Blueprint for Football Digest [Issue 22]

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"Players Want to Play not Listen to Coaches Talking!"
Whilst football academies like to think that they do everything possible to source the best young players, the sad truth is that there are certain areas – those which are considered as bad neighbourhoods – which often tend to be ignored.  For all their professionalism,  they ultimately rely on a strong family background – to provide them with the right nutrition, for instance - and at least one parent who is willing to regularly drive them to and from training.  Inherently, in doing so they are ruling out children from backgrounds that do not conform with this.

In truth, it also takes a special kind of coach in order to know how to put the message across to children from such backgrounds.  Tony McCool is one such coach.  He is a strong advocate of the need for clubs to truly look everywhere for talent and has the experience needed in dealing with those that others would term as problematic.

In this insightful interview, he talks about his experience and his views are bound to help any coach looking for new ideas on the art of coaching.

The grass is my office…
Goalkeepers are different.  So wrote Brian Glanville and, as always, the wise man of football writing was right.

You have to be different to be a goalkeeper.  Your basic function – that of stopping goals from being scored – means that you are the only one allowed to break one of the most basic rules of the game, that of playing with your hand rather than your feet.  

If everyone is in agreement that goalkeepers are different, then, it follows that the coaching they receive has to be different as well.  Yet that wasn’t always the case and it is only over the past two decades that we have been seeing not only first teams put in place specialised goalkeeping coaches but also youth teams.

David Coles is someone who has witnessed this change, first as a player himself and now as a coach.  In this interview he talks about his work – including why he asks his goalkeepers to study DVD of players they are about to face – and how the grass is his office.

England’s Special One
I don’t know about you but, as this season draws to a close I’m already looking forward to next August when most of the major leagues kick off once again.  I have to admit that I am particularly intrigued to see how Bournemouth will do in the Premier League next season having heard so much about them during recent weeks.

In particular, I’m intrigued by their manager Eddie Howe.  At thirty seven, his career has already been packed with achievements and his studious nature augurs well for the future.  

Quote of the Week
“If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine” Morris West