Interesting Head Coaches/Managers
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Real Madrid's new coach. He might love Liverpool, but he is a club legend at Madrid and he won't have tight owners who will quibble about getting loan signings as its not with in budget.
I wonder why Zidane hasn't accepted a job yet?
Nice's Francesco Farioli (Roberto De Zerbi's goalkeeping coach at Sassuolo)
https://english.elpais.com/sports/2...coach-farioli-eyes-first-place-in-france.html
[article]Ten years ago Francesco Farioli was finishing his philosophy degree at an Italian university. Now he’s coaching Nice, an ambitious French side where the team’s captain is five years older than him.
Farioli’s path in soccer has been an unusual one and he never had a playing career of his own. But on Sunday the 34-year-old Italian coach has the chance to put Nice on top of the French league when it hosts Brest. A win will guarantee first spot for Nice.
Nice, which has been bankrolled by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe since 2019, is unbeaten in six games this season, securing away wins at defending champion Paris Saint-Germain and title contender Monaco.
Farioli’s making a name for himself, but his obscure path into soccer started at Florence university, where the philosophy student received the grade of 105 out of 110.
There, he wrote a thesis that was far removed from the norm called “Filosofia del Gioco. L’estetica del calcio e il ruolo del portiere” (Philosophy of the Game. The aesthetics of football and the role of the goalkeeper).
Goalkeepers have a unique wider vision of play and also have more time to observe what’s happening on the field than other players, who are squeezed for time on the ball and run more.
The position fascinated famed French author Albert Camus. He was a keen goalkeeper in his youth, which later earned him the mocking scorn of fellow literary great and friend Jean-Paul Sartre. Camus’ works dealt with themes of irrationality and absurdity, and he insisted that what he knew about human nature came about through studying soccer.
Farioli was a fast-learning student of the game.
It was while working as a goalkeeping coach at the Aspire Academy in Qatar that Farioli, who was continuing to write trenchant analytical pieces on his personal website, received a surprise phone call in late 2017 from an up-and-coming Italian coach called Roberto De Zerbi.
De Zerbi is now a highly rated coach with Brighton, which is third in the Premier League and De Zerbi’s remarkable transformation of that side has seen him linked with moves to bigger clubs.
When De Zerbi coached Serie A newcomers Benevento he recruited Farioli, who then worked alongside him at Sassuolo as goalkeeper coach.
De Zerbi’s tactical influence rubbed off on Farioli last season when he coached Turkish side Alanyaspor, before joining Nice as a surprise choice this summer on a two-year deal.
Midfielder Arnaud Lusamba, who played under Farioli at Alanyaspor, told So Foot magazine’s website recently that the team would watch videos of Brighton’s matches during away trips to study De Zerbi’s tactics.
Some of those have carried over into Nice’s style of play.
The two central defenders, the 39-year-old captain Dante and Jean-Clair Todibo, stay very close to each other to draw opposing forward players in, and so free up space behind for Nice to launch its own attacks.
“It’s what I’ve been asking (of my players) from the outset, to pay attention to the small details,” Farioli said. “We’ve improved a lot in certain areas of play. But we also have room for improvement in quite a few ways, such as finding solutions in a more fluid and dynamic way.”
The team’s transitional play worked to perfection against PSG, which was opened up with two lighting-fast counter-attacks when Nice won 3-2 two weeks ago. Strikers Terem Moffi and Gaetan Laborde combined well and scored in that game, offering a glimpse of a promising partnership.
Speaking after the PSG win, Farioli was quick to deflect praise.
“I would like to point out that, even though I’m the one who receives the praise, the result was the fruit of the labor of everyone inside the club,” he said, praising the club’s passionate fans. “They welcomed us back in an incredible way at 4:30 in the morning after our victory in Paris.”[/article]
https://english.elpais.com/sports/2...coach-farioli-eyes-first-place-in-france.html
[article]Ten years ago Francesco Farioli was finishing his philosophy degree at an Italian university. Now he’s coaching Nice, an ambitious French side where the team’s captain is five years older than him.
Farioli’s path in soccer has been an unusual one and he never had a playing career of his own. But on Sunday the 34-year-old Italian coach has the chance to put Nice on top of the French league when it hosts Brest. A win will guarantee first spot for Nice.
Nice, which has been bankrolled by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe since 2019, is unbeaten in six games this season, securing away wins at defending champion Paris Saint-Germain and title contender Monaco.
Farioli’s making a name for himself, but his obscure path into soccer started at Florence university, where the philosophy student received the grade of 105 out of 110.
There, he wrote a thesis that was far removed from the norm called “Filosofia del Gioco. L’estetica del calcio e il ruolo del portiere” (Philosophy of the Game. The aesthetics of football and the role of the goalkeeper).
Goalkeepers have a unique wider vision of play and also have more time to observe what’s happening on the field than other players, who are squeezed for time on the ball and run more.
The position fascinated famed French author Albert Camus. He was a keen goalkeeper in his youth, which later earned him the mocking scorn of fellow literary great and friend Jean-Paul Sartre. Camus’ works dealt with themes of irrationality and absurdity, and he insisted that what he knew about human nature came about through studying soccer.
Farioli was a fast-learning student of the game.
It was while working as a goalkeeping coach at the Aspire Academy in Qatar that Farioli, who was continuing to write trenchant analytical pieces on his personal website, received a surprise phone call in late 2017 from an up-and-coming Italian coach called Roberto De Zerbi.
De Zerbi is now a highly rated coach with Brighton, which is third in the Premier League and De Zerbi’s remarkable transformation of that side has seen him linked with moves to bigger clubs.
When De Zerbi coached Serie A newcomers Benevento he recruited Farioli, who then worked alongside him at Sassuolo as goalkeeper coach.
De Zerbi’s tactical influence rubbed off on Farioli last season when he coached Turkish side Alanyaspor, before joining Nice as a surprise choice this summer on a two-year deal.
Midfielder Arnaud Lusamba, who played under Farioli at Alanyaspor, told So Foot magazine’s website recently that the team would watch videos of Brighton’s matches during away trips to study De Zerbi’s tactics.
Some of those have carried over into Nice’s style of play.
The two central defenders, the 39-year-old captain Dante and Jean-Clair Todibo, stay very close to each other to draw opposing forward players in, and so free up space behind for Nice to launch its own attacks.
“It’s what I’ve been asking (of my players) from the outset, to pay attention to the small details,” Farioli said. “We’ve improved a lot in certain areas of play. But we also have room for improvement in quite a few ways, such as finding solutions in a more fluid and dynamic way.”
The team’s transitional play worked to perfection against PSG, which was opened up with two lighting-fast counter-attacks when Nice won 3-2 two weeks ago. Strikers Terem Moffi and Gaetan Laborde combined well and scored in that game, offering a glimpse of a promising partnership.
Speaking after the PSG win, Farioli was quick to deflect praise.
“I would like to point out that, even though I’m the one who receives the praise, the result was the fruit of the labor of everyone inside the club,” he said, praising the club’s passionate fans. “They welcomed us back in an incredible way at 4:30 in the morning after our victory in Paris.”[/article]
Gary O'Neil talking abt the win vs Man City
4 lower league managers doing wonders so far this season:
Leicester's Enzo Maresca, Ipswich's Kieran McKenna, Portsmouth's John Mousinho and Stockport County's Dave Challinor
Leicester's Enzo Maresca, Ipswich's Kieran McKenna, Portsmouth's John Mousinho and Stockport County's Dave Challinor
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MLS Coach of the Year - FC Cincinnati's Pat Noonan
After a slow start to the season having lost last season's top scorer Akpom, Middlesbrough are back in the race to make it into the play-offs.
This guy here is doing incredibly well. For Nice to be one of 4 teams amongst the top 6 leagues in Europe to still be unbeaten (should technically be 5 but whatever) is an astonishing achievement.
I saw his record in Turkey as well and he did tremendous with Alanyaspor in his first season to take them 5th.
His English is pretty good
[article]"Here, there are no miracles," Andoni Iraola tells Sky Sports with a smile. But what the Rayo Vallecano manager has achieved during his three seasons in charge of one of LaLiga's smallest clubs, on a budget dwarfed by those of their rivals, can't be too far off.
Rayo, with their crumbling, three-stand stadium squeezed up against tower blocks in a residential corner of Madrid, were stuck in the second tier two years ago. Now, they are fighting to qualify for Europe for only the second time in their 99-year history.
Barcelona have been beaten - not once but three times - and so have Real Madrid. It is some going for a side promoted via the play-offs as the sixth-best in Segunda. Especially when you consider all but two of their starters this season were part of that team.
Rayo have only paid transfer fees for six players in three years under Iraola and those fees average just £2m. There have been loans and free-agent signings - Radamel Falcao among them - but otherwise the manager has worked happily with what he had.
"I think I have been lucky because I have found a group of players willing to achieve big things since my first day here," adds Iraola, speaking over Zoom from the club's training ground.
"In the end, the players have the level they are showing. It is true that it is difficult to show it every single week and maintain it against opponents who, market-wise, probably have more value. But we are showing we have players who can play against the better teams."
They have the manager too. Iraola's work at Rayo has earned him a reputation as one of Spain's best and most exciting coaches. In February, long before they turned to Sam Allardyce, Leeds United tried to appoint the 40-year-old as Jesse Marsch's replacement.
"I was really pleased that they thought of me as an option to coach there," says Iraola. "I talked to Rayo Vallecano, who obviously were the ones who had to make the decision, and I understood also that Rayo wanted to continue with me."
The club's hierarchy ultimately dug their heels in, determined not to lose him in the middle of the season, and Iraola made no attempt to force the issue. Was there, though, any sense of frustration on his part that the timing did not line up?
Iraola shrugs. "You cannot think in things that could have happened," he says. "It was what it was.
"I think it was a very open decision. We talked to the club, and Leeds were also very open with Rayo Vallecano. We talked for one day, 'OK, it's not the moment, it's over.' It is nothing more than that.
"I am very pleased that they thought of me as an option, but I am also very happy here working for Rayo Vallecano. I hope they finish the season well, but right now we are doing well, so we are not thinking too much about that."
It remains to be seen whether Leeds will come back in for him at the end of the season. There is the small matter of Premier League survival to worry about first. But Iraola, despite his admiration for English football, is not thinking that far ahead anyway - even if his contract at Rayo is due to expire in June.
"I think that, right now, the Premier League is probably the top league, because in the end it's about budget, about money, and right now they are by far the richest league. But I don't know if later I will have the chance I want [to manage there].
"As managers, we can't make long-term plans. OK, you are doing well now, so you have options. But, probably, you will start losing games, and those options will start to disappear.
"We have to think short-term. I have to think about the next training session, the next game, about my things here in Rayo Vallecano, and then let's see what happens.
"It doesn't make sense to think from here to three, four or five years. If I am doing things well, probably I will have the option someday [to go to the Premier League]. But if things don't go well, probably I will have to think in other options.
"You just have to think in the present - and my present is really good. I'm really happy with the club, with the players I am coaching, and I am still in this learning process. That is where I am focused."
The links with Leeds were tantalising for the club's fans given Iraola's history with Marcelo Bielsa. The former right-back played under him for two years during his time in charge of Athletic Club Bilbao and counts the former Whites boss, who has just been named Uruguay's new head coach, as one of his biggest influences.
"I was very lucky to play for him for two seasons as a player," says Iraola. "I think he has another vision of football. They were two very good seasons for us, and, for me, it was a different knowledge.
"I use a lot of exercises from Marcelo that I learned from him. I use a lot of things, especially with the ball. Offensively, his teams are very dynamic. He is willing to make all the runs to the space, he is ready to accept this kind of disorder, offensively."
Iraola now places that offensive "disorder" at the heart of his own philosophy. Like those of Bielsa, his Rayo players are drilled to tear into opponents as quickly and directly as possible.
Ander Murillo, his friend, former team-mate and sporting director of AEK Larnaca, the Cypriot club where Iraola took his first senior job in management, describes his football as "rock and roll". It is a description which brings a chuckle from Iraola but it fits.
"It is true that we like, and we perform better, in high-tempo games," says Iraola. "We need to run a lot. We don't need so much control, not in every single play, but I think we have the legs, we have the willingness, to go up and down."
It is pointed out that Rayo can play, too. Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti talked up their "beautiful football" earlier this season and the statistics put them eighth in LaLiga in terms of possession.
"It is not something we are trying to find because I think are much better without the ball," says Iraola. "We are recovering and regaining possession very high and that is why we have so much time on the ball, but it is not something we like.
"I think we have to take risks when we regain. I don't like this 'security pass', as they say, to play with the 'keeper, to start building from the back. You have to do it sometimes, but it is not what identifies us. We are dangerous in fast attacks, when we recover possession as high as we can.
"I think we can find more goals that way than building from the back. Sometimes we score starting from the 'keeper, with a lot of passes, but the amount you score like this is a lot lower."
Iraola still regards the season he spent honing his knowledge of that side of the game under Patrick Vieira at New York City FC as a crucial step on his path into management. "He is a very, very good coach and he showed me another point of view," he says.
But his preference was always for full-throttle football and that can now be seen in the ferociousness of Rayo's pressing.
According to Opta, they rank top in LaLiga for high turnovers leading to shots this season and third behind Real Sociedad and Barcelona in terms of PPDA, which measures the average number of opposition passes a team allows per defensive action.
Iraola's approach differs from Bielsa's in that he does not use a man-to-man marking system. "We try to press high, to be aggressive without the ball, but with a different kind of structure."
He is, however, similarly demanding in terms of what he expects from his players out of possession. "I think you have to be demanding," he says. "Marcelo was really demanding with the players. It is the only way to achieve big goals and explore your limits."
At Rayo, one of Spain's last 'neighbourhood clubs', centred in the traditionally working-class and fiercely anti-establishment district of Vallecas, it is also a means of connecting with supporters.
"We represent a neighbourhood that likes to play this way," says Iraola. "It is kind of the identity that Rayo fans have. They are a lot of hard-workers. They love to feel this identification on the pitch and it is what they demand of the players. It is what we have to give them."
The synergy makes for a special atmosphere inside their 14,708-capacity home and Iraola regards chemistry and togetherness as crucial too. His enduring trust in the players who earned Rayo promotion draws further parallels with Bielsa at Leeds.
"Chemistry is key to pass through difficult periods, to continue pushing, to think more collectively," he explains. "We have experienced what it is to play in the second division - a difficult, difficult division, so we want to continue playing against best teams in the world.
"To do that, we have to prove it every single week. It is not, 'OK, last week, we did a very good game, now we can rest.' No. You have to prove it in every single training session, in every single season.
"That is what this group of players are doing."
And, as impressive as it may be, Andoni Iraola - Leeds United's one who got away - will be first to tell you that it is no miracle.
This article was first published on May 17, 2023
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He's got a good head on his shoulders. That said, I'd be shocked if he doesn't make a move next summer. Presumably to Real but Tuchel could be on the hot seat at Bayern, too. The timing might just be too good to turn down.
Is Thiago Motta the next great coach? From mocked ideas to transforming Bologna
Dated Feb 2023
[article]It’s 20 years since The Da Vinci Code, a novel peddling a conspiracy of Jesus Christ establishing a bloodline that apparently lives on (we’re guessing it does so in Zlatan Ibrahimovic, given how much he talks about being God), hit the shelves.
A page-turner that sold some 80 million copies, the book’s release more or less coincided with the last time Bologna played in Europe only to improbably lose an Intertoto Cup final to Jean Tigana’s Fulham courtesy of that Junichi Inamoto hat-trick.
If you feel this intro is stretching credulity as much as Dan Brown’s storyline, then make like a monk in Opus Dei and strap on a cilice because it’s about to get even more painful.
Rather than reminisce about how Ibrahimovic, who, aged 41 and 146 days, became the oldest player to appear for AC Milan at the weekend, almost joined Bologna three years ago to play under his friend, Sinisa Mihajlovic — “You don’t have to run. You only have to score. The others will run for you,” Mihajlovic had told him — The Athletic would like to delve into Brown’s taste in music.
When he wasn’t at the same prestigious boarding school as Mark Zuckerberg, the novelist holidayed in Europe as a child. “You won’t believe me but I grew up listening to Lucio Dalla,” Brown revealed.
Ragno, as the Bolognesi nicknamed him, was arguably the city’s greatest songwriter and even penned a lyric about Christ coming down from the cross — presumably, in Brown’s imagination, to marry Mary Magdalen, have a daughter and go into hiding in the south of France.
That same song, L’Anno Che Verra, gets played at full-time at Bologna’s Renato Dall’Ara stadium, and for Bologna fans perhaps the line that has resonated the most in recent years is another: “The old year is over now/but something is still wrong here.”
Historically Italy’s fifth most successful club, with seven league titles (more than Roma, Lazio, Sampdoria and Verona combined), Bologna were languishing in 17th, fourth-bottom, at the beginning of October.
Head coach Thiago Motta had barely been in the red-brick, university town a month, flunking one exam after another when the local media began speculating about an early expulsion. Winless in his first four games, the crowd booed the team off after a 1-1 draw at home to stricken Sampdoria. “I understand and respect the whistles,” Motta brooded. “They have the right to do it.”
A banner outside Bologna’s training ground asked in English: “Where the hell are you, Mr President!?”
Joey Saputo, Bologna’s owner, a Canadian of Italian descent and the longest-standing foreign investor in Serie A, had planned to be over in Italy but his other team, CF Montreal, got through to the quarter-finals of the MLS title play-offs. It meant he had to put off his flight for a few days.
Still, Motta could count on Saputo’s “total confidence”. But if patience is a virtue discernible in Saputo, it was less apparent among a restless fanbase and critical local media. “Something has changed, for the worse,” Guido De Carolis observed in the Bologna edition of Il Corriere della Sera. “If Serie A were the NBA, without the risk of relegation, then fans would go to the stadium lighthearted. But it’s different. Motta maybe thinks he is in the NBA.”
The now 40-year-old member of Inter’s treble-winning team is no stranger to scepticism.
Motta was born in Brazil, raised by Catalans (he is a graduate of Barcelona’s La Masia academy) and adopted by the Italians, even wearing the No 10 shirt as he won 30 Italy caps.
An intelligent, metronomic filter and facilitator of a midfielder, it was never in doubt that Motta would one day become a coach. But upon exposing his ideas to La Gazzetta dello Sport in 2018, he was misunderstood and mocked for having a different perspective on the game.
“I don’t love the numbers associated with formations,” he said. “They can be deceiving. Calcio is not table football. Movement matters. You can be super-attacking in a 3-5-2 and defensive in a 4-3-3. It depends on the ability of the players and their attitude. I have seen a world-class player like Samuel Eto’o play full-back, setting an example that was the secret behind Inter’s treble.”
The way he saw it from his position on the sideline, teams could be read from right to left rather than back to front. “What about playing a 2-7-2?” he asked.
No sooner did the quote hit the pink paper in Gazzetta’s printing press than it was decontextualised, tweeted out and roundly laughed at.
But Motta’s thinking, explained in the video below, was nothing out of the ordinary.
“I count the goalkeeper as one of the seven players in the middle of the pitch,” he said. “For me, the striker is the first defender and the goalkeeper the first attacker.”
Nevertheless, the stigma followed him around and when Genoa fired him just nine league games into his first top-flight coaching role in December 2019, it inevitably came up again. A complicated job at the best of times, Genoa were already circling the drain of relegation and no shame should be attached to being sacked by their then-owner Enrico Preziosi who, in total, said: “You’re fired” 26 times in 18 years as club president.
Motta would take only limited satisfaction in keeping the lesser-spotted Spezia up at Genoa’s expense last season, such was the gratitude he still felt for the role Genoa and Preziosi played in saving his playing career. He’d undergone three knee operations and had been on trial at, only to be rejected by, Harry Redknapp’s Portsmouth in 2008. Within a year, he was using Genoa as a stepping stone to Inter and a place in history. Talk about Sliding Doors.
The pesto-dappled hills of Liguria have regenerated Motta twice. First as a player, then as a manager.
Surviving with Spezia when the club appointed him late in the summer of 2021 and signed 23 players in anticipation of a transfer ban (challenged and overturned by the club) was a minor miracle. They upset Napoli at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and champions-elect Milan at San Siro essentially with one hand tied behind their back after Motta left 2020-21 top scorer Mbala N’Zola out for most of the campaign.
The situation he walked into at Bologna just before last September’s international break was not easy: “He took over a team that wasn’t built for him, with a different mentality,” Saputo said.
Bologna had been deeply conflicted about sacking Mihajlovic after taking six points from the opening six games. “I’ve never been a hypocrite,” Mihajlovic wrote in an open letter. “I won’t be one this time either. I don’t understand this dismissal. I accept it, as a professional must do, but I felt the situation was absolutely under control and could be improved.”
Mihajlovic had been made an honorary citizen of Bologna.
Four years ago, he arrived in the January and spectacularly saved the team, lifting them from 18th to 10th — the highest finish in Saputo’s near decade-long tenure as owner. Mihajlovic’s record over those 16 games, the fifth best in Serie A, hinted at the latent potential within the squad and a challenge for Europe in his first full season of 2019-20.
What nobody foresaw was a global pandemic interrupting that campaign and, sadly, Mihajlovic’s diagnosis with leukaemia early on in it.
He was nothing short of an inspiration with how he faced the illness. Bologna fans made pilgrimages to the city’s Sanctuary of San Luca church to pray for him and the players made sure to pass by the Sant’Orsola hospital during his treatment to celebrate wins underneath his window. The club rallied behind him and Mihajlovic continued to work.
So sacking him was always going to be sensitive.
“It wasn’t easy,” chief executive Claudio Fenucci said. “First and foremost because Sinisa is a friend.
“Football-wise, we’d seen the team win only four times in the calendar year, so it was difficult. If things aren’t working, you need to intervene regardless of the personal relationship you have. It was a very painful decision. I was disappointed some people took the moral high ground, not knowing the relationship I had with Sinisa.”
It left a city torn and, tragically, not long thereafter in mourning after the death of Mihajlovic in December.
Moving on has not been easy for anyone connected with the Serbian, including former employers Bologna, and gaining acceptance among the club’s fans has been gradual for Motta. Support from Saputo has nevertheless been unwavering. “As a fan, I’m disappointed too,” he said in the autumn. “But looking at the material available to the coach, I’m confident the season will end well… I’m sure we’ll see a different team after the World Cup break.”
The turnaround actually began sooner than expected, with a 2-0 home win over Lecce at the end of October.
Since then, Bologna’s record has been the third-best in the league and they’ve leapt from 17th to seventh, a run made even more remarkable by the prolonged injury absence of Marko Arnautovic up front. Sunday’s win over Inter, returning to the ground where they threw the Scudetto away in a 2-1 defeat late last April, was the high point of the season so far.
According to StatsBomb’s data, Bologna lead Serie A in counter-pressure regains since Motta’s appointment and the way Nicolas Dominguez harried Inter centre-back Danilo D’Ambrosio proved crucial to the late winner scored by Riccardo Orsolini — a player reborn under his management.
Eclectic line-ups with wingers as centre-backs and midfielders as strikers have been true to Motta’s story as a coach. In 2018-19, his first post-retirement role with Paris Saint-Germain Under-19s ended with the team’s No 9 and No 10 as the full-backs.
Positions are less important to him than roles and a player’s function within a system that has changed from the back three Mihajlovic used, upping the team’s number of passes and share of possession on the one hand and disrupting opponents without the ball on the other.
Arnautovic’s period on the sidelines with a variety of issues has been mitigated too by goals from corners. Only runaway league leaders Napoli have scored more of them in Serie A.
Asked if he is thinking about finishing in the European places, Motta deflected and said: “I’m thinking about enjoying this win and the next game.” Qualification for the Europa Conference League is now in sight, though — only six points in the distance with 14 games to go and fans are beginning to wonder if it’s different this year.
Saputo brought in Giovanni Sartori, the recruitment mastermind behind the recent successes of Chievo and Atalanta, as the club’s new sporting director in the summer. He isn’t the first blue-chip talent identifier to work under the current ownership, as Walter Sabatini and Pantaleo Corvino both had spells at Bologna.
It remains to be seen if Sartori can emulate what he did in helping Atalanta make the Champions League three years running, but for now, this Bologna team gives off the same optimistic sentiment for the year to come as Dalla does in L’Anno Che Verra.
“E come sono contento/di essere qui in questo momento.” — And how happy am I, to be here right now.
Bologna and Motta are living in the moment.[/article]
Leaving for a side with 3 fewer points than Plymouth and winless in the last 8 league matches (4 draws 4 defeats).
Swansea have a knack for spotting managerial talents - Russell Martin, Steve Cooper, Graham Potter in recent seasons.
Looks like a good career progression.
[article]His arrival sees Williams return to SA1 having previously been a leading member of Russell Martin’s coaching staff during the 2021-22 season, proving a popular and respected figure among the first-team squad.
Renowned for producing sides with an exciting and progressive possession-based approach, Williams won numerous plaudits for the outstanding football played by his record-breaking Notts County side.
The 2022-23 campaign saw them rack up 107 points, scoring a league record 117 goals while conceding just 42 producing another league record goal difference, and setting a new club record of 25 league games unbeaten.
They also won 32 of their 46 league games, yet another club record, before they were promoted via the play-offs courtesy of victory over Chesterfield on penalties after twice coming from behind.
This season they are sitting fifth in the League Two table after impressively making the step up to the EFL with their eye-catching style of play, and they are currently the top scorers in the top four divisions with 55 goals in 26 games.
Sporting director Paul Watson said of Williams, “We know Luke can coach the style of play we want, in part because he was an integral part of delivering it here in training sessions when he was an assistant. Luke’s ability is also backed by the data and results. He is a great fit for Swansea City and our ambitions.”
Williams’ own playing career saw him have stints in non-league and in the Norwich City academy, before a knee injury curtailed his on-field ambitions.
He quickly moved into coaching, working at Leyton Orient and West Ham United, before becoming a coach in the FA Skills programme.
From there Williams joined Brighton & Hove Albion, becoming manager of their under-21 and reserve sides.
He became assistant manager at Swindon in 2013 and helped them reach the League One play-off final in 2015, where they lost to Preston North End.
Williams then had a successful 14 months at the helm of the Robins before becoming coach of Bristol City Under-23s, where his work in player development was praised by those in the senior set-up.
He was an assistant at MK Dons before his move to Swansea and his successful time with Notts County.[/article]
