Liam Manning is recalling the days when he would coach five nights a week at Ipswich’s academy, take another session on a Saturday morning, turn out for Leiston in the Eastern Counties League in the afternoon and arrive at Ipswich’s training ground at seven the next morning to drive the minibus to a youth game anywhere across East Anglia or London.
“You’d take any players that needed a lift, the equipment – we were the kit men as well – and there will be coaches all around the country that can relate to that,” he says of a time when he worked with under-nines to under-15s. “I remember having a kickabout on the M25 once. It was gridlocked, the road was closed and no one was moving anywhere. I remember doing a few keepie-uppies because we had been sat there for a few hours. They were good times.”
