FOR SOMEONE WHO first joined Manchester United at the age of nine, Danny Higginbotham comes across as a remarkably down-to-earth individual.
Whereas so many footballers coming through the youth ranks nowadays get carried away with fame long before they have even properly attained it, Higginbotham is the exception that proves the rule.
The pundit and former player’s humble nature shines through in his recently released autobiography, Rise of the Underdog: My Life Inside Football, and while he could so easily have gone the way of so many other promising young United players and prematurely faded into obscurity, he managed to carve out a creditable career largely in England’s top flight, despite being let go by the Red Devils as a young player.
“The reason you get let go by Manchester United is because you’re not good enough,” he tells The42. “It was unfortunate that it was my hometown club, the club I supported all my life, and I was fortunate enough to play six or seven games for them, which was great.
“But football’s all about timing and when the opportunity came to go to Derby — they paid a significant amount for a 21-year-old — Sir Alex Ferguson told me not to leave, but if he wanted me to stay, he would have said ‘you’re not going’. And it wasn’t heartbreaking for me to leave either, because I knew at some point, if I wasn’t going to get into United’s first team, I had to leave and I had to go and make a career for myself.
“I think sometimes at Man United, lads that grow up there can outstay their welcome and if you do that, your career can be over before it’s begun. So there was no problem with me leaving the football club, because the time was right.”
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(Manchester United’s Denis Irwin [with Intercontinental Cup], Gary Neville, Ronnie Wallwork [with Toyota Cup] and Danny Higginbotham [with the Man of the Match award] celebrate their victory in 1999)
And while Higginbotham’s time spent as part of the United first team may have been relatively brief, he nonetheless describes the experience as “phenomenal”.
“From my point of view, the biggest thing I learned was you train how you play. I was fortunate enough that by the time I got to 18 or 19, I was training day in day out with the likes of Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Jaap Stam, Butt, the Nevilles… It was just a phenomenal squad.
“There were so many world-class players in that dressing room and to see them play every single day in training as though it was a match was a massive thing for me. People ask me what was the biggest thing I took from Man United and it was that, because I looked at these players and they were on another level. But to see them working in training as they did with the likes of Cantona as well… If it was good enough for them, it was more than good enough for me.”
One person who Higginbotham reserves particular praise for is Roy Keane and perhaps it’s easy to see why. Keane never boasted the phenomenal natural talent of a Zinedine Zidane or a Lionel Messi, but still managed to become one of the best players in the world through sheer grit and determination.
Higginbotham, as someone who readily admits he was never especially “gifted,” would more likely regard an individual such as Keane as a big influence, rather than a flair player like Beckham or Giggs. And while clearly not as talented as the current Irish assistant boss, like the ex-United captain, the former centre-back managed to make the most of the attributes he had.
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Moreover, Higginbotham also cites the Irishman’s stark honesty in his two autobiographies, along with similarly illuminating books by Martin Johnson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as inspiration for Rise of the Underdog, which the former defender wrote with the author and columnist Wayne Barton.
“There are some very good autobiographies out there, but at times there are ones that are pointing the finger at other people,” he explains. “It makes it sensationalism I guess, and I said it’s not going to be like that [for mine]. The person I was going to criticise most was always going to be myself.
“I think, in general, it’s autobiographies I read that are about honesty and taking responsibility that are the ones that really stand out. I’ve read both of Roy Keane’s books and people say he criticises others and things like that, but he’s his own worst critic.
“And I think that has to be how an autobiography is, and especially the second book, when you read it and see things he thinks he could have done better and stuff like that. I thought he was a genius of a player, and I thought he was very good as a manager as well. But he says he could have done things better, and that is how an autobiography should be. Not ‘it was this person’s fault,’ or ‘that person’s fault’. It’s about taking responsibility.”
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(Manchester United’s Roy Keane and Derby County’s Danny Higginbotham battle for the ball in 2001)
And while Keane and Higginbotham’s careers as players briefly intersected, it was perhaps during the former’s stint as a manager where his philosophy had a particularly lasting impact on the ex-Sunderland player.
Furthermore, although some of the more infamous incidents during their time together have already hit the headlines, the more positive aspects of Keane’s tenure at the Stadium of Light — as Higginbotham is keen to emphasise — sometimes get overlooked.
“As a player, you didn’t see [weaknesses], he was a winner. It was great to sign for Sunderland and he was the biggest pull. He used to join in during training sessions and he was still the best player on the pitch. One thing I learned from him, his will to win, his desire, was unbelievable. Not only was he one of the best midfielders Man United have ever had, he was one of the best captains they’ve ever had. It was his all-round package and everything about him — he was just a winner.
“I don’t think it’s any surprise that the year I had with him, the amount of goals that got us wins or got us draws in games was unbelievable, because that is what he installed in you. Even with Ireland and Martin O’Neill, for a few of their qualifiers, they’ve either won the game in the last minute or drew. And that’s what he does, he instils that attitude of ‘you do not stop until that final whistle’. I learned so much from him. Don’t get me wrong, I was always someone that would go until the last minute, but to see us getting winners in the last minute, it was brilliant.
“There’d be times when he’d leave big players out and that’s no problem, because you want to see that. But was he a ranter and a raver? I wouldn’t say he was an over-the-top ranter and raver, no. There were other managers that ranted and raved more than he has. So I think he sees everything that goes on, he weighs everything up, he knows how to get the best out of players, he knows how to make players tick.”
Higginbotham also dismisses the suggestion that Keane can never be a top manager owing to his notoriously fiery temperament.
“People criticise his time at Sunderland, but I thought he did unbelievably. He took over at the club when they were bottom of the Championship, got them promoted that season and then solidified their status in the Premier League. If you look at this year, two of the three [promoted sides] went straight back down, so I don’t think at times people realise what a job he did there.”
Despite his admiration for Keane, Higginbotham left Sunderland for a second spell at Stoke in 2008, after he initially departed the Potters, having spent just a season there, in 2007. The ensuing period saw Higginbotham produce his best form as a footballer, and consequently, he cites Tony Pulis as having a bigger influence than any other manager on his career.
“Southampton had been relegated and I had a year left on my contract. But things that had been promised to me weren’t given to me and I always believe that you treat people how you want to be treated. When it’s not reciprocated, you lose a lot of respect and trust in people. And that’s exactly what happened with Southampton. Tony Pulis took a chance on me, and my career was going to go one way or the other.
“A lot of people questioned me going to Stoke [who had just finished 13th in the Championship] at the time… But it was time for me to go to a club where I was wanted, and maybe to get my career back on track. I had a year with Tony Pulis, I enjoyed my football. Then I moved to Sunderland and we were there for a year and then went back with Tony again.
“Defence-wise, I learned so much from [Pulis]… He simplifies things for people and it was just a fantastic time. Myself and Stoke were a perfect fit. It was the best time of my career. I got some fantastic insights from different managers in different areas. But because of the amount of time I had at Stoke and where I rose from — my first game with Stoke was Southend away and the last game was Besiktas away in the Europa League, so that tells you in itself how the club grew and it’s fantastic to see how it’s still growing now.”
Meanwhile, as someone who had his own contract problems and was vilified as a result at Southampton, Higginbotham tends to be more empathetic than most when current players face similar predicaments.
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(Higginbotham has backed Raheem Sterling in his contract dispute with Liverpool)
“People go on about loyalty and things like that, but it has to be a two-way street. I have no issue with the way clubs do things, but it has to be looked at from both sides, because if a club doesn’t want you anymore, they’ve no issues with getting rid of you in the summer. I just think that it needs to be balanced.
“[Raheem] Sterling should be one of the best-paid players at Liverpool. I always say it doesn’t matter about the age, it’s what you’ve done at that football club and he’s done a lot. How [the contract disagreement has] come out has been completely wrong. It [should have been] just said that ‘Raheem Sterling wants to be put on a par with the top players at the football club,’ because he’s seen as one of their top players now.
“He may want to leave the football club because he doesn’t see it going forward. There are ways and means of doing it, and I think, to a certain extent, Sterling has probably been hung out to dry. I don’t look at it and think ‘he’s an idiot, he’s a money-grabber’. I just think things could have been worded better.”
Nowadays, Higginbotham works as a pundit for BT Sport, and the busy-ness of this new life means he has not “missed a single day playing since I finished”.
And while admitting he made “mistakes,” the former defender ultimately looks back on his career with satisfaction.
“My biggest fear was always that when I got to the end of my career, someone turned around and said, ‘you could have done more’. Now, nobody could ever do that. People could probably turn around and say you overachieved, and I would consider that a massive compliment.
“In life, I don’t have regrets… If you look at the lowpoints in my career, I suppose it would be missing out on the opportunity to play at Wembley [for the 2011 FA Cup final against Man City]. To score the winner in the quarter-finals and then to do my cruciate two weeks after… I think the one mistake is the day that I did my cruciate, we played against Chelsea at home. It was 1-1 in the last minute — we had a corner and usually, Tony [Pulis] would be screaming at me to get back. Maybe I look back and think I should have stayed back.
“But I believe that, to a certain extent in life, everything happens for a reason. After I did my cruciate I started doing a lot of media work for the semi-final and final of the FA Cup, and that was really where what I’m doing now started.”
Rise of the Underdog: My Life Inside Football by Danny Higginbotham is now available. More info here.
'Roy Keane's honesty inspired my book'
FOR SOMEONE WHO first joined Manchester United at the age of nine, Danny Higginbotham comes across as a remarkably down-to-earth individual.
Whereas so many footballers coming through the youth ranks nowadays get carried away with fame long before they have even properly attained it, Higginbotham is the exception that proves the rule.
The pundit and former player’s humble nature shines through in his recently released autobiography, Rise of the Underdog: My Life Inside Football, and while he could so easily have gone the way of so many other promising young United players and prematurely faded into obscurity, he managed to carve out a creditable career largely in England’s top flight, despite being let go by the Red Devils as a young player.
“The reason you get let go by Manchester United is because you’re not good enough,” he tells The42. “It was unfortunate that it was my hometown club, the club I supported all my life, and I was fortunate enough to play six or seven games for them, which was great.
“I think sometimes at Man United, lads that grow up there can outstay their welcome and if you do that, your career can be over before it’s begun. So there was no problem with me leaving the football club, because the time was right.”
(Manchester United’s Denis Irwin [with Intercontinental Cup], Gary Neville, Ronnie Wallwork [with Toyota Cup] and Danny Higginbotham [with the Man of the Match award] celebrate their victory in 1999)
And while Higginbotham’s time spent as part of the United first team may have been relatively brief, he nonetheless describes the experience as “phenomenal”.
“From my point of view, the biggest thing I learned was you train how you play. I was fortunate enough that by the time I got to 18 or 19, I was training day in day out with the likes of Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Jaap Stam, Butt, the Nevilles… It was just a phenomenal squad.
One person who Higginbotham reserves particular praise for is Roy Keane and perhaps it’s easy to see why. Keane never boasted the phenomenal natural talent of a Zinedine Zidane or a Lionel Messi, but still managed to become one of the best players in the world through sheer grit and determination.
Higginbotham, as someone who readily admits he was never especially “gifted,” would more likely regard an individual such as Keane as a big influence, rather than a flair player like Beckham or Giggs. And while clearly not as talented as the current Irish assistant boss, like the ex-United captain, the former centre-back managed to make the most of the attributes he had.
Moreover, Higginbotham also cites the Irishman’s stark honesty in his two autobiographies, along with similarly illuminating books by Martin Johnson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as inspiration for Rise of the Underdog, which the former defender wrote with the author and columnist Wayne Barton.
“There are some very good autobiographies out there, but at times there are ones that are pointing the finger at other people,” he explains. “It makes it sensationalism I guess, and I said it’s not going to be like that [for mine]. The person I was going to criticise most was always going to be myself.
“And I think that has to be how an autobiography is, and especially the second book, when you read it and see things he thinks he could have done better and stuff like that. I thought he was a genius of a player, and I thought he was very good as a manager as well. But he says he could have done things better, and that is how an autobiography should be. Not ‘it was this person’s fault,’ or ‘that person’s fault’. It’s about taking responsibility.”
(Manchester United’s Roy Keane and Derby County’s Danny Higginbotham battle for the ball in 2001)
And while Keane and Higginbotham’s careers as players briefly intersected, it was perhaps during the former’s stint as a manager where his philosophy had a particularly lasting impact on the ex-Sunderland player.
Furthermore, although some of the more infamous incidents during their time together have already hit the headlines, the more positive aspects of Keane’s tenure at the Stadium of Light — as Higginbotham is keen to emphasise — sometimes get overlooked.
“I don’t think it’s any surprise that the year I had with him, the amount of goals that got us wins or got us draws in games was unbelievable, because that is what he installed in you. Even with Ireland and Martin O’Neill, for a few of their qualifiers, they’ve either won the game in the last minute or drew. And that’s what he does, he instils that attitude of ‘you do not stop until that final whistle’. I learned so much from him. Don’t get me wrong, I was always someone that would go until the last minute, but to see us getting winners in the last minute, it was brilliant.
Higginbotham also dismisses the suggestion that Keane can never be a top manager owing to his notoriously fiery temperament.
“People criticise his time at Sunderland, but I thought he did unbelievably. He took over at the club when they were bottom of the Championship, got them promoted that season and then solidified their status in the Premier League. If you look at this year, two of the three [promoted sides] went straight back down, so I don’t think at times people realise what a job he did there.”
Despite his admiration for Keane, Higginbotham left Sunderland for a second spell at Stoke in 2008, after he initially departed the Potters, having spent just a season there, in 2007. The ensuing period saw Higginbotham produce his best form as a footballer, and consequently, he cites Tony Pulis as having a bigger influence than any other manager on his career.
“Southampton had been relegated and I had a year left on my contract. But things that had been promised to me weren’t given to me and I always believe that you treat people how you want to be treated. When it’s not reciprocated, you lose a lot of respect and trust in people. And that’s exactly what happened with Southampton. Tony Pulis took a chance on me, and my career was going to go one way or the other.
“Defence-wise, I learned so much from [Pulis]… He simplifies things for people and it was just a fantastic time. Myself and Stoke were a perfect fit. It was the best time of my career. I got some fantastic insights from different managers in different areas. But because of the amount of time I had at Stoke and where I rose from — my first game with Stoke was Southend away and the last game was Besiktas away in the Europa League, so that tells you in itself how the club grew and it’s fantastic to see how it’s still growing now.”
Meanwhile, as someone who had his own contract problems and was vilified as a result at Southampton, Higginbotham tends to be more empathetic than most when current players face similar predicaments.
(Higginbotham has backed Raheem Sterling in his contract dispute with Liverpool)
“People go on about loyalty and things like that, but it has to be a two-way street. I have no issue with the way clubs do things, but it has to be looked at from both sides, because if a club doesn’t want you anymore, they’ve no issues with getting rid of you in the summer. I just think that it needs to be balanced.
“[Raheem] Sterling should be one of the best-paid players at Liverpool. I always say it doesn’t matter about the age, it’s what you’ve done at that football club and he’s done a lot. How [the contract disagreement has] come out has been completely wrong. It [should have been] just said that ‘Raheem Sterling wants to be put on a par with the top players at the football club,’ because he’s seen as one of their top players now.
Nowadays, Higginbotham works as a pundit for BT Sport, and the busy-ness of this new life means he has not “missed a single day playing since I finished”.
And while admitting he made “mistakes,” the former defender ultimately looks back on his career with satisfaction.
“My biggest fear was always that when I got to the end of my career, someone turned around and said, ‘you could have done more’. Now, nobody could ever do that. People could probably turn around and say you overachieved, and I would consider that a massive compliment.
“But I believe that, to a certain extent in life, everything happens for a reason. After I did my cruciate I started doing a lot of media work for the semi-final and final of the FA Cup, and that was really where what I’m doing now started.”
Rise of the Underdog: My Life Inside Football by Danny Higginbotham is now available. More info here.
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