Issue 4 - August 1998

Steve Kean - The First Team Coach

Born: Glasgow, 1966
Teams: Celtic, Swansea, Academica Coimbra.
Qualifications: UEFA coaching licence

Meeting Steve Kean, Reading's first team coach, in one of the host of new pubs in the town centre seemed somehow strangely appropriate. This part of town has undergone extraordinary change and development in the last few years, a situation mirrored by the last six months at the football club.

Steve was promoted from youth team coach earlier this year, after his former Celtic colleague, Tommy Burns, was appointed as manager. With the high profile of Burns and the new assistant manager, Packie Bonner, Steve has received less attention from the local media but, given that he's now in his eighth season at Reading, he is ideally placed to review this period of fundamental change at the club.

For the fans, the new stadium and rash of recent signings have been the most obvious signs of change, with some sections of the media even referring to Reading as a "big club"! It is evident that there are further fundamental changes behind the scenes as Steve explained the new training regimes.

" We train everyday, with just the occasional day off. The players have to come in on the day following a game when we may do stretching exercises to clear out the build-up of lactic acid or possibly some team-building events like paintballing or clay-pigeon shooting. Last season, the players would have a day off after games and we didn't do much in the way of team activities - it was just a different management style."

As we talked, it became evident that the arrival of Tommy Burns to Reading football club would change more than just the basic training regimes, which would alter anyway when a new management team is installed.

The most remarkable aspect is not the professionalism of the new manager but the amazing amateurism which he replaced. This is not the amateurism of Bullivant or Quinn and Gooding or any other individual but the whole history of a club steeped in mediocrity.

There had been a rumour doing the rounds that the players had to wash their own kit, a rumour I had dismissed as absurd. Steve Kean not only confirmed that it was true but also that players had to buy their own food after training. As a result, some of them would leave immediately and then maybe buy some sandwiches, crisps and perhaps a can of coke on the way home! This incredible state of affairs was simply the way things were done at the club and it appears that no previous manager has had the stature to change it.

Tommy Burns has changed all this and more besides. It is evident that he is very much the man in charge and has the experience to run the club along professional lines. But this change is fundamental and runs right through the whole club from the youth team upwards. Fortunately for Reading, Burns is beginning to force those changes and, coupled with a strong work-ethic, will surely produce results if given the time.
Initially at least, this change of approach has generated great confidence both at the club and amongst the fans. I asked Steve if he was aware of the level of expectation in the town."We expect to go up this season just as much as the fans do and we recognise that if things don't go to plan then we're likely to get some stick. That's part and parcel of the job and you just have to get on with it - if the team loses confidence, we (the management team) have to turn it around very quickly."

Tactically, Reading look set to stick to the 4-5-1 formation used during last season's relegation scrap. Was this a defensive ploy, designed to achieve a steady start to the season?

"Not at all. We will be looking to attack teams this season, both home and away, with our full backs pushing forward and the wide midfield players attacking down the flanks. Eventually we want to be able to play everything out from the back but this will take some time. We want to press teams as much as possible which means that we need a very high level of fitness but once we've got the ball, we'll be looking to pass it around. Last season we were more direct but now we want to retain possession and all the players will be expected to able to pass and move."

Fitness seems to be playing a key part in the new regime and is a further indication of the control the manager has over all team affairs. Although Packie Bonner and Steve Kean run the warm-ups, the routines are all dictated by Burns and the attention to detail implies that this was seen as a major failure last season when we conceded far too many late goals and simply died on our feet after January. Steve explained the approach further.

"In Holland, we had strenuous training about three hours before the matches so that the players were improving their stamina during the game. We do double sessions during the week, with the players often playing when nearly exhausted so that they get used to remaining alert as they would need to during a match. We would expect to be one of the fittest teams in the Second Division this season."

One of the more confusing aspects of last season's regime was that it was unclear who did what, with Bullivant presumably in charge but just what responsibilities did Harris and Houghton have? This season, it is very obvious who's in charge with Kean and Bonner performing similar back-up roles, consisting of some administration, travelling to watch and report on the opposition plus the odd scouting trip. Steve, for instance, was sent to look at Mass Sarr in Croatia. I asked him if there was any truth in the rumour that Arsene Wenger had recommended him.

"No, we were sent a video by Mass's agent and I went to take a look at him play for Hadjuk Split. As he was at Monaco with Wenger, the Gaffer rang and asked for his opinion. Wenger gave him a good report, saying that he was a promising youngster. We decided to take the plunge as a few other clubs were starting to show interest but he was definitely impressed with the manager and the stadium."

Under the management of McGhee, Reading seemed to benefit from his extensive contacts throughout the game. The same might well be true of Burns and he, at least, has some money to spend. Van de Kwaak was recommended by Loius Van Gaal during the recent trip to Holland and the Scottish influx is obviously influenced by extensive knowledge of the game north of the border. Having said that, a further reason is also evident.

"Players in Scotland don't command the same kind of wages as down here and so you can get good quality players without playing silly money. Mass Sarr also wanted to leave Croatia because of the low wages paid there."
The addition of players like Sarr, Brebner, Murty and the rest has seen the squad of professionals at the club balloon to around 35 admidst rumours that Burns has to sell in order to bring in any further players. This was denied by Kean and he was subsequently proved right as Reading added the two Dutch players to the squad. The question is, how do you keep everyone involved, given that only eleven can be on the pitch?

"The first team squad will consist of eighteen players and the rest will play under Alan Pardew in the reserves. Tommy is used to bigger squads than this - Celtic and Newcastle both had over fifty. We rotated the players throughout the friendlies to keep them on their toes - you have to have competition for places."

At least the existence of the reserve team is no longer in doubt. Many of you will know that McGhee chose to disband the reserves and spend the money he saved on two players - he was working to a strict budget for the whole club and could not have both. What you will probably not know is the very big downside to that decision. Steve explains:

"We were bringing through young players but when they reached the age of sixteen or seventeen we had nowhere for them to go. Clubs like Crystal Palace would talk to their parents and say 'Where is your boy going to go with Reading? He won't go straight into the first team and they don't have any reserves. Why not bring him to Palace? We have a reserve team to bring him on.' We lost countless young players to clubs like Palace."

The new youth policy is certainly the right way to go. Reading now have three Centres of Excellence, one in Reading itself, one in Newbury and one in Bracknell, with possibly a fourth on the way in Maidenhead. With spiraling wages and transfer fees, developing the local talent is crucial to long term success - after all, the chairman and his money will not be around for ever! Don't expect this to happen overnight, however - Steve Kean believes that it will take a number of years for the new policy to bear fruit.

A further change this season will be the opportunity to use video footage for training purposes. Now, it may seem fundamental for a professional football club to analyse performances on video and to use that as part of the training techniques. What better way to show players the good (and bad) things they did in the previous game than on video? For the past few seasons, however, Reading have had to rely on the footage provided by Meridian - hardly the greatest coverage in the country and with the additional problem of only showing a small area of the pitch at any one time. How do you know what's going on off-the-ball?

This season, however, a state-of-the-art video facility is being installed in the Madejski Stadium. The camera itself will be at one end of the ground so that all the pitch is visible at all times. The cost of this equipment is £36,000 and the money men took some convincing that it was a vital coaching aid but convinced they were - further evidence of the success of Tommy Burns in bringing the club into the modern era.

For Steve, Tommy and the rest of the team, the opportunity is surely there to build a Reading side capable of playing at the highest level. Despite our "so-near-and-yet-so-far" achievements of 1995, the structure of the club was probably not suited then to sustaining that success. By updating the whole structure of the club, the manager is laying the foundations for long-lasting success - from the youth policy, to the dietary instructions and the emphasis on team-building, it is obvious that Reading are finally entering the modern era in professional sport. As long as they get the time they need, the current team, management and players, should move Reading on to better times.

For a man whose football hero is Kenny Dalglish, Steve Kean would seem an obvious candidate for management but what about all the pressures?

"True, as part of the backroom staff you don't get all the stick that the manager gets but you also don't get the wages! And, if the manager does get the sack, the backroom staff tend to go as well."

For the sake of all those involved with Reading Football Club - staff, players and fans - let's hope that doesn't happen for many seasons to come.