Tony Strudwick is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 football coach

Coach (sport)

In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

 who is currently employed by Manchester United

Manchester United F.C.

Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...

 as the club's fitness coach. Strudwick has a PhD

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in sports science, which he earned from Liverpool John Moores University

Liverpool John Moores University

Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...

.

Strudwick began his football career as a player with Colchester United

Colchester United F.C.

Colchester United Football Club is an English football club based in Colchester. The club was formed in 1937, and briefly shared their old Layer Road home with now defunct side Colchester Town who had previously used the ground from 1910....

, but did not make a first team appearance for the club. He gave up playing soon after and moved into coaching. He had previously worked with Coventry City

Coventry City F.C.

Coventry City Football Club, otherwise known as the Sky Blues owing to the traditional colour of their strip, are a professional English Football league club based in Coventry...

, West Ham United

West Ham United F.C.

West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...

 and The Football Association

The Football Association

The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...

 before becoming one of Mark Hughes

Mark Hughes

Leslie Mark Hughes, OBE , is a former Welsh international footballer. As an international footballer, he made 72 appearances and scored 16 goals....

' first appointments when he took over as manager of Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn Rovers F.C.

Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team currently competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football....

 in 2004. Strudwick was at Blackburn for three seasons, before Manchester United approached him as a replacement for their outgoing fitness coach, Valter Di Salvo

Valter di Salvo

Valter Di Salvo is the Italian head fitness coach at Real Madrid. He was re-signed by the Spanish champions from Manchester United, who had brought him to the club at the recommendation of United's Portuguese assistant manager, Carlos Queiroz. Queiroz had signed Di Salvo during his season as...

, in the summer of 2007.

In April 2008, Strudwick was involved in an altercation between some of Manchester United's players, including Patrice Evra

Patrice Evra

Patrice Latyr Evra is a French international footballer who currently plays for English club Manchester United in the Premier League and the France national team. Originally an attacker, he primarily plays as a left back and is described as "the classic example of a modern full-back" who is...

 and Gary Neville

Gary Neville

Gary Alexander Neville is a former English footballer. He is England's most capped right-back and was Manchester United's club captain for five years....

, and the ground staff at Chelsea

Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...

. During a warm-down led by Strudwick, it was claimed by Chelsea's head groundsman, Jason Griffin, that Strudwick had become abusive and foul-mouthed when asked not to warm down in the penalty area

Penalty area

The penalty area , is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends to each side of the goal and in front of it. Within the penalty area is the penalty spot , which is from the goal line, directly in-line with the centre of the goal...

. Strudwick counter-claimed that Griffin had been less than polite in asking the players not to warm down in the penalty area, alleging that Griffin was "instantly aggressive" and that he had threatened to "shove the fucking fork [Griffin was carrying a pitchfork at the time] up [Strudwick's] arse".