In August 2019, five months after Brian Barry-Murphy had taken the reins at Rochdale, they scored a goal at Southend that entranced social media for the usual couple of seconds. Starting in their own box, Rochdale criss-crossed the pitch with 16 passes, none of which climbed above ankle height. There was one delicious dummy, one lightning flick, six one-touch passes, and after 41 seconds the ball was caressed into Southend’s net: quick and clean and soothing, like having your hair washed in the barbers.
Rochdale were in League One, and for a club with their resources, remaining at that level had become a stretch; in their history, they had never been in a higher division. For a young manager, in his first job, there must have been a temptation to conform to the tactical averages of the league and follow the herd. Instead, Barry-Murphy trusted in his beliefs and dared to be different.
“It was a Barcelona, Manchester City, Pep Guardiola style of football at League One level, pass after pass after pass,” said Mike Minay, who covered Rochdale for BBC Manchester. “The fans sometimes struggled with the style, especially when relegation was being faced, but it was a lot more attractive and entertaining to watch.”
Barry-Murphy took the job in March of 2019, when Rochdale were in the relegation places. He kept them up that season, and again a year later, cooking up teams from young players and loan signings.
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They were like your favourite indie pop band from the 1980s, obscure and sweet. In cup competitions they drew with Spurs and Newcastle and took Manchester United to penalties at Old Trafford, all the while burnishing their manager’s reputation.
In his final season Barry-Murphy couldn’t keep the plates spinning and Rochdale were relegated to League Two; since then, they have dropped out of the Football League. Off-Broadway, though, Barry-Murphy had created a stir.
Did we pay enough attention? Or the FAI? Did somebody think, ‘We need to pull him into the system, doing something.’ Did anybody think, ‘In 10 years time, this could be the guy.’ Would that have been a crazy notion? Maybe the FAI were distracted.
Smart people noticed. In the summer of 2021 Barry-Murphy was appointed head of Manchester City’s elite development squads. You can imagine the profiling for that position, and the pressure to find the right candidate. It was a leap for him and a leap for them. Everyone landed on their feet.
For the last two seasons Barry-Murphy has led Manchester City to the Premier League 2 title; in a couple of weeks they will contest the FA Youth Cup final, a trophy the club has won just twice in its history.
At the biggest clubs, the talent development space is tricky. At a club as big as Manchester City the odds are overwhelmingly against producing a player that will make a first-team breakthrough without going somewhere else. Under Barry-Murphy’s watch, Cole Palmer graduated and left; Rico Lewis was captain of the youth team in Barry Murphy’s first season and is established in the first team squad now.
Oscar Bobb has gained significant exposure in the first team this season too, and in an interview for the club’s website recently he eulogised Barry-Murphy’s role in his rise.
“I struggled a bit in the under-23s,” Bobb said, “and then he [Barry-Murphy] came in and showed a lot of confidence in me, and helped me massively. I don’t think I would have got the chance here [with the first team] if it wasn’t for him.”
There comes a point in every young player’s career where the club is looking for a return on their investment. If he’s not good enough for Manchester City he must be an attractive proposition for some other club. Bringing them to that stage in their development is Barry-Murphy’s constituency. The club is looking for results in that game too. It’s a different kind of pressure.
“With the 18s and 23s, that’s where the return on investment comes in,” said Jamie Carr, another Irish coach in the Manchester City academy. “You need to be getting players in the first team or making money [for the club]. Agents come into it at that stage as well. Someone else handles all that, but finances are a lot more in play when you get to 18. Like, it affects you day-to-day. You have to be moving the dial the right way, or you’re accountable.”
Barry-Murphy has carved out a long career in an unforgiving industry. It is 25 years since he landed in England as a young footballer. David Moyes, at Preston, was his first manager, but in 3½ seasons he made fewer than 30 appearances and was shovelled out on loan to Hartlepool and Southend, provincial outposts of the lower leagues.
His only experience of a big club was Sheffield Wednesday. In his first half-season they were relegated from the Championship and a year later they narrowly avoided another relegation. Wednesday used a staggering 35 players that season, only two of whom made more appearances than Barry-Murphy. He was indispensable right up until the day they dispensed with him.
With an overblown playing staff the wage bill was unsustainable. Barry-Murphy was on about £1,200 a week, when the highest earners were making about £14,000, but he was still swept up in the cull.
He landed at Bury, a small club crammed in the small print of League Two. Within two seasons, they were fighting for their lives at the bottom of the football pyramid. It was Barry-Murphy’s third relegation fight in three different divisions in four years.
So many players are chewed up in the maw of professional football but he had the substance and the resilience to tough it out and by the end of his career he had made nearly 450 first-team appearances. It had steeled him for all of football’s cruelties.
Barry-Murphy’s next move will be fascinating. He will surely leave the Manchester City academy sooner or later and take a manager’s role again. There is no question that Championship clubs would be interested. Could he have the kind of impact that Kieran McKenna has made at Ipswich? Absolutely. Though with a different style.
He has a talent. People like that exist in Irish football too. Don’t forget.
