With all the press conferences and touchline antics, sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of what is the primary concern of high-profile managers. Coaching and improving their team away from the cameras. According to Joleon Lescott, there’s nobody who does it like Pep Guardiola.
Lescott himself has embarked on a coaching career, although his path is much more specialised than that of the Catalan. Speaking to the Coaches Voice, Lescott told of his path which led him onto the technical staff for the England Under 21 side. On the way to that role, he has been employed at Manchester City and Everton as a development coach, working with individuals to improve their game.
But it does mean that he got to see the likes of Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti on ground level.
“At City, I also got to watch Pep Guardiola in action,” Lescott recounted.
“He is just ridiculous. He could tell me everything he has ever learned, and I couldn’t do what he does. He’s totally unique – like all great managers.”
Doubtless those experiences will have helped Lescott to take plenty forward into his own career. Currently he works as an assistant to Lee Carsley at the Under-21s, where Lescott said he was enjoying his time developing players for the future of English football.
He also had high praise for Glenn Hoddle and Terry Connor, the latter having the largest influence on his career as a player according to him.
There’s never any way of knowing how these experiences translate, but with a 17-year career at several different levels of the game and several years as an international, Lescott certainly has the right background to become a good coach.