Jason Euell

[swanker]

Can remember reading some good stuff about him a couple of years ago. Looks like we’re going in the right direction

[Lew-T]

Played under Nige in his Southampton days. Nothing but good words for NP from Jason there which is always nice. 
 

But I guess he’d hardly slag him off in a club interview…

[Davefevs]

42 minutes ago, tommy_b said:

Still no reference to Andy King taking up any coaching position. Is he in the footage abroad?

Yep, he’s there, been on camera a few times.  Was doing a bit of “passing on advice” to Alex Ball yesterday.

33 minutes ago, Sheltons Army said:

I like the look of Rennies work in comparison of what we’ve seen pre him

The physical and fitness side is a whole new world these days , and he comes across as very planned , knowledgable , assured with an experienced / relaxed approach 

He appears totally comfortable and confident  in what he’s doing 

I don’t know about any coaching experience , but over the years , he will have seen a lot of footballers , a lot of behaviours and characteristics , and I don’t doubt is a very valuable and trusted ,set of eyes (For NP) day to day.

Got that sadistic grin when he knows what he’s about to put them through next.  At Leicester he was present in training sessions, just like Walsh was (who actually was a coach too)…and I think (outside looking in) it creates a United front from the staff.

[GrahamC]

1 hour ago, Bristol_South_End said:

Replacement for Cisse? No mention of him on the official site and no sign of him in the videos.

I genuinely have never worked out exactly what he’s supposed to do.

Re Euell I think this is a good appointment, Charlton fans seem gutted he’s left, he has a track record of helping them produce plenty of decent youngsters, plus as @Merrick's Marvels pointed out, he was a striker & our current coaching staff didn’t include one of those.

[TBW]

1 hour ago, spudski said:

It always makes me chuckle in scenarios like these.

You don't pack in a job, then make out after leaving, that you have been approached about a new role at another club, after leaving.

 

What about after leaving?

[Lorenzos Only Goal]

1 hour ago, Harry said:

Hearing from some Charlton fans (in my mates family) that they really rated him as a coach and are very sad to lose him. 
I’m happy with that reference. I think we needed a good coach. Hopefully this is a good move. 

Trust me he's a bloody awesome coach, utterly random and completely our gain.  Very pleased with this I was oddly talking to my Rovers mate today about how Gary Penrice was great at producing strikers for them and how we could do with someone similar as our young strikers seem to have a ceiling.  Very excited with this. 

[Lorenzos Only Goal]

Not sure if this has been posted, but read this a while back off the back of a conversation with a Charlton fan. 

https://www.coachesvoice.com/jason-euell-charlton-middlesbrough-england-southgate/

[samo II]

13 minutes ago, Lorenzos Only Goal said:

Not sure if this has been posted, but read this a while back off the back of a conversation with a Charlton fan. 

https://www.coachesvoice.com/jason-euell-charlton-middlesbrough-england-southgate/

Great article, thanks for sharing.

Sounds like a thoughtful bloke; no bad thing to have on staff.

[Sheltons Army]

25 minutes ago, Lorenzos Only Goal said:

Not sure if this has been posted, but read this a while back off the back of a conversation with a Charlton fan. 

https://www.coachesvoice.com/jason-euell-charlton-middlesbrough-england-southgate/

Ta

And if you click on NPs name you get a previous (historic) piece on him which is again interesting

https://www.coachesvoice.com/nigel-pearson-leicester-city/

[Jeez]

Great news, always liked him as a player especially as he’s ex Wimbledon & comes across really well in the interview.

 

[Olé]

FOOTBALL | JASON EUELL INTERVIEW

Jason Euell: Coach raising England’s finest in school of the Crazy Gang

When Jason Euell sat down with the FA’s Paul Elliott for his interview for the job of coaching England’s elite youngsters, the lead coach of Charlton Athletic Under-23 was asked for “six things that have challenged you in your life”. Where to start? Euell drew a deep breath.

Euell was moulded by the Crazy Gang, scored at the highest level with Wimbledon, Charlton Athletic, Middlesbrough and Blackpool but endured bankruptcy, racism and the loss of a child.

His response to Elliott was so powerful that the FA gave him the role of assisting England Under-18s and now the Under-20s, helping shape the development of such talents as Manchester City’s Tommy Doyle and Flo Balogun of Arsenal, just as he helped nurture Joe Gomez and Ademola Lookman at Charlton.

Now Euell prepares for more interviews. He wants to move into management, trying to join Nuno Espírito Santo, Keith Curle, Darren Moore, Chris Hughton and Valérien Ismaël as the only non-white managers in English professional football. Euell has been further emboldened by calls from Raheem Sterling and the FA for the appointment of managers who better reflect the modern dressing-room.

All the experiences Euell told Elliott have helped prepare him for management. “Not everybody’s going to have a fairytale journey or life,” the 43-year-old south Londoner says. “I started with my upbringing, single mum but having my uncle there as that male role model.” He also had a grandfather who pushed such an intelligent schoolboy. “He wanted me to go to Dulwich College. I flunked the exam because I didn’t want to go to a school heavily based around rugby. That was never happening.”

A different examination, of character, beckoned with the Wimbledon of Vinnie Jones and Mick Harford. “I was going into the Crazy Gang environment as a 12-year-old, officially going into it as a 16-year-old and that got me from young boy to young man very quickly,” Euell says. “I put it as the School of Hard Knocks but that environment made me the player I was and the person I am.”

Juggling the Crazy Gang ethos with Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) is no easy task for a development coach in 2020. “I’ve had to tone it down quite a lot,” Euell says. “A clip round the ear doesn’t go down too well nowadays.

“But I do bring a lot of what I went through at Wimbledon. We didn’t have the multi-million-pound training ground facilities. We had a park down on the A3 where every man and his dog walked past and dogs pooping on the pitch. Boys now coming in the system from nine and ten are in this bubble of million-pound complexes..”

So he challenges them, making sure there is no slacking, and drawing on his Crazy Gang days. Euell and another apprentice, Shaun Fleming, once failed to clean the dressing room properly, blamed the other, so the first team decided to establish the guilty party with a duel. “On Wimbledon Common there’s a little river and there’s a branch across the stream, and we are both sitting on this and we have to try and slap each other off. It’s like Gladiators. Whoever falls in loses.”

There was a message behind the madness. “It’s about not cutting corners and that’s a life skill I’ve implemented with the players,” Euell says. “Don’t expect people to clear your mess up after you. They didn’t perform the way we should have done the other day, so it was like, ‘Right, bang, go on then, on the line’ and do the football pitch suicide run from Coach Carter [the 2005 film]. Goalline to six yards and back, 18 yards and back, halfway and back, back and forth.

“It’s not that bad. The one I’ve thrown in a few times is Ian Holloway’s ‘pyramid’. It’s 20 yards and back, 40 yards back, 60, 80, 100, and then back down again. That’s a killer. It’s a test of character: are they going to do it properly or half-heartedly?”

Back in the FA interview, Euell continued to chronicle the joy and sorrow of his life, reflecting on events in November 2001. “One night I’m scoring two goals at The Valley against West Ham on TV. The next afternoon my girlfriend [Andrea] who is now my wife is going through labour and has a stillbirth.” He has a tattoo of his daughter’s name, Jada India, on his left arm.

Speaking to the FA, Euell also recalled being racially abused by a Stoke City fan when Blackpool visited the Britannia in 2009. Euell was on the bench when he heard something being said to him. “I wasn’t sure until I looked at the person who said it. He said it again and it was ‘Whoa’. With me pulling him up on it, the steward heard it and he went and got his superior.”

Holloway, the Blackpool manager, became aware of the commotion. “Hollie saw what was happening, come over and lost the plot, going absolutely wild about it,” Euell says. “Fair play to Stoke, they dealt with it [throwing out the fan who got a three-year banning order]. I was more frustrated in the people around him than I was with the person who actually said it. It was all of a sudden look forward, blinkers, ear plugs in, ‘Didn’t hear anything. . . he’s not even a regular fan, he doesn’t always come’. That’s irrelevant. You’ve allowed it to happen, you haven’t spoken up.”

Euell wants to increase black representation in technical areas, breaking through what the late Cyrille Regis always called “the glass ceiling” for black managers.

He’s experienced so much. In that FA interview, Euell talked of financial difficulties in January 2011. “I went into property with a ‘friend’, who I thought was a friend, which went belly-up due to some fraudulent activity that he had done which all fell on me, which made me have to file for bankruptcy.”

All these setbacks did serve to expand his people skills. “Totally,” Euell says. “That’s why I always say to my players that I’m not going to sugar-coat things or bulls*** them. I’m going to tell them what life’s about and what football’s about. The dream is not going to happen for all of them. I’m coach, manager, role model, mentor, big brother, uncle, friend, dad to them.”

Euell helped nurture the talents of Gomez, now at Liverpool, and Lookman, on loan at Fulham from RB Leipzig. “Joe’s talent as a 15-year-old centre back was of someone of 25 or 26 who’s played over 500 games at the top level,” Euell says. “Nothing fazed him and you see that when he plays now. He doesn’t panic.

“Ademola has the ability to beat people, get shots off with both feet. His work ethic is unreal. He’s quiet, humble and shy, but someone that beats himself up if he makes a mistake. I had to work with him [on] not being too hard on himself.

“Even after the West Ham penalty [Lookman fluffed a Panenka in a 1-0 defeat last month], he got loads of s*** for that. I just said to him, ‘It was a mistake, put your hand up and move on. You just know you’ll have to come back better’. Since then he has.”

On passing his FA interview and getting into the England age-groups set-up, Euell says: “I got in there at a good time. You’re starting to see everything coming through from all the hard work, not just from England but from the clubs who’ve bought into EPPP. You’re seeing Tommy Doyle’s development and Harvey White at Tottenham. You’re seeing Flo [Balogun] come on in Europa League games and score, Tyreece John-Jules on loan [from Arsenal]. I believe they will get opportunities.”

Now, Euell searches for a pathway of his own. He has applied for two managerial positions so far, but is wary. “If I just throw my name in for every job out there, I don’t want it to look like just a statistic. ‘Well, Jason Euell’s put his name in the hat, but he didn’t get it, but that’s fine, we had a black coach apply’. I don’t want it to be like that.

“I never felt pressure playing as it was something I wanted to do.

“In this journey that’s where I’m setting my goal: to manage at the highest level.” He certainly has the life experiences.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Olé

[exAtyeoMax]

9 hours ago, Harry said:

Hearing from some Charlton fans (in my mates family) that they really rated him as a coach and are very sad to lose him. 
I’m happy with that reference. I think we needed a good coach. Hopefully this is a good move. 

Yes, just seen some conversations on Twitter. They seem to rate him highly and wish him well.

[Olé]

Wimbledon's Crazy Gang made Jason Euell slap a team-mate in a stream - but 'there's better balance to coaching now'

At Charlton Athletic, Euell is moving up through the coaching ranks in an effort to become one of the few black managers in football

12 November 2021 • 10:13am

 

At Charlton Athletic they are experiencing the most positive of new manager bounces. Since the club dismissed Nigel Adkins on October 21, they have won three and drawn one of their four games. But the intriguing thing is that it is not a new broom that has delivered such dramatic change in fortunes. The staff have remained the same: John Jackson, Adkins' assistant, has been promoted to caretaker manager while Jason Euell has moved up from first team coach to be Jackson's number two. 

For Euell it is the next stage of an ambition to become a league manager. 

“One of the reasons I want to get into management is that I want to be flying the flag for black ex-players to make that step,” he tells Telegraph Sport when we speak just before his latest promotion. 

“There is a perception among black players that there is no point getting all the qualifications because you won’t get a job. That’s what the likes of Chris Houghton, Chris Ramsey, Chris Powell are doing: trying to change that, show there is a genuine pathway. And I can see it can be disheartening, you’ll get knocked back. But if we all start going 'What’s the point?' then we’re not giving ourselves the opportunity to change the system.”

Euell is prepared to do whatever it takes to make it. As you might expect from a graduate of the toughest of all finishing schools: from the age of 12, he was received his football education at Wimbledon FC. 

“It really was the school of hard knocks,” he explained of the bruising lessons delivered by Crazy Gang stalwarts like Vinnie Jones, John Fashanu and Robbie Earle. “And I've always said that environment made me the player I was and has helped me become the person I am now.”

It was some environment. He recalls the time he was upbraided by the senior players after he and another youngster had made a mistake in training that led to a goal being conceded. The pair were told they had to acknowledge which one of them was at fault. When they kept schtum in solidarity, they were ordered to go out on to Wimbledon Common, where there was a stream with a branch across it. This they were obliged to straddle and, egged on by the entire first team, take turns slapping each other until one of them fell into the water. 

“From 12 years old you were learning how to survive. This was a club where you knew you were always going to be an underdog, and you had to learn how to deal with that. There football was a fight, it was war. And if you’re thinking, no I can’t do yet another lap of Wimbledon Common, then you’re not ready for that battle.”

It was not, however, an approach he adopted when he started out in his coaching career. Since he retired as a prolific centre forward nine years ago, he has been busy coaching young players at Charlton. Here those he brought through, like Joe Gomez and Ademola Lookman, were not required to sit astride branches and slap each other. 

“It suited me, but not everyone is me,” he reckons of the Wimbledon approach. “There’s a much better balance to things here. Not everybody is motivated in the same way. Everybody's different. And the old cliche that one glove doesn't fit all is right. A bark doesn't work for everybody, an arm around the shoulder doesn't work for everybody. So you have to find a way of getting to know who that person is in order to get the best out of them.”

But that said, after studying the game obsessively and gaining the highest level of coaching qualification, Euell believes there are certain new orthodoxies which can, if followed to the letter, be counterproductive.

“I’ve noticed with academy football a lot of it is based around skills development, which I get. But for me, the biggest thing is learning how to win. Say you are taking the under-23s, they are next in line for first-team football. There's no point developing a player who's in a losing side week-in week-out, where they are told winning is not the most important thing, because they will never survive in an environment where winning is everything. Proper development has to be preparing them as people to know how to deal with tough situations.”

Part of the issue, he believes, is the growing dominance of data in coaching. While using it to help inform their decisions, coaches, he reckons, should never allow themselves to be dictated to by analysts. 

“We call them the FPOs, football prevention officers,” he says of sports scientists. “We get told constantly a player is nearing the red, you can’t push them too much, you’ll damage them. Sometimes you think: are we at a football club or not? Sometimes you have to push them beyond their limit to know what they can achieve. So you have to be brave enough sometimes to go against the advice you’re given.”

This is the thing about modern sports coaching: it has expanded way beyond the confines of the school of hard knocks of his youth. These days it requires a knowledge of everything from psychology and physiology to dietary advice. Even financial planning. Euell, who while still a player was obliged to declare bankruptcy after he was defrauded on a property deal, believes it is part of the coach’s responsibility to help the players understand the pitfalls of their trade.

“OK, Charlton money is different to Man City money,” he says. “But even here the sharks are circling these boys. I say to them be careful, I want to make sure these young players don’t get sucked in by the promises of the sharks.”

A coach, he says, has to be a mix of mentor, big brother, friend and critic. It is something he has learned from every manager he played under.

“Even the ones who weren’t so good, I am channelling them all,” he says. Including Egil Olsen, the eccentric Wellington-boot-wearing Norwegian manager who oversaw Wimbledon’s demotion from the Premier League. “Yeah, from him I learned not to wear wellies on the touchline.”

Now he is getting the opportunity to put his ideas into practice. Saturday’s League One fixture against Burton will offer further evidence of whether it is working.

[Port Said Red]

Nigel lining up his successor? It would be nice to have some continuity at the club, the Bristol City Boot Room?

[Major Isewater]

Seems like a good fit for Nige’s evolution. Welcome Mr Euell. 

[Monkeh]

About time this club started to appoint more then one coach, 

Good appointment, I also suspect we will still be adding to the backroom staff in the coming weeks

[fatchers]

We have'nt been too successful at previous continuity appointments in the past but he do'es come across well. I do like his opinion on 'Football Prevention Officers'.  He would instill a Winning attitude in the kids before they get to the first team.

[RUSSEL85]

I think this is a very shrewd appointment, a Charlton fan mate of mine has nothing but praise for him as a coach and could see the difference in the development of their players.

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by RUSSEL85

[cidered abroad]

11 hours ago, Lorenzos Only Goal said:

Not sure if this has been posted, but read this a while back off the back of a conversation with a Charlton fan. 

https://www.coachesvoice.com/jason-euell-charlton-middlesbrough-england-southgate/

Thanks a lot for posting this on the forum. Jason has been through the ringer in the same way as Holden. I lost a wife at 54, hard to cope with, but to lose a child; I cannot imagine how one wants to live on after that.

He appears to have a very good background as a player and coach. It always seems difficult from a supporter's point of view to judge how they are doing. A bit of improvement with every player in the squad is the aim, I guess. How can we quantify that? A manager is judged on points gained, trophies gathered and failures of the team to achieve. How can we judge a coach? Anyone got any ideas?

Welcome Jason and enjoy this part of your career.

[alexukhc]

No hearing in his right ear as well

[Desso]

2 minutes ago, alexukhc said:

No hearing in his right ear as well

Pardon?

[TheReds]

Seems to be another with a specific attitude/winning mentality, like the players that have recently been brought in. Seems like a very good appointment.

[cityfan1958]

Appointing the best qualified person for the job, not someone who’s main qualification is being one of our ex players.

[!james]

Quote

I just hope he doesn’t suffer the same treatment at BC because I can see Pearson being sacked before Christmas if they are not challenging for top six. He only hung on by his finger tips last season

Charlton fans certainly have their finger on the pulse... 

[Port Said Red]

37 minutes ago, fatchers said:

We have'nt been too successful at previous continuity appointments in the past but he do'es come across well. I do like his opinion on 'Football Prevention Officers'.  He would instill a Winning attitude in the kids before they get to the first team.

Well let's be fair to the current youth structure, over the last 3 seasons they have not only been producing hungry young kids with a good attitude, but also been winning a lot of their games.

Perhaps that's what attracted him, the fact that we seem to have the same view on development.

[Davefevs]

Thanks @Olé, was reading some stuff on Coaches Voice last night…similar stuff.

For me, it’s another bit of PL experience brought into the set-up.  We only had to see Andy King helping Alex Ball on day one Robins Uncut to see you’re getting more besides the player there.  Matty James was on the periphery of that clip too.

[cidered abroad]

1 hour ago, Port Said Red said:

Well let's be fair to the current youth structure, over the last 3 seasons they have not only been producing hungry young kids with a good attitude, but also been winning a lot of their games.

Perhaps that's what attracted him, the fact that we seem to have the same view on development.

It seemed apparent for a long time, that winning at Academy and Under 23 levels was not required. Another chunk of evidence that Bristol City should have been followed with Holiday Camp instead of Football Club!

[alexukhc]

1 hour ago, Desso said:

Pardon?

What

[IAmNick]

Thought it interesting that along with Pearson's semi-throwaway comment about Andy King "Who knows he might manage the club one day" (paraphrased), it's also notable reading about how much Euell also wants to get into management.

It's so important to have passionate and driven people who are on their own journey of self improvement, on top of just wanting to improve the club/squad. If you expect that of your players it has to be reflected in all the staff as well.

I also found the interview with him interesting in that it sounds like he was approached by Pearson (great!), and that they hadn't had a conversation about positions/responsibilities yet. Is that common?

[Robbored]

14 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

Thought it interesting that along with Pearson's semi-throwaway comment about Andy King "Who knows he might manage the club one day" (paraphrased), it's also notable reading about how much Euell also wants to get into management.

It's so important to have passionate and driven people who are on their own journey of self improvement, on top of just wanting to improve the club/squad. If you expect that of your players it has to be reflected in all the staff as well.

I also found the interview with him interesting in that it sounds like he was approached by Pearson (great!), and that they hadn't had a conversation about positions/responsibilities yet. Is that common?

It’s very refreshing to at last have a well respected manager who has the reputation to attract not only current players but retired players who have become qualified coaches many of whom have worked under Nige previously as Euell has. 

I can’t remember any manager within the last 25+ years who have had that same ‘pulling power’ within the football industry as Nige has.

We’re lucky to have to have a guy with such kudos managing our club.