It was at a summer barbecue 10 years ago in a friend’s garden when my son Daniel dribbled past an array of international defenders, eliminated Mathew Upson playing a one-two with Teddy Sherringham and smashed the ball past a floundering Sasa Ilic in the plastic mini goal. Martin Keown remonstrated with his co defenders and Paul Konchesky simply laughed

“Great goal Scholesy” Teddy shouted and the nickname stuck, this Scholesy was 5 years old. The comparison was probably more to do with Dan’s copper coloured top and freckles than his talent but the goal resembled a typical Paul Scholes strike. Dan also adopted this great player as his idol. Dan is now 15 and gave up football long before Paul Scholes in favour of Athletics, Snowboarding and ‘free running’ and still Paul goes on; Sir Alex has indicated that he could continue at Manchester United for at least one more year at Premiership level. A new contract is testimony to the professionalism, dedication and passion of one of the games true greats.

Paul Scholes came up through the school of hard knocks and street football. A little kid playing with the big lads and developing techniques and skills to cope. This is the story of many of the ‘pocket dynamo’s’ and those with real talent often progress to the very pinnacle of football. Kevin Keegan and Alan Ball were also fine examples of that.

For me our finest is Paul Scholes. Spotted by Manchester City, signed by Manchester united and nurtured by Brian Kidd and Sir Alex Ferguson there can have been no doubts in Manchester that there was a gem in the city. This gem turned out to be part of the ‘crown jewels’

Paul has all the requirements of a top International player, not a sprinter but quick, like a rattlesnake he assesses the situation and then pounces, he reads the game well and these two ingredients make him a great opportunist and therefore a priceless commodity, a midfield general who can make and score goals.

His goals fall into two categories; subtle, with a simple incisive build up and a clinical finish inside the box and spectacular, volleys, half volleys and power drives from outside the box. This is only achieved with outstanding techniques and these are only developed through constant practice and nobody loves shooting and finishing practice better than ‘Scholesy ’

Herein lays the secret of the rest of his play; Character and personality.

I had the pleasure and privilege to work with Paul Scholes and the rest of the squad over a period spanning 22 games as assistant coach with the England Senior team. Paul was never happier than with a ball at his feet. He can’t resist smashing a ball into the back of the net and Ray Clemence and myself often found ourselves hiding the balls away during the warm down to prevent him belting them all over the Bisham Abbey training ground. He would still manage to find them despite our efforts and I am sure Kevin Keegan being of similar ‘cheeky’ character used to get them back out on purpose!

This character manifests itself on the pitch, Paul never knows when to stop and he never gives up always believing there is another shot, another pass or another goal scoring opportunity, this is infectious and it was no surprise to me when Manchester United won the European Champions League in overtime.

For England Paul established himself as a senior player but he got on with his job quietly and efficiently, above all he is a winner and there is also fire in his belly, sometimes this has brought him rebuke from referees but without it he would not have the array of medals he has won.

He is an enthusiastic player who badly wants to win but he is also a nice guy, great dad and family man; a role model in an industry never far from a personal scandal. He has never forgotten his roots and were he not the great International star we know he would still be kicking a ball around with his mates over the park.

My eldest son is a Manchester United fanatic and idolises Scholes I am glad my lads are fans of Pauls , nothing will give me and my boys greater pleasure than to see Paul Scholes ; socks around his ankles with the European Champions league trophy in his grasp. It’s just a great shame it won’t be the World Cup!

Sir Alf would tell you , you can’t win it without a pocket sized red head in the team!

Following my recent post on the National Football Centre, a serious issue is raised regarding the future development of English coaches.  I would suggest that we have decent coaches and many young , enthusiastic coaches. I have observed them in Academies and club community schemes.  I have also seen many cases of good practice at the grass roots level.  Player centred coaches who crave further development but find the current system cumbersome and expensive.

I recently followed up my work in Turkey by returning to train Tutors.  I was given the freedom, as I had been with the UEFA ‘B’ and ‘A’ Licences to develop the syllabus from the good practice I had experienced from around the world and from sound research in the field of Teaching and Learning.  The tutor trainees were specially selected from outstanding ‘A’ licence graduates and were a mixture of grass roots coaches, professional club coaches and youth coaches, teachers and former International players and staff. They were there because they wanted to be and saw it as an opportunity to contribute to the development of Turkish football.  It was all paid for by the Tukish Football Federation on the basis that these people would be committed to work in the development programme for Turkey.

I completed the first ever AFC Special Pro Diploma in China last month. The candidates were mostly former International players now coaching at the highest level; the Superleague.  All coaches and their assistants must obtain this award by the end of 2010 or risk losing their jobs.  Part of the assessment is to identify potential instructors for coach education.  These top coaches see that aspect as important as the professional qualification Paid for by the CFA and A.F.C.

We need to be just as selective, raise the bar in terms of commitment and subsidise coach education so the best people can benefit whatever their circumstances.

I am fed up with the constant references to our coaches and players being no good, there are excellent players out there and highly skilled players, I know because I am out there too and always have been.  As Technical Director I visited the clubs, watched training and took sessions at the clubs.  I watched grass roots football every week as well as Academies and the Pro leagues.  I believed that was my job, who does that now?  Not the journalists who continually ramble on with negativity and a ‘woe betide’ attitude and certainly nobody from the FA!

There is a better way to develop high quality coaches and utilise the talent that already exists. Why can’t clubs become teaching academies for coaches, like teaching hospitals and the newer teacher training schools?  Excellent coach educators developed through clubs from the ranks of practising coaches just like teaching doctors and surgeons and Teacher / mentors in education.  Aspiring coaches could be specially selected for internships to learn on the job at Academies and with the pro’s?

My daughter is just about to graduate with a first class honours degree in teaching and education (fingers crossed) she has done four years training and spent more time in schools than at the University.

Wake up F.A it’s called “Competence Based Learning”.  Real practitioners mentoring gifted, aspiring professionals in the real world, not the simulated tutoring conducted by out of touch ‘instructors’ in the lecture theatre and on the fantasy field!

As for the grass roots the clubs also have excellent Community schemes, many offer coach education but within the current outdated framework.  How about adding a new type of Grass Roots Charter Club?  Extra funding for clubs who are examples of excellent practice to employ Directors of Grassroots Coaching who are specifically trained to organise and deliver level 1,2,and 3 in the grass roots workplace and ensure good practice and who actually work coaching young players?  Get rid of all the Tutor assessors and verifiers and spend the money where it is really productive; inside the grass roots!  I am in the National Training Centre in Kunming (one of three!) giving this advice to the Chinese and developing Coaches for the Chinese F.A. because my own governing body doesn’t want to listen!  I have done this in Turkey, Croatia, Republic of Ireland, Latvia and elsewhere for FIFA and UEFA.  From Level 1 to Pro yet I am considered no longer qualified in my own country!

I cannot be sure but I do not know any member of the League Managers Association; that’s all the current professional managers and all past Managers, who are considered qualified to run a F.A Coaching Course at any level. Remember that’s people like; Sir Alex, Arsene Wenger and Roy Hodgson through to Peter Taylor, Sammy Lee and includes the likes of Graham Taylor, David Pleat, Alan Curbishly and Don Howe. What a waste of talent and experience! There are many excellent practitioners in Academies like Tony Carr at West Ham, Dave Parnaby at Middlesborouugh and Steve Avory at Charlton who could easily run internships. The possibilities are endless for creative thinkers, perhaps the problem lies therein?

Imagine being one of 12 young interns at Manchester United; coaches, performance analysts and strength and conditioning coaches fresh out of university or former Academy Scholars released from the club. You are managed by Paul McGuiness in the Academy and work in the evenings as assistants in  the 9-16 age groups. You are studying for your, level 2,3,or 4 awards and are mentored by the academy coaches but have sessions with Rene Mullenstein and q & a sessions with Sir Alex as well as sessions with the other performance and sports science staff.  You take part in an overseas exchange programme and spend time at Ajax. What kind of coaches might we produce with such a strategy?

Such ‘out of the box’ thinking would need to be backed up by strong and sound leadership.  Sadly I fear we might be just a little lacking in that area too.

http://www.leadersinfootball.com/column/83/

This link will take you to a fine article by Gerry Cox on the future of the F.A National Football Centre. As Gerry points out the F.A. is of course bidding for a world cup and appears to have done a ‘U’ turn when they have had little interest since 2005. David Sheepshanks, has always been a supporter and the centre played a big part in his manifesto to become Chairman of the F.A. Time has seen Sir Trevor’s view change from skeptic to champion, he was not in favour when the project was mothballed. Having been one of the originators of the project and member of the National Football Centre Ltd Board and succeeding Howard Wilkinson as project leader I am of course delighted at this turnaround.

It was Howard who coined the phrase ‘University of Football’ we had also visited Coverciano, Clairefontaine and the Centres in Portugal, Spain, Holland, the US and others. It has pained me to have been able to work at the centre outside Madrid, the Turkish Centre, Aspire Academy in Qatar, Home Depot and Latvia and know that we were being left behind when once we were pathfinders (Lilleshall National School). Buildings do not develop players, Sir Trevor is quite right to be concerned about the quality of coaching but isn’t that his job? The F.A. is responsible for training and qualifying coaches in this country…or are they?

The counties or licensed, approved coach education centres governed by a company called First 4 sport deliver coaching courses from level 1 to level three. They employ (at the candidates expense) Tutors, Assessors, Internal and external verifiers who monitor the courses. The majority of these do not coach players or teams or have not done so for many years. It is financially more rewarding not to. Other than courses for professional players, delivered by the PFA, all of these courses are delivered by part time tutors. It is these courses that aspiring Academy Coaches have to attend before being allowed to take the Youth Coaches Awards or Academy Directors License. The coaches being trained to coach our elite kids are being trained by tutors who never do and assessed by examiners who never have! This is all done in the name of quality control!! How can that be? The truth is it makes money!

Approved Centres draw down funding from Further Education through partnerships with colleges and add this to the candidate’s fees. The more courses, the more funding. The F.A. does not train coaches at levels 1-3 but they train tutors and it is part time tutor trainers who do this, they too rarely; if ever coach teams.

Tutors have to go through so many hoops to get qualified that they have to spend a small fortune to get there, and then they have to attend Continuous Professional Development Courses to retain the qualifications it’s no wonder they never have time to coach players!

Is it surprising that highly skilled, high quality or even high potential coaches from all levels of the game do not want to get involved? A year ago I attended a two day get together at the Beckham Academy at what was described as in service training for ‘elite coach educators’. This was for coaches selected as potential level four (UEFA’A’ ) tutors. Apart from myself and Martin Hunter ( Norwich, Bradford, Watford, Stoke and England Youth) only Guy Whittingham (Portsmouth) and John McDermott (Spurs Academy) were employed at Professional level. The level 4 course is entry level for Academy Directors and Youth Coaches, there were 35 coaches in the room, were they going to deliver the courses aimed at those who are destined to coach our elite youth? I believe the entire cadre of candidates for one ‘A’ License last year failed the course; make your own conclusions. I hold the world’s highest qualifications and have, of course, not been invited to deliver a course in England since 2004. There are many in the professional game like me. My question then is, erect the buildings yes, but who coaches the coaches?

to be continued…..