MIKEY HARRIS’ relationship with Salisbury City is more than a love affair – it’s a full blown romance.
From starting in the youth ranks, playing in the first team, learning his craft over five seasons as assistant-manager and now the top job aged just 28; the baby-faced gaffer bleeds White.
And it’s also where professional football‘s youngest manager found true love when Salisbury were off to Sheffield United in the FA Cup last January.
Local ITV reporter Sarah Gomme came to the Ray Mac to find out about the magic of the third round and cupid fired his arrow.
“The actual FA Cup was here at the Ray Mac the day before we left for Sheffield,” Harris says.
“She came down to interview me and we got chatting and that was it. I ended up taking her out to dinner later that week and here we are now engaged!”
Harris popped the question in Crete in the summer. But little did he know the next time he stepped in the Salisbury City dug-out it would be as manager after boss Darrell Clarke left to be assistant manager at Bristol Rovers just weeks after winning the Conference South play-offs.
Influence
“I got engaged at the beginning of the week and at the end of it I got divorced from Darrell!” Harris, who oversaw two promotions in three years with Clarke, laughs.
“I’d had a couple of calls from Daz in the week asking for some of the players’ numbers. I was away and I thought, ‘Nah, I’m not answering it’. In the end Darrell’s partner texted my fiancé saying: ‘Look, can you get Mikey to call Darrell’.
“I thought this sounds serious so I phoned him and it all happened very quickly. The last 48 hours of my holiday weren’t really a holiday. Luckily I’d proposed at the start.
“I got a phone call from the chairman to tell me I was in caretaker charge. When I got back I had a meeting with the chairman and that’s when I told him I wanted the job.”
Chairman William Harrison-Allan was certainly spoilt for choice with some high-profile suitors and Harris is honest enough to admit he thought his age would count against him.
But with a degree in Sports Science and five years of apprenticeship under Tommy Widdrington and then Clarke he is part of a new, innovative shift in football management.
“People are always going to say it; oh he’s 28, he’s the youngest manager etc,” he says. “I think that if I’m successful as a manager then that will become forgotten and I’ll be known as just a manager.
“You do know if, for whatever reason, you don’t succeed then people are going to come back to that as a reason, which I’m well aware of.”
Harris says he is indebted to Widdrington for giving him a chance when “99 out of 100 managers wouldn’t appoint a 23-year-old as their assistant” and he raves about the influence the former Grimsby midfielder and Clarke have had on him.
He has his coaching badges – Gianfranco Zola was on his UEFA A Licence – and he’s also drawing from his degree education.
Lifestyle
It wasn’t the stereotypical student lifestyle – he was also running his own coaching company while using his knowledge as fitness coach with the Whites – as he went to “actually get a degree.” So are many of his classroom peers in such high-profile positions?
“It’s funny you say that,” Harris says. “My best mate from Uni is Head Coach of the England Cricket’s Under-17s. A guy called Iain Brunnschweiler, and he had a similar path to me but in cricket.
“He was fitness coach at Hampshire, moved up to assistant coach and then he got the role with England. He’s now one of four England cricket managers at quite a young age.
“We bounce ideas off each other a lot. You have conversations with people where they say, ‘Well I’ve been involved in football all my life and I’ve never seen it done like that before’. Great, that’s why we should do it.”
With City back in Non-League‘s top flight just three years after being demoted two leagues to the Southern Premier by Conference chiefs, it would be understandable if the club is looking to make up for lost time.
The first three games back were all defeats but Tuesday night’s 2-0 win over Hyde took their unbeaten run to eight matches and the team to fourth in the table.
“I’m really, really happy with the squad we’ve got,” he says.
“Everyone is going to play their part in that team and that’s what I keep stressing to them.
“I know how the club runs from bottom to top and I think that helps going into a management role because it’s not just about managing the team but trying to improve the whole club.
“I’ve been involved in this club for nine or ten years. I absolutely love the club, I’ve had some fantastic times here and I want to build on what Darrell and myself achieved – and because of this place I’ve met my future wife.”
