JASON EUELL: I do miss playing football... but the chance to develop the next Shelvey or Jenkinson gives me my buzz now

Published: 02:30 EST, 23 December 2013 | Updated: 02:30 EST, 23 December 2013

Jason Euell is the former Charlton, Wimbledon and Blackpool forward who is taking his first steps into coaching. The 36-year-old is back at the Valley and in charge of the Under 21s. In his debut Footballers' Football Column, Euell talks about how he views coaching and what he tries to pass onto his players. He also talks about encouraging younger players to have a back-up plan in case a career in football does not work out. Before you read his column, watch his video below...

 

The Footballers' Football Column with Jason Euell

My chance to become a coach came a little earlier than I had expected. I still believed I had something to offer as a player, but coaching was always something I wanted to do.

I was in my second spell at Charlton and was in and out of the squad. The manager, Chris Powell, told me that he would not be renewing my contract, but if I wanted to stay around the club and help out with some coaching then I could.

I still wanted to carry on playing because I believed I had it in me, but then Paul Hart, the Academy Director, rang me and told me the Under 15 job was available and asked if I was interested.

At first I was undecided about what to do. On one hand it it had come a bit earlier than I expected, but on the other hand it was what I wanted to do and the opportunity was too good to turn down.

Valley of dreams: Jason Euell is carving out his coaching career at Charlton

So for about two or three weeks I really could not decide. But in the end I accepted the job.

Within two days I got given the Under 16 job as the guy who had coached them before had left the post. For me that was a very good age group, as it was a crucial time in their lives with the final year of GCSEs and then on the football side of it they are going to be going onto be youth team and scholars.

When I got that position I thrived on it, based on my experiences I knew I could help them massively.

I have always said I would like to be involved in coaching when I finished playing. But it was not until I got to Southampton and I was close to 30 and I thought about it that little bit more.

It is strange in this game, when you get to 30 it is like being on the other side and you have start thinking about the end of your career as you only have about five or six years left.

I enrolled on my Level 2 at Southampton at the time and that included working with some of the youth teams and enjoyed doing that.

Then I moved to Blackpool and I thought it was a good time to kick on with it. I was based in the north and with my family staying down in the south it gave me the chance to focus on it.

As soon as I started doing the badges I started looking at football differently. Before, I never used to watch the game, I used to watch everything else that was happening.

Now when I am watching games from the stands I don’t follow the ball I see what is happening around and then I look at where the ball is. And having that different perspective on the game certainly helps with the coaching.

Managers I have played under have always supported players who go on their badges, they have never forced players to do them, but those who do it can enhance their own game.

Doing coaching badges as a player certainly helps. It might not seem that way, but it makes you think differently and when it comes to tactics and problems then it can help. When I was with Ian Holloway at Blackpool we used to sit indoors in a classroom if the weather was bad. We would go through things on the board and it certainly helped things like that.

As a player I did not change too much, but I would think about the game differently. Off the pitch I would look at it from a different point of view, so if we did X I would try and work out how they would do Y to counter it. It was all about problem solving.

Pointing the way: Euell gives instructions to his U21 side during the 5-2 win over Cardiff

As a coach I have taken bits from managers I have played under – both good and bad – and tried to mould my own style. The thing that gets said on the courses is that every coach is different. And that is true, but it is natural that you are going to take bits from people you have worked under.

With me, I am coaching as if I am still a player. Because I want to help theses boys do well, I want to give them as many tools and ingredients to add to what they have already got.

I am often asked if I miss playing, I have to say yes and no. Yes, because my buzz was training everyday and coming out on a match day. But what I am doing now day in day out with my U21 boys is what I enjoy doing and I want to see what I tell them come out in the way they play. So when you see those things happen that you work on come off, then that is where the buzz comes from now.

There is a difficult line between getting the boys to enjoy their football and play the right way and on the other hand being focused on results.

New career: Euell is enjoying his first coaching job at Charlton and hope to see players develop

In the first team it is a cut throat business and it is all about winning games, but in the development side it is very split. Some people will say it is not about the winning it is about the way the players play. We have to be able to produce players who can win games, because that is what is going to be asked of them when they play in the first team.

Yes, we want to get them playing in the right way and develop them correctly, but we must also in the mentality of winning games because that is what is going to be expected of them further down the line in their careers. So we try and teach them the pressures of going into the first team and the focus on winning games but it is very balanced.

The old days: Euell celebrates with current Charlton manager Chris Powell during their playing days

Moving on: Powell and Euell are now manager and U21 coach at Charlton

I think it helps that I have played for Charlton. I know what it takes to play for this club and hopefully the boys will see me coaching and give them something to aspire to do. But there is a lot of work to do for them both on and off the pitch.

One of my U16s said to me that they saw my goal against Arsenal on the internet and it made me realise that it was over 10 years ago since that goal and these players would have been babies then!

Goal to remember: Euell scores Charlton's fourth goal in the win over Arsenal in 2001

So they remember me more from my second spell at the club but I was not a regular in the team then. So they probably don’t see me as someone who played for Charlton in the Premier League.

I just tell them that this is something they can do, so long as they listen to the coaches and their teachers then they will have a chance.

I think all coaching roles are also management jobs as well. When I was with the U16 I was doing both roles as a manager and a coach. But I was chopping myself into other lots of different people, with 14-16 year olds with testosterone flying about, so you are having to be a coach, manager, brother, friend, role-model, mentor all rolled into one.

You have to try and understand these boys and see what they are going through. I maybe 36 now, but it does not seem like that long ago that I was in their shoes trying to do the same thing.

Young Addick: Jonjo Shelvey started his career at Charlton

Premier star: Former Charlton youngster Jonjo Shelvey has progressed to play for Liverpool and Swansea

So I view this job as giving me the experience to hopefully move onto a higher-level one day.

We use Jonjo Shelvey as a benchmark for our young players now to show them what they can achieve. We have a parents meeting every year and we let them know the ethos of the club and what we want the players to achieve.

We use players like Jonjo and Carl Jenkinson as well as players like Chris Solly and Scott Wagstaff who have been part of the first team in recent seasons. We are showing them that the pathway is there.

Gunner make it: Carl Jenkinson earned his big move to Arsenal after impressing at Charlton

I tell my players now in the U21s that it is up to them to give me a reason to go and knock on the manager’s door and say a player is ready to step up into the first team squad or ready to go out on loan and gain first team experience.

But it is tough, compared to when I was a young player coming through at Wimbledon it is vastly different now.

When I was coming through it seemed like the window of opportunity was bigger, now it is a lot tougher.

Making it: Both Scott Wagstaff (now at Bristol City) and Chris Solly progressed through the youth ranks

The competition is from all over the world. It is the same with pro players who are out of contract who are looking for a club, the widow is not as big as it used to be.

But the opportunities are still there and it is up to me to push them and make sure they take the chances.

I have always been good with kids and when you are going through your football career and you go on the school and hospital visits and I have been fortunate enough to go to lots of different clubs and areas and see how young families and how they are growing up.

Footballers are always seen as role models and I believe we can be and we should try and do things positively all the time.

Getting his chance: Euell got his big break at Wimbledon in 1995

There maybe times when someone slips up, that happens. But it is trying to give kids something to aim for no matter where you are from or where you grow up.

The important thing is not to listen to people who say ‘you can’t do that’ because of the skin colour or where you live or if you are a boy or a girl. It should not matter.

What I am doing now with Aspiration and Pathways Programme, is to try and help people. Everyone wants to be a footballer but not everyone is going to make it. That can be hard to say but it is the reality, so you have to focus on education.

I did not do it properly when I was at school, I was too football driven. I was very bright, but I focused too much on football and I was lucky that I had a good career and finished when I wanted to. But young players have to have something to fall back on.

I am telling the kids in school to try and live their dream, but also to have a plan B.

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