Huddlestone reveals coaching influence
Tom Huddlestone has revealed current Fulham boss Marco Silva was a major influence in his decision to move into coaching.
The Manchester United Academy player coach joined the Reds in the summer and has combined turning out for the Under-21s at times with working with the youngsters on a daily basis at Carrington.
The ex-England international picked up inspiration from Silva while the Portuguese manager was at the Hull City helm, and credits him for making his mind up to move in that direction.
With the first team due to take on Fulham in the final Premier League fixture before the World Cup break, it was interesting to hear Huddlestone's comments in a recent Inside United interview.
“There have been a few [main influences]," he said as part of an interview for the official club magazine. "I think, as a person in general, you pick up different traits from people you work with or are managed by. I’ve worked with a range of good managers.
"I think one that really clicked my coaching ideas into a process was Marco Silva. I only had him for five or six months at Hull but I thought about the detail he went into around the training pitch, the analysis videos before and after every training session and definitely the matches. Maybe that coincided with my age at the time but I thought he sparked an excitement from a coach’s standpoint in me.”
The move to United enables Huddlestone to continue playing the game, as was the case with Paul McShane, when he performed a similar role in 2021/22.
"I think with the training aspect, you still get that competitiveness that you crave daily, from the training side of it," Tom admitted. "It has been interesting and sort of almost being apologetic to coaches in the past, where you don’t understand, as a player, all the details that go into the planning of sessions and why you are doing certain sessions. The setting up of equipment before training and clearing it away afterwards.
"From a player’s perspective, you come in an hour and a half or two hours later than the coaches, you do your training and everything is set up ready for you, and then you go home. So I think, even from playing obviously last season, you do probably take that for granted, more so when you realise what goes on with training and every single session daily."
The midfielder started thinking about a coaching career some time ago but does not feel his style will necessarily fit the same way he plays the game: a cultured long-range passer.
“Probably in my late 20s, I had an interest," he said. "One of the summers, I did my coaching badges. When I was away from it, it wasn’t something that I necessarily thought about it, but when I was doing the coaching sessions, I loved it.
“Getting my ideas across and seeing them implemented in training sessions is something I looked to do and I thought about doing sort of the second chapter in my career. To be honest, I have enjoyed doing a few media bits as well so, down the line, coaching and media is something I am looking forward to doing.
“Ideally I think, if you see a lot of coaches, a lot of them go away from the style of play they had as well. I think you’ve got to find a balance. There are always going to be three or four different ways of playing and getting the best result, whether that’s based on the personnel you have available to you or your system. I wouldn’t like to pigeon-hole a team I coach or manage down the line into one set style of play. I think it can be very varied.”