Listen to football on the radio.
Wait for the phone in.
You won’t have to wait long to hear someone, a pundit, an irate caller, decrying the lack of loyalty in football. Players moving just for some extra coin. Managers jumping ship because they have seen some greener grass.
Why should there be any loyalty? The example they were shown in their formative years was not one of monogamous loyalty.
As a coach I have worked for at least ten companies in the last five years. Ranging from my local FA to helping a friend set up a drop in session. There have been days where I have had to change kit four times, with each session being under a different banner. During those sessions the kids have seen me plying my trade in different places. They have seen my transient loyalty in action.
I cannot afford to be loyal. Nor can the majority of coaches. It is unlikely for a single company to be able to provide enough hours to pay the bills. Contracts are rarefied, sanctified objects of desire. The promise of a contract has been wafted in front of me, but my autograph is yet to be required. Except once. On a zero hour contract, hardly the path to financial security.
As a freelance coach there is an eternal quest for hours. After all, coaches need to eat. Coaches need to pay bills. Coaches need to pay for the next course in the vague hope that it will be the next step towards economic safety. That the extra certificate will push up the hourly rate. After all £8 an hour might be acceptable to the teenager but not for anyone who would be expected to display maturity.
Which leads to the question. Can youth coaching ever pay well enough?
As a mercenary you will be fortunate to earn enough money. Even as a part time academy coach or community coach the rate of pay is likely to be around £20 but the hours will not be there, retaining that mercenary status.
How about the contract? The likelihood is £20-25k a year. Before you pay your taxes. Not bad, but is it enough to feed your family? Of course, that will vary from person to person.
There is one final option. Start your own company. As a mercenary the ability to work for so many different people simultaneously exists because there are so many companies out there. Founded by people who realised they could not make enough money to stay in football merely as a coach. They had to add a business to their artillery.
Many coaches reach a point where they have to ask that question. When the welfare of family and partners becomes more pressing than your desired vocation. They drop out. Pursuing more stable careers and leaving the gaping holes we see in junior coaching at present.
The qualifications required are not cheap or quick to gain. Time, effort, thought and money, all are required. When you are reaching the middle levels courses cost hundreds of pounds and will take at least six months and up to two years. All fitting in around work, family and other commitments.
As a society there is an extraordinary tendency to undervalue the educators, the key workers. Doctors, nurses, police officers and teachers.
Youth football coaches are the game’s key workers.
In order to get the best education, I need to be taught the most relevant things by the best teachers. If my teacher has a family to support and is paid £20,000 to teach me but can earn £40,000 sitting behind a desk, it will not be long before I no longer have the best teacher.
Football as a whole needs to value it’s teachers. The professional game appears to be awash with money at the top but the bottom is rooting around for it’s last pound. Even the elite academy coaches are being undervalued. If football wants the best players to come through they must have the best teachers. Make them the best paid teachers. Make them valued.
We live in a society where love, passion, loyalty and honour are no longer enough.
Eventually we are forced to seek the financial rewards. Until youth coaching can provide them, we may be destined to continue producing mercenaries.