"At Everton, David
was never afraid to
give young players
their debut"
Can you name two people who have had the most
affect or influenced your career the most.
Tosh, that’s a really difficult one, simply because I have been
around so many great people and learnt so much. I started my
coaching badges when I was 26 and this led to me starting to
analyse coaches and the sessions they did. As you develop as a
coach, you start to focus on the person delivering the session
rather than the session they are delivering if that makes sense. I
have been around many managers who are better man managers
than coaches and vice versa. I would study the impact their
methods had on the people around them and how it affected
them. I have watched coaches and managers over the years and
seen many things which I have copied or adapted. Likewise I have
seen things which I would never do.
If you nailed me down to two people who have influenced me
most I I would say Kenny Dalglish and Ray Harford. This is partly
due to timing as I worked with them when I first started coaching.
I was a sponge for information so sitting with them at lunch time
at Blackburn was an education. Kenny and Ray would talk for
hours moving the salt and pepper around the table simulating
players asking questions of each. For example Roy liked to show
players inside so the back four could play a higher line, Kenny’s
response would be “well what if the player want’s to come inside,
what happens then?” This was constant, they were always
challenging each other and I lapped it up.