taken from the WO: Watford's new assistant manager has been working with a host of international players for the past four years but says he was âabsolutely blown awayâ by the standard of training at the Hornetsâ London Colney base following his arrival. Ian Woan, who was appointed last Thursday along with Tony Loughlin, was coaching experienced internationals such as John Utaka, Kanu and Aaron Mokoena at Portsmouth last season. And in years gone by, England regulars such as David James and Glen Johnson, Iceland captain Hermann Hreidarsson and European Championship golden boot winner Milan Baros have also worked alongside Woan. During his playing days, the former winger played for a number of clubs in England and the USA, but claims he has never witnessed a work rate like that at Watford in all his years in football. âI have been absolutely blown away by the enthusiasm of the boys,â was Woanâs reply when asked what he thought of the standard of training following his arrival. âBoth as a player and a coach, I have never seen players work so hard and with so much enthusiasm âI was talking to Tony Loughlin about it today [Tuesday] and it has blown us away; the way they apply themselves to every session and every drill is absolutely fantastic.â âFriendlyâ was how Woan described his first few days at the club when he spoke to the Watford Observer on Tuesday. The type of personnel Woan will be coaching at Watford will be considerably different to those at Portsmouth, with only six of the Hornetsâ squad being 24 or over. But he thinks the clubâs Academy is a huge positive for the club and said the Hornets are renowned in football for producing players capable of making the step up. Woan also believes Watford have appointed a man who was destined to become a manager. He said: âI have known Sean for over 20 years and management was always the direction he was going in. âEven when he was playing he would talk a hell of a game, he was always tactical and it was always more than a game to Sean. He was always dissecting the game and talked passionately about it. âSo nobody who has known the gaffer for a large amount of time will be surprised at where he is right now.â Watfordâs new assistant manager has known Dyche since the former centre half was a youth team player at Nottingham Forest, where Woan made more than 250 appearance in his decade at the City Ground. However, Woan insists that whilst being friends with Dyche âwas a factor, it was not a driving factor.â Becoming a number two was also an obvious motivation due to the upgrade from first team coach at Portsmouth, where he was briefly joint caretaker manager in 2009. But it was not an easy decision to leave Fratton Park, even if the move to Watford does enable Woan to spend more time with his wife and children and save on petrol costs â himself, Dyche, Loughlin and Alec Chamberlain are sharing lifts to training due to the quartet living at different stages along the M1. âIt wasnât an easy decision to come to, especially as Sean only gave me 48 hours to make a decision,â Woan said. âIt was a big decision as I had been at Portsmouth four years and I had a lot of good friends there. âIt is a fantastic football club, has an excellent manager [Steve Cotterill] and the club are going in the right direction. âBut I decided to move because of all the factors at Watford; how highly Sean spoke of the club and the people here, and the environment in which you live day to day was a big factor. âI thought why not, lets have a go at it.â Woan praised the job former manager Malky Mackay did and believes the aims for the 2011/12 campaign is âjust to build on what has been built in the last two years.â He also had kind words for the Hornetsâ board for putting faith in Dyche. Woan said: âAll credit to Watford for going for continuity with Sean â that is a big plus. âThey have given a young English manager the chance to step up. âThe board have shown a lot of faith in Sean by giving him the job and they are confident he can do the job. It will be an interesting time for Watford
The role of an assistant is to support the manager through everything - even when the wheels are coming off the wagon. Hands up who thought he would say (to his best mate of 20 years), sorry but this is a load of PONY!
Fair point E69. I do wonder what these press guys expect managers,players to say in such interviews? Unless they are like Brian Clough or Jose M your going to get the same bland answers.
Kanu was in his 40s+ when he played for Pompey, no surprise he was impressed by how lively our young squad is!
Have you heard about the Nigerian players birth certificate issue? http://www.thefootballsupernova.com/2011/04/nigerias-age-problem.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/21/nigerian-football-age-old-problem Got the Kanu age a little wrong, a couple of years... Taribo West was the most shocking
It's common sense really...If you're quite good at football but the scouts think you're too old, get a new passport! Playing top-end football at 50 seems a bit much though
He doesn't make me laugh at all. I can't stand people that throw out insults then log-off and ignore the replies...
