By his own admission, Dean Holden loves an analogy and catchphrase but there is one that feels more pertinent than most: never waste a day.

There are two central reasons for this – one football-related, one personal… but plenty of experiences have shaped him to be the super-driven person and football manager is today.

The former Manchester United academy player, who linked arms with a Scouser as Steven Gerrard’s right-hand man in Saudi Arabia and is now working in the mad world of Turkish football, is here to tell Mail Sport of how his back-story has helped to mould his future.

‘And back in 2012, I was 33, we went on holiday and unfortunately we lost our daughter Cici at 17 months old. Having to go through that experience but still try to maintain my football career and provide for my family, I would have never chosen that.

‘Of course I wouldn’t. But it has made me what I am now. This real, warts-and-all character. Don’t waste a day. Never waste a day.

Dean Holden is embarking on a new coaching adventure in Turkey with Adana Demirspor

He is determined to reach the ‘highest level’ as a manager, having managed Oldham,Bristol City, and Charlton, and been assistant to Steven Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia

Holden, 45, lost his 17-month-old daughter Cici in 2012 and says that through the pain, the tragedy has ‘made me what I am now’

‘My wife Danielle and I come from the same area, had similar upbringings in a place where you get up off your arse and live to fight another day. This is why I believe anything is possible. When you lose a child, within two years, 88 per cent of marriages fail.

‘We are one of the 12 per cent. I believe you can go to a football club at the bottom of the table and make an instant impact with the way that you carry yourself and empower those around you. I am not an all-singing-all-dancing manager. We have lived through a stat, odds against us.’

Sitting across the table from the Holdens, who met at 13, was to have a glance into how his players must feel. Even before you consider his storied football CV, one cannot help but feel inspired and up for the scrap that life sometimes can be.

As the 45-year-old admits, his playing career could have been much different if not for those injuries. The first leg break, for example, came the day after – and he did not know this until later – that Everton had made a bid to sign him. A sliding doors moment, as they say.

He believes that the experience of having his playing career ‘on the line’ and the horrific tragedy of Cici dying of meningococcal septicaemia in Lanzarote have made him what he is today in his work in Saudi Arabia and now at Adana Demirspor in Turkey.

‘When you’re a player and you think your career is on the line, we had some dark times,’ he adds. ‘You’re in your own head a lot, out of sight, out of mind not on the training pitch, woe is me. But you have to keep going.

‘The hardest thing after she first died was to pick ourselves up off the floor. There was never an option to cuddle up and curl up into a ball, we had two other kids and I was never prepared to allow that to break us.

‘We were almost broken, hanging on by a thread, but I was never prepared for life to end for me. You have no control over things that happen to you but you can control the way you react. I went into pre-season that year at Walsall, it was the fittest I’ve ever been… I was a machine.

Gerrard ’empowered him to be creative’ and ‘sees the game differently,’ Holden has explained

Holden (left) broke his leg three times in his playing career, causing him to miss around five years of football

‘I gained this super-power in my head where like, all bets were off, everything was on the line here. I was always first one in, last one out, if you had to do 10 press-ups I would do 11.

‘I watched this documentary with (rugby player) Jonny Wilkinson – he was the best at what he did but he lived in fear of failure.

‘He talked about almost having a video camera on his shoulder as if it is filming his every move, you can’t cut corners. My dad used to always drill that into me, he said it to my eldest Ellis who is at Manchester City, “You never know who is watching”.

‘All the stuff that doesn’t take talent, you have to be the absolute best at. In modern football, that can get a little bit lost. Taking part in the school race everyone gets a medal, I am not saying that is wrong but life will hit you in the face at some point and you have to be ready for it.

‘But the experiences of breaking my leg, understanding my career was on the line mean I know what it’s like for a young player to be in the same situation. At Oldham, we were faced with liquidation.

‘The second leg break, they put me to sleep to try an operation that hadn’t been done before… by a trauma surgeon who focuses on car crash victims. They had to re-break my leg six months later and have another go. I should give my body to medical science!

‘All these experiences have helped me to be the manager and leader I am today, better than being at the top and having everything done for me.’

On a similar note, other managers would have perhaps sat still after being let go by Charlton – but Holden wanted to carry on and went over to Saudi Arabia with Gerrard. ‘I do a bit of reverse engineering, you don’t set off and drive to London without a map do you?,’ he says.

Holden made more than 400 appearances for a host of clubs in England, Scotland, and Iceland 

‘My toolbox is getting bigger,’ he says of the wide-ranging experiences he is picking up 

‘My ideal destination is managing at the top level. And I do love an analogy! I had to work my way backwards so I thought going to Saudi Arabia would help that. In every situation, you need tools and because of that, my toolbox is getting bigger and bigger.

‘Steven Gerrard sees the game differently, as his assistant I learned so much. He empowered me to be creative and come up with ideas, to challenge him. He’s a really generous guy and I am grateful for the opportunity – I felt like I got five years of experience from him in a year.

‘In any other industry, you would pay for the experiences I had. If you were a doctor, you’d pay to go and observe the best brain surgeon in the world.

‘And now in Turkey, it is mad, it’s a brilliant way to test myself. I live at the training ground. I am all in, I wake up and planning, train. I am there to professionalise it, “early is on time and on time is late”!

‘As for the future, anything is possible. We have a blackboard in our kitchen: aim for the moon, land near the stars. If I don’t get to the top, I don’t, but I believe in my heart that I can manage at the highest level. It might sound egotistical but I believe in myself.’

Why not?