It is a usually overcast Bengaluru afternoon. One can sense the start of a light drizzle, but it is never quite there. Since it is the weekend, the city is slower, calmer and cooler. India’s IT hub goes into a shell during the weekends, with people preferring to stay at home instead of throwing themselves into the chaos of the weekdays.
By now, Phelan is not indifferent to the typical Bengaluru weather. He grew up in Salford, a part of Greater Manchester which is known for many wet days across the year. He had spells with Manchester City, Chelsea, Leeds United and Wimbledon and his incredible journey now finds him in the south of India.
Phelan meets Flashscore near the base of South United Football Club, a regional club that the ex-defender played a part in building from the bottom. The setup has lush training grounds, turfs and an academy which has been quite revolutionary in the city and for the club.
Recalling how things were in the early days, he says: “It was gravel when I joined. There was nothing at all. (Club owner and director) Mr Sharan Parikh was there, asked me to see what they were building.
“I will always love this place and it gave me a real start in Bengaluru and I'm still here.”
Humble beginnings
Phelan is quick to point out that while growing up in Salford, he never expected himself to come this far - in life and in the world.
He looks back on his upbringing and recounts his days as a kid who wouldn't sit still without a football. Be it the streets or the schools, that connection always lingered.
“Back in my days growing up in the streets of England and Ireland, it was all about football. Football was always around you, it was a key part of your life as a young male or female.
“I'd dribble the ball to school, play in the playground, dribble it back home, play before the 5pm teatime and go back out again. It was an era where we just loved playing.”
Now 59, Phelan reveals how this left him and his friends imagining themselves playing at the highest stage. They had no one to tell them how to play and this working-class self-reliance made them learn the art differently from how things are now.
“In those days, you had a road and a curb and a brick wall. A goal used to be drawn on the brick wall and that inspired us to be able to go out as an individual and work on yourself.
“Your teammates would join when there was a game at Wembley or the World Cup or the FA Cup. Then, we'd pick teams that we wanted, pick players and be specific players - someone like Kenny Dalglish back in those days.”
Access to the sport was limited then and sometimes, playing at the highest level looked like a step too far. All Phelan dreamt about was playing but he wasn't bothered about the level he would play at.
Humble beginnings also meant that playing on the green was a bit of a luxury that he still cherishes.
With a glint in his eyes, Phelan says: “I remember days when we wanted to play a World Cup and wanted to play on grass. We used to have bowling greens and they were three kilometres away.
“We used to have scaffolding, we used to carry it, about 10 of us, we would set it up and have a game there. It was like real life, put boots on. We'd then put it back and do it again the following Sunday.”
At the same time, nothing would beat playing in the mud and school football in England back then allowed exactly that.
“I used to love playing school football. A muddy Wednesday down somewhere in Littleton Road. There were marshes, but I'd love it. Socks down, skipping around players and I fell in love with it and it became a dream.”
Phelan tells Flashscore about how the scouting system of clubs was closely linked to schools in those days. That helped English football produce one of the greatest teams in history.
Now an acute observer of youth football and sports development, he is awed by how things worked.
“That is how a lot of players are picked up. If you go back to the Sir Alex era, he got the Beckhams, the Neville brothers, Scholes and Giggs from schools. He went around a six-to eight-mile radius, tapped into schools and had his own scouting system.”
This, in a way, helped him catch the attention from many top sides at a young age. Salford's proximity to Manchester United, Manchester City and Leeds United also helped, but Phelan makes it clear that so much of it was down to his own growth mindset.
“Not everyone cuts it at the top level. You might make it but not at the top level. I wasn't the biggest guy but I feel I had the growth mindset. I used to do things on my own, I'd do running, go the gym and loved the Olympics and athletics.”
Recounting which clubs came calling for him at a tender age, he says: “The first club that came to look at me was Manchester City. I could've signed for them as a 12-year-old. I opted not to and went to Leeds. Besides City, Liverpool, Everton, Coventry City, Birmingham, Oldham were interested.”
The former Ireland man credits street football for being able to play with senior players.
“I opted to not go to Manchester United, went for trials at City and I was 13 and playing with 16-year-olds and I could handle it. That is all I wanted to do and had been doing on the street.”
Ideally, the Manchester City fan in Phelan would have made the decision to join the Citizens. But he picked Leeds United instead, putting footballing logic over the emotional connection with the Eastlands side.
He explains his decision and how it helped his development.
“I was catapulted to Leeds, I left home and went there. They had dropped into the second division. Manchester City were in the old First Division and spending quite a bit of money. I thought I might not get a game. The chief scout at Leeds guaranteed I'd soon play for the first team if I chose them.”
Leeds 'catapult'
The jump to another city at a very young age wasn't easy, though. Despite the struggle, Terry started enjoying the process that led him to making his Whites debut.
“I was catapulted as soon as I went, went to digs, hated the schools there because they didn't have a team. They then started homeschooling me and told me that I'd come down to the ground, be around the first-team and reserves.”
Soon, young Phelan was awestruck by the characters around him.
“I just fell in love with it and saw these players come in. Eddie Gray was the manager, Alan Clarke brought me to Leeds, Eddie gave me my debut. Peter Barnes, Kenny Burns, Arthur Graham, Peter Lorimer were all there.”
At one point, the then-youngster only dreamt of being around the Reserves side. But he was constantly around the first-team, enthusiastically often doing tasks for senior players that would now be considered menial. But all this was building up into something positive.
Describing the experience, Phelan says: “I was travelling with the team as an apprentice, giving cups of tea out, being a butler or a man-trolley. The chef would give me the food and I'd give it to the players.
“That was a grounding, built up my social skills, cleaning the dressing rooms, cleaning the 50k seater stadiums. Cleaning boots and balls, that grounded us. If we didn't do that, we wouldn't make it. Then, that was your leadership role.”
A first-team debut at only 15 didn't faze young Phelan. It did come as a shock but he was well-equipped to handle a game against Wolves at Molineux.
“But when I was 15, I was catapulted into the first-team at Molineux against Wolves. I remember Eddie Gray saying, 'Wee man, are you ready to come on?'
“And I'm like, 'What?'
“He said, 'Go on, there's 20 minutes for you'
“Look at the size of me, but I loved every second of it. But I could handle it with men. That is the passion which still grows in me and it is still embedded. But it is embedded all across Europe.”
Destiny had other plans for Phelan when he was released by Leeds in 1986 and a move to Swansea City came around. It did come as a shock to him, but he points out the Whites’ connection that followed him throughout his playing career - even at Wimbledon.
“Alan Clarke signed me for Leeds, Eddie Gray gave me my debut, Billy Brenner released me, Terry Yorath got me to Swansea. I got catapulted into Wimbledon.”
The spell with the Crazy Gang was arguably the most enjoyable of the ex-left back's career. The historic Wimbledon side that also won the 1988 FA Cup was infamous for playing a very direct brand of football, but Phelan believes there was a method to the madness.
“For six months at Wimbledon, I didn't know what was going on. It was crazy but what a group of gentlemen.”
Describing the team's plan, he fondly remembers: “We didn't get a lot of credit. Everything on the pitch was triggered, it wasn't ‘boom’, it was triggered.
“I come from a culture of smaller passes. But at Wimbledon, it was different, we didn't play balls into midfield. But everything was triggered, there was a methodology to it. We knew what we were doing.”
Phelan recalls how the FA Cup win in ‘88 was a dream come true for a player whose earliest memories of the competition go back to 1976. Southampton beat Manchester United in the final, leaving a very young City fan in Phelan overjoyed.
Ireland calling
But the triumph in ‘88 really helped the former defender attract global attention.
That is when the Ireland national team came calling. He looks back on how he nearly missed out on the call-up because of the Crazy Gang and their reputation for pulling pranks.
“There was once a phone call and at Wimbledon, they used to play a lot of pranks. One was the phone call prank. They used to pretend to be a reporter. If we played a game on Saturday, they'd ring us up and say ‘Terry, how do you think the game was and how Dennis Wise or Vinny Jones was?’”
Delving into the incident, he says: “So a phone rang one day. The other person went, ‘Is this mister Terry. You play for Wimbledon’. I'm thinking this is Vinny Jones or Dennis Wise here or one of the lads playing a prank.
“I went, ‘Yes’. The voice said, ‘This is Maurice Setters from the Ireland national team, I’m the assistant manager, we want you to join the squad on Monday, we'll have tickets, come to Ireland, great’.
“I put the phone down. It rang again. He went, ‘Hello, this is Maurice Setters, assistant manager to Jack Charlton for Ireland.’
“I'm like, ‘No, I'm not buying it Vinnie’. I put the phone down again.
“The phone rings again. He says, ‘Mr Phelan, it is me. This is Maurice Setters from the Irish national team, we want you on the plane on Monday to play against Hungary against week. If you put the phone down, I won't ring down again.’
“I said, ‘Is this really you, Maurice?’ He said yes. If I put the phone down, I wouldn't have played for my country. I made my debut against Hungary.”
Phelan still can't stop himself from having a good laugh about it. But he recounts the Ireland experience, appearing fascinated by the players he was surrounded by.
“The lads around were Mick McCarthy, Paul McGrath, Kevin Moran, Denis Irwin, Niall Quinn, John Aldridge, Tony Cascarino was there, Roy Keane was there. I'm like, my word, look who's around me.
“We went to the World Cup and now I'm getting goosebumps,” he says, pointing to his arm.
Phelan is still in awe of how his career panned out. He is keen to point out how far he had come from being once released by his first club.
“I walked out in front of the 100k people at the giant stadium at the 1994 World Cup.
“Don't forget, I got released when I was 19. Played in the FA Cup final and I was now playing in the World Cup, in the space of six years.”
It was only Ireland's second appearance at a World Cup and they were handed a stiff task of beating the legendary Italian side in the opening game.
Phelan, who started the game, details how manager Jack Charlton wanted the side to be set up.
“Lining up against the Italians and you're looking across at Baggio, Baresi, Maldini, Costacurta, Albertini, Donadoni. You're thinking - ‘my word’.
“We knew what we were capable of doing. It was in New Jersey, it was the opening game. They talk about formations now. Jack was like, guys, out of possession, 4-5-1, don't let them come through the middle, don't let Baggio pick it up in Zone 14.
“We made sure we had the blocker in there, let them go into wide areas, me and Denis Irwin would handle it there. We did on numerous occasions.”
The plan worked as Charlton's side ran out 1-0 winners, with Ray Houghton scoring within the first 15 minutes.
“You watch the famous goal and you can see my face. Ball comes across, pumped up to Tommy Coyne after a poor clearance from Baresi. Ray gets onto it, lobs it, does the cartwheel, I have a face which says ‘I can't believe it’.”
Describing his lingering disbelief, he says: “I was watching the 1978 World Cup and I'm in the World Cup finals in 1994, it is the first game of the WC, we scored against the favourites, winning 1-0. I was dreaming, I had to pinch myself. I still do it to this day, I get goose pimples.”
That turned out to be one of the highlights of Phelan's career, which saw him join his boyhood Manchester City in 1992.
By then, he had attracted interest from Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool and many other big clubs. It was Barcelona that caught Phelan's fancy and he was desperate for a move.
Detailing how the saga panned out, he recalls: “Barcelona wanted to pay £1.5m. Sam Hammam at Wimbledon wanted £2.5m. I was like, let me go to Barcelona. He said Cruyff won't pay the amount. Peter Reid then came in at Man City, starting building and it was great. I was a boy from the streets of Salford who was doing all that.”
Shaping the future
After spells at Chelsea, Fulham, Crystal Palace and Sheffield United, Phelan made the decision to move to the United States in 2001. That was a choice which turned his life around and led to where he finds himself in India right now.
Strangely, he was quite hesitant to pursue coaching at first. But that changed.
“When I went to America, I played for Charleston Battery, it was a great little place. They had eight months on and three or three months off. After a point, they were like, ‘Terry, do you want to do coaching?’
“This was 2001 or 2002. But I was a quiet lad, never vocal on and off the pitch. I was shy. I thought coaching wasn't for me because I was shy. I found out you don't need a degree and be you, work with age groups, you still need to have that love of the game in you because you're working with human beings. I won't expect them to be like me and I found that out quite early.”
Soon, his perception changed. Phelan began enjoying coaching and found joy in helping kids achieve their dreams.
“Then I started doing some coaching, did some for colleges and I started enjoying it. I enjoyed being around people who were happy as I was as a young boy. I started travelling soon, set up One on One Soccer with my business partner Todd Hafford, who was the reserves team goalkeeper at Charleston. I travelled across America, got students scholarships.”
This is when a chance to go to New Zealand popped up for him. Despite knowing that it would be a huge jump, he agreed to move because of his pure love for the sport.
“A friend of mine asked if I fancied coming to New Zealand. I was like ‘really?’
“I knew nothing about it. It was a cultural shock. I thought it was football, something I love doing.”
This saw him move to Otago United and Phelan has no regrets about how things turned out. In fact, it shaped him into what he is now.
“It gave me life skills about people, how they act, how semi-pro works, how professional works. I thought I can't go there and be a top professional and I have to give in and take, we did that and did wonderfully well.”
This allowed Phelan to work in the grassroots of the sport in New Zealand. In a way, he helped lay down the foundation for making sure the nation plays at the World Cup regularly. There was a development plan in place for players to grow through the system.
“From there, it was six and a half years, developing players, national development centres across New Zealand, one in Auckland, one in Christchurch, in Wellington, and all the major cities, where they filter kids, track them through clubs and sent them up.
“We gave the coaches an idea of what the setup was like. We had skill centres, development centres and it was all connected to the top.”
Phelan reveals Indian football needs something similar, but it hasn't been accepted at a national level. The nation's footballing problems have been gruelling for decades now, but this didn't stop Phelan from taking it up as a challenge after he finished his spell in New Zealand.
He saw the problems from up close quite early on.
“I dropped into India, came to Goa, it was a residential academy. I remember the president asked me to have a look around. I started improving things but some people were set in their ways. I thought, this will be a problem.”
Phelan believes Indian football has an obsession with the end product and not the process. He noticed this during his time in Goa.
“I tried to send one boy to the U17s, they were like ‘no’ because the mindset of those in his team was ‘who will score goals for us?’
“It was the end product. The goal should be to send him up.”
Soon, Phelan travelled across Europe, looked at academies closely, watched more of the game in England and soon, he was invited to cover the 2014 World Cup as an expert in India. Little did he know that this would bring about another opportunity to work in Indian football.
“It was me and Trevor Morgan. I'd speak to him a lot. He said he was going to Kerala Blasters as the assistant coach. He asked me if I wanted to go in as technical director and lay down the plan. I said I'd love that.”
Working in the football-loving southern state of Kerala turned out to be exactly what Phelan needed. He could lay down his lessons from New Zealand into practice.
“In 2014, I got things organised, went to Kerala in 2015. I had five centres in Kerala, 850 players and students. We had wonderful coaches who we talked to and they were very open to learning something new. Their mindset was there. In Goa, it was different.”
Phelan then circles back the story to Bengaluru, where he built the South United academy setup from scratch. This gave him the chance to become the Program Director at Jain Sports, where he oversees an elite residential academy and plays a big role in talent scouting.
Even now, the passion hasn't left him. Through Jain Sports, he has identified 20 youngsters for the U12s and aims to catapult them into higher levels. Phelan is grateful for every individual who has helped him through his journey in India. He is seeking to respond by achieving a dream.
“If we can get two players to Europe from Jain, it would be a dream.”
He makes it clear that he wants to pass down his learnings to the young players, who should be allowed to express themselves. His connection to his roots in Salford goes a long way in making sure of that.
“I like doing things that helped me on the street. It is about not overloading kids with information. I want to keep it simple, talking to them. I want them to have fun at this age. It is about guiding them and letting it be student-led rather than coach-led. The main thing is the fundamentals.
“We had fun in the streets at Leeds and at Salford and in Adelphi. That is what it is about.”