The Football Association manager Les Reed, made December to succeed Dan Ashworth, thinks England are in touching distance of achieving something special a major trophy since 1966.
Here prior to taking up the job at the FA, Reed, who was vice-chairman of Southampton, talks into Sky Sports News reporter Rob Dorsett concerning his job and returning to St Mary’s ahead of England’s European Qualifier from Kosovo.
Back in Southampton with the England group, that must be quite a moment?
Yes very much so, fantastic. This was a bit spooky heading back to the practice ground on the day but that I know everyone . They’re great facilities and they were eager to have England and they are fantastic folks and we’ve had great feedback.
I was a little bit worried about what they believed but everyone enjoyed it so it’s helped to be more relaxed and it’s a wonderful spot.
Gareth Southgate’s often talked about it can really help and he states you get a atmosphere that is different, is that whatever that you find?
Yeah, I think we have to balance off the business aspect of possessing Wembley and all those individuals dedicated concerning fans and Wembley.
I had been using all the England team when [Wembley] was knocked down so we moved to Old Trafford, St James’ Park, we went into a number of areas and it will help a lot in terms of involvement with the fans taking it around the country.
It is getting the balance right. It’s been a really good practice, with the Euros being a sort of home tournament but not very.
You’ve been FA Technical Director. It has changed from 17 decades ago?
Howard Wilkinson was Technical Director so we had been growing a thing from scratch afterward. So it was about excited about the future and planning it was hardly any people, we didn’t possess St George’s Park.
” there was 300 personnel in the technical section looking following 28 teams all of the way through groups, As soon as I came back it was enormous.
We need our teams to have the quality that is best, the standards. They totally are currently playing world championships and European championships along with St George’s Park has been a great incentive to bring this together. It might have been impossible.
My remit is really across all those teams but also all of the support services that go with that, sports science, sports medicine, talent identification plus a massive coach education department that delivers coaching from the grassroots all of the way through to the expert license through to the technical manager’s licence.
It is a big remit with a great deal of employees and I am just getting to know a number of them, surely not them all. Where everything is sort of logical it has been really exciting, very, very distinct from the club function.
It is kind of around the fixture calendar along with the transfer window but each day in this task can be different, so this week I am outside on camp with the seniors last week we had the FIFA Technical Directors’ conference at St George’s Park, together using 28 Technical Directors from around Europe which we hosted, that was a great adventure, learning about how they do it everywhere.
It’s much bigger but it does give us the opportunity to be at the cutting edge and push items.
Your all-encompassing role proved it is needed and has had success.
Over these last two weeks we’ve had the seniors preparing to their away games of the women, followed by the U19s and U18s girls , we then had the groups in throughout the groundwork with the first team.
It was like a club, we’d the youth groups in, the coaches from the academy in a really, really great atmosphere, and it is something that the plan for St George’s Park is, and that is the top of the academy platform that’s now beginning to deliver quality from the match.
Since the pool of players is getting larger, it is a very enjoyable time, we have got players like Jadon [Sancho] heading out to Germany and obtaining that kind of experience that can only be good for football.
Is that pool of ability as heavy as it has ever been?
I think so it does transcend all of the age classes, that it’s deep. We’ve experienced the’golden generation’, we have had these pockets of one particular age band of talented players but also the job that is done in academies along with the gradual development and of the growth of St George’s Park along with the structure, along with also the England DNA, now we have depth.
Because it’s deeper, the swimming pool is larger and it is wider. But there are just so many places at international level but what really does enable us to do would be, you know, the lotion really does have the chance so the pathway is so much better.
Mason Mount, sadly Aaron Wan-Bissaka needed to go home injured, and players who have come via the pathway discover that transition easier. They’re relaxed, when they step in, they’re cool.
So the other thing is paired with moments on the pitch, so they get a certain amount of respect because they are currently playing against the global players each week also. So that’s the job for us is to receive them more minutes on the pitch.
If the senior men of England do not win a trophy would you exude your tenure?
I would not deem it a failure because I believe we’ve got an chance but I would be disappointed. We got close in the world Cupwe learnt a great deal of lessons from this, I think the journey into the semi-final was very good for us.
I think that it wasn’t anticipated that we’d go that way but it’s a amazing optimistic that people did. The players who underwent who are with us and we’ve got players that have won championships before from the lower age groups who are at the pathway.
We talk a great deal about instructing players to acquire, the pathway is about teaching them to triumph, the team is all about winning, otherwise why would it?
We think there is a really, very talented team of players that have got an chance to mature over the course of the upcoming European Championship leading in the next World Cup and also on the women’s side they’ve completed exactly the same, they’ve undergone the semi-final, they’ve qualified for the Olympics, they are very excited about that.
So the chances are there. Individuals would assess whether my tenure was a failure if we don’t win it, but that’s what I’ve set out to try and achieve.
My job would be to get those extra inches, so the marginal profits which so often get said to take us from semi-finalists, to finalists, to winners, so Gareth and Phil [Neville], particularly at the senior end, can concentrate on choosing the ideal teams, getting the strategies right and winning the games.
We do not need to have any explanations that it had been anything which stopped us doing it. My occupation will be to oil the system to allow it to run.
Is Gareth Southgate that the very best trainer in world football in your opinion?
I believe the thing with Gareth is he’s put a profile for that which the team coach needs to be like, as a role model. So you’ve said there, he understands the pathway.
He had been the coach but he was also when he first came in accountable for this particular pathway for its groups. Thus Gareth’s got incredible knowledge of all the players on the pathway that is what you want from your global manager.
In the past we have had great supervisors, they’ve won Champions Leagues, they have won the Premier League, they have won championships, however as team managers and there is a difference.
Gareth’s own pathway for this role continues to be a large advantage, because today we’ve got the profile, we have got the right individual, what we have to do now is make sure that is the profile of coach we are growing for the future.
Could you be convinced that you might convince him to stay if a Premier League club arrived in?
Definitely. It will be a tough request based on what he had been provided. But I understand Gareth’s mindset at the moment is that he wants to be an England boss that wins something, needs to be an England manager who is effective in Europe.
I believe of becoming the next England boss to draw us to some World Cup 18, the allure is a pull and I believe by doing his stock is not likely to go down, he knows that.
It’s something that we’ve got at the back of our minds but I understand that Gareth’s motivation is developing that group moving forward and with this particular team. It would depend on which arrived but I think in the moment Gareth’s only focus is to win games.
Youhad a good deal of roles and’ve been in football a long time. . Have been as exciting as this?
I believe that it’s a role that gives an opportunity to bring that expertise from mentor education from the national team so I’ve been lucky to have a career, to the table to lots of different fronts to me.
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