When Matt Crocker returned to Southampton as the club’s director of football operations in February 2020, he went on what proved a costly tour of their training ground.
Crocker, 48, had previously worked at Southampton between 2006-2013, overseeing the academy, but upon his return he was disappointed by what he saw.
Southampton quickly committed £1million ($1.25m) to upgrade parts of their Staplewood training base off the back of Crocker’s recommendations. Improvements included a new sports science and analysis office space, plus a rehabilitation and medical lab for the academy, women’s and girls’ programmes.
This is only a peek behind the curtain of what Crocker did during his second stint at Southampton, but it shows the kind of sporting director the US Soccer Federation is hiring.
The Athletic answers the key questions about his appointment…
Where did his career start?
Crocker never played football professionally. His first notable appointment was at Welsh club Cardiff City, where he spent six years between 1999-2005 as their academy manager.
He was given responsibility for transforming a relatively small youth programme into a fully-functioning academy, which meant he had the autonomy to oversee all elements of their youth system.
At academy level he took charge of Cardiff City’s strategic direction, staff and player development, player recruitment and implementing a philosophy and culture for everyone to follow.
He surpassed his targets in Wales and took a role at the English Football League (EFL) as a youth development monitor, which made him responsible for supporting academy managers on all aspects of youth development.
Just over a year later, Crocker joined Championship side Southampton as the academy manager.
What did he achieve in his first stint at Southampton?
Crocker oversaw the academy programme from the under-9s to the under-21s, which included setting the strategy as well as coaching and player development plans.
“I’ve always liked projects,” Crocker told The Athletic in December 2020. “When I look back to my early days at Cardiff City, it was a long-term project to get them academy status. I then had the opportunity to come to Southampton as the academy manager at a difficult time for the club as we had just been relegated from the Premier League.”
At Southampton he managed to get the academy Category One status, the highest rating a club’s youth system can be awarded, and for good reason.
Players such as Gareth Bale, who went on to win multiple Champions League titles with Real Madrid, Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Manchester United’s Luke Shaw and England international and Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse all passed through the academy when Crocker was in charge.
Did he succeed at the FA?
Without a shadow of a doubt, and that is what the US Soccer Federation should be most excited about.
When he joined the FA as their head of teams (coaching) in November 2013 after leaving Southampton, Crocker worked alongside Gareth Southgate, then the England Under-21s manager, and Dan Ashworth, who was the director of elite development, to launch ‘England DNA’.
Southgate is now the manager of the England men’s team, while Ashworth is the sporting director at Newcastle United.
“England DNA was a blank sheet of paper, and there was an opportunity to align a pathway from the junior teams to the senior teams,” Crocker previously told The Athletic.
The programme is designed for England’s youth teams from under-15s to under-21s and is the starting point for the FA’s elite player development. It is split into five parts: ‘who we are’; ‘how we play’; ‘the future England player’; ‘how we coach’; and ‘how we support the process’.
In his six years at the FA, Crocker also oversaw England’s national teams (under-15s to under-20s) on the men’s and women’s side, including the men’s wins at the Under-17 World Cup and Under-20 World Cup in 2017, and their European Championship at under-19s level the same year.
England’s under-17s squad at the time included Manchester City’s Phil Foden and current Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho, who cost the club £72.6million ($90.5m) when they signed him from Borussia Dortmund in 2021.
It was at the FA that Crocker started a technical directors’ course, too, which eventually led to a reunion with Southampton in February 2020.
Why did he return to Southampton?
“I feel like I’ve worked through my career to be in a position to do this type of role,” he told The Athletic. “It just felt like a really great opportunity for me and the time for another project.”
Southampton had recently overhauled their senior leadership team, with chairman Ralph Krueger, vice-chairman Les Reed and director of football operations Ross Wilson all leaving.
Martin Semmens, Southampton’s chief executive, had several conversations with Crocker before offering him the role. Given he had not been a director of football before, that could have been viewed as a risk.
“The conversation I had with Martin Semmens was very much about me being a behind-the-scenes strategy and process person,” Crocker said. “I’m someone that makes sure we hold ourselves accountable to the processes and plans we have in place.”
Crocker (right) in conversation with Southampton chief executive Martin Semmens. Credit: Dan Mullan / Getty Images
What did he do as director of football operations?
“Some clubs have a director of football that is a trader: they fly all over the world doing deals that could be seen as the sexy stuff. But that’s not my strength,” Crocker said.
His influence and relationships were called upon when the club targeted young English players such as Tino Livramento, but his focus was not on player trading. Instead Crocker got his teeth into other areas of the club, such as modernising the academy.
Another of his ideas was to implement a review process after every sixth game, bringing all departments to the table to discuss performances.
There was however friction between Ralph Hasenhuttl — Southampton’s former manager — and Crocker, which limited his impact on the first team.
Then when Sport Republic bought Southampton in January 2022, Crocker’s role became somewhat reduced. Time has shown they have a different vision to the one being implemented.
Was he involved with Southampton’s club-wide playbook?
The ‘SFC Playbook’ was a club-wide project that led to radical change at the academy and, yes, Crocker was involved. Hasenhuttl was frustrated with how long it took academy players to get accustomed to his style, something Crocker sympathised with. The playbook was a way to get all age groups playing and training in the same style.
“I guess one of the big wins was to come in and really remove the under-23s from the academy and place it as a B team connected to the first team,” Crocker said. “We developed the SFC Playbook with a style of play, all the sessions that we do from a first-team perspective, and the position-specific profiles that are required for each of the six positions across the team, and we made sure we aligned that with the B team.”
The playbook is a digital archive of training sessions that was initially passed down to the B team’s coaching staff before it was implemented in the under-18s. At the beginning of this season, it was rolled out in the under-16s.
Has he shown an interest in women’s football?
Absolutely. Aside from Marieanne Spacey-Cale, the former England international and current manager of Southampton Women, Crocker has been the biggest driving force of the club’s recent successes.
Spacey-Cale works closely with Crocker, describing him as her “sounding board” and someone who is “heavily emotionally invested in the team”. They meet formally every month but keep in contact every week.
Southampton Women achieved back-to-back promotions and now play in the Women’s Championship, one tier below the Women’s Super League.
Under Crocker’s oversight, the club developed one of only four tier-one regional talent centres in the country and in August they were given a licence to run a new emerging talent centre, designed for girls aged between 10-12.
How well is he going to fit with US Soccer?
Sources who have worked closely with Crocker describe him as the “perfect fit” for US Soccer because of his experience in building up sporting infrastructure and implementing a strategy and culture.
He is accustomed to working in high-pressure environments at the international federation and club levels.
“Strategy, planning and programme management are among his biggest strengths, so he will be well suited to his new role,” says a source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships. “He knows what he is good at and focuses on that.”
(Top photo: Dan Mullan via Getty Images)
