Crime doesn’t take the summer off. Fortunately however, the crime of Reading not having made new first-team additions has recently been solved. Therefore, investigative attentions can be now focussed on goings-on elsewhere: a new assistant manager.
I have, once more, dusted off the deerstalker hat and retrofitted it for the summer with a drinks holder attached and a straw that sends hydration directly to my mouth, to aid my investigative prowess. Or detract from it, dependent on the drink inserted
into the hat.
Coming under the (mirrored, for sun protection) inspective monocle today is Reading’s new appointment of John Coleman as assistant manager, taking over from Rob Kelly. Who is Coleman then, and what’s he all about? Let’s find out, shall we?
Who is he?
Coleman is a former manager at lower-league level in English football, and the first thing you have to say is that the man has experience pouring out of him.
He most famously managed Accrington Stanley (“who are they?” – for our older readers) for 12 and a half years, which, in football, is a mind-boggling amount of time. Don’t believe me? 12 and a half years ago, Reading had recently appointed Steve Clarke as manager. Yep.
Anyway, getting back on topic, Coleman started life in football with a playing career which could not have been more lower-lower-league journeyman if I had asked ChatGPT to invent it: playing as a prolific striker and notching more than 500 goals in the English non-league for teams such as Southport, Runcorn, Morecambe, Lancaster City and Kirkby Town. Phenomenal stuff.
Having started his career in 1979, he hung up his boots in 1999 when he took over at Accrington Stanley. Two years prior to that, he was player-manager at Ashton United. His time at Accrington was nothing short of legendary – he literally changed them from a “who are they?” team to one that earned three consecutive promotions and got into the professional leagues, until he was poached by Rochdale.
He struggled at Rochdale, and then had short spells managing Southport and Sligo Rovers, before finding his way back to Accrington for 10 years. There is something about him and that club, clearly.
During his time there, he got them crowned as League Two champions and kept them in League One for a few years before being relegated to League Two in the 2022/23 season, just before Reading dropped down into League One. Not long after this, he left.
After stints with Gillingham and Waterford, he was most recently Aldershot Town manager, which is good news for Sean Patton, who went there on loan during the last season and flourished. Coleman was mutually terminated from Aldershot at the end of April and has now arrived at the parish of Reading FC, to become an assistant manager for the first time.
What does he bring to Reading?
So, basically, he has been managing in lower-league English football for nearly 30 years. That’s longer than most of our squad right now have been alive. In a word then, experience. So, so much experience.
While Leam Richardson himself has experience at this level, given our push towards integrating younger players into the team and our transfer focus being attentive towards players in their 20s, having that additional level of experience will be beneficial to Reading.
You can imagine Coleman will be the person who gives the players both the carrot and the stick in equal measures, to build their trust and motivate them, and help be a pathway between Richardson and the squad.
As mentioned before, he knows how to compete in this league and he has experience – albeit at a lower level and some time ago – of winning promotion. In fairness to him, he has never managed “fashionable” teams, or clubs well equipped to succeed, so he will help bring that extra level of grit and determination in the mentality of the players, in a league where the margins can often be so fine.
What can we expect from him?
Coleman genuinely appears fiercely proud to be appointed at Reading. If you just look at the photo going out with his announcement, there is some kind of an aura around him that I’ve never seen from any kind of staff or coaching appointment before. It’s quite enticing, and I hope this proves right and not some kind of vague fancy of imagination from my side.
He builds close bonds with players. He is known for fiercely protecting his squad and building intense mutual trust. This sounds like a much more inspirational type of player-management to offset Richardson’s style and the two should complement each other in this respect.
Coleman is known for being highly approachable. He doesn’t shy away from being demanding or giving proverbial kicks up the backside when standards drop, which again leans into that carrot-and-stick balancing act.
As a manager, he often set his teams up to be attack-minded – something we desperately need to improve on from last season – and liked his teams to be high-pressers, defending from the front and displaying lots of energy. Those are things that, again, we lacked last season. They should also complement the new recruits’ styles of play.
Despite having an old-school look about him in terms of his man-management, he has shown flexibility with tactics, often going between 4-2-3-1 and 3-5-2 set-ups, dependent on who his teams played against. While his teams were noted to be physical in the competitive sense, he also expected his players to know how to move the ball around well to break lines and get up the pitch to attack.
What else do we need to know about him?
Coleman has a long-term connection with Richardson. Reading’s manager played under Coleman during the latter’s first spell as Accrington manager and was a key player for them.
When Coleman left Accrington in 2012, it was Richardson that took over, which also launched his own coaching career – first taking the job on a temporary basis, before it became permanent.
There is a clear respect between the two and, in typical Richardson fashion, he likes what he knows. However, this is the first time Richardson will be Coleman’s boss. The student has become the teacher now, so to speak.
