Jason Euell: 'I Am Coach, Manager, Role Model, Mentor, Big Brother, Dad'

Ademola Lookman (right) and Joe Gomez, facing one another during the Liverpool v Everton FA Cup tie in January 2018. Both worked with Jason Euell as boys. Photograph: Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images
Ademola Lookman (right) and Joe Gomez, facing one another during the Liverpool v Everton FA Cup tie in January 2018. Both worked with Jason Euell as boys. Photograph: Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images
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Jason Euell: 'I Am Coach, Manager, Role Model, Mentor, Big Brother, Dad'

Ademola Lookman (right) and Joe Gomez, facing one another during the Liverpool v Everton FA Cup tie in January 2018. Both worked with Jason Euell as boys. Photograph: Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images
Ademola Lookman (right) and Joe Gomez, facing one another during the Liverpool v Everton FA Cup tie in January 2018. Both worked with Jason Euell as boys. Photograph: Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images

Jason Euell decided honesty was the best policy. Although he has known challenging times, there was no point in hiding parts of himself if he was going to nail his interview for the job as assistant coach of England’s Under-18s. “We’ve all been through different chapters,” Euell says. “Not everybody’s going to have a fairytale journey.”

Euell is thinking about the final stage of the interview with the Football Association: the lifelines section. He spoke about his mother, who was a single parent, and how his uncle was his male role model. The 43-year-old talked about going bankrupt after a property venture went south in 2010 and explained how highs often accompanied lows, recalling how tragedy struck after he scored twice for Charlton against West Ham in 2001. “The next afternoon my girlfriend, now my wife, is going through labor and has a stillbirth,” Euell says.

As he thinks back, Euell remembers entering the Crazy Gang environment after joining Wimbledon as a 12-year-old. He calls it “the school of hard knocks” and says it made him a man. Impressed, the FA hired him and has since promoted him to the Under-20s, assisting Lee Carsley.

The former Wimbledon and Charlton striker is developing. His coaching journey began at Charlton’s academy and he has risen through the ranks, becoming their Under-23s coach. His success is highly visible: he has played a part in the development of Liverpool’s Joe Gomez and Fulham’s Ademola Lookman.

Euell understands sacrifice. “I always say to my players that I’m not going to sugarcoat,” he explains. “We do a player-care program with the 23s, this is our third year now, and I actually found my lifeline with the FA helped in a way of, ‘I’m putting all my cards on the table’. The dream is not going to happen for all of them and that’s where I’ve got to give them the reality. I’ve always been good at talking to people.”

Euell stays in contact with his old players. While Gomez was never fazed, Lookman was given to self-doubt. “Someone that beats himself up if he makes a mistake,” Euell says. “That was one of the things I had to work on with him.”

He was in touch with Lookman after his botched penalty against West Ham last month. “It’s building relationships,” he says. “I’m still speaking to some of the boys I had from [Charlton] Under-16s that didn’t continue as a pro. If I’ve played a part in someone having a career, I always go: ‘Brilliant.’”

As Euell opens up, he considers the challenges of handling the different personalities in his squad. Asked how many parts he has to play, he says: “Coach, manager, role model, mentor, big brother, uncle, friend, dad.” It sounds draining but Euell understands the long-term benefits.

“That’s giving me that head start into what management would look like,” he says. “Nothing is going to get you ready for first-team football because it’s a different animal ... but I’m trying to emulate what’s it going to look like with the boys I’ve been working with.”

Man-management is key. “I sometimes say that football takes care of itself, it’s all the other shit that comes with it, which is parents, agents, peer pressure, social media, and gaming,” Euell says. “That comes on top of them looking to be as good as they can.

“We look at the person heavily, not just what the player’s like. It is important that you get a good group dynamic because we want to be competitive. One or two are going to be a little bit more difficult than others but then that’s the getting to know them. A lot of it could be things happening at home.”

Football has changed since Euell’s Wimbledon days. The Crazy Gang culture would not be compatible with the Elite Player Performance Plan. “I had to tone it down quite a lot to what it would have been like at Wimbledon,” Euell says. “It’s what made me the person I am and it’s how you use those experiences. I’m going to have to change those words. A lot of these boys are more delicate.”

Euell remembers being a young player at Wimbledon and not doing a job properly with his partner, Shaun Fleming. “We had to decide whose fault it was, which we didn’t,” he says. “The boys said: ‘If you can’t sort it out, we will.’ On Wimbledon Common there’s a little river and it’s like a Gladiators thing, there’s a branch across the stream, and we are both sitting on this and we have to try and slap each other off.”

These days Euell just surprises his players with punishing runs. One thing that has not changed, though, are the barriers faced by black coaches. Only five clubs in the top four divisions in England employ BAME managers.

“I want to pave the way for the next generation but I can only pave that way by getting to that level I want to get to,” Euell says. “There’s not enough opportunity. It’s very easy to go with experience. You only get that experience by getting that opportunity.

“I’ve always said that I wouldn’t put my name in the hat just for the sake of it. For your first job you have to make sure, hopefully, it is the right job. I want to put my name in the hat knowing this is where I’m going to sell myself to the best of my ability. If I just throw my name in for every job, for jobs that I don’t want, I don’t want it to look like a statistic: ‘Well, Jason Euell’s put his name in the hat, he didn’t get it, but that’s fine – we had a black coach apply.’”

Euell has gone for two jobs. The second application earned him an interview. “The phone call I got the next day was choosing to go in a different direction,” he says. “When that person did get the job, I was surprised. It was against the remit of the manager they wanted.”

The experience has not put Euell off. He talks about hearing from people in high-pressure situations in the real world when he was studying for his pro license.

“It was about how to deal with pressure in a hostile environment,” Euell says. “It’s the manager on the touchline and you’ve got the away fans behind you in the dugout and they’re screaming. How do you block all of that out and make that decision?

“People think Under-23s is no pressure, it’s about development. I squash all that. Under-23 football is about winning. I’ve got to get these boys ready for men’s football. 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.

“I look at the what-if scenarios. There’s not the noise around you that can unsettle those decisions but I have to make them. You want it to be the right one. If it’s not, you reflect and learn. I’m trying to prepare myself as much as I can within my environment.”

(The Guardian)



Botafogo Faces Atletico Mineiro in Copa Libertadores Final

Soccer Football  - Copa Libertadores - Final - Preview - Buenos Aires, Argentina - November 28, 2024 Botafogo president Durcesio Mello poses for a selfie ahead of the match REUTERS/Francisco Loureiro
Soccer Football - Copa Libertadores - Final - Preview - Buenos Aires, Argentina - November 28, 2024 Botafogo president Durcesio Mello poses for a selfie ahead of the match REUTERS/Francisco Loureiro
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Botafogo Faces Atletico Mineiro in Copa Libertadores Final

Soccer Football  - Copa Libertadores - Final - Preview - Buenos Aires, Argentina - November 28, 2024 Botafogo president Durcesio Mello poses for a selfie ahead of the match REUTERS/Francisco Loureiro
Soccer Football - Copa Libertadores - Final - Preview - Buenos Aires, Argentina - November 28, 2024 Botafogo president Durcesio Mello poses for a selfie ahead of the match REUTERS/Francisco Loureiro

Brazilian team Botafogo could give owner John Textor his biggest soccer success yet if it beats Atletico Mineiro in the Copa Libertadores final on Saturday.
The American businessman also owns several European soccer teams but has come under widespread criticism from fans there because of financial difficulties and poor results. He's had his share of critics in Brazil, too, after making unproven allegations about match-fixing when Botafogo squandered a 13-point lead to miss out on the league title last year, The Associated Press reported.
Seeing Botafogo lift its first continental title would be a rare triumph.
Botafogo was relegated from the Brazilian league in 2020 but has risen to prominence again with Textor’s investment. He was part of a wave of foreign owners who came into Brazilian soccer after a 2021 law change paved the way for private investments.
Textor's Eagle Football also owns Crystal Palace in the Premier League, French club Lyon and RWD Molenbeek in Belgium.
At Botafogo, he has spent big on star signings such as Argentina midfielder Thiago Almada for $25 million and winger Luiz Henrique for $21 million. The team is also on the verge of winning the Brazilian league for the first time since 1995, after climbing back to the top of the table with a 3-1 win at Palmeiras on Tuesday. A victory at Internacional next week could clinch the domestic trophy for the Rio de Janeiro-based team.
The team's Portuguese coach Arthur Jorge, who arrived at the club in April, insisted he's not under any pressure going into the final.
"I am living an adventure that has been extraordinary,” Jorge said.
If Botafogo wins, Jorge would join his compatriots Jorge Jesus (Flamengo 2019) and Abel Ferreira (Palmeiras in 2020 and 2021) as European coaches with a Copa Libertadores title.
However, Botafogo will be without injured striker Júnior Santos, who is the competition’s leading with nine goals despite not having played since having surgery on his left leg in July, before the round of 16.
Atletico Mineiro also has wealthy owner in Brazilian billionaire Rubens Menin, a construction mogul. The Belo Horizonte-based club won its first and only Copa Libertadores title in 2013 after a penalty shootout against Paraguay’s Olimpia.
And while Botafogo is on a high, Mineiro has not won any of its last 10 matches since beating River Plate in the first leg of the Libertadores semifinals. It eliminated defending champion Fluminense of Brazil in the quarterfinals.
Mineiro will rely on veteran striker Hulk, 38, and his younger attacking partner Paulinho — on loan from Bayer Leverkusen — to break down Botafogo’s defense. Hulk has four assists in this edition of the Copa Liberadores.
The club also counts on the experience of midfielder Gustavo Scarpa and center forward Deyverson, who both won the competition with Palmeiras in 2021.
“We are going to Buenos Aires with the faith and conviction that we will win,” said coach Gabriel Milito, who can become the first Argentine to win the trophy with a Brazilian team. “We have to play the final with a lot of courage, with a lot of confidence. We know that we have to neutralize their offensive game very well and we also have to generate danger through ours.”
Whoever wins at the Monumental de Nunez Stadium in Buenos Aires will give Brazil its sixth consecutive Copa Libertadores title and the 24th in history, just one less than host Argentina.
Dozens of buses left Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and other cities in Brazil early in the week filled with fans going to watch the match in the Argentine capital.
The winner gets prize money of $23 million and a spot in the Club World Cup in the United States next year.