Graphic: Steve McClaren's guide to getting the best out of a training session

The theme for the day is possession. Which, for a man who lost his job as England misplaced their passport to the European Championship finals, seems odd, especially because his team’s inability to keep hold of the ball was seen as their biggest crime.

It has become de rigueur since the defeat by Croatia at Wembley Stadium in November to blame Steve McClaren, the former England head coach, for the failings in the national game, to bash him over the head with an umbrella and denounce BBC Radio 5 Live for asking him on to the airwaves for Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland next month.

As he “mikes up” for a training session with a group of young Leicester City players on the sun-drenched Walkers Stadium pitch last week, however, it becomes clear that this is where McClaren is in his element. Cagey when we meet to chat beforehand, he is enlivened as he addresses the members of the Professional Football Coaches Association (PFCA) in the stands, who are there to watch and learn as he puts the academy players through their paces.

“The theme for today is possession,” Sir Alex Ferguson’s former assistant says. “When I first went to Manchester United, it immediately became clear that this was the cornerstone of every session, every day. However simple the exercise, it was all about being comfortable in possession and honing technique.

“It’s about having the balls to want the ball, firstly, asking yourself whether you have the courage not to hide. Then, do you have the technique to keep the ball? And thirdly to deal with it so that your team progresses in possession. This session is about encouraging these players to play the ball across the back and to move the play up through to the final third. You can do this with nine-year-olds, you can do it at international level.”

The next 90 minutes fly by, attention never wandering, as McClaren takes the 20 players through five drills in which a ball is never out of their sight. The assembled coaches basking in the sunshine – including Stuart Gray, the Northampton Town manager, and John Duncan, previously with Chesterfield – may be accustomed to the mechanics of what they see, but, as Dave Richardson, the head of the PFCA, says, it endorses best practice and allows them to pick up subtle nuances from a master technician’s delivery. For a novice gaining a preview of the kind of clinic McClaren will be putting on at the Grass Roots Football Live show at the NEC at the end of this month, it seems a privilege.

McClaren, having broken into coaching early with the youth and reserve teams at Oxford United before joining Jim Smith at Derby County, clearly retains a passion for coach development. “I used to enjoy being one of the students, watching and listening to the coaches, sharing problems and ideas,” the former Middlesbrough manager says. “Now that I’ve developed on to the other side, if you like, I feel I have an obligation to put something back into the game because of my experiences.

“There’s always the question for me of who coaches the coaches. We have to develop our English coaches and if I can lend my experiences and people are interested, I’m pleased to do it, for whatever organisation.

“I’m a big believer in coaching the coaches. There’s a lot of people out there who could give a lot back to the game but are possibly not used enough by the organisations. I’ve been coaching for many years and been very fortunate to have got to a decent level and enjoyed it. I love coaching, love working with players and I’ve missed the day-to-day involvement of club football. I feel a lot stronger for my experiences as an international coach and I feel I’ll be better equipped if and when I get another opportunity. I just enjoy working with players, I don’t care at whatever level.”

McClaren has used his time since leaving his post with England last November to travel abroad, helping to coach coaches at all levels, from Level 1 beginners to experienced professionals. He was impressed by the enthusiasm for coach education in Baltimore. “The Americans’ enthusiasm for coaching is fantastic,” he said. “We can learn from that.”

McClaren speaks so enthusiastically about grassroots football, it poses the question of whether he would be willing to return to the lower divisions for his next post. “I’ve been getting around the grassroots game at all levels,” he says. “But I’ve been fortunate to have worked at the top, with Manchester United and Middlesbrough in the Premier League and with England at international level, so I’ve worked with the best players in the world. I want to get back to that level because I enjoyed that. That’s my aim.

“I’m still ambitious and people have to have that about them, they’d have to have that vision. That’s what I’d want from my next club’s owner. It might come here [in England], it might come abroad.”

In the meantime, McClaren will be working on coaching clinics at the Grass Roots Football Live show at the NEC from May 30 to June 1 before heading to Austria and Switzerland to work for BBC Radio 5 Live at the European Championship finals. “I am looking forward to that,” he says. “It’ll be a double-edged sword, of course. I’m very disappointed not to be there with England, though more disappointed for the players and fans.”

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