RIGHT all you smart alecs out there, can you name the Scottish coach with the following record in 2015?
His team lost only one domestic match in 48 after he took over in 2014, and he tasted defeat just four times from 60 fixtures in 15 months.
He won the Manager of the Year Award for his side’s heroics last season in which they became the “invincibles” for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Managing superbly what became by far the country’s best team, and overcoming serious financial problems, this Scotsman made his side unstoppable and unbeaten, going the entire season – 30 games in all – without defeat and winning 70 per cent of their matches.
This coach was a Celtic youth player who later worked as a fitness coach for Alex McLeish at Rangers. He also has experience on national team coaching having been assistant coach to China and the fitness coach of the England Under-17 team.
His nickname is The Engineer and he is both a university graduate and a UEFA coach licence holder. Readers of The National learned his name the other day but it’s a good bet that very few Scottish football fans know about Frank Nuttall, the only Scotsman to manage a national top-flight championship-winning side in 2015.
Nuttall never made the grade as a player himself but as a coach he had been catching the eye of plenty of managers, including Bobby Williamson who rates him very highly, as does McLeish.
There’s the clue – Williamson and McLeish have of late been plying their trade in Africa and it was on that continent with Gor Mahia FC of Kenya that Nuttall made invincibility a reality.
He’s a man of principle too. Asked to take a 50 per cent pay cut when Gor Mahia got into serious cash problems, Nuttall said he couldn’t ask his players to do that and walked away from the club.
McLeish snapped him up for Zamalek in Egypt, one of the two big Cairo clubs. Sadly, the Zamalek president is a bit of a nutcase and emptied out both Nuttall and McLeish at the weekend.
Now here’s the interesting bit: in December, Nuttall gave an interview to the online publication Football Times in which he admitted that the chance to coach or manage in his native Scotland would be very tempting.
In that interview he said: “I work mainly on communication, man management, planning and maintaining focus, as well as the usual aspects of variation of tactical approach for each game, developing and maintaining fitness.
“An emphasis on a disciplined, focused, calm and thoughtful approach with a high-level of flexibility in the man management of players and staff has been my approach, along with the other aspects such as attention to player recruitment, fitness and injury prevention. I also have players who are mentally very tough with a massive desire to give their best to succeed.”
If your club is looking for a decent coach right now, why not show them a copy of this very column?
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