Owen Coyle laces boots

Burnley’s reserves played the Liverpool reserves recently losing 1-0 but that wasn’t the highlight of the game for me.

Owen Coyle the Burnley manager dorned the No.9 jersey for the reserves, yes.

He is 43 years old and still knows where he kept his playing boots. These days there’s so much visuals of managers barking out orders from the sidelines there’s just something nice seeing that a coach still knows how to play the game he coaches.

Reminds me of Gianluca Vialli who became player-manager of Chelsea after Ruud Gullit was fired in 1998. I was always excited to see him come in as a substitute for his team and change the game. During his stay at Chelsea, Vialli scored 40 goals in 83 appearances and went on to become one of the club’s most successful managers.

Successfully coaching a bunch of people is one thing but slugging it out with them on the front lines is just pure class, a trait Mr. Coyle has shown he has.