Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Team Management | Tags: FA, Fabio Capello, Juventus, Predrag Mijatovic, Real Madrid, Rio Ferdinand, Roberto Carlos, Roma, Steven Gerrard
So we know he’s good. But what is he worth? Well, his annual salary is £6m (around US$12m). That’s around £13,561 a day. Give or take. Plus expenses.And what does he do to earn his salary? Well, he watches lots of matches. He appears before the press every now and then. He fires and appoints other coaches and assistants on a regular basis. He does the occasional photo opportunity to help with his and the FA’s public profile.
Oh, and occasionally he gets together with the England players for a spot of coaching before a friendly. A total of five days since his appointment in January. At a cost of around £2.5m to the FA. He picks the team, he calls the tactics and he makes the substitutions.
And what of his coaching style? What is he bringing to the English game? The word most often associated with Capello is “discipline”. Predrag Mijatovic, who played under him at Real Madrid describes him as “A painful but necessary medicine”. Roberto Carlos at Real said of Capello’s style “There will be no spectacle, it will be 1-0…But the team will be there, correctly set up and balanced on the pitch. And always winning.”
I really hope so. I’m as disappointed as the next fan that England aren’t at Euro 2008 (and I’m Irish!). And maybe Capello can secure qualification for World Cup 2010. Clearly, the FA believe that if he can his astronomical salary will have been worth it.
But here’s the thing. Forget 2010 for a minute. What about 2022? If England are successful at that tournament it will have been down to the likes of you and me as youth coaches. Somewhere out there on the playing fields of England are the future generations of Steven Gerrards and Rio Ferdinands. Hopefully they’ll play a more expansive and open style than we’re used to from Capello. And we’ll have done it for a heck of a lot less than £6m a year. And we’ll spend an awful lot more time with our players.
That’s not me being bitter – that’s me being proud of what we’re doing for the future. I’m realistic about the commercial imperative of steadying the England ship and hiring the best available coach at whatever cost. In the short term England might even win something. But the long term is down to grassroots coaches doing it for free week in week out, year after year.
The FA know this. Let’s see some more support. Let’s see some action.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Team Management | Tags: passing, tournament, under 12, under 16
It’s soccer tournament season in the UK. Now that all the leagues have finished, the tournament season brings with it a welcome relief from the heavy pitches and cold weather we hopefully left behind in February. We are now playing on good close cropped grass that allows quick passing soccer.
I have written a lot about tournaments in Better Soccer Coaching because they are a totally different experience to the usual match day.
I like to use these tournaments to let all my players have some fun, have a laugh and generate a lot of team spirit to take into next season.
I’m not saying I don’t go to these things for a bit of silverware, but it’s not my main aim. Yes, my teams have won them and they have been disappointed, crying as beaten finalists, but the object of the day is for all my players to play and for all of them to have fun.
This weekend at a tournament played in lovely surroundings near the Thames with the sun shining and a welcoming atmosphere I saw a number of things that caught my eye.
- One of the under 12 teams turned up, erected a tent with sides into which they disappeared. This they did at the end of every match, so I sent one of my parents to spy. The manager had a magnetic board and was going through moves that had gone on during each of the 8 minute games. Talk about taking it seriously.
- After a match in which one of the teams won 1-0 they were set upon by the opposition who chased them into one of the tents with their fists flying. It was the mothers of the team who pulled them off. The manager was just shouting at them to “come away”. Outrageous behaviour.
- The manager of our under 16s had got his team through to the semi-final, but rather than watch them he kept watching one of our younger teams – which hadn’t won a match or even scored a goal – because it was their last game and he hoped they would get a goal. In the event they drew 0-0 which made him cheer louder than when his team scored in the semi-final. This is what the tournaments should be about.
- When our under 12s were about to kick off for an important last game which could see them into the semi-finals I asked one of the parents where her son was. “Oh no,” she said aghast, “I’ve just let him go on the bouncy castle!” And boy was he having fun, and boy did he have to run across the pitch to make kick-off.
I love tournaments, the quick games, watching my teams using fast passing to get the ball from one end of the pitch to the other. But there are certain elements that try to ruin the day.
I bet all of you have stories to tell about tournament behaviour. I know my colleagues at Better Soccer Coaching do. Let me know yours by replying to this blog below.
Dave Clarke, editor, Better Soccer Coaching
