Much has been said regarding the attributes of Steven Pressley as a manager, and of a man who has said that he is going nowhere as he has a job to do at Coventry City.
What many have not seen is the passion that Steve Pressley and his backroom staff possess and frequently display.
In the past, City have had some first team managers/coaches whose only concern was for the players keeping them in a job, paying scant if any attention to those players in the Academy or Reserve sides whilst others have turned up for matches just to see if players were worth offering a contract to or could be offloaded for a few quid.
Since his appointment, Steven Pressley and his backroom staff including Neil MacFarlane, Steve Ogrizovic and Pete Tierney, who has done an excellent job with the players fitness this season, have gone further than any previous manager in trying to make the transition from the Academy to the First Team a smooth one, in the knowledge that young players are Coventry City’s future.
Not only can you find the City boss down at the Alan Higgs Centre on a Sunday morning watching the U14’s etc, Pressley and his staff take the Academy players for two training sessions a week, in order to get them playing and buying into his philosophy of football.
Pressley and his backroom staff also, wherever possible, attend every U21 game as well. But they don’t sit back and take a watching brief.
As the game against Leeds United yesterday again showed, the trio of Pressley, MacFarlane and Ogrizovic, who clearly all get on very well judging by the amount of banter flying between them, all displayed a passion about what they were watching.
This always welcome display of passion came by way of support and encouragement for every single City player on the pitch and highlights an ethos that if the leadership can display passion and commitment, then every player who puts on a City shirt can do as well.
Yesterday’s defeat showed that the development of players is an on-going process but it is one led by people with passion and commitment.
Source: Coventry MAD
Source: FOOTYMAD
