The ‘ludicrous’ seven-year plan fuelling Bromley’s unlikely rise

Andy Woodman still remembers being called a madman for taking the reins at Bromley.

At the time, March 2021, he was head goalkeeping coach at Arsenal. Why leave one of the world’s biggest clubs, doing a job he adored and working with some of the greatest managers to grace the game? Even his perplexed wife had to ask.

The answer is simple. For the 54-year-old who had spent much of his post-playing career as the fun-loving goalkeeping coach working mostly with Alan Pardew in the Premier League, it was his ‘last chance’ to become a manager in his own right.

Almost five years on, Woodman has the Ravens just 17 games away from reaching League One, having spent much of this campaign at the summit of the fourth tier. Not bad considering that this 134-year-old club had never been in the Football League until the south-east London native took over.

And it is no accident. When Bromley owner Robin Stanton-Gleaves rang Woodman and asked him to take over, they mapped out their wildest dreams for the club. They are now on the brink of seeing them become reality.

‘We had an honest, frank conversation and we made a five-to-seven-year plan to be in League One, which sounds absolutely ludicrous if you think about it back then,’ Woodman tells Daily Mail Sport.

‘We’ve kind of always kept that conversation between us, until recently. And if we achieve it then we can both look each other in the eye and say, “look, what we set out to do, we’ve done”.’

And now that plan can be achieved. Bromley are perched atop League Two, five points clear of Notts County after going to Gillingham last weekend and thrashing them 4-1.

It surely can’t continue, rival fans across the division argue almost every week. Yet, these Ravens continue to soar, even after setbacks. They’ve not lost a game since November 29. 

They are now, undoubtedly, the envy of the league. But when Woodman, armed with just 18 games of managerial experience at National League South side Whitehawk in 2017, rocked up at Hayes Lane, no one was anticipating this.

Though if you dig a little deeper, the seeds of a budding manager had already been sown. His time at the Hawks was quietly very impressive, having taken the job with the side two points adrift of safety before steering them clear of relegation by seven.

It was then Arsenal came calling, where he joined Arsene Wenger at the Emirates, initially with the U23 squad, and would go on to work with Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta.

‘I jumped at the chance to work at Arsenal,’ Woodman tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘It was about upskilling myself a little bit, not just in goalkeeping, but how the top end worked, because they’re the very, very top end.

‘It was good for me. I didn’t have any aspirations at that point to be a manager again. I was quite happy with the job and the role I had. But like everything, an opportunity came up.

‘When I got offered the job at Bromley, everyone thought I was absolutely crazy leaving Arsenal to be manager of a non-League team, but I just felt it was probably the last chance I had.’

Woodman made an instant impact at the Ravens, guiding them to the play-offs in his first season despite only arriving in March, before losing to eventual promotion winners Hartlepool.

But it was the following year that the Bromley boss and his side shared a watershed moment, when they beat Wrexham 1-0 in the FA Trophy final. He now credits that with building ‘muscle memory’ for his side to go and win again at Wembley in May 2024 in the National League play-off final against Solihull Moors on penalties.

Woodman leans on his experiences gained from the coaches he worked with. From Pardew to Wenger, Arteta and Emery, he has no shortage of footballing brains to pick.

Another one, Gareth Southgate, is the godfather to his son, the Liverpool goalkeeper Freddie. Woodman was the ex-England manager’s best man at his wedding in 1997, after their friendship blossomed during their time together as Crystal Palace academy graduates.

And while the Bromley boss takes ‘loads’ from each of them, the togetherness he has fostered at the club is clearly sculpted in his own image.

Speaking with Daily Mail Sport last February, former Ravens chief executive Mark Hammond told how Woodman had made it mandatory for the squad to go to Nando’s the night before away games. The red-faced players – particularly any new signings – would always be encouraged to start singing, too. 

‘We still do it,’ Woodman laughs. ‘Not always, but we do. It really brought the group together. We do loads of things. We have a go karting day, the boys have days out, we’ve got a really tight group of players. I’m really big on that.

‘But Nando’s was a brilliant thing. We had a sing-song when the new guys would come in. We had the whole place singing and dancing with us.

‘It was bizarre but I wouldn’t change any of it. That was all part of our progression out the league.’

And how well they are doing now. Not only are the Ravens flying high in the league, they are becoming a tricky opponent in knockout competitions too.

Bromley, for a long time, would have been a desired cup draw. A small, recently renovated ground with a nice playing surface, and no major history of taking scalps. And a chance for visiting fans to tick off one of the 92.

Under Woodman, however, they took the lead away to Newcastle in the FA Cup last season and beat Championship high-flyers Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup on penalties at the start of this campaign.

The highs are euphoric, Woodman can’t deny that, but somewhat against the grain, he admits he was glad to see his side knocked out of both competitions this season.

‘Your club, your owner, your fans, they want you to get through the Cup, and I understand that. And when you have a day out in Newcastle, I wouldn’t change that for the world, I really wouldn’t,’ he says. 

‘But when you’ve got a small squad, a small budget, and players that never play at that level, it’s their big day to get all their family there and it takes away from all the other games around it.

‘Then you get injuries, and all of those things that fans and people don’t worry about. So weirdly, when we went out of the Cup this year, I was quite happy. I didn’t make it public, but I was genuinely quite happy.’

Thankfully for the Bromley boss, the theatre of the winter transfer window is now over, and his side now just have their league affairs to focus on.

They are English football’s set-piece kings, having scored more than anyone in the EFL and the Premier League – yes, including Arsenal – since the start of last season, but the reality is that their goals are coming from all over the park.

Still, Woodman is keen to take any external pressure off his side.

‘No one expects us to be at the top. No one expects us to be where we are. Only we did,’ he explains. ‘The only pressure we’ve got is the pressure we’ve created on ourselves. Nothing’s changed for us. We’ve just got to make sure we keep being the best version of ourselves.’

Sources previously told Daily Mail Sport how highly Woodman is regarded from admirers in the game. And, should he lead Bromley into League One, he will surely become one of the EFL’s most sought-after managers.

‘Of course I want to manage at a high level,’ Woodman admits. ‘I want to go up in the leagues. But all of that takes care of itself if I keep doing well with Bromley, which is my main focus.

‘If I get Bromley promoted or even if I don’t, I think there will be people looking at my resume thinking, “this guy has got something going on here”.

‘But that’s all out of my control. I’m not chasing that. I’m going to just let my results do the talking and see where it takes me. 

‘I want to change the narrative of Andy Woodman being the fun character around the training ground to this serious manager that takes his job seriously and knows what he’s doing.’

At this stage, there is no denying that he is going the right way about that.

Bassett’s unique Watford exit

Javi Gracia became the latest manager to depart Watford last week, but spare a thought for the rather unique way iconic boss Dave Bassett lost his job at Vicarage Road back in January 1988.

After a slew of players were sold the previous summer, Watford were struggling in the First Division and their luck was out when they lost 1-0 to Manchester United despite dominating much of the game, with Sir Alex Ferguson expressing his apologies to Bassett following the match. 

The 81-year-old was sacked a few weeks later, and he recounted the strange nature of his dismissal under then-Watford chairman Elton John when speaking to new podcast SACKED! this week. 

He said: ‘I went home and I was due to have dinner with my father-in-law and mother-in-law. I got in and all of a sudden the phone rang and Elton said, a bit like the Mafia: “Derek’s on his way round to pick you up” because John Reid, his agent, lived not far from me. 

‘He has come round and said we’ve got to have a chat. So I knew, I just said: “well, you know, this is it”.

‘So I went to John Reid’s house and he [Elton] just put his arms around me and said: “God, we were so unlucky today, Tony Agana was superb” and everything else and he just said: “Look, you know… I’m going to have to do the business. You know I’m in a situation where it is. I feel the directors of the club have been horrible to you and your missus”. 

‘He said: “You know, we’re going to have to do it’” And I said: “Yeah, I understand that” and he said we are going to have to do it and: “well, come on, we’re going to have a good drink”. And we did, got a bit inebriated and that was it.

‘But he didn’t want me to do it (leave) then because they were playing Hull in the FA Cup on the Saturday. But not only did I get my contract paid to some extent, Elton bought a car – which was Graham Taylor’s Jaguar – and gave that to me. He also paid for me, Chris and the girls to go to California for two weeks and he paid for the whole lot, every penny of it. 

‘He said he was sorry for the way I was treated and that was part and parcel. So I couldn’t complain because I was looked after very well and he did it right, you know, the way that he did it.’