge.”
The experience was invaluable, however. “It was a real eye opener for me in terms of how top-level management is,” he says. “How he (Moyes) managed and won games tactically. It was a great learning curve for me to go in and do something I have never done before in terms of being a set-play coach.”
It won’t have escaped his attention that Scotland are currently on the lookout for one of those after Austin MacPhee and then his assistant Jose Rodriguez Calvo left. Steve Clarke will have been alerted to Adam's availability since Alan Irvine, his current assistant coach, is Moyes’s No. 2.
Charlie Adam during his time at Liverpool.placeholder image
Charlie Adam during his time at Liverpool. | Getty Images
Along with everyone else, Adam was sad to say goodbye to Goodison Park when it hosted its last men’s team game against Southampton in May. “They called her the Grand Old Lady for a reason and at the end of the day she was an old stadium like Dundee’s stadium,” he says, with the grounds sharing an architect – Archibald Leitch.
Surprisingly, Adam hasn’t been back at Dens for a game since he scored on his last home appearance in a 3-1 win over Hibs in May 2022. He will be keeping close tabs as another of his former teams begin their bid to qualify for the Champions League group stage next week under Russell Martin, Adam’s former Scotland teammate. Rangers take on Panathinaikos at Ibrox in the first leg of their second qualifying round tie next Tuesday night.
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“They wanted somebody with a playing style that was forward thinking in terms of build-up, style and passing,” he considers. “Russell will definitely give them that. I think part of Russell's desirability for Rangers is that he's been a player there and he understands the football club, which was not the case in the last management appointments. He's bringing in good players in terms of Max Aarons, they've brought in Lyall (Cameron) and (Joe) Rothwell from Bournemouth, who’s a good player." Adam stressed that Martin will be well supported by sporting director Kevin Thelwell and technical director Dan Purdy, both of whom were recruited from Everton.
He also played with Cameron at Dundee so can vouch for the midfielder's qualities personally. “It’s now up to Russell to get the players into the team and into a style he wants to play,” he says. “They need to gel quickly because the Champions League comes round quickly. There’s no time to build towards it.”