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Having worked, almost solely, as an assistant manager or coach – what are the key skills needed in the role compared to that of the manager? I’ve got a lot of experience working with different characters and obviously i’m quite good at adapting. I must have a personality that must be good at adapting. If you’re working with different people, they’ve all got different ideas. I know what I want from training sessions, and what I want out from the group, but obviously if the manager wants something slightly different from that, then you’ve got to be flexible enough to incorporate both. You’ve got to be flexible and adjust your ideas to suit both personalities.
On numerous occasions it has been reported that you were ready to step up to the role of manager and have also worked as a caretaker - is management something you have considered? If i’m honest, when I left West Ham, it was with the intention of becoming a manager. I’d waited seven months and no opportunity had presented itself, i’d had a couple of half-chances if you like, but nothing concrete and happened. After seven months out of the game, I had an opportunity to come back in as a coach, and you want to be working. Everyone wants to work, it sounds great when you’ve had time to relax and enjoy yourself but it doesn’t work like that; you have the hunger and the bug and the passion and you want to be involved.
Don’t get me wrong it’s fantastic to be a coach and great to be an assistant manager – but I think to be the guy where the responsibility lies, I think that’s the final step for me and it’s an ambition for me. The attraction is that it’s something I haven’t tried, and I want to challenge myself as much as I can and see whether I can do it. But that’s for the future I am happy where I am at Liverpool FC.
Having worked with a variety of different groups of players, what are the first things you do with a new group? The first thing I think you have to do is show them that you’re competent. Obviously, the first three or four sessions have to be good, well organised and function well. You make them easy for the players to understand and slowly as you’re doing that you’re implementing your own philosophies. The way I work is not to say ‘do this, do this, do this’ there has to be a flexibility when you work with players at this level. You have to allow them to have their own slant and their own take on an exercise and let them develop their own way of doing it. At a training session you put down the skeleton, a framework if you like, then the input and the quality of the players will determine whether it’s a good session or not.
How hard is it to get players to come round to a new way of working and accept new values, principles and beliefs? You always like to think that the players are buying in to what your ideas are. I don’t know a player who doesn’t enjoy to pass the ball, take part in good possession practices and play in competitive game situations. From that point of view I think every player is the same: they want to improve, they want to get better.
What would you look for in a first-team coach? Honesty, enthusiasm and hard-work; I think if you have those three then you’ve got a start, from there you’re looking for an aptitude for the job. But if you come with those first three, I think the rest of it follows on. If you’re honest and hard- working the players will respect you anyway.
How did you enjoy working with young players? I loved being a youth team coach and I loved working with young players; that’s where I learnt how to coach and how to set up sessions. I had my own way of working with players: I wanted them to pass. I put an emphasis on keeping the ball, every training session I did was possession based. It’s what I believe in.
Author profile: Kenny Swain
Kenny Swain combines his role as Head Coach of England U16s with managing The FA’s Talent Identification network and also assists John Peacock with the England U17 squad.
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