Mark Robins’ right-hand man Adi Viveash, the head coach and assistant manager of Coventry City, opens up in this exclusive interview, which is part one of two.
Adi Viveash is unquestionably a key component of Coventry City’s success under head coach and assistant manager Mark Robins; the Sky Blues boss refers to him as the person who “paints the pictures” on the training field.
They make an ideal team since he can be “difficult,” which Robins refers to as being far from being a “yes” man. Together, they have masterminded the club’s ascent from League Two to the verge of the Premier League.
However, what about the person behind the tough façade, the tender side of City’s strict taskmaster on the training ground? Here, the highly esteemed former Chelsea youth and development coach—who achieved everything at Stamford Bridge—opens up about his early years, his challenging working-class upbringing, and the personal tragedy that shaped the man he is today—a brilliant coach who also serves as a father figure to numerous players.
The 54-year-old was interviewed by Sky Blues reporter Andy Turner to learn more about his journey in football and life. He covered ground from his playing days to coaching top Premier League prospects and back to lower league seniors at Coventry. He opens up about what goes on in the locker room, the backstories of some of the most memorable games in the football league’s ascent to the championship, such as the thrilling play-off second leg triumph at Notts County, his near-ejection from the team, and his unique bond with the supporters.
I began by asking him how he went from a seemingly rugged center-half and master of the dark arts, mostly in the lower leagues, to an educator of the beautiful game. This is the first of three features; in the other two, he talks about tactics, formations, the evolution of individual players and the team as a whole, his relationship with the “gaffer,” and finding love.
To be honest, I was a little bit of both. Speaking exclusively to CoventryLive, he stated, “I knew the dark arts but I could also play and I was fortunate to have some good managers.”
“I developed my coaching philosophy early on because I had Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle [as managers] when I was at Swindon. When Glenn joined Swindon in the Premier League, I was just 20 years old. He was manager and a player, and I covered for him, playing in the middle of a back three when he wasn’t. That was pretty early in my schooling, but I could see the center-backs in a three moving the length of the pitch from there.
“However, I was signed as a striker for my hometown Swindon and scored a lot of goals during my schoolboy years. However, for some reason, someone upstairs took away my early pace. Ossie told me, ‘You can see the game well,’ so he suggested I play at the back. After we laughed about it, I played there in an Everton preseason friendly in Ireland. We lost 2-0 despite their strikers, Norman Whiteside, Tony Cottee, and Mike Newell, but I did fairly well playing next to Colin Calderwood, who undoubtedly went on to play for Spurs.
“I moved to Walsall when Steve McMahon was manager,” he continued, leaving Swindon behind. That was the period of time when you signed a contract, but you could give them two weeks’ notice in order to terminate it. In the summer, I had five options for places to go, but the club blocked me, so I ended up staying in November. After my eldest son, who turns 30 this year, was born, McMahon called me one day to inform me that I was being let go due to financial difficulties.
“I actually thought I was going to go play football in the community role at Yeovil and at Huish Park, but Chris Nicholl, who we recently lost, god bless him, asked me to come up to Walsall,” said the slightly disorganized me.
Viveash played with Robins for a season and met Chris Marsh, who went on to become a legend at Walsall and is currently the kit man at Coventry.
Marshy was playing when I sighed for a month after marking Kyle Lightbourne, who went to Cov. That ended up being the end of the season, and I had spent the last five and a half years of my career probably having the most fun. After finishing second behind Kevin Keegan’s Fulham and keeping Man City in the play-offs, we were promoted to the Championship, which is an amazing accomplishment.
“Being a ball-playing center-half who preferred left-to-right switches, Chris (Nicholl) really helped me improve my defensive side. It was fortunate for me to work under managers of the caliber of Mark Robins, the gaffer, during Ray Graydon’s tenure that year.
“My first manager at Swindon in League Two was Lou Macari; bang, bang, all physical running,” he continued. We used to run all over teams in our weekly six-mile runs, and they would finish with a hundred or so points. It was interesting to see how he managed, and you learn different things from everyone.
After 20 years, I concluded my career at Cirencester in the Southern Premier League at the age of 37. I played for enjoyment rather than to make ends meet or pay the bills. Playing with the boys who were coming in after a 12-hour shift at Honda was a pleasant way to complete the circle. After being there, I was filled with such admiration for non-league players.
For a brief period, Viveash gave up playing football and worked in a factory, even at his neighborhood Woolies.
“After that, I worked at regular jobs,” he disclosed. “I’m from Wootton Bassett, a small town. Now, it’s Royal, a small Wiltshire town. My parents put in a lot of work. We didn’t have a lot of money and we never took a vacation abroad because my dad, an engineer, would come home from work and my mother would work late. However, they took care of us, and my father was a decent man.
And that’s probably why I can relate to the Coventry supporters because many people go through tough times yet still show up to show their team a lot of support. Having come from a challenging background, I believe I truly comprehend that everything was a struggle. In order to succeed in my careers as a coach and player, I had to overcome obstacles.
Woolies
“I worked at Honda for three months on a press, learning from a lovely big Polish guy who knew I wasn’t very good at it but still taught me.” I did regular jobs. I was just a regular guy who did regular things to pay my bills.
“I worked at Woolworths packing up orders, sweets and things, used to go there at 5.30 in the morning until 1.30 in the afternoon and earned very little wages but it was just the discipline of carrying on and getting through that period. It was acceptable to me as a chocoholic.
“A lot has gone on in my life,” he continued, opening up to disclose the personal tragedy in his life. There have been challenging times for me. Toby, my second son, turned 23 this past week. He was a twin, but his brother passed away while I was playing for Reading.
“We got to the play-off final and actually lost to Walsall, after I’d left the year before. My dad didn’t tell me he had cancer until after the game, and he didn’t want any treatment, so three months later he passed away.
“Then Toby was in hospital for the first year of his life, fighting for his life with five life-saving operations because he was born with long gap esophageal atresia. Essentially, having been born three months early, his stomach had to be pushed up into his neck, resembling the weight of a sugar bag.
Thus, a lot happened during that time, which truly shaped who I am now. To be honest with you, I found it really challenging. It was a tough period in my life but football really helped me because it was the only time I could switch off; when I played.
The following year, we finished second with Reading and Alan Pardew. It was a challenging time, but it helped to mold me. Later on, when I became a coach, I was able to assist players, which was a pleasant side effect that allowed me to view things differently, which I do now.
A number of players who trained under him at Chelsea’s Academy and later rejoined him at City have mentioned how he supported them in their early years. Former loan defender Jake Clarke-Salter talked about how he was a father figure to him during his rough adolescence, and Brad Collins talked about how he supported him when his own father passed away—a side of the man that only people close to him see.
In a gravelly voice, he joked, “There’s a persona around me.” He then related the story of how he rugby tackled a pitch invader, earning the fans’ nickname “don’t mess with Adi.”
“No one was catching him in that local derby against West Brom, and we were trailing 2-1. Why wouldn’t I run past him as he was doing? I never applied pressure to him. I broke his fall with my hand behind his back. He was never in any danger at all because I was holding him underneath with my arm so that he never even touched the ground. When he stood up, he gave me the look that suggested he had broken his fall there. However, I have this image of being a crazy person.
insane
“I have a very, not soft, but very caring side that I usually only share with my family, friends, and the people closest to me,” he continued. and in my player-related work. Throughout my six and a half to seven years at Cov, players have frequently confided in me on a personal level when they were going through challenging circumstances. They also don’t know my backstory.
I told the Chelsea boys, and they were shocked, so they know about it. When they reached out, I tried to reassure them that they are not alone because I had gone through a similar experience. I would never, ever tell anyone else about other things that happened to me, but since I told them at the time because they were acting out, some of them know. They needed to be slightly shocked to help them realize they are not alone and that “if Adi can get through that, then he can help me with this,” which allowed them to rescue themselves from their own situation.
“It persists here because, following a training session, you may see the gaffer conversing with a player on one side of the field, Dennis Lawrence on another, Aled Williams on a third, and me conversing with someone else—and not always about football. And that’s a typical, everyday occurrence. Sometimes they come to you because they need your help outside of the game. And I’m just as proud of the work we’ve done here as I am of how we’ve shaped some people who may have needed it to advance to the next level.
Seeing young talent develop and reach their potential is some of his proudest work, though, and he has seen many examples of this at City during his tenure.
“Watching people grow should be your proudest moment as a coach.” Callum Doyle serves as an example for me. Although he wasn’t a player for us, you could tell he had a lot on his plate after seeing how badly Andreas Weimann destroyed him in his debut game against Bristol City at Burton. It’s a credit to him first and foremost, but also to the players and staff who worked with him here, to see what he’s accomplished in just a year while playing left-back for Leicester. If that’s okay with you, that’s how I get my buzz.
“Callum O’Hare’s journey from being a free transfer is another,” he continued. Although he had only really played League Two on loan at Carlisle, he was clearly a good player. Another is Sam McCallum. There’s an enormous number. Duckens people of all levels; the journey of Nazon in League Two.
When Viveash’s Coventry story first began, he had risen through the ranks of Chelsea’s youth football coaching staff and age groups for ten years, in part because of Jose Mourinho’s tenure there. He was not eager to return to the game after resigning from his position as development manager in May 2017. Adi received a call from his former teammate to assist after the club was demoted to League Two, “a million miles” from coaching some of the best young players in the world. However, due to a brain bleed, Steve Taylor, Robins’ backup, needed time off. It was a bit of a culture shock, of course, and he almost missed this opportunity.
He remembered, leaning back and taking a swig of coffee, “When Mark rang me it was to help out because Steve, bless him, had that really horrible health incident and I was only meant to be here for three weeks.”
“I assumed that he would simply use the three weeks to get new glasses. I remember watching training when I first arrived, and I don’t mean any disrespect to the people who worked here at the time, but it was very different from what we had been doing at Chelsea. Thus, it was first-team training for League Two players with the world’s best players.
“I had been unemployed for four months, but Chelsea’s work was so hard that I could have taken a year off and returned feeling rejuvenated. I had Mark Robins on the phone when I was at my mother’s house, and we laughed about the fact that she was a Man United fan.
“I looked at the team, and while some of the players were from League Two, there were still enough League One players like Burgey and Jordan Willis. After a few days of racking my brains, when the gaffer asked me what I thought, I told him that I didn’t think I could help him because it was so far away.
“I agreed more to help him because he asked me to consider it. Working to the very best is what I’ve always believed in, even when I was coaching players on the training field. In a session with 20 players, you will therefore work with about three or four of your key players, and the other players will follow in the footsteps of the top players. The work then becomes quite evolutionary in that a player can go from being on the bench in an under-18s game to suddenly looking like a different player within three months. They might not reach their level, but they will reach somewhere in between.
“Well, I realized I only had three weeks, so I started off very gently, explaining how I could help, but it was seamless, trying to raise standards, because I had been in a world-class environment where money plays a part, as well as the standards, the way everyone works together, and the number of people at Chelsea Academy.
And that’s what I attempted to do when I first arrived here—I guess I should say, demand more, seek excellence. It was also challenging. I recall my first game, which was away to Yeovil. We lost 2-0, and the goalie had some issues with the two goals. Peter Vincenti left the field prior to kickoff, and I thought, “This is going to be a difficult job,” but I had seen enough of people like Michael Doyle and Jodi Jones. And even the defense’s stability, which includes Jack Grimmer at full-back, Chris Stokes, Jordan Willis, and Rod McDonald. The back four was incredibly solid and didn’t let up many goals.
He was also unfamiliar with the play’s style.
“That team never really played out from the back; Burgey kicked it and we had big Max Biamou or McNulty. There would be Vincenti on the angle, nodding down and it was very foreign to what I’d been doing,” he said. Even though it was a long time ago, I had seen it because I had played in League Two.
“I made an effort to present various training options because I believed that if I didn’t, you would be better off finding someone else. But it was drip fed and it culminated with Notts County away in the play-off semi-final. I have watched that game back so many times and when I saw McNulty score the second goal and Kels (Liam Kelly) rotated from central midfield into a right eight, then that told me that the work had gone in over eight months, because we played some brilliant football in that game.”
Viveash knows the significance of certain players that season, and that 4-1 thumping at Meadow Lane, having come from a close 1-1- draw at the then named Ricoh Arena when he admits City were fortunate to get a late penalty.
Amazing Doyle
“I loved working and coaching with Doyler because his will to win was incredible, and that drive – absolutely incredible, and without him this club wouldn’ have got out of League Two,” he said. Among them is McNulty. These players have shaped this club.”
He added: “I have seen there has been a lot of stuff about fans’ favourite games recently, following the Wolves win, but there wouldn’t have been a journey had we not got past that Notts County game. They played so well here in the first leg, so the second leg is etched. But there are so many components over these years that have fitted together. Some things have worked and others not, but that’s development.”
“I think it was more to do with what the players were hearing coming out of their camp; all the stuff about the Wembley T-shirts that had been printed up,” he responded when asked what the key to that historic victory was.
“We held our team meeting in the showers so they couldn’t hear us because the dressing rooms were small and had only one wall when we first arrived. I’m not sure; we visited the cricket ground earlier, and there were fans there using flares and other decorations. It seemed like… I thought it was really special when the players emerged and observed the number of Cov supporters present.
The mindset of a siege
For me, it was all about getting off to a strong start, scoring goals so that we could control the game. It was like having a siege mentality and trying to overrun the lions’ den. After that, the dressing room was really unique. For as long as we could, we kept them quiet and reserved, but eventually they lost it. The walls were nearly falling in and there was a lot of ‘ you can stick your T-shirts somewhere!’
“They had a cause and that showed me they weren’t just League Two players because in a big game they could produce. And they were better than that sixth place finish. We should have gone up automatically, really.”
The victory set up a Wembley final against Exeter City, where Viveash insists there was only ever going to be one outcome.
“We were always going to win at Wembley in the final,” he said, reflecting on the 3-1 victory from 2018.
“We turned up and saw the Exeter players with suntans and in shorts and that. I think they’d been away somewhere on a camp and there’s nothing wrong with being casual because people do things in different ways. But we had them from the warm up when we were in the shade and they were in the full sun. I never felt we were going to lose that game.”
Asked at what point after his initial three weeks at the club that he decided to stay on, he revealed: “It was all around Steve (Taylor) really. I suppose when I started doing and enjoying the work, probably two or three months in when I could see improvements.
“For me, it’s all about the coaching. Can you improve players? You have to try to improve a squad of 25 and my job is very simple. I don’t pick the team so I don’t need to have affiliations with anyone.
“Do they know I have an opinion on their games, yes, but that gives me a blank canvas. For example, how do I get Ducks Nazon from being in possession – we used to do four v four in a tight area.”
Giving an insight on how he likes to work, he added: “I do a lot of my work in a tight area because if you can work under pressure, when the pitch becomes bigger you see things much quicker. So small spaces, moving to big spaces all through movements and rotations etc.
“Me and Nazon used to have this continual fight around possession because he’s a big lad – it must be something with strikers because Vik (Gyokeres) was similar – because he wanted to have more space to be able to run. I used to say to Vik, when you are back to goal playing tight, once you turn you have got all the space you want because no-one is catching you.
After about four months, Nazon approached me and expressed how much he appreciated the session since he now understood. Different players learn in different ways, and it can take longer at times.
“Were there issues during teething? Naturally. I got along well with Chris Stokes, who was upfront and honest when he said he found it challenging and exhausting. Games involve a lot of thinking, rules, and possessions. Without giving them instructions, I make the rules so that I can participate in the session. I don’t give players instructions or say, “Pass to him.” I show them what they are going to face on a Saturday within small-sided games with mini goals, big goals, floaters and neutral players, six v six with three neutrals playing as a front line for each.
“They see what they are going to see, so I work to prevent them from going blind so that when they see things on a match presentation on video, they say, ‘Oh yes, I can see that.'”
“After three or four months, everything was going well. Then, we received a promotion, which excited me since it allowed us to hire players at a higher level to work in the next division up.”
battling for his position
Viveash admits that at one stage he wasn’t sure if he was about to be out of a job, such were results in City’s first season back in League One, heading into Christmas 2018 on a nine game winless run, including seven defeats.
“That first year back up was challenging because there were times when we were fighting for our jobs,” he remarked. You could somewhat sense and feel it. However, you end up with a particular outcome, and I believe Charlton won 2-1 on Boxing Day. They came in second, and the outcome was ours.
“It was a funny situation because they came down on Christmas Day and it seemed to really upset their players. They had no desire to do it. They were sat in a hotel for hours and we were all with our families; we’d left it a little bit different because we needed a result, and we beat them.
“Tom Bayliss scored the winner at about 89 minutes and we won three in a row. That year with Bright Enobakare, that evolution; Luke Thomas on loan and we were able to play some great football. People like Dujon Sterling were here and we did really well, finished eighth, just outside the play-offs and obviously the next year we went up.”
City went up a level in 2019/20, going up as League One champions after the season had been curtailed in early March after a 1-0 win at Portman Road.
“I think there were about three games before the Ipswich game where we thought we weren’t going to lose another game,” he said. “I don’t think we would have lost another game, I really don’t. They were in such unity, they were flowing. We didn’t look like we were going to concede goals and we were scoring goals, which were coming from everywhere. The box midfield was working fantastically and it was a special team that, a really enjoyable team. They were very much a team with a couple of brilliant loans with (Liam) Walshy and Callum O’Hare etc.”
Saddest point
One of Viveash’s biggest disappointments and low points of his time at Coventry came shortly afterwards.
“When the season came to a halt we found it very strange,” he said. “Looking back I suppose they could have shut the country down a couple of weeks before and it may never have worked out for us because they could have wiped the season off.
“One of the saddest things from my time here is the fact that the team didn’t get to celebrate being champions all around the streets of Coventry, because they thoroughly deserved that. They were a brilliant side who played some great football, and were head and shoulders, for me, above anyone else at that level by the end at Ipswich.
“That evolution of going from a back four when we were 1-0 down against Fleetwood and Fadz was on the bench and suddenly it looked like him, Dom (Hyam) and (Michael) Rosey had been playing together all their lives. It just clicked.
“And the box midfield is obviously something that, certainly in League One, was very rare. Obviously a lot of teams play it now and I’d done it a lot at Chelsea in the Academy – that diamond/box, it doesn’t matter what it was – we just had good players.”
Interestingly, as the City teams and squads have evolved through the rise up the divisions, Viveash believes one thing has been a constant.
“I think the midfield has always been the best part of what we have had here at Coventry,” he said. “I do think that. I think the midfield has always been the strongest unit since I have been here, in every league. You bring in Callum and Kasey to that and that’s still the case now.”
Sweet Caroline
The sound of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline has been part of City’s post-match celebrations for some time now. Asked when that started, he revealed: “We did that the whole season in 2019/20 in League One whenever we got a point. Marshy was a big part of that.
“It was trying to create that unity. When we drew 3-3 at Portsmouth with nine men they wanted to do something, so the whole of that League One season, draw or win. So Ipswich away was the one the gaffer filmed and it came out into the public domain, but that was every game we had a positive result in.”
Returning to the Championship, the Sky Blues ripped into the 2020/21 campaign with six straight wins at the CBS Arena where fans had been allowed back to games, and with the club having moved back to the city from a two year exile at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s.
Special fans
Asked how much of a part the supporters played in those early home matches, he said: “They are the most special thing about the club, the fans. Looking back to League Two, just the enormity of it. I know these days you have the likes of Wrexham who take massive followings, but at that stage it was incredible. I remember that first Yeovil game it was absolutely rammed and I thought wow. And every game in League Two we sold out wherever we went.
“But coming back here with that euphoria and how that first game against Forest unfolded with Fadz’s header in the 95th minute; it was that season of late goals wasn’t it, and it just seemed to reignite things.
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