Back in the 1980s, Alan Kelly senior was Neville Southall’s goalkeeper coach at Everton, now his son Alan Kelly junior puts Jordan Pickford through his paces on a daily basis.
Southall was widely-regarded as the best player in the world in his position during his time with the Blues but while some moments were tougher than others – he got more than his fair share of stick after his half-time sit-down gesture at Goodison Park – Kelly acknowledges that as England number one, Everton’s current keeper is subject to a brighter glare from the spotlight than anyone else.
After helping Gareth Southgate’s side to back-to-back victories in their opening European Championship qualifiers (2-1 v Italy in Naples and then 2-0 against Ukraine at Wembley), taking his international caps tally to 52, Pickford will now return to Finch Farm to prepare for next week’s fixture at home to Tottenham Hotspur.
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And Kelly believes the 29-year-old copes admirably with the demands of his role. He told the ECHO: “I’ve never known anyone deal with as much scrutiny as he does. Over the five years I’ve worked with him, he’s got all of his England caps while with Everton and I’ve seen a transformation from a younger goalkeeper coming into a big club and making his mark, bonding with the fans to England’s number one.
“I’ve seen those stages with him, establishing himself as first choice with Everton and then England and when you’re at the top, the hard work with the training and the preparation has to be of the highest level because when you get to the top, everyone is trying to knock you off that pedestal so it becomes even harder when you acquire that status. I think the way Jordan deals with that and the way in which he operates within our group is fantastic.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re England’s number one or a keeper from the Under-21s, we have the same ethos and work ethic that we’re one and the same.”
Kelly, who is celebrating reaching his 1,000-game milestone in football as first a player and now a coach, joined Everton as goalkeeper coach in 2017/18, Pickford’s first season at the club. And, despite numerous other changes in backroom staff since, he has remained in his position under six different permanent managers: Sam Allardyce (his former promotion-winning team-mate at Preston North End); Marco Silva; Carlo Ancelotti; Rafael Benitez; Frank Lampard and Sean Dyche.
Kelly said: “Hopefully it’s a reflection of what you do, that people like you because it’s not just about what you do on the pitch but what you bring in and around the place as well. It’s good to rub along nicely with people and get along with them but fundamentally I prepare the goalkeepers.
“With David Unsworth I worked with the Under-23s and I really enjoyed that because that’s all about teaching, passing on my experience and walking in their shoes, helping them develop. I just caught up with Joe Hilton who is on the bench for Blackburn Rovers now and I got a lot of pleasure out of helping players like him.
“You’re helping somebody to build their career and maybe acquire skills that they didn’t have before. When you get to first team level it’s holding and maintaining a level, keeping that sharpness and tempo.”
While Kelly gets great satisfaction with helping youngsters, he explains that providing daily programmes for elite goalkeepers like Pickford and Asmir Begovic, who has played over 400 senior matches and won 63 caps for Bosnia and Herzegovina is a rather different challenge. He said: “First and foremost we’ve got a fantastic group. The quality of the group and the way that they apply themselves, not just when they’re doing goalkeeping drills but giving their best to the person that’s in the goal is terrific.
“If you don’t have that then you don’t get to hone those elite, top-level skills required to play at this level. Everything is taken back from the game so I create scenarios that happen in the game on the training pitch, whether that’s something that’s happened in the previous match that we can improve or talk about to discuss.
“We look ahead to forthcoming fixtures so we analyse what are their strengths and weaknesses when in and out of possession. So it looks like a game to keep them ready for the Premier League and it’s a circle that keeps going.”
Kelly added: “We leave no stone unturned. But rather than saying, ‘you should do this’, my coaching style is to ask him: ‘What do you think?’
“If I’m giving them my point of view, what are they thinking looking back at me or when they put themselves back in that situation or looking forward to a potential situation and asking themselves why are they doing something. It’s quite open and I take the view of, ‘let’s get into it’, in terms of refreshing honesty.
“I’ve learned from doing this for almost two decades now is that you have to have buy-in from both elements of the relationship. When that comes together, it’s a good unit and that’s what we’ve got now, one of the best units during the time I’ve been here.”
At 54, Kelly is now a generation older than the players he coaches but while he’s seen plenty of changes during his time in football, he remains as enthusiastic as ever and admits he finds it funny when some of the young stars he works alongside don’t recognise the pedigree of their older mentors.
He said: “When I finished at Blackburn I’d naturally been moving towards the coaching side of the game as I used to take the apprentices for sessions but my first official coaching position was with the Republic of Ireland senior team under Steve Staunton. I remember getting a call just after Christmas in 2005 asking me if I’d like to become the goalkeeping coach of the Republic of Ireland national team and I said: ‘Oh yeah, that will be grand’, and I ended up staying for nearly 100 games and working with the likes of Giovanni Trapattoni.
“It’s funny when you look back how I started being an apprentice electrician, then working with academies before going straight into the elite of international football, but you’ve got to think on your feet.”
Kelly added: “Some of my highlights include working for people like Carlo Ancelotti and Giovanni Trapattoni for five years – legends of the game. I remember one of the Ireland squad asked Trapattoni’s assistant Marco Tardelli: ‘So did you play?’
“He’s a great bloke and he just modestly replied: ‘Yes, I was an attacking midfielder and I scored one or two important goals’. I told the lad: ‘You know that important goal – World Cup final’ and you could see the blood drain out of his face!
“It’s totally different game now. It was like an amateur sport in many ways back in the 1980s compared to what it’s like now.
“The times I’ve had, first playing and then going into coaching, I wouldn’t change it for the world and there are some things that money can’t buy.”
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