Aidy Boothroyd: Ex-Watford and Coventry City manager joins Northern Ireland backroom team

Former Watford and Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd has joined the Northern Ireland coaching staff on a short-term basis.

The ex-England Under-21s boss has been drafted in to help out at this week's training camp in England.

He will also be part of NI manager Ian Baraclough's backroom team for next month's Nations League fixtures.

Northern Ireland's regular coach Adam Sadler is unavailable for the training camp and the Nations League games.

Sadler, the first-team coach at Leicester City, will miss the four-day camp and the matches for personal reasons.

Baraclough revealed: "I delved into the contacts book and Aidy is someone who I've known for a number of years. I used to play with him at Mansfield Town in the early 1990s.

"He's got a wealth of experience. He's been a Premier League coach, a Premier League manager, worked within academies at Premier League clubs and also worked internationally for seven years with England's U21s, U20s and U19s.

"To call on someone like him has been invaluable. He'll go to the June games with us and we're totally looking forward to it."

As a player Boothroyd played for Huddersfield Town, Bristol Rovers, Hearts, Mansfield and Peterborough United.

His coaching career began at youth level with Peterborough, Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion before he became first team coach at Leeds United.

From there he was appointed manager of Watford in 2005 and he got them promoted to the Premier League in 2005-06 via the play-offs only for his team to be relegated the following season.

He left the Hornets in 2008. After that he managed Colchester United in League One, Coventry in the Championship and Northampton Town in League Two before switching to the England international set-up in 2014.

He took charge of both the U19s and U20s before taking over the U21s for five years, up until April last year.

Nations League preparation

This week's camp at the FA's national training centre in Staffordshire is part of the preparations for four Uefa Nations League fixtures next month.

Northern Ireland, the top seeds in Group 2 in League C of the 2022-23 edition of the competition, will begin their latest Nations League campaign with a game against second seeds Greece at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park on Thursday 2 June.

Baraclough's team will then play fourth seeds Cyprus away on Sunday 5 June followed by another away fixture against third seeds Kosovo on Thursday 9 June. That game is being played at Stadiumi Fadil Vokrri in Pristina.

Their fourth and final fixture in June is a home match against Cyprus on Sunday 12 June.

'Integrating young players'

Baraclough described the facilities for this week's training camp at St George's Park as "second to none".

"We have brought a group of players from different age groups, some of them I met for the first time yesterday, and it has been a great experience.

"We've integrated those young players. They're getting to know my voice, the coaches' voices and as coaches we are all aligned and giving out those messages that will hopefully shape those players for years to come and help them play for Northern Ireland at the highest level.

"We have really enjoyed it so far and as well as really getting out of it what we want in regard to fitness assessments because they are all at different stages of their season.

"Hopefully we are developing players who have opinions on the game and can converse on that.

"The senior players are maybe those who are listened to most but everyone has got a role to play."