The Manchester Evening News sit down with former Manchester United U23 and Salford City boss Neil Wood.
Neil Wood of Manchester United during the UEFA Youth League match between Villarreal CF and Manchester United in 2021
Neil Wood has managed Manchester United Under-23s and Salford City
Neil Wood has been praised by Fergie, trained alongside Roy Keane and fired by Gary Neville.
He came through and coached at Manchester United's academy, played amid war-damaged buildings in Bosnia and is now splitting coaching duties between Trinidad and Tobago's men's team and Canada Women's national team.
You won't find many folk with more United connections than Wood. He spent more than two decades at Old Trafford all told before leaving his role as Under-23 manager - where he played a part in the development of Amad, Alejandro Garnacho and Anthony Elanga to name a few - to become Salford City boss under the ownership of Gary Neville, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt.
He was axed by his United alumni after just 18 months in charge, a decision that Wood still feels was harsh given Gary Neville and Giggs sent on messages following his dismissal citing how impressive the football style and training sessions were.
"Gary Neville said it was the best football he had ever seen at Salford and Giggsy used to watch training every day and he said he would have loved to be playing in every training session," says Wood, chatting to the Manchester Evening News over a coffee in south Manchester.
"It is a results business but I am pretty sure if I had stayed we would have been fine. For me, it needed a bit of patience.
"The first season was really successful. The owners asked me to create a playing style, bring the culture of the club together and improve the players and the team, which is exactly what I did. We got to the play off semi-final against Stockport (losing on penalties).
"I had spent a year building a playing style and in the second year I wanted to build on it. But some players were brought in that didn't fit the style.
"At the time (Gary) Neville was CEO but then he stepped back and Nicky Butt took over and then Ryan Giggs came in as sporting director. They were always around, and in a supportive way. But they all see the game differently, there were all different types of players so it is only normal to like different things in different players. That was the challenge. Sometimes you were stuck in the middle."
Wood has since taken on roles with Canada's women's team - working alongside former Manchester United Women boss Casey Stoney - and Trinidad and Tobago's men's team, where Dwight Yorke is the head coach.
Those two jobs mean the passport is seeing plenty of action as he potentially gears up for a men's World Cup next summer, a women's World Cup the year after and then the 2028 Olympics.
"It has been a new challenge and a new environment which I have really enjoyed," says Wood of his unusual job split.
Head coach Neil Wood of Manchester United reacts during the UEFA Youth League match between Villarreal CF and United
Neil Wood during a Manchester United academy training session
"I am experiencing different tournaments, the preparation and delivery, not having a lot of time with the players, players coming in from different countries, all from different levels, all playing different ways at their clubs. There is always adaptability and trying to get the best out of the players you have got and try and improve them individually and improve the team.
"I feel like I have experienced a lot and that is part of the reason I have taken on these new roles. I’m always thinking, 'What can I learn? What is different?' I have the experience of coming through at United as a player of suffering bad injuries, and then into coaching."
It was at United as a promising midfielder that Wood's football career began. He was a local lad, playing for his boyhood club and impressing as a talented teenager. He was training with the first team at 17 and mixing with the likes of Roy Keane and Juan Sebastian Veron before injuries halted his progress.
"I left school in July and went into pre-season and by Christmas I was training with the first team," he recalls. "I was training with the first team every day at 16/17 and the speed and level was incredible. Then I had some injuries which just set me back a couple of years and by that time people had overtaken me a bit and it was difficult to get back."
Instead, Wood spent time out on loan before leaving permanently for Coventry. But his spell there and subsequent time at Blackpool and Oldham saw regular injuries and limited playing time.
It resulted in a move to Sarajevo to join Željezničar, a switch that rekindled Wood's love of the game and set him on his coaching path.
"I ended up going to Sarajevo," explains Wood. "I did a year there but it was the first club since leaving United where I got coached. We had a Serbian manager who had worked for a long time with Javier Clemente, the old Spain coach. He worked off the Spanish model and it wasn't 4-4-2, it was quite tactical, there was video analysis, he would sit down with you and try to improve you.
"That was a massive learning curve for me and I was really glad that I did it, it opened my eyes to different ways. Sometimes I would play centre midfield, sometimes I was left wing back and all of a sudden I was getting the ball in space and the penny was dropping on the different ways to play football.
"That is what ignited my road to coaching. I stopped playing in England because I stopped enjoying it, injuries didn't help with my knees, but when I went into coaching I always tried to implement something different to the traditional English style.
"Zeljeznicar was the working class club of the city, they had a group of fans called 'the Maniacs' who used to go everywhere.
"I lived where I could walk to the stadium. You could see the high rises where it had been shelled from the war, but the people were so friendly and it was a great city."
Wood returned to England and started on a path in coaching, initially working for free at Aston Villa with age-group sides before United came calling and he began to work with a talented crop of kids who would go on to become household names.
"When I first went back I was doing the Under-14s," he said. "Elanga was Under-13s, Angel Gomes was there, Rashford was in the 16s. I followed the age groups up to 23s almost with the same group of players.
"Anthony (Elanga) going to Newcastle is a great move for him, Alvaro (Fernandez) going to Real Madrid is amazing for him and his family."
Wood worked with Amad when he first moved to Old Trafford, along with Garnacho, while he gave Shola Shoretire and Kobbie Mainoo their first taste of European football in the Youth League.
"When Amad first came, we didn't know too much about him and he had a big price tag," recalls Wood. "He would train with the first team but play with the 23s. Leading up to games he would train with us and straight away you could see his talent.
"He was quiet, learning the language, and it is not easy. The lads loved playing with him, he was intelligent and smart. He just needed a bit of time, did really well at Sunderland and when he came back you were just waiting for him to get his chance and when he did, he took it."
Amad's future at United is bright, for Garnacho this summer looks like the end of the road for him at Old Trafford, something Wood feels is a shame.
"Garna' has got talent, some of the choices he has done off the pitch might have not helped him," surmises Wood. "A bit of immaturity maybe, but it is a shame to see it. A couple of those things can be easily stopped, whether it is a bit of education.
"He is not a bad lad or a bad guy but his choices have not helped him. He needs to get back to concentrating on his football and let that do the talking."
And with that our conversation concludes. Wood's next test comes in the form of Trinidad and Tobago's World Cup qualifying campaign next month. A journey that started at The Cliff will next take in Curaçao. The passport will be ready.