'It's too late' – Wrexham manager was shocked when Anthony Barry quit after one game
Today at 12:46 PM
It turns out that contracts in the National League aren't very watertight, just ask England's new assistant.
Anthony Barry, who will be Thomas Tuchel's right-hand man with the Three Lions, has forged an incredible path to the top of the game after a pretty unremarkable playing career.
The Liverpool-born coach spent his time between the third and sixth tiers of English football, making his name in League One as a midfielder for Yeovil Town.
In 2008 he dropped down to League Two with Chester City and upon their relegation to the Conference Premier, he went sideways with a move that kept him near home, joining Wrexham.
There he worked under Wales legend Dean Saunders, but only for one training session, the talkSPORT host revealed.
Commenting on Barry's move from the Portuguese national team to England's, Saunders recalled his brief experience with the coach which came to an abrupt end.
“He told me, ‘Fleetwood have offered me double the money’. I said, ‘Well, it’s too late, you’ve signed for us now’," Saunders remembered.
“He said, ‘Yeah but gaffer, come on, I can’t turn that down’. I said, ‘No, you’ve signed for us’. There had been back page headlines with the shirt on and everything.
“I couldn’t believe it. I sat there for a couple of days and thought, ‘If you don’t want to be here, if you want to be somewhere else, you might as well go’. Then he went to Fleetwood.”
That was it for Saunders and Barry, until he arrived on the coaching scene at a far higher level.
Saunders continued: “The next time I saw him, he was on the bench at Chelsea. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on there? ‘ Apparently he met Frank Lampard on a coaching course, ended up helping Frank and working his way up.
“That is a story of how you can get on, from the bottom to Bayern Munich and he’s now England assistant manager. Amazing. A nice lad as well, by the way.”
After his previous experience with Tuchel at Chelsea, he re-joined him at Bayern and in between had stints with Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.
But none of those quite compare to England, with Barry explaining that this move is the pinnacle of his career.
"It feels amazing to be here at this incredible stadium," he said at his unveiling. "I just read a famous quote from Pele on the wall that says it's the heart of football, and I think he's right.
"All around the world this stadium is celebrated as the heart of football and for me it's so amazing to be back.
"I have memories of Euro 96 coming down here with my father to watch the games, I have memories not so good as a player, losing play-off finals, but better as a coach, winning games.
"Whatever the result it's always an amazing experience to be at Wembley and I cannot wait to be stood on the touchline wearing the Three Lions."
