Yahoo News Departing Stoke City coach reveals next step in football with 'aggressive' ambition
Paul Gallagher is preparing to go around the training grounds in the name of research as he looks to become a manager.
Gallagher, aged 39, has left Stoke City during the close season after one season back at the club where he had enjoyed two spells on loan as a player. He was brought in by Alex Neil, his old boss at Preston North End, and served as caretaker for two matches following Neil's departure, then worked alongside new head coach Steven Schumacher.
Now he wants to break out on his own, telling the Lancashire Post: "The next step, I hope, is to be a head coach/manager. I feel like I’ve done the coaching for four years and don’t get me wrong, I love that - being on the grass with the players, giving them detail, information and trying to improve them.
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"I would like to go out and watch other teams and go to other games - at League One and League Two level even, just to see how other things work. Hopefully, the time might come where I get an opportunity to a young head coach. I would like to be an aggressive manager, I always feel personality is a big thing. I think your team has got to play with personality and if you set up aggressive without the ball, the other team knows they are in for a game.
"I am very open minded, in terms of (going in) anywhere. I’d just like the opportunity, because I’d like to believe I could get a team going. When I played, tactically was one of my strengths and I’ve learned so much about tactics coming on to the coaching side. But, man management as well. I felt it when I did a little stint, that my job was to get the best out of the player and the collective."
Schumacher has brought in Chris Cohen to join his coaching set-up at Clayton Wood to get everything in place before the start of pre-season next week.
Pre-season was already in full swing when Gallagher moved to Stoke last year from Preston, where ironically he had been working with Schumacher's best pal Ryan Lowe.
He added: “I don’t know many people, in any walk of life, who would travel an extra hour away, for less money. So, it wasn’t a financial gain I went to Stoke for. It was an opportunity to work with different players, different nationalities and a different ambition. We signed 19 players - Korean, Serbian and Portuguese players. I felt, if you want to be the best coach and manager, you have got to challenge yourself in these situations.
“It was a club, obviously in transition, and I just wanted to test myself. I have got an ambition to progress and get better, but it was one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make in my life and career - to leave Preston. My kids were crying because they are Preston fans. They have got season tickets, they still go to the games and support the team. Because of Alex, I had a bit more input as I understood the way he wanted to play."
