FEATURE and Q&A: Curle talks progress, mentality, success, regrets and a club heading in one direction as he celebrates two years as Cobblers boss

And he knew he had a huge job on his hands.

After close to two years of struggle on on-field underachievement, Dean Austin had become the latest in a string of managers to be relieved of his duties.

Rob Page, Justin Edinburgh, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Austin had all tried and failed to first maintain and then latterly rekindle the success the Cobblers had enjoyed under Chris Wilder in 2015-16.

Austin had neen handed the job only a few months previous after an encouraging caretaker stint following the Easter Monday sacking of Hasselbaink in the wake of a 2-0 derby defeat to Peterborough United.

But he couldn't stop the team from being relegated from Sky Bet League One, and 10 games into the league two season, the Cobblers were in a downward spiral and in a mess, with the final straw for Austin being a 4-0 humiliation for his dispirited side at Mansfield Town.

Myself and other members of the local media were called to Sixfields for a meeting with Kelvin Thomas on the Monday morning, and he outlined his intention to bring in, and I won't use the actual terminology he used, a manager with a hardline attitude, who wouldn't take any nonsense, was willing to shake up the squad, and was totally single-minded.

A few hours later, Curle was the man named the new Cobblers boss, and on his first day in charge the former Carlisle United boss was in the dugout at the PTS, taking charge of his new team, having only briefly met the players, as they battled out a 0-0 draw with Bury.

It has proven to be a good move by Thomas. Comfortably his best managerial appointment in his time as chairman.

In the past 24 months, Curle has quite simply transformed the Cobblers, both on and off the field.

He dismantled the squad he inherited, offloading a string of highly-paid players who had been signed on the promise of money from 5USports investment from China.

Money that never came.

But it was a case evolution rather than revolution as Curle, as players were allowed to leave when it suited him and the club.

Operating with a still competitive but decreasing budget, he set about building another squad that was ultimately good enough to claim promotion via the play-offs last season.

Along the way he had shown his ruthless streak and had run the risk of upsetting sections of the support with the release of a few club legends and fans' favourites, but he has done everything with the good of the club at heart.

And he hasn't stopped yet.

Curle is in the process of freshening things up again as the Cobblers resume life in the third tier of English football, and as he enters his third year at the helm at the PTS the team are 10th in league one after the opening three games of the campaign.

There is still criticism of the team's style of play, that they are too direct, too physical, and not easy enough on the eye.

And it is true that when the team doesn't quite get things right, it can sometimes be an ugly spectacle.

But in terms of results, Curle can only be applauded for lifting the team from where they were when he took over - which was a lowly 21st in league two.

And also for securing only the club's second ever win at Wembley in June, a night when nobody was complaining about how the team performed.

Because on that night they got everything right, and they were sensational.

Of course, nobody knows what will happen in the future, and for how much longer Curle will be the manager of the Cobblers.

But his first two years in charge have, for many reasons, been pretty impressive, he has transformed the fortunes and outlook of the club, and every Town fan should appreciate that.

To mark his second anniversary of taking charge at the Cobblers, we we sat down with Curle to discuss his first two years in charge of the Cobblers.

The Town boss discussed changing the mentality of the squad, the club's impressive infrastructure, his and the team's success, a minor regret, a minor frustration, and what has impressed him most about Northampton Town Football Club...

Q - The two years have gone very quickly, and a lot has changed since that first night when you took charge of your first game - a 0-0 draw with Bury...

KC: "It is fair to say that within the football department there has been wholesale changes, not only in personnel, but also in mentality within the group.

"One of the first things I was responsible for was identifying that the group mentality needed to change, they needed to be a closer knit group of players with a combined work ethic that was geared to performances.

"That is an environment for the players to work in, which needs a structure, needs the foundations, and needs discipline and guidelines.

"Then you can create an environment whereby they understand and are accountable for themselves individually and collectively.

"And that's not just about performances on the pitch, but also how they conduct themselves in the environment we try to create for them."

Q - As a manager, you have been used to going into struggling clubs and turning them around, but it seems to have happened quicker at the Cobblers. You have mentioned previously, that you think that is down to everybody at the club being on the same page...

"There is a good infrastructure at this football club.

"At certain other football clubs, for me to influence the decision makers has been more difficult

"Most football clubs will have a business equation that they work to, and a lot of it is about cost and savings.

"What I try and bring to the argument is that there has got to be value added into equation, and the infrastructure at this football club have bought into that very quickly.

"Some things have cost money, some players have cost money, but in my opinion they bring value to the club rather than just going out and saying 'let's get lots of cheaper players'.

"Well, no, sometimes we need to get players in that, yes they may be expensive now, but down the road they will have a cost and a value to the football club that can increase and be seen to be very profitable.

"Being able to have those conversations, and talk to people that listen to you and buy into you gives you a good head start.

"Lots of clubs in league one and two will run on 'where can we make savings, and how can we cut costs?' And they want to be successful as well.

"Well you need to be able to add value into that equation as well.

"If I can get something cheaper, then I will, but sometimes you have to pay the going rate, and sometimes a bit more than the going rate, if you believe it is going to add value.

"The football club have listened to my side, and some of the proposals I have put forward, and having that listening ear, and people making decisions that buy into what you have done previously makes my job easier.

"It is vitally important, and that's why the time here has flown by so quickly, because there has been a lot of changes, but we have been doing in step, in unison, and that unity comes from the top, it comes from the decision makers

"They have got to believe you are making strides in the right direction and that has made it an easier journey.

"Their are excellent lines of communication at this club, from the owners, to the chairman, the secretary, the CEO.

"We don't have structured meetings here as such, because we have 24-hour communication, my phone is on 24 hours a day as is theirs.

I know I can get a problem sorted out, or I can get an answer within two minutes of it arising, because I have the contact with the people who make the decisions."

Q - Has it gone better than you imagined it would during your two years in charge?

"I still think we could have made the play-offs in the first year.

"I think the definining game was the Cheltenham away game (Cobblers lost 3-1) where we might have been five or six points off the play-offs, but we had a bank of games coming up where I thought we could do well.

"It started with Cheltenham and then I think we had Port Vale at home (Town lost 2-1), and they were two games in my mind that we could have won, and if we had we would have been in very handily place just outside the play-offs.

"But that is being hyper enthusiastic about the first year, but we ended up finishing comfortable in the division which was the remit first of all, with some foundations in place that were going to give us a good platform to build off.

"We also had Charlie Goode come in, and he went from being a loan player to being our player, and his emergence and how he progressed is testament to the environment we have created."

Q - Has there been any surprises?

"As a manager you walk in, and the first people you deal with are the players, and that is an environment I am used to and I enjoy.

"The next part is you need to find out about the underbelly of the football club, the DNA of the club, and that is probably the one thing that has impressed me the most.

"Everybody is walking in the same direction, there are no hidden agendas, there is nobody who has got ulterior motives going on behind the scenes.

"It is a football club that is very honest, very transparent and very good at communicating.

"That gives you a fantastic start point when you walk in, knowing that if you need something then you know who to go to, who to ask, and you get the right answer."

Q - Has there been anything about your time at the helm that has been a disappointment?

"The only disappointment I have got is the lack of contact time that the first team group have with the youth department, because we are training on different sites.

"I like to have one eye on the youth team, but unfotunately at the moment with the two trainings sites that can't happen as often as I would like it to.

"I don't see the young players or the young coaches enough on a daily basis, to just be that sounding board for them, but also for me have the chance to scan my eye over players that have got a chance.

"I would like to monitor their progress more closely, because I like watching the young, developing players."

Q - Is anything being done to rectify that situation?

"It is something we had plans for last season.

"Up at Moulton at the training ground, we are trying to move what we have created here at the stadium over to there.

"But there are various issues, and certain logistics meant we couldn't things put in place in time for us to get the pitches up to the level we need.

"What we didn't want to was move the changing room, the medical department, the gym, the food, the restaurant, the kit department, move it all up there and the pitches then not be at a suitable level whereby we could train.

"It was a case of there is no point moving that to Moulton and then us training at the stadium, so it was a case of getting the timing right.

"We were trying to gear all that up for this season, and then obviously Covid had its way and everything has had to be put back.

"The club are aware of it, and they know that ideally I would like us all to be encompassed on one working site, and that's not only for the players, but also for the coaching development.

"I want to be around the coaches to help nurture and be a sounding board for them because I love talking about football.

"There is nothing better if you go in to a coaching room, and they could be from any level, and getting different ideas on football.

"It's an environment you want to be involved in, because you want to be around football people."

KEITH CURLE'S COBBLERS MANAGERIAL RECORD

Matches in charge: 97

Wins: 40

Draws: 26

Defeats: 31

Win ratio: 41 per cent

(The club's previous 97 matches prior to Curle's arrival saw them win 22, draw 25 and lose 50 times - a win ratio of 22 per cent)

ALSO...

In 2019/20 the club enjoyed its best FA Cup run for 16 years

The club received a record fee for a player (Charlie Goode)

There have been 113 first team appearances from academy or education programme players in his 97 games. There were fewer than 40 in the 97 games before his arrival

First team selected by Keith Curle for the Cobblers (0-0 v Bury, Oct 1, 2018): Cornell, Facey, Barnett, Taylor, Pierre, Foley, D Powell, O'Toole,Crooks, Hoskins, A Williams. Subs used: van Veen, Bowditch, Waters. Unused: Ward, Buchanan, Turnbull, Bridge

Most recent team selected by Keith Curle (0-2 v Hull City, Sept 26, 2020): Arnold, Marshall, Racic, Bolger, Martin, Mills, Watson, Missilou, Hoskins, Warburton, Smith. Used subs: Nuttall, Chukwuemeka, Adams. Unused: Lines, Mitchell, Harriman, Roberts.