Hello again everyone

I am only 15 and next year i will complete my FA 1 badge. Next i will take on the FA2 while at UNi doing a course in sports science with management. I am going to work professionally within football as a coach or wherever. My dream is to a manager of any team in professional football. Starting so young i am confident i can achieve this, especially as football is becoming a more intelligent, prepared game. Highly educated people like Aidy Bothroyd are breaking through. The big question i have though is when do professional clubs start to employ coaches i.e what qualifications to people have who are employed as coaches. I understand experience is needed but as people are now finding out youth and energy can work as effectively. Grateful for any help
MATT

IMO you wont get a pro job until your at least 30 but even i suspect you will struggle! players arent gonna listen to a young kid who couldnt play the game proprtly themselves! Aidy Boothroyd although an intelligent man could also play the game to a good standard and therefore has the respect of the players! how can you teach players to do something you couldnt do yourself?

whats your first job gonna be? who will employ someone who never played or coached?

do you want to coach or manage? do you know the difference between the two roles?

In fact i have played football at a county level for the last 4 years-the same level that aidy played at before being signed and suffering his injury. i am currently completing world challenge, an award reconised for leadership. If you think that you must have played pro your wrong. To say that i may have to wait to 30 to get a pro job may be right. But i am going to Loughbourgh, the most highly reconised sporting school in the country. Playing for their 1st team will be a higher level than aidy. And of course i know the difference between coaching and managing. And i will go on to complete the uefa badges and perhaps other courses. Like Marlon king said on aidy bothroyd 'he joins in at training but hes rubbish',. Management like Tony Mobray said is about Making lots of decisions and getting them right, from the smallest things to the biggest. Its about knowing who your working with and how to motivate them and get the best out of them. Like i said football is changing, education is becoming more important, look at wenger. I will look to get a job in coaching first and learn then from a pro manager. Then when i am ready look to get a pro manager job in the lower leagues. As long as i am working in pro football i will be happy.

I too played county standard and am still playing now as Semi-Pro!

Some may view this as some achievement but almost all players at my level represented district and county sides, I just think it's pretty naive to think that you are the next Aidy Williams just because he was an average player and a good manager does not mean you are the same! Also as a 15yr old you are not at Loughbrough University yet, its not easy to gain entry to and even if you het in your not guaranteed a place in their first team! Also UEFA badges cost money, take ages to complete and are actually very difficult to pass! Its not as simple as just 'doing' them! You are talking thousand of pounds to complete UEFA 'A' and 'B' and its not guaranteed you will pass first time! By all means you seem very ambitious and have this great dream im just giving you a reality check!

Also as a 15yr old you shouldn't be too quick to tell me that i'm wrong, football may be changing slightly but in my experience coaches that have a good playing CV will be employed over a coach with a bit of paper and a badge or two! Im only currently a Level 2 coach working for Aston Villa FC and my interview consisted of me talking about my time playing in the academy at Leicester and playing semi-pro rather than my coaching experience. Good luck to you anyway!

i have to agree, your still a bit young, but at the minute, your still dreaming. you have no coaching experience and probably know very little about the coaching process. if you want to be a coach, go for it, apply for jobs with some soccer schools at grass roots once you get your level 1, theres no need to rush into your level 2.

I'm almost 19 and I'm studying an NVQ Level 2 at the minute and I have a similar ambition in life, but I know its just a dream. If you think you have what it takes, dont just participate in training sessions, go home and think about them thoroughly. Think about why your coach did them, how it can help you personally as a player and how it could have been made better because you have the best perception as a player. Take it slowly, you wont be able to go to uni get a degree and walk into a professional club, you'll need to work hard and understand more than just the game.

Once you do get into coaching, watch other coaches, listen to them, ask them for some tips too, they will help you alot when your on the field. Aidy Boothroyd may be a manager at a pro club but hasnt got much professional football experience, but hes a great coach and has taken time to think about everything and improve all he has seen and developed his own style of coaching, that doesnt mean we all can do the same, but it does mean there are opportunities. Your still young even if you start and decide against it as a career, there are alot of other jobs in sport to look at.

thanks for the great help and i fully agree. I am just desperate to get into pro football. Do you still think that it is a realistic ambition.

honestly though it is management that i really want to do. i always see coaching as a nessicary. It is only really the pro management that appeals to me.

WBA, read what cshpiley wrote in detail and make sure you understand it because thats how it is im affraid mate

cshipley, hope you dont mind me asking but what do you do for villa e.g what coaching do you do. i understand now that i was being naive. i just want to know what qualifications you need for a club like villa to employ you. I am desperate to succeed in football.

I coach for the Aston Villa FC academy. I currently oversee the U11 boys side.

I currently hold the Level 2 but am part of the way through my Level 3. Professional clubs will employ you if you hold a Level2 as long as you can back it up with relevant experience and knowledge.

My advice:
Find a local kids team (preferably Charter Standard) in your area and offer your services (junior teams always need more help!). It may only be assisting the U8's B Team but it is still experience learngin from the coach. If you help out long enough no doubt they will ask you to coach a young team and will pay for you to take your FA Level 1. The Level 1 is ridiculously easy and to this day I have never known anyone to fail it! After a few years experience with your team you will probably be ready to take your Level 2, hopefully the club will send you on this course!

The key is to get involved with a club because they will pay your course fee as having qualified coaches benefits them! My Level 3 costs around £1000 but the club have paid it! Hope this helps!

Good Luck!

Cshipley is dead right.

I myself am a full time coach, and havent played at a pro level or semi pro level yet I was the youngest manager of a semi pro team in England at my first job, and gaining respect was hard due to my age and not playing. Find yourself a local club and learn, don't rush yourself. Also, dreaming of management is all well and good, but unless you've played at a good level e.g Roy Keane and Sunderland you won't get management jobs before coaching, and coaching at a high level...you've got to remember that in leagues like the Isthmian and Northern Premier, most managers have got UEFA "B"'s and more, and thats still a few divisions below football league!

Good luck anyway, if you want any advice at all give me a PM and I'll see if I can help.

Also, Aidy Boothroyd was a professional footballer!

To be honest, the best thing you could do, is to pass your level 1, enrol on your level 2 and contact a club about doing football in the community work there. At the same time as this try to get involved with coaching a sunday league team, or a local semi pro youth team. When you get your level 2 go back to the league club your coaching for and ask to be involved with the academy, either as a volunteer or a helper/assistant to one of the academy coaches. Then its up to how much you can learn from these people and the chances will come along. I've not played at any level other than sunday football, I'm a level 3 coach, working at a premiershiop academy,and i'm only 25 myself. I've worked for and with ex england coaches amongst others, and you can really learn a lot just by working with and listening to those guys. As for the sports science degree, I too do that course at university, ad was told that it would open up so many doors to me in sport. They lied, all i could get was a series of office jobs. To get into football coaching, you need experience and your badges, UNI WONT HELP YOU

andypat - how did you get involved with the premiership club and at what level. im doing my level 3 in July, and once passed that will look to take up a full time coaching job - is it best just to write off to see what comes back??

wba, you sound just like me a few years ago. Im now 17, and doing A Levels at school and doing coaching outside school. You need to take things SLOWLY! to say your going to get into Loughborough is a very long shot! and your only 15 at the moment! why the hell are you thinking about university and pro coaching at the age of 30? thats 15 years away! think about next month, and maybe next year. dont think 3 or 4 years into the future, because you dont know what might happen! who's to say loughborough uni wont burn down in a mass fire? who's to say you might be forced to move away from where you are living now? that could change everything! anything could happen, so dont look to far into the future. focus on the here and now, get your level 1, relax, get your level 2, relax and just coach! sort yourself out for now, not for 10 years down the line

hi chaps

can i jst say great advice from everyone on the site, ive jst been reading through all the comments wrote by everyone and they are very interesting,

Iam currently employed by sheffield wednesday football club, my roles are Assistant community officer with football in the community , Disabily officer , and also development coach for the academy. i also run a very succsesfull senior team as a coach and a manager which i find very challanging to do. i personally thick u can be a very good manager and a very good coach. you cant be fantastic at both , you have to choose one of them. i am currently working towards my 'B' license and i have 4years of coaching from ages 3-5yrs primmary schools , secondary schools and 18+ keep the ambition but decide witch route you want to go down as this is very important.

Dear wba1968mp let me address 1 or 2 points for you. You sound just like a lot of young people who have posted on here. The enthusiasm is fantastic and can only see success ahead. The reality is that unless you have played professional football then you are HIGHLY i repeat HIGHLY unlikely to be given the opportunity to coach or manage at a professional level. That is a fact and if you care to look into the backgrounds of every Manager and Assisstant and First Team coaches at every professional club in the country you will see that the evidence is irrefutable.

Aidy Boothroyd was a player for Huddersfield Town, Bristol Rovers, Hearts, Mansfield Town and Peterborough United. Therefore why you would think that playing for loughborough first 11 would compare with that is quite beyond me.

Also my friend, management normally arrives after coaching experience, contrary to some oppinion there is no need to decide which route you want to take. A coach moves up to a manager, a manager doesnt move to being a coach. It can happen though again not very likely. However, it must be noted that a good coach doesnt necessarilly make a good manager and the reverse is also true. Just as a side point to this, for as long as i can remember World football refer to Head Coaches what we refer to as Managers.

To conclude. Getting your coaching badges is 1 thing but getting a job coaching or managing a professional team is quite another. With the best will in the world it is highly unlikely unless you have played professional football.

The age old, I want to manage a league club questions.

Just a quick point strass71, Paul Fairclough never played league football and never managed a league club till the around the age of 55 and what a fine job he is doing at Barnet right now!!!

Getting into pro clubs aint easy, but can be done. It's all about who you know and a degree of luck to back up your skills as a coach. This is the same at all levels. Managers and coaches in step 3 and 4 often get the job because the board know what player they can bring to a club. It's not all down to your skills as a coach.

I have been around coaches at, soccer schools or cheep babysitting service, development centres, all the way to the top and the amount you can learn off them is unreal. Everyone can bring something new.

Your best bet is to do well in any exams you take, and get as much experience at all levels as you can, and you might just get a paid job at a pro team one day mate.

Thankyou for the correction. However, i didnt say it wasnt possible but i did say it wasnt likely. The fact that you found 1 out of the 92 league clubs rather empasises my point dont you think. Furthermore, may i point out that maybe whilst not making the a grade as a first team professional football player, Paul Fairclough actually beagn his career at anfield under the management of Bill Shankly. He simply didnt make the Liverpool first team. He also spent around 14 years playing semi professional football. So whilst maybe not playing 'professional' football, he was certainly close enough for the points i raised to apply to even him - jobs for the boys whichever way you look at it.

I must say though i am in total agreement with your comments about luck and the amount you can learn off other people. Even bad coaches have good points that can be worth noting and at the very least can demonstarte how not to do things.

I think a huge advantage some people have is knowing people in the football world.

The chairman of my local club knows Peter Beardsley and Alan Shearer. So i immediately, with a bit of luck have 2 brilliant contacts. Also, my ex manager works at St James' Park and looks after the players' family and friends on matchdays and is regarded highly within Newcastle United. He has already got me a possible coaching job in the summer working with Newcastle which would be a huge step in the right direction.

Obviously experience is essential and perhaps the most important. Once you have relevant experience you can contact your contacts and see if they can help. Maybe if you can get one of them as a reference would be great. I mean imagine if I rang up a club like Gateshead (conference) and said I had Peter Beardsley as a reference!

Is this the same Peter Beardsley who was accused of bullying young players and never coached again?

Just to go back to your point again strass71, Paul Fairclough did start out at Liverpool but there is no way that would give you an edge over anyone. He learnt his trade in non league and has won the conf tittle twice (Only manager I think). Year after year he unearths Gems, the latest been a 18 year old who was playing nothing more then park football 3 years ago. Has played 11 times and is been tracked by a number of Prem and Champ clubs.

I havent worked for him but have met him on a number of occasion and he is one of the few really "nice" managers left in football.

He treats and talks about the players like school kids (he was a PE teacher). Sometimes a player needs an arm around the shoulder but others a rocket up his arse to which his number 2 Ian Hendon a man I wouldnt want to get on the wrong side of obliged.

WilsonKYPC, watch out you dont fall into the trap some football in the community set up's do of offering you work under contract which soon drys up.

Dear Cal

Of course being at a club like Liverpool gives you an edge. Just being at a pro club gives you an edge. You are very much mistaken if you think that its not so. Just the fact that the FA will assist in the Obtaining of the relevant coaching badges is a massive advantage. Joe average off the street would find it most difficult to obtain the Uefa A license regardless of his/her ability. The Cost of circa £3000 and Time factor of circa 2 years just to sight 2 reasons. Oh and thats just the A license not the pro license which currently only premiership managers have to have but by 2010 all football league managers will have to have it. It takes at least 18 months to obtain that 1, the cost im not sure of, but you know it wont be cheap. And you say being at anfield is not an advantage over anyone.

I think we should agree to disagree on this mate.

He spent 14 years playing in non league football after he left Liverpool and didnt manage till 1988.

Am I not right in saying the PFA pays for the coaching badges or back in those days was it FA?

Anyway this is all getting off the point of the orignal thread.

Youre right my friend. Without speaking to him directly i couldnt say what assistance he got with his coaching badges. However, i do know that apprentice players who are not going to be offered pro contracts at the end of their time are given help by the PFA and the FA especially in the areas of coaching badges. As an end note, i am merely saying that unless you have played professional football, obtaining a a position as manager of a professional club is highly unlikely. There may well be the odd exception to the rule as with all things, however the evidence is there in irrefutable form to more than back up what im saying.

I must say its been a pleasure chatting!

This is the best advice you will get, contact a local club and offer to help out. One of the biggest problems junior clubs face is finding people to manage/coach teams.