Former Wolves man Paul Simpson on his battle with cancer before return to management

At the time he was assistant head coach at Bristol City, whose players certainly did their bit in trying to keep his spirits up.

“I’m not sure who it was that organised it, but I told the players I was isolating for two-and-a-half weeks, and ended up getting a text message off a different one of them every single day,” Simpson explains.

“It must have been on a rota or something but that was absolutely brilliant.

“Footballers often get a bad press, but they certainly care, and they all know the role that coaches and managers play in their progression.

“It felt a bit daft really because although I was told I had a tumour in my kidney, I didn’t feel in the slightest bit ill.

“I felt completely normal, but this tumour was doing its evil stuff inside me without me knowing.

“It’s a time when you need the support of family, friends and work colleagues, and those messages when people just take a moment to say they are thinking about you and hope you are o-k make such a big difference.”

Even last weekend, Simpson received a message from Arsenal’s in-form striker Eddie Nketiah, with whom he had worked during his time within the England youth set-up, enquiring after his welfare.

The surgery to remove one of Simpson’s kidneys where the tumour was situated was successful and subsequently he was given the all-clear, and the lengthy list of well-wishes he received comes as no surprise given his reputation and standing within the game.

Simpson’s is a career now spanning four decades in playing, coaching and management, boasting five promotions, several near-misses, and the odd relegation.

Not to mention a World Cup winners’ medal, as Simpson became only the second England manager to chalk up that coveted achievement with glory for the Under-20s in 2017, part of a golden era when the Under-17s followed up with their own World Cup win, and the Three Lions also lifted the European Under-19 championships and won the Toulon tournament.

It is a career which is still in full flow, with more chapters to run, with Simpson now looking ahead to a busy summer preparing for a new League Two season with Carlisle United.

Having previously player-managed his home-city club to back-to-back promotions from the Conference up to the equivalent of League One during a time of financial difficulties from 2003-06, he was brought back this February with Carlisle in the relegation zone and in danger of again dropping out of the league.

Six wins from seven swiftly banished those fears, and with Carlisle comfortably preserving their League Two status, Simpson put pen to paper on a three-year contract.

“I had left Bristol City last October and I was in a position where I really wanted to carry on working,” he explains.

“But it’s really hard to get in when are you wanting to be a manager.

“I was given the opportunity to come back to Carlisle where I have had success before but it was still a gamble.

“If it didn’t work out then I probably wouldn’t get another job but if it did then I might just be able to remind people what I am all about.

“It went really well, we got ourselves comfortably safe in the end, and now they have asked me to go on and try and make the club better, a challenge I am really looking forward to.

“I don’t think it is quite as big a challenge as when I was here before, but it’s another exciting one and we have created a lot of interest among local people and businesses.

“The club can’t survive with just a small group of local directors and so we need to jump on the back of that interest and try and push everything forward.

“If we can do that then we can make Carlisle a really good club.

“Wolves have experienced this in the sense that when Wolves play well, the whole city has a positive vibe.

“We are probably not as big a city as Wolves, and not as big a club as Wolves, but we can make Carlisle a positive place to be and give it a really positive feel if we can get the football right.

“That is the challenge ahead for me and one I have got to get right.”

Simpson faced many similar challenges during a playing career which took in both of tomorrow night’s Molineux combatants, albeit at a very different stage in Wolves’ and Manchester City’s overall histories.

It was something of a whirlwind apprenticeship, as then 16, he made his reserve team debut on a Tuesday night before being thrown in straight into the first team and a 3-2 win against Coventry at Maine Road the following weekend.

The next six years brought over 150 appearances for a City team which flitted between the top two divisions, and at the time were playing second fiddle to the red half of the city. How times have changed!

For Simpson, it was a wonderful footballing education.

“The grounding I got at City stood me in such good stead,” he recalls.

“My youth coaches back then were a guy called John Ryan, a former City full back, and Tony Book and Glyn Pardoe, two absolute club legends.

“Sadly Glyn passed away a couple of years ago but Tony is still involved as an ambassador.

“The education they gave me, not just in terms of the football but also how to live your life as a professional footballer, was massive.

“I later bumped into Glyn when I was working for the FA as his grandson Tommy (Doyle) was in the Under-17 group.

“This was 2016 and I hadn’t seen him since I left City in ’88 and he came over, gave me a big hug and said, ‘you must have hated me for the way I was with you lads’.

“I replied by saying at the time I felt it was really tough, but the lessons that he and Tony gave me were what gave me such a long career in the game.

“I couldn’t thank him enough, and, looking back, it was all about standards and being professional and to this day I still apply some of the messages which I learned from those coaches all those years ago.”

Simpson won the first of three promotions as a player while with City, and, after four happy years with Oxford, secured the second during a successful spell with Derby County having previously missed out in the Championship play-offs.

He scored in Derby’s first ever Premier League fixture, a 3-3 draw with Leeds, and would make 20 appearances during that 1996/97 season but a loan spell to Sheffield United suggested his future would ultimately lie elsewhere.

So it proved, and it was Wolves who came calling.

“Jim Smith was the Derby manager at the time and he was very honest with me,” Simpson explains.

“He told me that I would be involved in every game, generally on the bench, and so would stay as part of the squad, but that he didn’t think I was good enough to start.

“The opportunity came to move on loan to Wolves, then in the Championship, but Jim said I didn’t have to go, I would stay involved if I didn’t, but that he knew I wanted regular football.

“And that was the case really, wanting to play regularly and also knowing Wolves were a fantastic club, with Mark McGhee as manager, who were looking for promotion as well.”

First impressions count, and Simpson’s, certainly on home soil, was none too shabby.

Known throughout his career as a winger with impressive technical ability, and a cultured left foot, he duly stuck one away from just inside Swindon’s half in the closing stages of a 3-1 win in a fiery contest which had seen three red cards.

“That wasn’t a bad way to mark my home debut,” Simpson reflects, with typical modesty.

Those promising first impressions led to a permanent deal and Simpson became a fully-fledged Wolf, consigned to adding his name to that list of Molineux alumni who somehow couldn’t convert their individual talent and ability to promotion to the Premier League until the play-off success of 2003.

Simpson’s three years with Wolves, which did include a spell on loan with Walsall, brought league finishes of ninth, seventh and seventh.

Close, but perhaps not even lighting a match to the cigar.

It was an era characterised by frustrating inconsistency, really unfortunate injuries and, sometimes, just plain bad luck.

“We always fell short, and if I’m honest I can’t really remember us ever feeling that close in my time and feeling that we were going to actually do it,” Simpson explains.

“And yet we had some fantastic players.

“We had Robbie Keane, Bully, Steve Corica, Dean Richards, Keith Curle, Kevin Muscat, Stowelley (Mike Stowell) who was such an excellent keeper.

“It is so hard to put your finger on why it didn’t happen, maybe as a group we couldn’t deal with the expectation of the fans and what we were trying to do.

“Whatever it was, we could never get ourselves over the line.”

One major highlight during Simpson’s stay – even though, like so many play-off campaigns of that era, it had a somewhat disappointing ending – was the run to the last four of the FA Cup in 1998.

That semi-final was a magnificent occasion at Villa Park, but Wolves lost 1-0 to eventual double winners Arsenal, with Simpson crafting one of the team’s best chances with a decent shot from the edge of the penalty area.

“It was wonderful to be involved in an FA Cup semi-final, the only one in my career, and to see the level and passion of the support Wolves could take to a game like that,” he recalls.

“But when people ask me about the game itself, I remember it was one of the biggest 1-0 hammerings I have ever had.

“They were streets ahead of us, so far superior, and it was amazing it was only 1-0.

“I think we had a couple of shots on target, one from Don Goodman and then mine which was an instinctive strike that I think hit David Seaman in the face!

“It was a great experience for the occasion but such an anti-climax as we didn’t come anywhere near performing well enough to get something out of the game.”

In total at Wolves Simpson scored seven goals from 63 games, although almost half of those appearances came from the bench.

On reflection, the over-riding emotion is disappointment with his overall impact at Molineux which he feels wasn’t as effective as elsewhere in his career.

“I had a few good games but in all fairness I don’t think the Wolves supporters saw the best of me and I wasn’t consistent enough with my performances,” he accepts.

“I was at that stage where I was coming towards the end of my playing career, starting on the coaching ladder and was doing a sport science degree to try and educate myself for the next stage.

“My three boys were all at school in Derby and my wife was a teacher who was doing well, and, because of that family set-up, Wolverhampton was the only place where I didn’t move into the area and really throw myself into it.

“As a result, I didn’t produce my best form and didn’t contribute as much as I would have liked to.”

McGhee's successor Colin Lee was a fan, however, and persuaded Simpson to extend his Wolves career with a two-year contract.

But the arrival of Andy Sinton just a few weeks later further restricted his opportunities and ultimately a contract termination was agreed ahead of possible retirement, only to be tempted by Blackpool where he scored in a 4-2 win in the Third Division play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, coming off the bench at the same venue the following season as they won the Football League Trophy.

Management was soon to follow, including two eventful returns to Molineux, first as player-manager at Rochdale where he scored with a deflected effort in a Fifth-Round defeat and then winning with Preston in the early days of the Wolves’ reign of Mick McCarthy, his former City team-mate.

There was a time with Preston when Simpson had them top of the Championship before falling away to miss out on the play-offs, while another managerial experience to balance out that wonderful success with Carlisle – career promotions four and five - came during a stint with Shrewsbury Town.

Having initially helped the Shrews preserve their Football League status he then led them to the League Two play-off final at Wembley, only to lose to a last-minute goal against Gillingham.

“After we survived in that first season it was fair play to the chairman (Roland Wycherley) who pushed the boat out and allowed us to get a deal for Grant Holt and the likes of him and Ben Davies were excellent,” says Simpson.

“I felt we deserved to go up that season, we were a proper free-flowing football team but we got done with a last-minute goal in the final.

“By losing that play-off final I think the chairman decided he wanted to go down a different route and even though I stayed on for the following season I knew my days were numbered.

“It was really disappointing as I had a great relationship with Roland although maybe it wasn’t quite as great as I thought!

“I made mistakes in that third season, we lost Grant and Ben and my recruitment wasn’t good enough and so I got the sack.

“It was one of those things and perhaps ultimately the right decision as Graham Turner got Shrewsbury promoted a few years later.

“I had to move on, but I have to say that Shrewsbury is a lovely club and a really good one to work for.”

Simpson clearly loves the day-to-day involvement of coaching and management, and his other roles included working as assistant to Steve McClaren at Derby and Newcastle.

But if there is one strong area of mitigation for a temporary departure from the trials and tribulations at club level then it is when the opportunity comes to wear the Three Lions of England.

For Simpson, himself an England Under-21 international, that meant taking charge of England Under-20s and leading them to glory in South Korea to, at the time, join Sir Alf Ramsey as the only World Cup winning England manager.

It was a remarkable achievement, not least as the Under-20s hadn’t won a game in the competition for 20 years and consecutive games in 28.

England came through the group stages with two wins and a draw and then overcame Costa Rica, Mexico and Italy before a Dominic Calvert-Lewin goal accounted for Venezuela in the final.

“What an absolute honour to do that job,” Simpson exclaims.

“It has to be seen as the pinnacle for a manager to work with a national team and then to get the chance to go to a World Cup with not just an incredible group of players but an incredible group of blokes as well.

“To go away and live that World Cup experience for 35 days with a great staff was amazing but to come away with a winners’ medal was beyond what anyone was dreaming about.

“I just look at it as such a huge honour to have been part of that whole set-up for four years and to have got the chance to work with such top players.

“I had worked really hard to get that chance, getting my coaching badges and qualifications to educate myself, and I have made mistakes and been through a lot of good times and a lot of bad times.

“Then I get an opportunity like that, and it’s probably not because I’m better or worse than anyone else, but the footballing gods were looking down on me - it was my turn to have this really positive experience.

“The way it happened I was at that particular stage of my career when I was doing a lot of things right, and I was fortunate to savour memories that will stay with me forever.”

Calvert-Lewin was part of a squad including others such as Dean Henderson, Ezri Konsa, Fikayo Tomori, Kyle Walker-Peters and Ademola Lookman who have also gone on to taste football at the highest level.

Many of those were also in touch with Simpson after his cancer diagnosis, wishing him well, along with so many others within football including that support from Bristol City, where Simpson was working with another ex-England coach in former Wolves midfielder Keith Downing, and also another former Molineux employee, goalkeeping coach Pat Mountain.

While the medical diagnosis was actually fairly straightforward in terms of removing the kidney where the tumour was situated, leaving him with one healthy kidney, how did Simpson cope with the psychological aspect of hearing such devastating news?

“You never expect to get a phone call like that and you never want to get a call to say you have cancer,” he responds.

“From the moment the doctor called me I had the initial thought of ‘let’s sort this out’, and when I met the surgeon that very same day, he was adamant I would be fine and back working on the grass within six weeks.

“So, I took that view, these were people who knew what they were talking about and I put my trust in them and I was positive from day one.

“People always ask if it has changed me and I don’t think it has.

“I am sure somewhere deep inside me it must have done but one of the things I have always learned from professional football is that you have to be really grateful to be involved in it and I have always had that philosophy.

“So, it’s not been a case of I’ve survived cancer so I need to enjoy and appreciate every day, because I feel I did that anyway.

“But obviously I am very grateful and really looking forward to the challenges ahead.”

The challenge for two of his former clubs comes at Molineux tomorrow night with Wolves looking to build on a fantastic comeback at Chelsea and City aiming to get one hand on the Premier League trophy a week after their Champions League despondency.

Now very different clubs from Simpson’s day, backed by substantial investment during the intervening years, and clubs which he still loves to see do well.

And while Wolves and Manchester City may have changed, he certainly hasn’t.

Still the same affable and approachable personality, still with the same fierce determination to succeed.

It is 40 years in October since he made his debut as a player, and still, even now with Carlisle, even after the trauma of being diagnosed with cancer, the desire and will-to-win remains undiminished.

“I spent too many weekends watching Soccer Saturday on Sky or watching matches on iPads, so I’m delighted to be back, even if it means I’ll lose a bit more hair and go even greyer,” he admits.

“When I started out all those years ago my ambition was to get through and get a pro contract, and then to get into the first team.

“Then it was about playing as many games as I could, and I still remember when I finished someone telling me I had made 808 appearances, which is unbelievable.

“I had five promotions, all those appearances, a World Cup winner’s medal, and I am still involved in the game at 55 years of age.

“I just feel really, really lucky.”