Martyn Pert will be facing one of his old clubs when Town take on Fulham in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, the much-travelled Blues’ assistant manager having spent time at Craven Cottage earlier in a career which has also taken him to the US and the NBA.
Pert, 45, says he worked with the Whites in the second half of the 2008/09 campaign.
"I'd been at Watford and left Watford and Mark Taylor, who'd worked with Sam Allardyce at Bolton [as head of sports science and medicine] when they were on that trajectory of doing really well.
"Just after Sam had gone to Newcastle, Mark had gone to Fulham [as head of sports medicine and exercise science] and he brought me in to look after players moving from injury to when they were just really ready for the manager [Roy Hodgson], so that gap in between. It was football conditioning, really.
"It was enjoyable six months, I think it was only five or six months, it was a good, good club I liked it.”
Pert has also spent time working at West Brom, Watford, Cambridge, Coventry, Cardiff, with the Bahraini national team, the Vancouver Whitecaps and other clubs in addition to Manchester United from whom he joined the Blues, following manager Kieran McKenna from Old Trafford in December 2021.
He added: "All the clubs I've enjoyed every moment of it, so I've been very lucky.
"You hope to develop and grow every day. I still try and develop and grow in every session, even the session that I put on today, try and improve it, be better all the time. Try anyway.”
How do you look at what other clubs are doing in general throughout the season or preparing for a game like Wednesday’s?
"I think there are probably two separate answers,” he reflected. "I think you're always looking to improve yourself as a coach. Certainly, we are here,” he continued.
"We're always looking at different sports and obviously mainly focused on football and looking at different teams and best practice all the time to try and improve.
"But then I think when you actually get down to the week, you're then really planning based on your players and based on the opposition. So you don't necessarily use that transfer straight into the week.
"But you're definitely always looking to improve by looking outside of your sport and also looking inside of the best coaches around.
"So I don't think it really goes into your week for the Fulham game. But I suppose in the background it builds that sort of knowledge to really then go into the week in terms of preparing the drills and what you're going to go and face on Wednesday and then on Saturday as well.”
Pert’s travels haven’t just taken him to football clubs. After a brief stint at West Brom, he spent time with NBA club the Miami Heat.
"It was a long time ago, so I'll try and remember a little bit about it,” he said when quizzed on his time in the US.
"Basically, in 2004, I went to North America to look at different sports teams and how they were organised and to see different types of coaching and that type of thing.
"Part of that trip was I spent three months down in Miami with the Miami Heat, basically on an internship. Not even that really, it was just basically observing and helping. So I got to experience that, and obviously, I've still followed it.
"Pat Riley was a general manager, who is quite famous in the NBA, and it was quite interesting to see him in terms of how he ran the sports team at the time.
"And also they had Shaquille O'Neal and Dwayne Wade and people like that, so really talented players.
"One of the owners of [MLS side] the Vancouver Whitecaps is [former basketball player] Steve Nash, who I've ended up becoming quite good friends with, so I've still really followed it quite closely.
"I went and worked at Vancouver Whitecaps and that's how I got to know Steve Nash. I’ve some friends from different places that I've visited and still remain friends.”
Reflecting further on how his time in the States came about, he added: "I was working at West Brom and then I lost my job because of a coaching change there, and I thought ‘what am I going to do with my time in order to develop myself as a coach?’. So I just decided to go to North America.
"I flew into Montreal and then just visited different sports teams all the way down to Rio and then flew home from there. I didn't think it was a huge decision at the time and I just felt it was just something I wanted to do.
"It was a valuable experience and I've probably forgotten most of what I learned 20 years on. But it was a good experience at the time.”