Quote Originally Posted by Harry Paget Flashman View Post
I see Henry and Fabregas are shareholders in the club.

Henry did his coaching badges with the FAW, wonder if Roberts made a good impression on him and thats how he got the gig.
I did my old C and B badges with FAW back in 1999-2000. Osian Roberts was on the scene then and I think he was running the North Wales branch. Roberts came in to show some basic drills to give us ideas. He is a classic North Walian though. No “Big I Am”, just a humble fella who loves his job and cracks on with it. Top man. Always takes technical questions from anyone and approachable. Huge respect from me.

Mike Rigg was the FA Technical Director at the time that kicked it all off, and I think he later went to Man City as he was so highly rated for his work.

Dean Saunders, Neville Southall, Paul Bodin, and Mark Hughes were on the B badge programme at the time I was doing my C badge. The only pro on my C licence was Colin Pascoe - he was a good laugh.

The FAW have also put through Chris Wilder, Mikel Arteta, Thierry Henry, Marcel Desailly, Sol Campbell, Ryan Giggs, Roberto Martinez, David Ginola, Craig Bellamy, Les Ferdinand, Tim Sherwood, Jens Lehmann, Tim Cahill, Garry Monk, Simon Grayson and Chris Coleman. It’s a hell of a list.

It may have changed, but part of the reason for being so popular is that the FAW, as well as the Scottish, fell under the UEFA umbrella programme. England FA did not want to do that. England FA programme was out of date, but FAW was cutting edge and modern, implementing all the latest ideas. Rigg and Roberts had the right mindset. I recently did some badges under England FA two years ago (although I have now quit community coaching at weekends in both football abd rugby) and it is now much better than it used to be, and very very technical. But equally the England FA programme is “stiff” and “cold”, whereas the FAW programme is very friendly and collegiate, and more team-based activities. So the style of delivery is said to still be a little different.