17 Oct 2017 07:06:16
A little off topic, everything seems to be either about how appalling the performance against Pool was or whether Jose will finish his career with us not.

Question for the eds and even the posters. have you any of you ever thought of picking up coaching badges. Especially the eds, your in-depth knowledge about not just the players, but the way a team plays and different way that they play as well. Your analysis are spot-on and you someone know how good or bad a team and a manager really is.

So, just wanted to know if you ever thought of coaching kids at the grassroots level or even training a team.

Thanks.

{Ed001's Note - thought about it but they were too expensive to ever consider doing.}

1.) 17 Oct 2017
17 Oct 2017 07:36:01
I was not one saying how appalling the performance was nor speculating on Jose’s career.

I managed a team many years ago but it became too much hassle, players not turning up or turning up late and threats if I didn’t play people, or play people in the position they wanted. At times they were not adult like but school kids attitude. It was in pre mobile phone days so my landline phone bill went through the roof (checking on players) at a time when I couldn’t afford it. I changed the way they played, moved a forward to the back and he became the best defender in the league. Still the hassle wasn’t worth doing it long term. No time for coaching badges, just armchair ones.

2.) 17 Oct 2017
17 Oct 2017 08:27:00
Ed001 that is part of the problem in english football. it is so much more expensive in england to do your coaching badges compared to elsewhere. we lack a serious amount of decent coaching at all levels, due to the cost and lack of incentive to do them.

{Ed001's Note - very much so mate. It is not about bringing through the best coaches to the FA, it is about making money.}

3.) 17 Oct 2017
17 Oct 2017 10:00:06
I started along the path a few years ago. But as Ed001 has pointed out cost soon becomes a problem. It cost me £140 for my level one (but I had to take a week off work to complete it, which as I was self employed at the time cost me a weeks earnings) . My level two cost me £340 plus two weeks wages. Although both courses were interesting for different reasons neither really imparted much tactical or coaching knowledge to you. They focused on your ability to deliver a coaching session, safe guarding, first aid and the "FA's vision for football". They want kids to enjoy football as that is why we struggle to produce top quality players apparently.
The issue is to climb further up the ladder you really need to start considering your UEFA B license, UEFA A license then you FIFA pro license. The UEFA B license will set you back by over £5000. Then the others cost more again. So unless you have loads of spare cash kicking about, or you get sponsored by a club then you won't be able to get them.

For me this is the real issue with football in England. For comparison we have just under 3000 people in this country with one of the top three licenses, and we have around about 120 professional football clubs. Were these people exclusively work. In the Netherlands they have less than 45 professional club yet they have over 18000 people with one of the top three licenses. But in the Netherlands many of these highly qualified people work at grass roots level. So you can imagine the difference in standard in coaching the kids receive at grass roots level.

If the FA instead of spending millions on the almost pointless St George's park put the money towards subsidising coaching qualification cost then maybe we would start producing some quality players.

{Ed001's Note - have you heard of Mark Bennet Shapps? Performance Development Systems is his company. He is someone who is well worth listening to if you haven't. His ideas of coaching are spot on, teach kids to think for themselves and the best coaches make themselves redundant. I urge anyone interested in getting into coaching to look him up and take the time to listen to what he has to say. He does coach mentoring as well. Before anyone asks, I have no connection to the guy at all, he is not sponsoring me, I have never spoken to him or met him, just read a lot of articles and heard him speak on a number of podcasts and he is very impressive.}

4.) 17 Oct 2017
17 Oct 2017 10:22:09
I passed my level 1 and 2 a number of years ago. They cost around £500. I used to help run a few youth teams and the club paid half. Uefa badges are ridiculously expensive and very tough. I've genuinely been thinking about getting into reffing sat afternoons. The standard has been shocking in my area and it's about £35 per match. I've just been medically retired from playing and I'm tempted. Be interesting as I've been captain of my club for six years so had a lot of ref bull in my time. Tempted to see what it's like on the other side of the whistle.

5.) 17 Oct 2017
17 Oct 2017 10:39:47
James,

I reffed for quite a while when I was at Uni to bring in a bit of extra cash, I wanted to see how difficult it was and see things from the other side. It is tricky and you do make mistakes but I found at the level I was reffing if you were respectful and a nice guy to the players most of them were nice and respectful back to you even if you made an error which can happen to anybody.

Too often I play and have refs who are arrogant or won’t speak to you or don’t understand the game and that causes major issues. Knowing the rules is a very important part of the game and not holding grudges against teams who have a bit of a go at you can be tricky but you have to be 100% impartial with every decision and be honest with yourself and all of the players and I found they respected me for that.

6.) 17 Oct 2017
17 Oct 2017 16:48:28
I haven't Ed001 to he honest. But I'll look him up when I get a chance. I recently went back into education, the going atm is pretty intense. Lol.

{Ed001's Note - here is the website save you having to search for it.}

7.) 17 Oct 2017
17 Oct 2017 19:00:58
GDS - mate the standard is so poor here. I watched a goal kick get given after a defender encroached during a penalty. That's a declaration of war in Luton!

I was assistant manager last year for an adult team and I had the same problems as Redman. Every young lad turning up with their green and pink boots thinking they were Ronaldo. They would cry at positions, if their mate wasn't playing etc. They skag of older players and show little respect. Great, you can do all your flicks and tricks but they bottled 50/ 50s and argued like hell. I came back and played for half a season at in the top league and worryingly I wasn't out of place four years after my last game. Youngsters today just don't want to listen to tactics, off the ball work. It really opened my eyes to attitudes these days. If I walked into a dressing room back in the day and said and acted the way some of them do, I would have got eaten alive.

I would do youth teams again but them you have the same problems with parents thinking their kid is a star. Parents ruin youth football for me.

Rant over.