Crawley Town's Dan Miccichie: From growing up watching Italian football in the 90s to a unique project in West Sussex

Crawley’s new assistant manager Dan Micciche opened up on how his background in football and how the club presented ‘too good an opportunity to turn down’.
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Dan Micciche has seen it all when it comes to youth football.

Whilst coaching at the Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur academies, and in more senior responsibiliti es with MK Dons, England Under-16s and Arsenal, he has been part of some major sea changes.

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Dan Micciche discusses tactics withDan Micciche discusses tactics with
Dan Micciche discusses tactics with
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He’s also worked with some of the biggest names in the English game, but for the Watford-born son of Italian immigrants, it all started at home.

“I grew up watching Italian football, and sort of fell in love with it at the time when I was growing up. Italian football was at its peak with the likes of [Diego] Maradona and Paolo Maldini,” Micciche said.

“I really got into football in those mid 80s and early 90s, and because you didn't have Sky Sports at those times, I used to get the footage sent to me from Italy.

“I guess it was quite tactical, the football that I was watching from an early age.”

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Fast forward a few years, and Micciche had completed his degree at Loughborough University, taking an academic route into a football career.

“From there, I was very fortunate to get my first coaching role at Crystal Palace Academy, which has always had a really good player development background.

“It was a long journey for me to get to Croydon from Watford working part time for a very small salary. But I was really lucky. I worked with the academy and I learned a lot from some outstanding coaches who are now mentors to me.

“At the time in the academy, you had the likes of Victor Moses, Wayne Routledge, John Bostock, etc. [Wilfried] Zaha was there, he was 11 at the time, he was in my age group.”

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Later becoming Assistant Academy Manager at MK Dons, Micciche’s work developing a fledgling set-up into one producing talents like Dele Alli and Sheyi Ojo was recognised by those at the top.

Dan Ashworth, then-Technical Director of the FA, soon asked Micciche to join a revolution in English football.

“I went to the FA and my role was split between coaching and education. I helped introduce [what was] like the Youth A Licence – it's called the Advanced Youth Awards,” he said.

“As well as [that], I worked with England teams from under-15 through to under-18s.

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“I worked with a number of household names; Trent Alexander-Arnold was one of my captains, Mason Mount, Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, [Emile] Smith Rowe. I really enjoyed my time there.”

Being in the role proved to be an ‘I was there’ moment.

“Dan Ashworth had this vision of changing the perception of England teams,” said Micciche.

Gareth Southgate, as well, who was head of coaching at the time. One of the phrases they used was [that] the shirt is a heavy shirt to wear.

“We don't want that to happen anymore. And I had people say to me, you will never beat Spain and Brazil. You'll never out-possess them.

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“And it was actually our under-16 age group that was a bit of a trailblazer because we beat Brazil out in Florida, 2-0, Phil Foden got both goals. And we had 66% possession in 35 degrees heat, and 94% pass completion. We won that tournament and then we just gathered momentum really.”

Stepping away from England in December 2017, Micciche returned to MK Dons for a short spell before linking up with Arsenal’s youth sides.

Staying put may have been the obvious choice, but with a unique project in West Sussex, Micciche took the plunge into League Two football.

“It was too good an opportunity to turn down, because the vision of the owners and the vision of Kevin,” he said.

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So, what does the Hertfordshire lad make of his new home?

“Yeah, yeah, it's been really nice. Actually, I've spent a lot of time [here] since I got the role.

“We've been out for meals and been out for some walks, and, you know, obviously, just driving from different [areas], training ground, stadium, etc, [we’ve] got a really good feel for the area.

“And we were quite fortunate to meet some supporters last Saturday. It was quite public where we trained, so there were supporters there who watched the training session and we had some fan engagement.

“We hope to bring a lot of joy and satisfaction to the supporters this year, and we hope to see them out in their numbers when we play Queens Park Rangers on the 9th.”