Q&A: Alistair Heath, Professional Football Coach

After using his Football Studies course at the University of Derby as an opportunity to gain practical experience during his teenage years, Alistair Heath cut his teeth in non-league football, coaching at Northern Premier League side Bromsgrove Rovers before becoming reserve team manager at Matlock Town.

This led to him ultimately securing an academy role at West Bromwich Albion, before going on to join Leicester City's set-up and working behind the scenes during the club's historic 2015/16 Premier League title win. 

Since then, Alistair has made a name for himself coaching in a variety of far-flung locations, gaining bags of experience in Asian countries like Thailand, Cambodia and South Korea. For our Career Pathways series, we caught up with the experienced coach to find out about his journey so far and the key moments that shaped his philosophy and approach on the training ground.

How important is youth development to the way that you view the game?

"My mindset from day one was to lead a team, so if I could've skipped youth development and gone straight into first team management, I would have. My attributes and my personality were all about winning games of football.

Having said that, I took a lot of joy and happiness from developing players and seeing young players develop both as players and as people. When they became better people, that was the most important thing."

Who were some of the most impressive young players you worked with earlier in your career?

"Jake Evans, who is now part of the senior team set-up at Leicester City, would be one. I met him when he was under-10 or 11s, and I'm not too sure whether it was borderline Leicester were gonna keep him or not, but he certainly wasn't the star he is now.

I coached him in the Under-14s, and I saw a personality in him that matched what a footballer needs to be. Now, he's made a couple of first-team appearances, and I would've thought he'd be playing regularly in the Championship next season.

Meeting him, my opinion is that good footballers have a certain aura, a certain personality and body language, and I recognised that, it was just about him growing into that more."

You were at Leicester City during Claudio Ranieri's historic title-winning season. What was the atmosphere like around the club during that time?

"I think I'd been at the club a year when the good times started to happen. I was very lucky: Craig Shakespeare, who unfortunately is no longer with us, gave me a lot of time and a lot of mentoring.

I started chatting to him while he was the assistant, and knocked on his door again when he was managing. The person that he was is rare in football, the humbleness to him was by far the best I've seen in a football person.

He took me aside and mentored me for a period of time, and I was really fortunate to have that input from him. I was part of a club that went through a really good period in football, and you learn a lot from it."

 What were the main things you learned from Shakespeare's methods on the training ground?

"The manner of his coaching. He didn't make it too complicated, he got to the point. The way he delivered his messages, his tone, and the way he talked was just simple.

But [he also included] really good detail, and again, he's a good person, so he comes across that person on the training pitch as well.

Watching his sessions, they were detailed, simple, and effective. The manner he came across is difficult to replicate, but I've always tried to be that person on the training pitch."

That role at Leicester allowed your career to go off in an unconventional direction as you began coaching Thailand's U17-23 international team. Can you tell me about how that opportunity came about?

"I'd been back from coaching in South Korea for around 10 months, I was a PE teacher in a primary school at the time, and the role came up at Leicester. From then on, it was six to seven years of working with the Thais and with the academy.

I was very fortunate to be able to go out to Thailand for pre-season training, matches, PR events, press conferences, meeting different people in the game.

The life experience you take from that… life is about experiences to develop as a person, so to be able to go to Bangkok and other areas in Thailand to play against different opposition, meet other coaches, and then back in England run it like a normal team, four or five days training a week, a game, and running as professionally as you can, producing these players from Thailand who did go on to play Premier League football in Thailand, one or two went on to play in Europe, at OH Leuven in Belgium… it was a very unique opportunity to improve as a coach."

What most surprised you about Thai football culture?

"You certainly have to adapt your coaching style and your mannerisms. A lot of Asian culture is a bit reserved, so whilst we might go balling and shouting and screaming, the usual methods you're used to in English football might not work over there.

Very quickly, you have to adapt to coaching players from Asia, and it's great because you're adding another skillset. You're learning to coach in different ways, with different methods, and you're doing it on international grass as well.

I also saw it as a great opportunity to learn the language, and the great thing is I didn't have to sit in a classroom, which I don't particularly favour. You're listening to the players speaking, picking things up, and I wasn't fluent, but I knew a bit to get by, so you're improving yourself and your skill set.

You also adapt your coaching style: a lot more demonstrations, shorter sentences, key words, things that you don't really have to think about when you're coaching players who speak the same language. It's a great test."

You also coached in Cambodia, as head coach of Angkor Tiger. Could you tell me about your time there?

"I suppose coaching in Thailand prepared me for that somewhat, but I wasn't fully prepared for the nature of what was to come in Cambodia. But what a great experience; there are no negatives looking at it now, even if I thought there were at the time.

Certainly challenges, but mostly positives, both from a football sense and developing as a person. I became a head coach, I'm taking charge of this team, not the highest budget team in the league, and I had to learn my trade.

I'll hold my hands up, I probably went in there thinking I knew everything when the reality was I knew very little. My first press conference with the club, I said openly that I wanted to win the league, because I did.

My ambitions are huge; I want to win every game of football, and I want to challenge for everything. I probably didn't say it in the right way, and it was certainly too early.

The main point I take away from that time is that you don't know as much as you think you do. I loved the squad that I worked with, players from Cambodia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Spain, but it was a challenge, they needed improving, certainly the local players.

It was a chance to bring in academy players - I'm massive on giving young players a chance, if I see ability I want to improve it. The academy structure was heavily relied on because of the lack of funds, which meant digging deeper. I was also able to adapt the game model strategy I want to use."

How did you change your game model during that time?

"I'm very much an attack-minded, 'let's go for it' person, I don't hold back and my model in Cambodia was 'we're gonna press, we're gonna be wide and expansive, full-backs high, wide players high, and let's take the game to the opposition'.

I believe I still have those core traits of wanting to win, to be aggressive and expansive, but you have to learn and be able to introduce things like inverted full-backs playing in the centre of the park, condensing that middle area even more… for me, I would stick to my core principles of attacking, of being expansive, of keeping the ball moving as much as I can, but also show adaptability and flexibility… stick to your core principles but be flexible in how you do it.

That's the biggest thing I've taken from Cambodia."

You recently spent a period of time out of the game. What have you been reflecting on during that time?

"I had a couple of weeks in Lithuania, I went over and joined a team there in February, but it didn't work.

Even in that short period of time, the positives from that were going to a new country I hadn't been to before, and working with new players.

In the time I've been out of football, I've watched a huge number of matches live, from the Premier League down to League One, League Two, the National League, the Northern Premier League… but for me, the lessons I've learned have been about developing as a person, developing character.

You have to become a very, very humble person to appreciate that working in football is a privilege and an honour, and you shouldn't take that for granted. I have done, and I'm sure many people have, but there's another side to life.

I've encountered lots of challenges being out of football, but this period has probably been the most beneficial time I've had: a lot of learning about me as a person, developing more humility.

It's been a chance to reset, develop new skills — for example, I've taken on a Master's degree in performance football coaching, and one or two other qualifications. I would like to think I'll go into my next role in football as an all-around better human being."

What are the next steps for your career?

"I'm actively trying to work on my next role, I've had discussions with a few people but it hasn't felt quite right. I would say that I'm now ready to go back in, having had that development, and I have a lot to offer. I also have a lot to offer young coaches coming through.

I make no secret of the fact that I've had a lot of good help since I started in football, and I think it's really important that while I push my career and become the best coach I can be, giving support and assistance to young coaches is really important too.

I appreciate how difficult breaking into football and building your career can be. If I can help one person, that'd be fantastic."

Finally, what advice would you give to young people hoping to build their coaching skills and ultimately land a professional coaching job in the game?

"Stick to the plan of where you want to go in that career, and go with that plan. There are going to be challenges along the way that can easily put you off going in that direction, and you will face periods of uncertainty, but for me, you need to stick to what you want to do and embrace the challenges that come, because they're what make you as a coach and a person.

Go with it, and enjoy it. I possibly wouldn't have planned for my career to go in the direction it's gone, and looking back there have been sacrifices and risks, but I'm glad I've been in those positions. It keeps you on edge, it makes life different and interesting."