Only days after England is kicked out of the World Cup, Will Roberts talks to former player and coach Paul Bielby, who has some tips for our top players and for those just beginning.

Darlington-BORN Paul Bielby, 53, has just published his first book, called 500 Tips for Dads and Lads. “I get a lot of people coming up to me asking about whether they have what it takes to be a football coach and really this book is for them,” he says.

It shows how children, parents and coaches can enjoy all aspects of football – and Paul has seen most aspects of the game.

Despite making his Manchester United debut as a 17-year-old in a tumultuous derby against City in which two men were sent off, he only went on to play another three times for the Red Devils, moving to Hartlepool, then Huddersfield, before injury cut his career short before he was 30.

It’s perhaps his post-playing career which has been most celebrated. He set up a football academy in 1998, then established the Darlington Primary Schools Football Association a year later.

He is a coach qualified up to Uefa B level, an agent for players up to Championship level and in 2008 became an MBE for his work in the community.

But above all, he’s a football fan, and like thousands of other football fans from Darlington, he’s more than a little disillusioned today. When I speak to him, it’s only four days after that World Cup match in Bloemfontein and less than 48 hours since Darlington appointed their fifth manager in 14 months.

PAUL discusses the cause of England’s failure in South Africa this year. “One skill which we don’t really think about enough in this country is imagination,” he says. “Coaching is all about a controlled pass and passing it quickly. You don’t see enough players in this country being encouraged to dribble with the ball – there is so much pressure on them not to get caught with the ball or lose the ball to the opposition.

“You look at the Continental teams and you see players who are so much more comfortable on the ball. We have great passers here, but nothing that’s going to unlock a defence. We haven’t had a jinky two-footed player since Gazza really.

“It makes English players very predictable.

We know Steven Gerrard and the Chelsea lads are good players, but they are all very predictable.

We do have just as many genuine twofooted young lads in this country, but that ability is being coached out of them.”

Paul knows a thing or two about “jinky”

players. When he joined Manchester United as a 17-year-old, having been signed by Sir Matt Busby, he shared a training ground with George Best.

“Besty was a fantastic professional. He had off-field problems for sure, but he was very gifted.

But you don’t see those top players any more. Their skills are being stifled.”

BY his own admission, Paul isn’t in the Premier League of agents, but has still had considerable success.

He was a big part of the deal that brought former France manager Jacques Santini to Tottenham Hotspur in 2004. But despite experiencing the glamour of the upper reaches of the game, he says he still gets the most satisfaction from working with youngsters.

“You get the same buzz from seeing a lad who has co-ordination problems and has no self-esteem finally getting a bit of confidence and getting the twinkle in his eye as you do from seeing a player get signed up by a professional team,” he says.

“The young people keep me motivated and keep me going. I motivate them and they return the favour.”

“IF you go anywhere all over the country on a Sunday morning, you can see and hear parents shouting from the sidelines and sometimes it really is quite shocking,” says Paul.

“You can hear them shouting ‘go down the line’ or ‘pass it into the channel’ – but young children don’t know what those phrases mean.

They’ll be thinking ‘the British Channel?’.

“After the game you see the parents berating their children, saying ‘why didn’t you do this?’ or ‘you missed that’, but what they don’t realise is that it’s them who put the children there.

“There’s too much pressure on children under 12 to win matches at all costs. That pressure doesn’t come from the children, it’s always the parents. It can quite easily affect their selfesteem and they’ll become introverted.”

Win a copy of 500 Tips for Dads and Lads

500 Tips for Dads and Lads costs £8.99 and can be bought by emailing p.bielby @btinternet.com or by calling 07956-914478.

A percentage of the profits will go to Cancer Research UK and The Bobby Robson Foundation.

To stand a chance of winning one of ten signed copies, tell us who signed Paul Bielby to Manchester United. Send answers to Paul Bielby Competition, The Northern Echo, PO Box 14, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. The closing date is Monday, July 19, and usual Newsquest competition rules apply.