I was Gareth Southgate’s best man and walked out on Arsenal – now I’m managing EFL’s newest club after Wembley promotion
WALKING away from a job at Arsenal takes some bottle.
And that quality is exactly what Andy Woodman has endowed on to his Bromley players after they achieved promotion to the Football League for the first time in the club’s 132-year history.
The Ravens beat Solihull Moors 4-2 on penalties at Wembley in a thrilling National League playoff final.
Woodman guided Bromley to third in the regular season table and beat Altrincham in the playoff semi-final at Hayes Lane before the Wembley triumph.
The occasion was not lost on 52-year-old Woodman before the game, even if he declared that family life meant the high-pressure stakes of the final was actually a “release” for him.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Woodman said: “Oh, it’s the promised land, the holy grail. 132 years this club has existed and this is the highest they have ever been.
“Solihull will have the same feelings. Of course there will be nerves around the place, the fans will be nervous, the board will be nervous.
“But it’s something we’ve not shied away from. From July last year, we have given ourselves one goal and one goal only: to get to the EFL…
“When you’ve got a family like mine where everything is chaos – my daughter is about to have a baby – then Sunday’s game is a release.
“I tell you what, it’s an escape for me from the crazy world of the Woodman household.”
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Despite being the best man at the wedding of England manager Gareth Southgate, Woodman has entered the EFL in the hard way.
Woodman, father of Preston and former Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, started his goalkeeper at Crystal Palace.
In south London he failed to make the grade before going on to play for 11 different clubs.
Like his playing career, Woodman started out his coaching career with the Eagles after taking a call from Alan Pardew to see if he fancied a goalkeeper coaching gig.
Woodman then followed him to Charlton, Newcastle and back to Palace before he took up a job at Arsenal.
In 2017, Woodman decided he wanted to try his hand at management, and left the Gunners to take up a job at Isthmian League side Whitehawk.
On his leap of faith, Woodman said: “People thought I was mad, leaving Arsenal for the non league.
“But I wanted to manage and I thought I had the credentials. And funnily enough, my experience made it work.
“You’re talking to someone who played most of his career in the lower levels, then who coached at the highest level. There’s a nice mix in me. I felt I could get on anywhere and with anyone.”
His first full season at the club saw them finish in seventh just outside the playoffs. This season the south London side fared better and came third in the league before the playoff final win.
He also oversaw the club winning the FA Trophy over Wrexham at Wembley in 2022.
Bromley’s budget is around half the size of some in the National League.
But Woodman has been able to make the most of his contacts, including signing the son of Arsenal Invincible Dennis Bergkamp, Mitchel.
Not that Woodman believes this is indicative of their success.
He said: “No disrespect to our owner, who is absolutely superb, but our budget is the 16th or 17th highest in the league. We don’t get 9,000 crowds.
“The budget determines what football we play. You have to bring in hungry players and set a team up not to play text book football but to win.”
Woody and Nord
As poetic as Bromey’s rise into the football league is, Woodman is also an award winning author.
Back in 2004 he wrote Woody and Nord, a book which won the autobiography section of the British Sports Books Awards, about his friendship with Southgate – Nord being the nickname Wally Downes gave the Three Lions boss due to his apparent likeness to Dennis Norden.
The book detailed how they had remained best friends despite playing at opposite ends of football and how Southgate has imoaxc
Woodman explained: “We’re best mates, we chat about everything, not just football.
“But sure, we talk football as all best mates do. We laugh because we have such similar moans, from very different ends of the spectrum.
“It’s good to chat to someone who knows what it is like. The thing about being a manager is everyone thinks they can do it better than you. Gareth tells me his postman reckons he could manage England…
“We both know how to treat people. We’ve both played under managers who we’ve thought: that’s not the way to do it.
“We’ve talked about this and we agree the best way to get the most out of people is treat them with respect.
“Whether they’re the most gifted, like he deals with, or the not so gifted, you have to make them comfortable in themselves. It’s called managing.”
However, Woodman did not expect his mate to be watching him from the sidelines at Wembley.
“I’d have thought he was sick to death of Wembley. If I was Gareth I’d watch in front of the telly, glass of wine in hand.
“Relax. After all he’s got some quite important games of his own coming up.”
Woodman admitted he doesn’t want Southgate to be his first call after the final, saying: “Are you kidding me? I’m hoping it will be from Man City, not bloody Gareth.”