Question.

[Lilly Whites]

In this day and age it seems all the rage for players to retire, then become coaches straight after, be it professional football, ametuer football, south australian football, english football.

It begs to differ if younger managers can cope with an elder team, take paul ince for instance, he was 40 or just turned 41 when he took over blackburn, and half the players there are 32+

but now big sam has been put in, an elder statsmen with knowledge of different clubs and a much older man who has turned the clubs fortunes.

so i have to ask the question...

in football..

does coaching respect come with age, ability or results?

[paul merson]

Experinence, Results and a good rapport with the players. They all equal respect.

[Outlaw 2.0]

In this day and age it seems all the rage for players to retire, then become coaches straight after, be it professional football, ametuer football, south australian football, english football.

It begs to differ if younger managers can cope with an elder team, take paul ince for instance, he was 40 or just turned 41 when he took over blackburn, and half the players there are 32+

but now big sam has been put in, an elder statsmen with knowledge of different clubs and a much older man who has turned the clubs fortunes.

so i have to ask the question...

in football..

does coaching respect come with age, ability or results?

I think Gareth Southgate would have been a better example but in answer to your question respect will come from first impressions if you cant assert yourself as a coach straight away your not fit for the job.

[Lilly Whites]

I think the difference with Southgate was that he was playing the year before as captain, and was pretty much in an assistant coach role, and apparently alot of the players were told he was going to be the manager sometime in the near future quite a while back so at least this way Southgate had some kind of plateu and would have had some respect from the players whereas Ince went into a completley new enviroment.

[Outlaw 2.0]

Ok fine the Lilly perhaps we can use Dwight Yorke and Roy Keane as an example with Dwight being 3 months younger than Keane??

[TheWingBack]

Paul Jewell's probably a good example. He became manager of Bradford City at 34 and in 2 seasons took them to the Premier League. Alternatively Brian Kidd is another good example, he had lots of experience with Man U but when his turn came at Blackburn when he was 49, he struggled and in the end found himself sacked.

I think it's a case of either you can or you can't coach, but you get better with the more experience you attain. There is a lot involved in coaching, i.e. people management, skill development, personal development, tactics, game structure, education, and so on. But to me the most important thing is can you lead as a coach and bring the players along with you? You could be the smartest coach ever, you could run the best training sessions ever, but if you can't get your players to come along with your direction you're not going to be a good coach.

[The Magician]

I think it's a case of either you can or you can't coach

Once a coach realises that he can't really coach, they should raised their hand and admit that by saying, "been there and tried that lads, but it's not for me!"

[TheWingBack]

I agree, but some coaches can't see that or don't believe it. It also takes different people different timeframes to become good at coaching. I am only in my second year as a coach and I know I am a lot better at a lot of things this year than last year and I'm sure that given the chance I'll be better again next season.

I know some clubs like to consider player development as part of their approach but this is also necessary for coaches too. Don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting that a Super League coach should be developed at that level, but at Amateur level clubs what's wrong with developing coaches in assistant/B team/youth positions or even the Super League clubs getting hold of a prospective coach and developing them with their older Youth squads/academies?

I would personally love to see more done to assist players becoming coaches and helping them develop as coaches with guidance and mentoring where possible. Maybe that's something to discuss with John Mundy?

[Nice One Cyril]

I think it's a case of either you can or you can't coach, but you get better with the more experience you attain. There is a lot involved in coaching, i.e. people management, skill development, personal development, tactics, game structure, education, and so on. But to me the most important thing is can you lead as a coach and bring the players along with you? You could be the smartest coach ever, you could run the best training sessions ever, but if you can't get your players to come along with your direction you're not going to be a good coach.

Well you got that spot on JS so I hope you'll turn out to be decent coach.

It's obviously a generalisation but, in the modern game, great players rarely make great coaches, which is why so many ex-players fail to make the grade. The reality is, most players who make the top grade (EPL, Bundesliga, Serie A etc) are not normally the most articulate and academically gifted and, whilst they were great on the pitch doing their own little job, they often lack the mental capacity to understand and coach the game in it's wider form.