It has been quite a close season for York City's Lee Nogan. After being released from his contract at the end of the season as the cash-strapped club looked to cut their cloth accordingly, there was a reprieve for the 32-year-old as manager Terry Dolan and his assistant, Adie Shaw were also laid off for the same reason.
Chris Brass was then promoted to the role of player-manager at just 27 and he pulled Nogan back from the dole queue and installed him as his new player coach.
As luck would have it, Nogan had already enrolled on the UEFA 'Fast Track' course at Warwick University and this has dove-tailed nicely with his new role as second in command at Bootham Crescent.
Ian Clarkson caught up with York's new first team coach at Warwick and asked about the reasons behind his decision to take the course, even before his appointment to the club's coaching staff.
He said: "It's a part of education that I wanted to go into. I have been delaying it for a long time as I did my preliminary badge ten years ago! I thought if I don't do it now then it will never get done and it was a good time to fast track my coaching.
"There is a coaching method but everyone has got their own ideas on how to put a session on and the ideas that people are bouncing off each other are excellent. It is just getting into the method of coaching, but I think that everyone has grasped it quite well.
"The course is really intense and with the theory aspect it is like going back to school and that can be difficult if you haven't been in that environment for a few years, but it has been good."
While the course has given Nogan a valuable insight into coaching at an opportune time for himself, he admits that he wouldn't use everything he has seen during the last ten days, but is happy to adopt the 'coaching method' when he reports back for pre-season training at the start of July.
"For me, the course has been brilliant as it gives me ideas for next season. I am going into coaching with an open mind as I have always said I wanted to do it and now the opportunity has arisen due to a bit of luck and with the way that football is at the minute you want to get in and enjoy it.
"The coaches have been good and delivered their sessions well. Probably the hardest factor of the first few days has been the coaching method.
"You see sessions that you wouldn't really put on at your club, they are more for kids teams, but once you get into that mentality you are okay and the longer it has gone on the more you are seeing day to day stuff that would be used at your clubs, which will be fantastic for me next season."
