Exclusive: Les Reed Opens up on his Journey in English Football | OneFootball

Exclusive: Les Reed Tells us his Story

It has been a rollercoaster start to the season for Wrexham Football Club.

The Welsh side found themselves cruising to an opening day win, only to concede two late goals in a 2-1 defeat at Southampton. They then forced a penalty shootout thanks to an extra-time brace from Ollie Palmer, quickly erasing a two-goal deficit and prevailing 5-3 against Hull City in the first round of the EFL Cup. After losing 3-2 to West Brom and coughing up a two-goal deficit in a 2-2 draw to Sheffield Wednesday, Wrexham then pulled off a come-from-behind 3-2 win vs. Preston in the EFL Cup thanks to Kieffer Moore’s 92nd-minute winner.

Wrexham finally got off the mark in the EFL Championship on August 30 after beating Millwall 2-0, before losing 3-1 to QPR in their following match. Phil Parkinson’s side will be looking to bounce back on Saturday as they travel to Norwich City, and one man who will be watching closely is Les Reed.

Who is Les Reed?

Born in the London suburb of Wapping, Reed was a teenager when his father took him to the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final. A promising center forward, Reed fell in love with football and was on the books for Cambridge United, Watford, and Wycombe Wanderers, but it was on the other side of the pitch where he’d make his name.

“Like everybody, I started playing football at school and after school, kicking a football around in the street with my mates, with the dream of being a professional footballer,” stated Reed in an exclusive EPL Index interview. “And I had some very good experiences as a young player, training with Arsenal and West ham, but didn’t make the grade and then move down the leagues. I dreamed of of playing for England and did so at schoolboy leve, I played a decent level of Lower League football, and believe me, in the Lower League when centre back kicks you, it’s just the same as being kicked by Virgil van Dijk at Anfield.”

“You gain a certain amount of experience by playing the game, and I took up coaching very early. I had another go at Watford when Graham Taylor was the manager whilst I was at university studying. I trained to be a Phys. Ed teacher, and we played games against some of the pro clubs in the area. Taylor remembered me from being a young pro at Cambridge, United invited me in for a trial, and I had a season there. But I didn’t want to leave University, so I played reserve team football for Watford. Graham advised me to get into coaching. He was a mentor of mine for the rest of his life introduced me to some great people, the Bobby Robsons of this world, and so on, and I got a real buzz for coaching, so I took all my coaching qualifications pretty early while I was still playing, and then I started coaching and playing at the same time as teaching.”

Reed was playing for Watford under the ownership of music icon Elton John; little did he know it, but 50 years later, he’d be working under a new celebrity ownership. Reed made his mark at the club and international level, working at the FA for nine years as a Regional Director of Coaching as well as coaching at the FA National School and mentoring several future England internationals like Joe Cole, Sol Campbell, and Michael Owen, and serving as the Director of Technical Development. He also served as an assistant coach at Charlton and broadcast his coaching knowledge to other countries like Northern Ireland, South Africa, the Republic of Ireland, Hong Kong, South Africa, China, Thailand, Israel, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.

“I wouldn’t say there was ever a career plan. It was just to be in football and do the best I could in whatever Job presented itself to me, play as long as I could, so I went down and down and down the leagues until I could barely walk. Before I gave up and went solely into the tracksuit and then latterly, in my career, having coached England, having coached all the youth national teams, I left the English FA and moved to the FA of Ireland, which got me a job at Fulham, when it was owned by Mr. Mohammed Al-Fayed, the owner of Harrods.

“They were a Premier League club at the time, but they had flirted with relegation. I was then asked to become Director of Football, and that got me then onto this career path, on the executive side of running football clubs that that I’ve been on now for probably the last 20 years. So that’s where that started, and that’s how I got into out out of the tracksuit and into the suit and tie.”

On 16 April 2010, Reed was appointed Head of Football Development and Support at Southampton, and later the Vice-Chairman, overseeing four main areas: the Youth Academy, Scouting and Recruitment, Sports medicine and Science, and Kit and Equipment Management. Over the next eight years, Reed would guide Southampton to the apex of English football, helping them become a Premier League regular as well as reach the EFL Cup Final, before returning to the FA as a technical director.

He then returned to club football in 2021 and became an advisor to the Wrexham board under new owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds. With Reed steering the ship, the Red Dragons have achieved three straight promotions, going from the fifth tier all the way to the EFL Championship. At nearly 73 years old, Reed is still going strong and pulling the strings, allowing Wrexham to make the best decisions on and off the pitch. He’s already left an indelible legacy at Southampton, and he’s on track to do the same at Wrexham.