Tosh Farrell Soccer Magazine June 2020 | Page 19

"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.