Newcastle United’s new arrival could help the club save millions in the long run
Diarmuid O’Carroll looked at the clock. The stand-in who would one day take charge of Newcastle United’s under-21s was on the cusp of an almighty upset at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Remarkably, Morecambe were still in front with little more than a quarter of an hour to go.
Opposite number Antonio Conte had long since seen enough. The former Spurs boss turned to his bench and threw on Harry Kane, among others, who ultimately flipped this FA Cup tie on its head. However, the side with the lowest budget in League One at the time ran the Londoners close – even without their boss, Stephen Robinson – as goal scorer Anthony O’Connor recalled.
“It was not an ideal situation for us as a team,” the ex-Morecambe captain told ChronicleLive. “Our manager got COVID and couldn’t travel with us, but it wasn’t a problem because we knew Diarmuid was there.
“When he spoke, you knew exactly what he wanted from you. It was no surprise that he was able to step in. It was easy for him. We didn’t get the result that day, but you could tell he was made to go on and be a top coach.”
It was rather telling that Robinson phoned O’Carroll before the game to tell his number two that he ‘trusted in everything’ he was doing. It gives you an idea of the strong bond the pair had and why it was a big step for O’Carroll to go it alone following stints with his mentor at Motherwell, Morecambe and, most recently, St Mirren.
However, the chance to move to Newcastle was understandably too good to turn down for O’Carroll. ChronicleLive understands O’Carroll even rejected ‘a couple of other big jobs’ as a first-team assistant to take up the position as lead coach of the Magpies’ under-21s last month.
O’Carroll has since made a positive impression behind the scenes in his first couple of weeks at Little Benton and Liam Gibson, who came through the ranks at Newcastle, and worked with the new arrival at Morecambe, said the ‘lads are lucky to have him’.
“I’m not surprised he’s got a job like this because of his detail and the sessions he put on,” the Geordie explained to ChronicleLive. “He knew what he was talking about. Sometimes, in football, you will get coached by a first-team coach and think, ‘Am I really believing what he’s saying?’ But you always knew Diarmuid was going to go on to bigger and better things.”
O’Carroll did not necessarily expect to get such an opportunity at Newcastle, but this has been a move eight years in the making. In fact, O’Carroll was so committed to a career in coaching the former Celtic striker retired from playing at the age of 29 so that he could essentially have a head start in his second career. The result? There are certainly not many academy bosses who are also a lead coach with a national team as O’Carroll is with Northern Ireland. This is a ‘modern coach’ in the words of former Northern Ireland international Trevor Carson, who spent time with O’Carroll at St Mirren and Morecambe.
“He will definitely keep evolving,” the goalkeeper told ChronicleLive. “He’s that kind of guy. Speaking to the boys at Northern Ireland, who play in the Premier League, they were blown away and you can see even on the sidelines that Michael O’Neill trusts him a lot. Michael is a perfectionist, but I’ve heard first-hand that he trusts Diarmuid a lot in terms of taking training.”
O’Carroll is part of the staff under O’Neill who are working with a new generation of footballers – eight members of the senior squad are aged 22 and under, including Liverpool defender Conor Bradley – and the Irishman is still young enough to relate to the players. This is not a ‘ranter and a raver’; those who have worked with O’Carroll instead reference his positivity on a Monday morning even after a weekend defeat.
Rather than lashing out, former St Mirren striker Curtis Main recalled how O’Carroll was ‘always trying to develop everyone that was there’ alongside Robinson as the Scottish side went on to achieve back-to-back top six finishes for the first time in nearly four decades.
“He was doing four, five, six jobs at one point because of staff resources,” the South Shields native revealed to ChronicleLive. “He’s not afraid to put in the work and get his hands dirty.
“You can see he wants to do well and improve when he’s putting on the sessions and when he’s training. If that carries forward, the players are going to want to improve as well. He’s a really positive, progressive coach.”
O’Carroll has also been there and literally worn the t-shirt, and the 37-year-old’s own experience as a player is still relevant, particularly when it comes to his new role with Newcastle. O’Carroll started out at another huge club, Celtic; was sidelined for close to a year with injury; and struggled with such crippling self-doubt that if the former striker had a bad shooting drill, he would stew on it for days afterwards.
Players have changed a lot since then, but O’Carroll knows that all is not always what it seems and certain individuals require different approaches as Ethan Erhahon did. The midfielder was a highly-rated prospect once upon a time at St Mirren, but found himself on the bench before Robinson and O’Carroll arrived back in 2022. The pair wanted to make Erhahon a key player, but one or two figures in the game wished them luck with that and felt the ship had sailed. The perception previously was that Erhahon was a bit big time, but once the staff knew what buttons to press, they were able to bring him on and the Scot has since flourished.
O’Carroll will now look to get even more out of Newcastle’s youngsters and the under-21s boss is ‘really looking forward to trying to push and get a couple of them to knock on the door’ of the first team, which has never been more important in a PSR era. Darren O’Dea, who has known O’Carroll since the age of 12, said his countryman will be motivated by the ‘purity of actually helping players develop and to maximise their potential’ because his ‘biggest asset is who he is’.
“Being a coach is ultimately about trying to find the best in people and improving them,” Celtic’s professional player pathway manager explained to ChronicleLive. “That’s not to take anything away from the level of detail Diarmuid will go into and the quality of coaching but, ultimately, anyone can aspire to that.
“Not everyone can be as good a person with people. When you’re dealing with young players, that’s the key. We can all get our Pro Licence; we can’t all have the level of intellect and emotional intelligence that he has.”