15 Aug 2016
Doha, 15 August 2016. Steve McClaren was left speechless after a visit to Aspire Academy. The former England manager who is a firm believer in youth development, waxed lyrical about Aspire academy’s mission and goals and drew similarities with the work England football is undertaking during his tour of the world renowned leading sports academy for young athletes that is in Doha, Qatar.
McClaren described the integrated educational program of sports development as utterly impressive, “It’s stunning what you have going on at Aspire and l am sure you can tell from the many Wows you heard from me as we went round. The ethos of developing young talent is a solid foundation for the future of any nation serious with its sport. About seven or so years ago, England set in motion a similar program to develop and nurture young footballers and Sam Allardyce will be working with some of these talented products and l am confident he will get the best out of them and l wish the same for Qatar looking ahead to its hosting of 2022 World Cup,” said McClaren.
McClaren believes to manage the English national team remains the greatest job every English football coach or manager would like to do and reckons newly appointed boss, Sam Allardyce will do well in the post. McClaren who had a chequered coaching and managerial career with English clubs among them, Middlesbrough, Manchester United, Derby and Newcastle as well as FC Twente in Netherlands and VfL Wolfsburg in Germany described, managing England as one of highlights of his life in football. “The other one has to be winning the treble with Manchester United in 1998-1999 season when l was assistant to the manager Sir Alex Ferguson," said McClaren.
"So much has been said and written about Sir Alex Ferguson but l can tell this about him - he trusted those he worked with and simply allowed them to do what they did best with the best support you could ever get from him. He created one big family and that is what Manchester United was and it was the best family to be part of,” said McClaren.