“There was a commotion. The Galatasaray fans were of course smoking. I didn't really understand. I wasn't sure if something was going on in the stadium. The atmosphere was like nothing I had ever known before,” Dean Holden tells Sky Sports.
He describes the scene in Istanbul in February, while Adana DemirSpor players left the field during the first half against Galatasaray in protest against a penalty awarded against them. Holden had been the assistant manager in Adana for less than a week.
“It was tense. I managed to get tickets for my family about two hours before the game. And then this happened. There is the police with these big shields. Eng is too strong a word, but it was hard to understand everything in my own head. I was a bit panicked.
“We brought the players in the dressing room very quickly. The president had just had enough. It apparently had happened too often. But the aftermath was difficult. You manage the emotions with a very young team. You try to lift them.”
It was not what he expected, but in a strange way it turned out to be exactly why he had decided to take a job at the soil club in Turkey. “I just felt that I could probably accelerate my learning here than to go back than returning to England,” he says.
“Many people said, you know for sure that you want to go there? They look at the table and see a club at minus points with big problems. I understand. My next potential club could look at the profit frequency and just see a negative. I saw the other side of it.
“I wanted to place myself in the most challenging environment that I could. Can it work in another language? Can I have an impact? You work by a translator, so that you really have to be concise and clear. It's all about finding a connection with a player.”
While he was discouraging on the field – “Trying to prepare a plan for a front three of Alvaro Morata, Victor Osimhen and Dries Mertens” – It was even more difficult. But Holden sees it as a valuable experience. “I learned more than I would have in two or three years in England.”
This Turkey adventure comes after he has spent the previous year as an assistant manager of Steven Gerrard in Al Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia. He certainly threw himself in his career. He lived in Adana on the training field. “I was there 24 hours a day,” he says.
“When I walked around, I would think, who can I inspire, who can I help to be the best they can be? I spent hours wyscout. I didn't see it as a work. If I don't have a job, I do it anyway. On a day off I would fly to Istanbul or to Izmir, a game or two.”
Where does that come from? “My parents,” he replies. “My mother was a child, my father worked three or four jobs. He was even a steward at Old Trafford. They just grafted and vaccinated. My father never took a day off in his life. I never forgot that.”
The loss of daughter Cici for meningitis in 2012 also had a major impact. “Danielle and I who lose our daughter would never be our story. The statistics say 88 percent divorce within two years. We are in the 12 percent. I just never try to waste a day.”
He confesses that he is struggling with slowness. “If a meeting is at 4 p.m., you should be up at ten.” And finding a related spirit in Gerrard. “I've never seen that drive anywhere before. It surprised me. His standards are the big thing that struck me.”
Gerrard, who would continue to Captain Liverpool and England, had been an international teammate at age group level. “The career of Steven went one way and mine unfortunately went the other.” But perhaps that feeling of unfulfilled ambition also encouraged him.
“I had a career for me with Jay-Jay Okocha, Bruno N'Gotty, Fernando Hierro, Ivan Campo. Then I broke my leg the week before the FA Cup semi-final in Wembley against Aston Villa in 2000. I had to be Rebroke because it wasn't good.”
He still enjoyed a long career in the lower competitions, in which he overcame adversity. Since then everything has been an attempt to stay in the game. Holden is even a qualified referee. “Just to see the game from all sides, to tap every box.” At the age of 35 he became Oldham manager.
In his next management job at Bristol City, he had the Robins one point of first place in the championship in December 2020. But he was fired by mid -February. “It shows how ruthless it can be.” And after a stint in Charlton, he wants his next job to be right.
“There was a ownership -oriented fight, many problems behind the scenes. So I am really careful with the next job as a manager.” He has taken risks with his coaching agreements, but wants the top job to be different. I want it as stable as possible. “
How does he summarize his ideas about the game? “I have a file,” he says. “I really like to view the Bournemouth of Andoni Iraola. The way they play fascinates me. The Premier League is all about possession, but that is not the football that I grew up and loving.
“I will never forget to play with John Sheridan and when he passed it, he would say,” Can you score? ” I always wondered what he was about, but now I am so frustrated when you can put a midfielder on goal but choose to go aside.
“A lot of modern football is so. I know Russell Martin very well and he has been very generous with me and if you see Vincent Kompany going from Burnley to Bayern Munich, you can see why coaches do it. But I always come back to:” Can you score? “
“Players love simple messages. I want to open that runners to open space for the No. 10. If we lose the ball, we let them press, they stitch. Almost every exercise is about the two -second reaction. I want a team that really goes behind the opposition.”
Holden hopes to get that chance soon. His next club gets a better manager than before. Driven but empathetic. “I suppose I am a little different. I don't mind saying how much I put in the emotional, psychological side of management.”
He is proud of having introduced individual development plans at Adana Demirspor and talks about the great improvements in their young players. “It has proven me how important it is.” Now Holden just wants to show the chance to show what he learned during his travels.
Sky Sports to show 215 Live PL games next season
From next season, the Premier League coverage of Sky Sports will increase from 128 games to at least 215 games that are exclusively live.
And 80 percent of all Premier League matches broadcast on television will be on Sky Sports next season