UK Edition
Tom Cleverley exclusive: Why I was right to leave Manchester United and Everton
Tom Cleverley draws a distinction between being a footballer and playing football. The first means little; the second means everything.
“I just want to play,” he says. “I want to play in the Premier League, the best league. And there’s nothing like having that 90 minutes of high-intensity football, winning, and enjoying your week. You have to be out there.
“Training six days a week and not having that buzz of a Saturday is really, really tough. You ask any player. And especially if you have trained well and you’ve got no chance of getting into the team. Luckily, I’ve not had many months of that in my career but towards the end at Everton it was a bit like that.”
He also had it at the end of his time with Manchester United. But Cleverley wanted to play – had to play - and that joy of playing is back, courtesy of turning last season's successful loan move to Watford into a permanent £8 million deal, on a five-year contract, this summer.
The move was triggered after Cleverley made a certain number of appearances – “that was always my target” - and the length of that contract appears significant. It will, the midfielder argues, give him the stability he needs in order for him to prove himself. "I was just so happy to get the opportunity to play regularly again,” he admits.
Moving to Watford is also significant. It is where Cleverley played some of the best football of his career during a season-long loan from United in 2009. He was named the club's Player of the Year.
“I liked it here and had good memories,” he says. “That season gave me a kick-start into senior football but it’s obviously changed a lot. Then it was a mid-table Championship side and now it’s an ambitious Premier League club. So it feels a lot different; not only the personnel but the mentality.
“It didn’t take much selling. It all happened within two, three hours and I was telling my missus that I was packing up and going to Hertfordshire that night. It was quick. But she was ok with it, she’s a southerner! But she also knows that when I am playing I am much happier.”
And Cleverley is certainly happy. It is not that long ago that he was a regular for United and for England, showing form that had Ferguson declaring he was “potentially the best midfielder in Britain”. He played Champions League football and collected a Premier League winner's medal at Old Trafford, having joined from Bradford City aged 12.
Then it fell apart. Ferguson retired, David Moyes succeeded him, and Cleverley became the focus of fan frustration. “With Sir Alex leaving that was not great timing for me as I was playing well under him. Then you look at the start of the Moyes season and it was such a tough run of fixtures for a manager to come into and it just snowballed from there,” Cleverley explains. “Not just for myself but for the whole club, really. We were mid-table after five or six games and the pressure started to mount. We lost a couple of big figures on the playing side and it became a very tough season for everyone.
“I’m fine with it now. To leave United at the time I did was the best for my career. I’ve had great memories: Aston Villa went to a FA Cup Final, Everton also went to Wembley and it was great playing for such historic clubs. And now I am at Watford, a place I really love playing and I see myself here for a number of years.”
Moyes’ successor, Louis Van Gaal, let him go and Cleverley had a similar experience at Everton – who he signed for permanently in July 2015 after a loan at Villa – with Ronald Koeman when he took over from Roberto Martinez.
“The lucky thing I have had is that I’ve had two managers who were totally direct with me - Van Gaal and Koeman,” Cleverley says. “They just said my opportunities were going to be limited. And that’s enough for me to hear. As a player you want a manager to be honest with you rather than dangling a carrot that’s not there so they were both brilliant and both gave me the chance to leave.”
It was, nevertheless, tough to quit United, in particular. “I was there for 12 years of my life. It’s hard but I am realistic. I sort of saw it was coming,” Cleverley adds. “The timing was right at both times when I have left the clubs I have. As soon as I get out of the team I want to move on and play. That’s why I’ve played for a few clubs because I just want to play football.”
He is doing that at Watford, and he chuckles as he refers to himself, now 28, as “an older head”. His contribution is certainly valued by the club’s new head coach, Marco Silva, who hails the way Cleverley helps knit the team together.
Cleverley is excited by the club’s recruitment – Andre Gray, Richarlison, Nathaniel Chalobah, Will Hughes, Kiko Femenia – and relishes the responsibility he has been given. “I am not a shouter or a screamer but I have to be a voice on the pitch,” he says. Watford have also made a good start to the league campaign, drawing against Liverpool, winning at Bournemouth and with a home fixture with newly-promoted Brighton today on Saturday.
“With the stakes of the Premier League now you’ve got to get to 40 points but I really feel we’ve got the squad and the manager to go for a top-10 finish,” Cleverley says. “If we weren’t to do that while I’m at this club then I would feel disappointed.”
And beyond that? “Coming here is what I needed. I have good memories of this club and I want to create more,” Cleverley says. “I’d also like to keep proving a few people wrong. I’d still like to win more trophies so I’d like to think I am going again and I’m going to be successful.”