JC carves out success in Poland

John Carver said an emotional farewell to the Tartan Army in Liechtenstein in May.

Scotland manager Steve Clarke’s assistant for more than five years, Carver was pushed forward by captain Andy Robertson to acknowledge the thousands of travelling fans in the corner of the Rheinpark Stadion at the end of their 4-0 friendly win.

Just before kick-off in Vaduz, Clarke had told the players that Carver was leaving to concentrate on his role as head coach with Lechia Gdansk.

The pair met under Ruud Gullit at Newcastle and led Scotland to their first finals for 12 years, when they drew with England 0-0 in the delayed Euro 2020, and repeated the feat four years later.

And Carver admits quitting in the early stages of qualification of next year’s World Cup Finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico was not easy.

“It was really emotional for me,” he says. “And it was a tough decision because Steve and I had that working relationship, but we also built up a friendship from the day he arrived in Newcastle in ’99.

“It was a great time in my life, and I've got to say the players were incredible; we built good relationships with a good understanding. It was not easy to walk away from that but it was a decision that had to be made. 

“When I first went there, because I’m English, people were sort of standoffish when I went to the grounds but the more they got to know me, and know a little bit about me, they were really, really nice and very welcoming everywhere. 

“I felt like a Scotsman, I’ve got be honest, because they made you feel that way. 

“But I have to be with my team and I’m doing what I want do on a regular basis, not just five camps a year, and I said to Steve, ‘if you qualify for the World Cup, who knows what might happen’.”

While Clarke and Scotland’s players will be concentrating on a World Cup qualifying group which includes Denmark, Greece and Belarus, Carver will be ensconced in Gdansk on the Baltic coast.

At the end of last season, he extended his contract as head coach of Lechia Gdansk with a three-year deal after pulling off ‘a miracle’ to survive relegation from Poland’s top division, Ekstraklasa, last season.

Approached in December by Lechia Gdansk’s technical director Kevin Blackwell – another former colleague and old friend – Lechia Gdansk looked doomed when Carver arrived at the Polsat Plus Arena.

The club were 17th, one place from bottom of the table and six points from safety. There was also a transfer ban over financial difficulties which meant he could not sign new players. 

A day after a hostile ‘welcome’ press conference, fans made their feelings knows on his appointment in their first home game – a 1-0 win over Ślask Wroclaw – when they chanted the name of his predecessor, Szymon Grabowski. 

Ekstraklasa then went into its two months winter break, giving Carver and the staff he had inherited from Grabowski time to work on the squad in camps in Turkey and Dubai.

“It was a massive gamble for me,” he says. “I wasn't allowed to bring in any players, so we used the same squad, then we lost two players, so we had the smallest squad and the youngest squad. 

“But if you’ve got belief in what you're trying to do you can achieve anything. 

“I watched a few of the games before I decided to come over and I saw something in the group, and basically, I felt they just needed a little bit of structure. 

“And that's what I did. I concentrated on getting out of the best players, playing with the structure and organisation.

“I was fortunate because we played that first game, which we won 1-0, and then we had the winter break and a month’s pre-season before we played the second game which gave us time to actually do some work on the training ground. 

“Because we were in the warm weather, we could work morning and afternoon, morning and afternoon and I was able to pin down the rules and philosophy and how we were going to play in and out of possession. 

“And that certainly helped us. 

“It was like starting the season all over and it gave me a chance because I knew we had some good young players who just took it all on board and implemented – which was really important; you could see the confidence building.” 

Lechia won five of their first six games when the league resumed in January – including the 1-0 home win over Lech Poznan, who are the guests in Gdansk tomorrow night – before an uncomfortable run of four successive defeats.

With five wins from their last nine fixtures, Carver led the team out of the relegation zone and secured another season of top flight football – and a showdown with promoted local rivals Arka Gdynia – with two games to go. 

The achievement saw him nominated for Ekstraklasa’s coach of the season - and acknowledged by the fanatical Budowlani support.

Home fans unfurled a banner at the final league game proclaiming ‘Carver Respect’ and he was handed a mug with his own mug on it from the official club shop. It said simply, ‘Thank you, JC’.

“It was amazing,” he says. “The fans went crazy - someone threw a scarf at me with my face on it, there were fridge magnets, mugs, all sorts. I had a huge lump in my throat after that game.

“We did have a blip but that wasn't a concern because even when we weren't winning, we stuck to the plan and that got us through and we went on another run.

“The biggest thing for me was that I had a small staff and some really good Polish guys when I came in – analyst, fitness guys, everybody – who were very helpful and their knowledge of the league fast-tracked me.

“It allowed me to get to know the players, how the teams played, so they were a massive part of the success we had, and I made sure those guys were sorted before I actually signed my deal.”

As well as keeping his eye on Scotland’s World Cup campaign, Carver will maintain his keen interest in home-town club Newcastle United, where he had three spells and caretaker and interim manager and Sir Bobby Robson’s assistant. 

He’s also had spells with Sheffield United, Leeds United and Luton Town – where he worked with Blackwell – and worked at West Bromwich Albion, Plymouth Argyle, MLS side Toronto FC and Cyprus club Omonoia Nicosia.

But home is now Gdansk. And the aim for the season – despite the five point penalty – is to improve on last season.

For the moment, he lives on his own near the beach in Sopot, although his wife and ‘pals from Close House Golf Club’ are regular visitors and users of the Ryanair links from Newcastle and Leeds/Bradford airports.

Carver adds: “Gdansk is very similar to Newcastle; there’s shipyards, it’s on the river and the people just love their team.

“I feel really safe when I walk round and the public have been great. I feel very much at home here and there was no hesitation about staying on.”

Not that season two will be straightforward. 

They lost their season opener 2-1 at Górnik Zabrze last weekend and host champions Lech Poznan in front of a near sell-out 40,000 at the impressive Polsat Plus Arena (pictured below) tomorrow night. The ‘tasty’ home derby against Arka Gdynia is in a month.

Polsat Plus Arena, in Gdansk

Poznan clinched their second title in the last three seasons with a 1-0 home win against Piast Gliwice on the last day of the season and beat Icelandic champions Breidablik 7-1 in a Champions League qualifier on Tuesday. 

“It’s clearly a tough game,” Carver says. 

“They’ve played more competitive games than us, got a good win in the Champions League this week, so they might be ahead of the game.

“But it will be a good crowd, like we had the last season, and we’ve shown we can beat them. We’ve nothing to fear.

“We’re already five points down because of what happened last year, so that is going to be tough to make up, because you have to continually win games and hope teams around you start losing, which is difficult.

“But we have a lot of good things in place and a good young team. We just need to be a bit more stable on and off the pitch and not have to fight for relegation. But this is what I want to do. I want to have a go at it. 

“This club could be anything you want it to be. They've got great support, a wonderful stadium and incredible facilities. It could be a Premier League football club.

“We’ve just got to get the product right on the pitch so the people come. 

“As long as I see some progress from last year, then we'll be in a good shape. I'm not going to say we’ll be in the top 10 – and we want to be – but we don't want the same battle and struggle we had last year.”

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