Sacked Hibs boss opens up on 'political' job search after year out of work: 'It's a battle out there.'
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Sacked Hibs boss Lee Johnson has spoken about the difficulties of getting back into the game after spending over a year out of work. And the Englishman, who identifies the crippling cost of coaching courses as a barrier to homegrown talent emerging, says he’s even considering going abroad to further his career.
Binned by Hibs early last season with the team sitting bottom of the Scottish Premiership, Johnson has been out of work since being axed by Fleetwood Town just four months later. Describing coaching as an addiction, the former Hearts midfielder said he’d found it tough to force his way back into a game he still loves.
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Hide AdSpeaking on The Sports Agents podcast, Johnson admitted: “It's difficult for me at the moment, because I want to be in and I'm not in. And, you know, I feel like I've had a lot of successes in my career. At the same time, I see sometimes people getting jobs ahead of me.
“It’s tough. I think it’s getting tougher as well. There's that old adage, isn't there? Great game, bad industry. And I understand why people say that. You know, it becomes very political and it's tough. It's a battle out there.
“If it's in your blood, and that coaching and the drug of winning and developing and interacting with fans and building something. And it's very difficult.”
Insisting he doesn’t begrudge seeing fresh-faced young coaches leaping at the opportunities falling to them, Johnson said: “I've been in that scenario, so I definitely don't want to be one of those bitter managers that’s against anybody new getting an opportunity. I was the youngest manager in the Football League when I went in at Oldham and then, you know, head hunted twice, very quickly, both at Barnsley and Bristol City. So, I've been on that journey as well.”
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Hide AdOne obstacle Johnson does see for homegrown coaches is the ability to pay for all the qualifications needed to climb the ladder, saying: “To get to your Pro License with case studies and travel and bits, it's probably going to cost you something in the region of £50,000 to £75,000. You're paying for that yourself.
“I’ve got a friend that's got every single qualification – Youth Award all the way through to Pro License – it cost him over £100,000. And you know, he wouldn't get a sniff.
“What I would like to see personally with young British coaches is more opportunities abroad. I think we’ve got to be braver to go abroad as well. If you look at the reputation of the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Germans, at this moment in time, it's a lot better than English coaches.”
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Hide Ad“Do I as a coach now move to maybe the German FA or the Spanish FA to look at something different, to learn something different? Or do I stick within the system to try and develop and trust it?”
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