WITH England’s World Cup dream over, one of the stars of their run to the semi-finals has been former Wrexham and Chester midfielder Anthony Barry.
Barry is assistant manager to Thomas Tuchel in the England hierarchy and one of his former team-mates at both Wrexham and Chester knows why the coach has been such a big hit.
Paul Rutherford believed the ‘incredibly intelligent’ Barry was destined for the top and that nothing was going to stop the midfielder achieving his aims.
After famously signing for the Reds in 2010 under Dean Saunders before performing a dramatic u-turn without playing a single game, Barry finally arrived at The Racecourse in the summer of 2016.
It was during Wrexham's lengthy spell in the National League when Rutherford struck up a conversation with the midfielder on life after hanging up his boots.
Now nearly a decade later, Barry has gone from being a lower-league footballer nearing the end of his playing career to sitting alongside Thomas Tuchel as England's assistant manager.
The Liverpudlian has previous coaching experience at Chelsea, Bayern Munich and with the Portugal and Belgium national teams, and Rutherford, who made nearly 200 league appearances during his five-season stay in north Wales, says 40-year-old Barry had a clear plan of how he was going to make the grade in coaching,
"If I'm honest, I could see something special in him. Anthony was incredibly intelligent," said Rutherford, who spent the 2016-17 campaign playing alongside Tuchel’s sidekick as well as a couple of seasons across the border at The Deva Stadium.
"I always remember a time when we were both injured and there was just me and him chatting in the gym.
"I asked him what his plans were after football and he said 'I'm going to be a coach. I'm going to the youngest holder of the pro-licence. That is what my ambition is. I'm writing my application letter, I just a need a club to say I am associated to so I can go and get it. This is my plan'.
"The way he articulated it was absolutely unbelievable.
"He was also unbelievable at networking. That was another great skill of his.
"He knew who to speak to and how to speak to them.
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"They were the two things I took from him: You are very intelligent and you also very calculated. You know how to get where you want to get to."
Barry was released after just one season at Wrexham and then called time on his playing days, but he's since forged a hugely successful coaching career.
"I remember the text I sent him when he had the news he wouldn't be staying at Wrexham," said Rutherford.
"It was something like 'whichever club or building you go to next has gained someone incredible and you will be a massive asset wherever you go'.
"He was just so clever, although I couldn't say he was going to be England's assistant manager!"
Barry became a recognisable figure during the World Cup thanks to his no-nonsense half-time television interviews during England's matches.
The Three Lions bowed out after losing 2-1 to Argentina in the semi-finals but Barry has been praised by former team-mate Rutherford for the way he has conducted himself on the biggest stage, with pundits including Wayne Rooney and Micah Richards agreeing with his assessments of his side's performances.
"You can see in those interviews how intelligent he is, how concise he is with the information and how he comes across," added Rutherford.
"It may just be my bias towards him but nine times out of 10, the people in the studio have agreed with his opinion and they've said he's bang on the money.
"He was that person when he was playing in League Two and the National League with Wrexham, he had that knowledge and he had that detail.
"The way he is seeing the game is second to none."
