Part three of the interview with Southend Utd Assistant Manager Darren Currie who talks about his time joining the Shrimpers and a what if from his time at Barnet.
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TK: When Phil Brown did get the sack earlier this season it wouldn’t have been a surprise to many to see you linked with the job having been previously, did you apply for the top job?
DC: Yes, I did apply for the manager’s job, did get interviewed but Kevin (Maher) got the job and then the conversation moved onto whether I would want to be his number two and I had no problem with that knowing Kevin as I do.
We had a long conversation and it was clear from that we shared the same beliefs on the game so I was more than happy to come on board as his assistant.
TK: Having seen what’s happened to Southend over the past couple of years and like Chesterfield suffered a bit of freefall into non-league, what was it like when the three of you arrived at the club?
DC: You have to imagine that for me being out of the game for a year I’m like a kid in a sweet shop regardless! I was full of beans, couldn’t wait to get in, back coaching, back on the grass. But what I came into was an environment that saddened me, I know the club had been through some tough times but it shocked me, I know we’ve all been in some hard places in life but the mood was so low it was unbelievable.
We knew straight away that was the first thing we needed to change so that people were happy coming into to work, without a doubt the biggest challenge. What was important was that Kevin’s message never changed, it was the same when we started off with losses and then when we started winning games.
You know what I was like at Barnet, I was big on building relationships especially with fans and we know have them backing us, the team has improved from when we came in, it feels a more positive place.
TK: What I do like is the dynamic of the three of you, Kevin having done League One and Two, yourself the National League and Benno (Mark Bentley) Step 3 and 4, in terms of recruitment you’ve got it all covered not to mention John Still of course.
DC: You live and die by your recruitment; we can talk about that at any level from the top to the bottom. We had a list of about 50 names on a board, we went out watching games, including Stilly and Stan Collymore.
The club came out of the embargo and gave us the opportunity to sign 2-3 players and so far the recruitment has been pretty spot on. They’ve all contributed and made us better, but it’s not just been those coming in we’ve moved others out on loan who needed to play football which has helped them.
TK: I think what surprised a few was how quickly results started to turn around when initially it didn’t seem like it would happen.
DC: Clubs do get a new manager bounce; you see that if they’ve had a rough few months. This club has had a rough three years and that bounce wasn’t going to be immediate especially given what we walked into on day one.
But we did get there and went on that great unbeaten run that showed things were changing in the football club, play-off talk was a bit premature but that showed the strides we’d made in a short space of time.
TK: With that in mind, will it increase expectation massively for next season?
DC: Oh, without a doubt and rightly so. It’s a big club at this level and the fanbase too, we’ve been getting 8,000 fans on a Tuesday night and that’s with us being in the middle of the league.
If we recruit well over the summer and start well, then that becomes 9-10,000 and the conversation becomes about keeping momentum.
TK: We’ll touch a bit on Barnet, and I know earlier you said no regrets on making the decision you did to leave The Hive, hypothetically had you stayed we knew the squad was going to be broken up and recruitment would have needed to have been done differently plus with covid, would that have appealed to you?
DC: We could have kept quite a few of those players, this theory out there that all or nearly all of them were moving on isn’t entire true, the fresh terms they were offered wasn’t what they wanted and that’s part and parcel of any club, I was confident along with Junior that with the right backing we could have built a side no problem, credit to who I’m working for now have backed us to do that.
If I felt we were going to be backed they yes I would have been very interested in that kind of situation but that didn’t feel like the kind of conversation I’d had.
TK: I don’t want to delve too far into it as you’re now attached to another National League club.
DC: One day we’ll have the conversation and get the harsh facts out there, I will get it off my chest when the time is right but it’s not the time to do that now, I do however want my side of the story being given.
My thanks as always to Darren for his time, which in three parts has brought us up to date with where his career is now.
