Search: ' coaching'

Charles Morris tells how Anthony Hughes left League football behind aged 22

In the summer of 1993 it looked as though 19-year-old Anthony Hughes had the footballing world at his feet. The Crewe Alexandra player had represented England at the Under-20 World Youth Championship in a team which included Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Nick Barmby, the latter hav­ing become a close friend of Hughes. Earlier in his blossoming career, the tall central defender had been selected as a student at the Football Association’s School of Excellence at Lilleshall. And his club, for whom he had made his debut on the opening day of the 1992-93 season, had a reputation for launching youngsters on glit­tering careers.

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Adam Powley charts Darren Caskey’s trip from Spurs to Notts County

Every season at Spurs, there is talk of a young player being touted as “the new Glenn Hoddle”. The names may change but the hopeful expectation remains the same – that there is a hidden talent in the White Hart Lane nursery who will burst into the first team and provide Tottenham with the ready-made superstar they sorely need.

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 Ben Lyttleton explains why Marco van Basten, back in football after years away, has the pedigree to become the next great Dutch coach

Marco van Basten will end his ten-year exile from foot­­ball later this year when he completes his coach­ing qualifications and all the signs are that he will be a more successful boss than his former Milan team-mates Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard.

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His name is enough to secure him a coaching licence, but Diego Maradona’s forays into management have convinced few of his credentials, reports Ben Backwell

Following Argentina’s disastrous 2002 World Cup cam­paign, Diego Maradona declared from his Cu­ban retreat that he was willing to take over coaching the Argentine national team “for free”. “I have always said, and I repeat, that I am willing to manage the team without charging a single peso,” said Maradona, ad­ding that he would put the team “in order”. According to polls carried out by local websites among Argentines then howling for the head of coach Rafael Bielsa, there were few takers, and the offer was discreetly ig­nored by the country’s football ­association (AFA).

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Barney Ronay examines why average players often make good bosses while star names struggle

It is a footballing axiom that great players rarely make great managers. No swag-bag of playing honours, no bulging armoury of international caps can prepare a middle-aged footballing man for the vertiginous leap into management. In fact, the most successful man­agers in English football currently – Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger and Gérard Houllier – all eked out relatively mediocre play­ing careers.

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