The assistant manager or head coach, does not always get the positives and negatives, but still the work some of these people are doing, can often be found in the work of a successful manager.
Ruud van Nistelrooy recently appointed Brian Barry-Murphy as his assistant, as this could be more important than any player recruitment at the club.
Barry-Murphy recently left Man City, being in charge of the u.21 establishment at The Etihad. He was appointed to fill the role after Enzo Maresca left to take charge of Parma. The work and the contacts made with some fantastic talented players can be important when Leicester in the future looks to new recruits as previous connections in football do count.
You of course have the obvious players, the likes of Cole Palmer, Liam Delap, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Callum Doyle and several other players on the way up and forward, all having a past at the Man City academy, but also players that could come through from the same place, moving to more hidden areas and blossom later.
The recruitment of new young talent could be one part of it, but the most important is the interaction with the current squad, how you work on a daily basis on the training field and in your role being there for the manager and possibly fill gaps not really seen for the random eye.
We have allready seen some proof of this in games since Brian Barry-Murphy arrived, hopefully this will continue and result in more settled pattern of play as well as being able to pick up enough points to survive in the top flight.
It’s difficult to put into words how I, and indeed everyone who came across or worked with Craig, will feel on hearing such devastating news.
He was without hesitation one of the most wonderfully talented, emotionally understanding, calm, balanced and outrageously funny people… pic.twitter.com/6kuNNsSX6T
— Nigel Pearson (@NigelGPearson) August 2, 2024
Looking back on special men in this role, Craig Shakespeare is one to mention, sadly passing away a few months back, at the age of 60. He had the assistant role under three different Leicester managers, being appointed for the first time during the days of Nigel Pearson, as part of two promotion, staying on under Claudio Ranieri, as he was of course very influencial and important in that special 5000/1 season. He returned for the interim period under Dean Smith, unfortunatly Craig Shakespeare was not lucky a third time, leaving the club as part of the interim staff.
Looking at the men in this role under other successful managers, David Coates was at the club during all the years of Jimmy Bloomfield. Another assistant or head coach with probably the most legendary status in modern time is Bert Johnson. Johnson was in the assistant position at Leicester from 1959 to 1968, said to be of course influential on the coaching field but also as part of recruitment.
Chris Davis is one maybe not talked much about during his days at Leicester, but the current Birmingham manager had the assistant role under the days of Brendan Rodgers, potentially having a role of importance as he kept an eye on certain parts of the total, establishing Leicester in the top five as well as winning the FA Cup and reaching the semi-final of Europa Conference League.
Gordon Milne who also earned applause for his time at the club, had his good help from Gerry Summers, also being influential getting Leicester promoted and keeping the club in the top flight during their years in the dugout.
You have also had a number of fantastic ballers doing a job in different roles at the club as they either were an assistant, head coach or had another role close to the manager. Kole Tourè, Dietmar Hamann and John Robertson are just three fantastic players that during their journey in football made their stop at Leicester. Tourè at the club with Brendan Rodgers, Hamann being part of the set-up under Sven Goran Eriksson. Both of them jumped ship to try out to be the main man themselves. Tourè had a short lived management affair at Wigan, Hamann with almost the same experience at Stockport. John Robertson was an assistant manager working under Martin O’Neill at several clubs including Leicester.
A number of former Leicester players has also had roles as a coach or assistant in and around the first team, or even been back as a part of medical staff. Ian Andrews, Allan Evans, Garry Parker, David Nish and Gerry Taggart are names coming to mind with such a path in football.
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