Specification for Assistant Manager: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 27

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Normally I like members of staff if possible to have high attributes for (a) determination, (b) discipline, and (c) motivation. Here, however, I’m less worried about those things for the simple reason that I believe that I’m strong on each of those myself.

Motivation I’ll not worry about – nice to have, but I can do my own team talks.

When it comes to determination and discipline, my approach will be to satisfice rather than maximise, That is, I couldn’t countenance appointing someone who was really weak at those things – it would damage the fabric of the set-up – but I don’t need them to be really strong.

What I do want is someone who can compensate for my relative weaknesses – areas such as (d) working with youngsters and (e) man management.

I would also like someone who is strong in the areas of (f) judgment of ability and (g) tactical knowledge so that they can offer me advice – for example, on the setting up of opposition instruction.

Such a person will be any good to me, however, only if their overall approach to coaching and to the game is compatible with mine. It’s unlikely that I’ll find a perfect match. But I certainly want to avoid someone who likes to play direct. I’d particularly welcome someone who likes to inculcate a passing game. An emphasis on mental coaching would be welcome too – you can never have too much of that in my opinion.

And, of course, the successful candidate will need at least an acceptable personality. I don’t want any slack or casual types, for example.

Finally, he or she will need to be able to contribute to the coaching. We’re already covered on tactical and technical coaching (my own strengths), fitness and goalkeeping (areas in which we’ve already offered staff contracts), so the key areas are (h) defence, (i) attack, and (j) shooting coaching.

So my procedure on this occasion will be:

  1. Search for the following attributes: judging ability; tactical knowledge; man management; and working with youngsters.
  2. Check the personality.
  3. Check the overall approach to the game.
  4. Check that the determination and discipline attributes are not too bad.
  5. Check they can contribute to at least one of the following areas of coaching: defence; attack; and shooting.

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