Our technical director Kevin Blackwell told the British newspaper the Daily Mail about working at Lechia and his experiences working in England, particularly with legendary Sheffield United coach Neil Warnock.
We invite you to a brief summary of Kevin’s extensive career memories and his thoughts on working with Lechia’s players.
About Poland and Gdansk:
“Working in Poland so far has been a great experience. When I came to Lechia, I didn’t know what to expect, I thought it would be cold and damp. Nothing like that – Gdańsk is beautiful and the stadium built for Euro 2012 is stunning. And there is a beach right next door.”
About Lechia:
“Last season we were promoted to the Ekstraklasa. The club’s policy is based on betting on young footballers and their development, it reminds me a bit of the strategy of the English club Brighton.”
About his role:
“As technical director, I mainly support coaches in the areas of using science in the field of sport and medicine to improve players’ performance. I have been to clubs in Italy and Brazil to observe and learn first-hand how different teams develop these areas. I share my knowledge and experience here in Gdansk.”
About Lechia’s staffing potential:
“We have young footballers from all over the world: Sweden, Colombia, Romania, Ukraine. All of them around 20 years old. Camillo Mena is a dynamic winger, he reminds me of Leroy Sane. Ivan Zhelizko is a defensive midfielder, with a style and physique reminiscent of Nemanja Matić. Clubs from the MLS are interested in him.’”
About working at Sheffield United as Neil Warnock’s assistant:
“It was a very emotional time for me. When we went far in the FA Cup (Sheffield advanced to the semi-finals in 2003 – ed.) my mother had just died and the people at the club became my family, so to speak. I will never forget that.’”
About working with young footballers in England:
“As a coach I had a young defender on the team: Kyle Walker. His athletic ability was incredible, even when he made a mistake he was quick enough to fix it and get out of trouble defensively. I still remember training together with him and Harry Maguire”.
“When Kyle signed his new contract I told him not to buy a new car to come to training with it. He replied that he wasn’t going to buy a car, he was going to help his mum pay off her house. I joked that he should pay mine off too.”
About the barage match for promotion to the Premier League: Leeds Watford in 2006:
“It was amazing – to go out to Wembley and see 60,000 Leeds fans in the stands. Unfortunately – we didn’t take our chances at the start of the game and we lost. It was a difficult time for Leeds. After relegation from the Premier League, all the Porsches left the club car park. The new players arrived in Ford Mondeos.”
About Neil Warnock, with whom Kevin worked as an assistant:
“Neil is a great man and coach, he was the first one to believe in me and said I should work as a coach.”
“When I became his assistant at Crystal Palace in 2016 Neil said: this is my last job. He didn’t keep his word. After that we worked together at four more different clubs.’”
You can read the entire article here: dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13971405/Kevin-Blackwell-Leeds-Sheffield-United-Neil-Warnock-Poland.html
