Barry’s playing career path is not one that will be very recognisable to many of those in the England squad, with former midfielder spending most of his time in the lower leagues. <\/p>\n
He was part of the Accrington Stanley side 20 years ago that won the Conference to return to the Football League for the first time in 44 years.<\/p>\n
Barry was reminded of that anniversary while speaking to 5 Live Sport.<\/p>\n
“In shock at the question because, 20 years ago, was I really winning the league for Accrington Stanley?” he said.<\/p>\n
Barry’s first coaching job after retiring as a player was as assistant manager at Wigan Athletic. But, after impressing Frank Lampard on the Uefa Pro Licence course, he became first-team coach at Chelsea in the summer of 2020.<\/p>\n
Tuchel replaced Lampard when the former England midfielder was sacked in January 2021, but the German retained Barry. Within months Chelsea had won the Champions League.<\/a><\/p>\n During that time Barry had also spread his wings into international football – working as an assistant coach with the Republic of Ireland<\/a> before taking the same role under Roberto Martinez – first with Belgium,<\/a> then Portugal.<\/p>\n That allowed him to coach at a World Cup and European Championship, while also working with global greats including Cristiano Ronaldo and Kevin de Bruyne.<\/p>\n Known as an innovative and enthusiastic coach, Barry also specialises in set-pieces and he wrote a dissertation as part of his Pro Licence for which he analysed 17,000 throw-ins.<\/p>\n