Rory Smith

Generations of English coaches have ranged throughout the world teaching football, developing and espousing advanced training techniques and helping popularize the sport. Many were shunned in England, unable to get work, their theories ignored and marginalized if they went against the status quo, even as other countries caught up and surpassed England. “The dire warnings of those coaches…who had done so much to help the foreigners catch up went unheeded.”

Rory Smith profiles several such coaches, some who had success in England, others who never broke through there and struck out for the continent and beyond. He makes a solid case for a change in the way England approaches new ideas and tactics and how it can regain some of its footing in the world of football by embracing wider variety of philosophies.… (més)