Shining a spotlight on the people who matter most, even when they go unnoticed
Andrew Reed – Director of Football
If you asked most people what the hardest job in football is, they would probably say manager.
I disagree.
Director of Football might just take that crown.
It is a role where everyone wants something from you, and very few want to thank you. Managers can see you as the barrier between them and the owner. Agents, players and other clubs are trying to get the best possible deal for themselves, which means you need your wits about you at all times. One mistake can cost the club financially or culturally. Fans tend to place a lot of failure on the football side at the Director of Football’s feet, but the triumphs rarely get shared as evenly.
And yet, when things go right, they do not go right by accident.
A Director of Football is responsible for building a football structure that lasts longer than any one manager. Recruitment strategy. Contract negotiations. Succession planning. Squad balance. Wage structure. Long term pathway for youth players. Supporting the manager while also protecting the club’s wider interests.
In this role, you are accountable for things you cannot fully control. Injuries, form, momentum, decisions made in seconds on the pitch. But the responsibility still lands with you.
My Director of Football is Andrew Reed. More importantly, he is someone I consider a close friend. One of the very few people I can be completely honest with. In football, that is rare.
We have won promotion. We are having another season with a lot of promise. The ladies team have won back to back titles and currently safe in the highest division in their short history. We have restarted the scholarship programme under Andy Turner. We have brought in a strong analysis department headed by Sean O’Callaghan and strengthened the medical side with the addition of Marc Czuczman.
None of that just happens. Andrew has been instrumental in bringing the right people through the door and overseeing those departments.
Although he oversees the whole of football at the club, the main focus is the first team. He has to work within budgets set by the club. He needs to move quickly if a manager leaves mid-season. He is already preparing two scenarios for next season, as we don’t know if we will be playing at this level or a step higher. He often has to carry the weight of a decision that is made that we know will not be popular.
Andrew said to me once that if he got this one wrong, he would be out of a job. That is the reality of football. In many roles within the game, you are constantly on trial. Get too many decisions wrong and the margin for error disappears quickly. He feels that pressure, and yet he never hides from it.
Andrew did not come into this role as a long-established Director of Football. When I first worked with him, he was consulting alongside his father, Les, advising people who were buying football clubs. Before that, he had experience as a football agent.
Before I even approached the club with an expression of interest to take over ownership, I approached Andrew and Les to help me understand the realities of what I wanted to embark on. He has been part of everything we have built here since day one.
That initial period was relentless. I was running on adrenaline for six months. I would finish at the club around 10pm most nights and go home still thinking of everything we needed to do to keep the club going until the takeover completed. One evening, after battling flu and pushing too hard for too long, I ended up collapsing at home, shaking and freezing. That was the moment I realised I was trying to carry too much on my own.
Not long after that, I asked Andrew to stop consulting and join the club full time.
I genuinely believe he only said yes because he fell in love with the place. The people. What the club stands for. The same way I did.
No one can sell Hednesford Town like Andrew can. When he talks about this club, you can see it in him. The enthusiasm is real. That is a big reason we have been able to attract good people and good players to Keys Park. He can articulate what this club is about better than anyone I know.
I wanted Andrew in my inner circle because I trust him and I enjoy working with him. In football, trust is everything. You need people who have your back and the club’s back when it matters. We don’t always agree on the best course of action, but when a decision has been made, he backs it fully and wholeheartedly.
One of the things I want to encourage Andrew to do is be more visible. He is like me in that respect. He doesn’t look for the limelight. He is happiest working behind the scenes, knowing that if we achieve our goals at the end of a long, hard season, that is job well done.
Looking back at those scenes last May when we won the Playoff Final, Andrew is missing from the key photographs. That says a lot about him. He was there. He had earned his place there. But he was somewhere in the background, making sure everyone else had their moment. He deserved to be front and centre holding that trophy as much as anyone. Next time, I will make sure he is.
But I would like supporters to see more of the man behind the title. Because if they did, they would see the person I rely on. The person the club relies on. Calm under pressure. Honest in those difficult moments. Driven in pursuit of progress.
He has learned a lot in this role. He is still learning. We all are.
But he is a good man doing a difficult job, often without recognition. And this club is stronger because of him.
This one is for him.
