At the time it felt like a surprise appointment for semi-professional Haverfordwest County of the Cymru Premier.
Three years on, and with the manager who joined them on New Year’s Eve 2021 leading his current side into a Champions League knockout tie against Aston Villa, it seems scarcely believable.
Nicky Hayen was the first Belgian to manage in the Welsh Premier League and remains one of only a handful of non-British or non-Irish managers to do so.
The 44-year-old’s ascent to the latter stages of Europe’s top-tier competition with Club Brugge, who knocked out Europa League holders Atalanta in the play-offs, has been as rapid as it has been impressive.
Now he is being touted as one of Europe’s “hottest properties”, and one pundit even suggested Hayen could be Arne Slot’s replacement at Liverpool.
Few of the 273 present at Bridge Meadow Stadium when Hayen recorded the biggest home win of his Haverfordwest tenure – a 6-1 thumping of Cefn Druids – would have predicted their manager would be in such conversation only a few years later.
But for Haverfordwest chairman Rob Edwards, who remains close friends with Hayen and shares regular messages with him, it comes as no surprise.
“The guy was a workaholic,” recalls Edwards, whose house Hayen shared while living in west Wales.
“I would wake up at 8am and he’d be dressed, watching clips of opposition, doing analysis. I’d go to bed at 11pm and he’d be up, watching clips and doing analysis.”
Hayen, a former defender who played more than 400 games in Belgium and the Netherlands, reached Wales largely via coaching, technical director and caretaker manager roles in Belgium and Saudi Arabia.
His major managerial breakthrough at Waasland-Beveren ended in Covid-impacted relegation to the Belgian second tier.
He connected with Edwards via a mutual contact in Belgium and, backed by a Uefa Pro Licence and stellar presentation, wowed the board during the interview stage.
“We just wanted to listen to every word he said,” explains Edwards, who took over the club in 2020 and made Hayen his first managerial appointment the following year.
“We decided he was the person we wanted and did all we could to get him. Fortunately, he turned up.”
The experience and professionalism Hayen brought to the part-timers had an immediate impact, taking them from second-bottom to the verge of Europe in fewer than six months, implementing a possession-based, passing approach rarely witnessed in the Welsh top flight.
“You could see by the impact he had on the players,” says Edwards. “He didn’t try to over-coach them, give them very detailed stats about the opposition, [or] very detailed analysis.
“He spent his time getting to know the players. He was very methodical. He asked about their welfare; he was worried about the mental side of the game as well.
“He managed to get a really amazing standard out of players we probably didn’t realise had it in them.
“For me, it was a massive learning curve working with someone at that level, but he was very calm. He wasn’t a shouter in the dressing room – he spoke and you listened.
“Despite not being the loudest, most aggressive, he had an aura – you just wanted to listen to him.”
It is to Hayen’s credit that he slipped seamlessly into life in the Pembrokeshire market town, despite having to leave his family in Belgium.
“There are 14,000 people who live in Haverfordwest. It’s a beautiful part of the world but a bit of a culture shock,” says Edwards.
“He wasn’t really too concerned about what was around him. He was focused on the football. He embraced the culture and didn’t try to change anything drastically. But he was just obsessed with football.
“He is a family man, doesn’t drink, doesn’t use social media. He just gets his head down. He deserves everything he gets.”
Edwards knew the day would come, but he was hoping the club would get a little longer with Hayen at the helm.
When, in the summer of 2022, an approach arrived from Club Brugge to take over their Under-23s, Club NXT, it proved impossible for Hayen to turn down.
“It was a little bit of a surprise,” says Edwards. “I wasn’t expecting to have any dialogue with a club like Club Brugge.”
Hayen stepped in as first-team assistant after Scott Parker was sacked in 2023, before getting his chance as interim manager when Ronny Deila left last March.
There, Hayen found former Sint-Truiden team-mate and ex-Liverpool and Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to confide in.
“When [Deila] stepped down with 10 games to go last season, Nicky stepped in and won nine of them and they came out of nowhere to win the league. That was a real statement,” says Edwards.
It was during that run that Jan Mulder, the former Ajax and Anderlecht striker turned pundit, made a prediction for Hayen’s future.
“Next year [he] will play a series of matches in the Champions League, attracting the attention of Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Bayern and Manchester,” Mulder wrote in Humo in May 2024.
“Nasser Al-Khelaifi of Paris St-Germain also joins the fight for his signature at the last minute. Personally, I think that the great Nicky Hayen will replace Arne Slot from Zwolle as manager of Liverpool within two years.”
The first part of Mulder’s premonition has proven to be true – Hayen’s Brugge beat Villa, Sporting and Sturm Graz in the group phase, as well as drawing with Juventus and Celtic.
The Belgian champions followed up by defeating Atalanta in both legs of their play-off for a 5-2 aggregate victory.
Prior to that second leg in Italy, Hayen explained how before games he always talks to his mother, who passed away four years ago.
“What he has achieved in the Champions League is just incredible. Club Brugge over the years have had far better sides on paper, but he is getting an incredible tune out of them,” says Edwards.
“He is a workaholic, fanatical and leads from the front. I guess that is why a lot of these younger players who are coming through are working so hard for him and having great success.”
Hayen’s brief tenure in Wales also set the platform for Haverfordwest’s future. In 2023, under Tony Pennock, they qualified for Europe for the first time in 19 years and only the second time in their history, reaching the Europa Conference League second qualifying round.
“It’s great for the club to be associated with someone like that,” says Edwards.
“It seems like it is only the start for him. I would love for him to go on. I am sure there will be opportunities to manage even higher if he carries on.
“He is probably one of the hottest properties in Europe.”
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