Jon Brady has done the psychometric tests. “They found I am a builder of things, of projects,” he tells Sky Sports. No wonder. His two jobs in senior management totalled a decade, 300 games at Brackley Town before 200 in charge at Northampton Town.
He won promotions with both clubs, but did so much more. Over the course of an entertaining hour at his Northamptonshire home, he shares memories of those early days in the Southern Premier Division, when he was training in the mud at Brackley.
You are arranging pre-match meals, arranging the coach. You are thinking, if we put a tea bar next to that turnstile, that might help. You are always looking at ways to bring in revenue. It was all about trying to find ways off the pitch to get us resources on it.
All you need to know – Streaming Sky Sports with NOWDownload the app to see every Sky Sports+ game in 2025/26Get Sky Sports | Get more EFL to your phone with WhatsAppAt Northampton, he was heavily involved in the recruitment work that gave them their edge.
Those countless hours on Wyscout helped find value in the market. I am an encyclopaedia on League One, League Two and Scotland now, he says, laughing. Among his peers, Brady is a rarity at the age of 50 – an experienced manager, more than halfway towards that fabled 1000 games figure, who has never experienced the sack.
Now, he is considering his options, ready to discover what the next opportunity brings. There are no regrets about leaving the Cobblers in December, a move that he described as definitely the right decision having been persuaded to stay the previous summer.
I felt there was a ceiling, he explains. I wanted to leave it in the best place possible. That was accomplished, having found the club in League Two and left them in League One. They had to overcome the blow of being dramatically denied promotion in 2022 when Bristol Rovers scored seven on the final day to edge the last automatic spot.
We missed out on goals scored so I had to do a lot of reframing, to reshape the psychology, the motivation, the emotions for the players. Northampton achieved automatic promotion the following year, then stayed up, their best finish in 16 years.
He is proud to have always finished above the budget and believes that owes plenty to having an eye for a player. In particular, identifying the traits that make a difference – and those that others overrate.
Pass completion rates, for example, can be misleading. I think clubs have certain markers for passing ability, but that does not really come into the consideration for me because if you give them the right pictures then those stats will improve.
And besides, I want my midfielders on the half turn, playing forward. Marc Leonard is a prime example. He came from Fulham and you could see straight away that he was a player but he kept dropping way too deep.
He was slowing our play down so we did a few sessions with him about playing forward and breaking lines. Brady now rates Leonard, who won promotion with Birmingham last season, as among the best players he has coached.
The way that he came back after that was incredible. He was exceptional for me. He became much more aggressive in his play. So, any examples of what he does look for? I have two non-negotiables for every position.
With right-backs, I look at crossing ability from certain types of delivery. And then, the recovery ability. But it is all about finding what complements what you have. Brady is easy company, but if there is a bugbear for him it is coaches who forget that their job is to maximise the performance of the players.
I get frustrated with people who just go, This is the way that we play. It is about getting the best out of your players. In League One and League Two, I do not think you can necessarily say, I play 4-3-3.
You can still have principles but playing to the characteristics of what you have got is the most important thing. This is my strength because I am flexible and adaptable. He has just demonstrated this by putting on a masterclass at St Georges Park for the League Managers Association.
I did an interesting topic on rest defences, looking at three different rest attacks, how they break, and then how you could try to nullify it. He explains: One example was Forest with Chris Wood staying high and the wingers breaking.
Then, there is Bournemouth, they break in numbers but the centre-back has no one to mark. And with Liverpool, you have Mohamed Salah staying high and wide. He describes it as a game of chess and as he also discusses his experience of doing the LMA Diploma in Football Management, it is clear that Brady is doing all that he can to develop and improve.
There has even been a visit to a top Spanish club this summer. He is also on a one-year leadership course alongside a number of top coaches, one that has included calls with Sir Gareth Southgate and others.
Picking their brains was really beneficial. You quickly realise that other coaches are facing similar challenges to you. Perhaps. But Bradys story is surely unique. Born and raised in Australia, he was spotted by a Brentford scout while playing in a tournament in Denmark as a young teenager, moving on to Swansea before finally settling at Hayes and later Rushden & Diamonds.
I did not fulfil my own potential. That drives me. I have always been very hungry to help players be the best version of themselves. You want to make a difference. It is why I get back on the grass every day and hone my skills, to keep learning and getting better.
By 23, he had his UEFA B Licence. It led to a successful business career while he was still playing. I was running my own business delivering PE in schools throughout Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes.
I did my badges and it just grew from there, he says. We had over 250 kids weekly between the centres. We would play games against pro clubs at the end of each term. Some went on to pro clubs, others became coaches.
I did it for 18 years from 2004 and was still doing it two years into the Northampton job. I was coaching the under-8s on a Friday night before we went and played wherever at the weekend. I was so committed to it.
It was a huge part of my life. I do think that business background has helped me in management. So too has his grounding as a coach. A lot of very good players cannot coach. They would not know how to tell a six-year-old kid how to kick a ball.
It was obvious to me to break those things down. I was teaching kids how to sidestep, how to get low and work on their balance, when I was 23 years old. I did not realise it would make the difference in senior management later on but the behavioural management needed with these kids in the schools, just being able to control a room, those skills were really important.
It was an unbelievable grounding. From what he calls the invasion game of the Conference North that taught him how to find ways to get results to going to St Georges Park and doing position-specific courses that explored the theory side, Bradys breadth of experiences are impressive.
And given this breadth of experience, he will be back soon. He has turned down offers in England and abroad because they were not quite right but he is eager to return. And believes he will succeed again.
Knowing the players at the level is key, he says. I keep tabs of contracts, trying to give myself the edge that nobody else has. I just love finding those rough diamonds or players who have not quite hit their potential.
I feel I have a very good eye for that, finding ways to accelerate a players development. Because I am realistic. I might not be going to a club that can cherry pick the best players. But then, that is my strength, I think.
I can build a team from that, identify the weaknesses in the opponent, work out what we need to do and get people to believe it. The next project awaits.
