Coaching career started as a college team coach

Kenny Jackett, a typical English old man, is the current head coach of Wolves. This man who speaks with a Welsh accent has all the characteristics of a traditional English old man - stubborn, fond of drinking, and crooked teeth.

After taking office in 2013, it took Kenny Jackett only one year to bring the Wolves, who were still in the English League One and had an incomplete lineup, to the stage of the English Championship. This old man with not much hair is a traditional manager. Before Fosun Group took over, he was involved in all aspects of the team's management.

The addition of U23 newcomer Wei Le, in addition to the green light from Guo Guangchang, the current chairman of Wolves, under the matchmaking of Gao Hongbo, of course, also came from Jackett's recognition.

"You are younger than many players, this is your advantage." Jackett said to the fledgling Wei Le, "At my age, I can force everyone to listen to me, which can achieve the effect, but if you can convince everyone to listen to you, it will be the best."

Wei Le was taught. During this period, he not only served as the assistant coach of the U21 team and played with the U21 team, but also took on some of the work of the first team.

In Jacket's current lineup, the players are generally young. For example, Cody, a young player who was still playing as a defensive midfielder at the time, was only 22 years old when Wei Le arrived. The two central defenders, Bass and Randall, were also in their twenties. Jacket was impressed by Wei Le's excellent eloquence and cheerful personality, and hoped that he would serve as the team's "liaison".

Wei Le certainly lived up to his expectations and soon became friends with players who were a few years older than him. With Jacket's permission, Wei Le began to "sell" the game in the locker room. The young guys found that the FIFA16 level of the newcomers in their coaching team was actually better than that of the players, and they all sent "challenges" during their free time during training.

Jacket didn't understand, but was greatly shocked.

The game diluted a lot of the pressure of recent frequent defeats. He is not an old antique or a diehard who thinks that games are a scourge and must not be touched at all. But after all, he is 54 years old, and he is obviously not interested in this new thing.

But seeing that Emiliano Martinez, the young goalkeeper who had been frowning and looking for a loan at Arsenal, but still not very outstanding in Wolves, finally began to grin, Jacket felt that the atmosphere of the team was slowly recovering.

In this short period of time, Wei Le gradually discovered the correct way to open his system. When he played the football manager game before, he was shocked by the detailed database in it. Since the era of championship football manager, SI has spent a lot of money and more than ten years to spread a network of evaluation systems around the world, starting from England.

In the simulated game of the game, the physical fitness of players can be quantitatively evaluated.

What if this advantage is used in your own work?

You know, when facing dozens of players in a team, in addition to the performance in training and games, the coach can't see how many stars each player's ability is worth and what position he is good at playing like in the game. Judging a player's physical condition in the game can only be guessed.

It is even more difficult to take care of the emotions and demands of the players. After all, most of the time, the players will hide the situation in their hearts and will not take the initiative to speak out. Of course, they will not find a superior who is more than 30 years older than themselves and often scolds them to confide in.

When Wei Le came, everything changed.

In 2016, data analysis had just emerged. In the prosperity of the Internet era, some people realized foreseeably, or belatedly, that perhaps huge data could also be used in competitive sports such as football.

More and more detailed game data gradually appeared in TV broadcasts, such as ball possession rate, pass success rate, running distance, etc. Some websites and software that specialize in providing data analysis for teams have just begun to emerge. But in the Wolves, which are ranked low in the English Championship, it is clear that the wind from the "data age" has not blown yet.

And Wei Le's system is a more detailed and accurate data provider than any website in the world that provides football data. After accidentally handing Jackett a team game report, Jackett praised his ability to grasp the precise and detailed details of the game.

In Jacket's opinion, with such observation ability without any help, Wei Le has a bright future. So, in May, Wei Le was directly transferred to the first team to participate in the work, and he gradually had his own position in the coaching staff.

Although Wei Le's career is flourishing, the Wolves' season has to end with a sad ending.No.

14th place, this is the final answer sheet handed in by Wolves in the English Championship. After the draws with Nottingham Forest and Rotherham, although Sheffield Wednesday won three points in the last round at home and had already secured a place in the promotion play-offs, it was still surpassed by Leeds United by one point, and the ranking was finally fixed at 14th place.

The English Championship is different from the Premier League. There are 24 participating teams. Although the 14th place result is not too bad, it is still far from the relegation zone, but it is also in the lower half of the league ranking. You know, last season, Wolves ranked seventh in the league and almost broke into the promotion play-offs!

After acquiring Wolves, Fosun Group, which shouted the slogan of "three-year promotion", may have been a little tired of Kenny Jackett, the upgrade hero who had to intervene in everything, or felt that he had run out of ideas and could no longer support the next upgrade work. In short, Kenny Jackett received a notice from the board of directors after the Sheffield Wednesday game.

The head coach who brought Wolves back from League One to the Championship finally left Molineux where he had played for three years.

Kenny Jackett seemed very calm, as if he had known the result from the beginning. After the season ended and the team was disbanded, the loaned players returned to their parent team, and Molineux was empty.

Walking on the concrete stands, Kenny Jackett looked at the rows of seats, found the one closest to the coaching seat, pulled it open and sat down. And next to him, Wei Le, who was called by him to walk around the stadium with him again, sat next to him.

"Some people come and some people leave, this is normal." Jackett said with a smile, his face full of relief, "Last season we didn't have much transfer fee, we couldn't buy many people, and we had to sell a lot."

Wei Le knew that he was talking about Afobe, the young striker introduced by the team in the summer of 2015. The striker from the Democratic Republic of Congo scored 10 goals in 27 games. In the dilemma of "no striker" throughout the season, he took up the offensive banner in the first half of the season.

However, in order to make up for the financial gap left by the previous chairman Morgan when he was running the team, Afobe, a talented player trained by Arsenal's youth training, eventually flew to Bournemouth for 13.3 million euros.

"We could have kept him." Jacket was a little regretful. Wolves' offense is a problem this season. Compared with the 14-15 season, Wolves scored nearly 20 fewer goals in the 15-16 season.

Wei Le was a little confused about why Jacket called him. He was not a popular person in the coaching staff, and Jacket had his own more familiar coaching team. But watching Jacket chattering, Wei Le did not interrupt him.

Perhaps at the time of parting, Jacket needed someone he was not so familiar with to talk to, and not show his vulnerable side to his team.

"Do you really want to ask me why I called you?" Jacket looked at the young man in front of him and asked with a smile.

"Ah, this." Wei Le smiled embarrassedly.

"Your face is full of doubts, anyone can see it." Jackett muttered, he turned his head and looked at the green field in front of him.

Jackett suddenly turned his head and stared straight into Wei Le's eyes, "This is an opportunity, Wei. Your opportunity."

"You will definitely become an outstanding head coach. I can see this from every report you handed me. But how difficult it is to become a head coach of an English team! You may have to start from a lower-level league. This may be safe, but it will bury your talent."

"You need to deal with better players, and the Championship is a good stage."

Wei Le was shocked. He already knew what Jackett was talking about. He didn't expect that this old English man who had only met for a few months would have such a high evaluation of himself. He had thought about where his future career plan would go, but he didn't expect, or dared not to think, that he would become a head coach so soon.

"I'm not ready yet."

"I'm just saying it!" Kenny Jackett's eyes widened, his eyes staring at Wei Le, "It's just saying it, you're not ready. Now we're two grown men chatting, and you don't even have the motivation to say it."

"Then when will you be ready? How long will it take? A year? Five years? Ten years? You don't even have the courage to do it now, what qualifications do you have to guarantee that you will still have the motivation after such a long time!"

"You suggested to me to let Coady play as a central defender. I listened to you skeptically and arranged him to play, and look how well he is doing now. You advised me to put the goalkeeper Martinez from Arsenal in the starting lineup, and I listened to you and did what you said, and we lost three goals in the last six rounds!"Kenny Jackett's tone softened, "This shows that you know more about this team than I do."

Wei Le wanted to refute something, but was stopped by Jackett with a gesture.

"You Chinese people just like to be humble. Humility is good, but humility alone is not enough." Jackett shook his head and stood up, "I'm just suggesting that you make your own decisions. A pile of resumes of your competitor is on the table of the Chinese businessman. You are also Chinese, so you can use your own language to convince him to put your name on the top of the pile of papers. "

"If you have made up your mind, I will write you a letter of recommendation. If you don't think well, forget it."

Jackett patted the dust on his butt and walked into the fan tunnel. Wei Le was still sitting there, his brows were furrowed, and he didn't even have time to say goodbye to Jackett. But Kenny Jackett didn't care about this. Wei Le would not forget the words that the old English man threw down before the footsteps disappeared in the depths of the tunnel.

"If you really want it, then go for it. "