Midfield magician

Tuesday December 15, 2009

The subject of today's lesson is business studies, and the teacher is Mr Greening.

Jonathan Greening may be more used to teaching a lesson to opposing defences, but today he is helping take a year nine class from Henry Compton school in Fulham through the DNA of your average company.

This is the first session in what will be a series of tie-ins between Premier League clubs and local schools - adding relevance to what could be a dry textbook subject.

Placed in the context of football, and with a proper qualified teacher in charge, boys of 13 and 14 find it so much easier to take in what jobs like chief executive and marketing manager actually entail - especially with a bit of FFC glamour on hand.

So how did the on-loan midfielder, who admits he 'didn't really do very well in GCSEs', end up at the top of the class? It's simple really.

"They just asked me and I said 'Yes'. I used to do a lot of this at West Brom as well. I think it's a great thing to be involved in," he says.

"When I was a young kid Scarborough were in the Vauxhall Conference, and I remember a couple of players coming to our school to speak to us.

"We were so excited - and that was Conference players. So having Premier League players must be really exciting."

Greening joined Fulham from West Bromwich Albion in August, as part of a season-long loan. The move was not without controversy; the Cottagers had wanted to buy him outright, but the clubs could not agree on a fee.

Greening was taken on approval, and it seems that if it was down to him he'd make the move permanent tomorrow.

"It was definitely time for a new challenge," he says. "I had five years at West Brom, and I'm really enjoying it here - the lads have been great, and there's a really good team spirit. It's a very good family club."

Greening knows all about family. The dad of three ('a nine-year-old girl, a five-year-old boy, and a nearly two-year-old boy... he's just destroying the house') upped sticks to the capital, and now has the kids settled into local schools.

He talks of Fulham as a club with an exciting future, and is a big fan of boss Roy Hodgson and what he has achieved in such a short space of time.

"A couple of years ago [Fulham] were involved in the relegation fight and it was a bit of a great escape," he says.

"It was similar to my first year at West Brom really - where I had a great escape. Everyone thought Fulham were on their way down, and it was an absolute miracle to keep them up.

"Last year they did the unbelievable - to finish seventh and get into Europe. You wouldn't have thought it from the season before that. And he's carried on this year."

Asked how Hodgson has brought about this transformation, Greening says: "I think by giving players self-belief. And by being more tactically aware in shape, with and without the ball.

"I think, having worked in Italy, he's probably got the defensive shape off to a T. We're hard to break down and we're like a strong unit throughout. It was a great year last year, finishing so high, and they just want to have a consistent season, carry on on building, and I think we're on our way to doing that."

He says that Hodgson's age and experience rub off on the team and create a good learning environment for the players; something that a younger manager might perhaps find harder to achieve.

"I think you respect [an older manager] more. It's a bit like having a school headmaster - you don't really want to get in trouble, or anything like that. You try to do everything 100 per cent professionally because you know that's what he'd expect of you."

In fact he thinks so highly of Hodgson that he believes he could still go on to manage England one day ('He's got the knowledge and experience, so why not?').

As with so many players, Greening's strengths have changed as he has matured. As a young lad, his speed and passing ability on the right wing were what convinced Sir Alex Ferguson he was a good enough prospect to poach from third-tier York City.

But in three years at Old Trafford he only made 14 first-team appearances - famously winning a Champions League medal in 1999 despite never kicking a ball in the competition (for which he says he 'felt a bit of a fraud').

Steve McClaren knew the player well, and made him a part of the team he was trying to build at Middlesbrough - eventually earning him a call-up to the England squad (although this was as far as his international career went, and he was never capped).

But it was at West Brom that his skill to read a match and lead from the midfield came out.

It was also here that Greening underwent a major change in image, shifting from fresh-faced jock to become the Premier League's most tattooed man (all of them applied at one shop in Sutton Coldfield: "I think I kept the guy in business for a year.")

Presumably it was the former rather than the latter that was so appealing to Hodgson.

And now, at the age of 30, he can often be found anchoring the Fulham midfield in the so-called holding role: spraying out passes for the rest of the team.

The boys from Henry Compton ask Greening all sorts of questions. Some want to know what footballers' lives are really like (quite normal really: "On a usual day I'll drop the kids off at school at half eight, go and train; come back, pick them up, get them back, get them bathed and in bed, and then just chill out.")

Others are fascinated to know which teams are the toughest to face
("Man United," he says, without a moment's hesitation).

So is he looking forward to making the players from his old club welcome when they visit his new one this Saturday? He says: "United have got world-class players, and I know what a difficult place [Old Trafford] is to go and play at. I was there for three years, and not many teams came to Old Trafford and won. Having left there, and gone back with a lot of teams, I don't think I've ever won there when I've gone back.

"But it's at our place, so it's a little bit different. We don't have to go up there in front of 80,000 people - that's a different kettle of fish. When it's at your home against a team like that, if you can do well for the first 30 minutes and contain them then anything can happen."

As the lesson comes to an end the boys have the opportunity to get autographs from their famous teachers.

For one boy, a big Fulham fan, a signature on his exercise book is not enough - and he demands that Greening signs both arms and hands too. The boy reels away with a big smile and holds out his inky arms to a friend.

"Look," he says. "I've got as many tattoos as Jonathan Greening now!"

His mate gives him a wonky look, and says: "Yes. But it's a shame you can't play football like him too."