Joey Barton hopes his expanded Bristol Rovers staff will mean his players have more opportunities for one-on-one coaching as he builds towards a more American-style model.
Barton has added Glenn Whelan, a member of last season's promotion-winning side, and former Blackpool development squad manager Danny Ventre to his staff as first-team coaches, working alongside Andy Managan and Kevin Bond.
The manager hopes the bolstered staff setup will enable him to take a broader view of matters at The Quarters as Rovers prepare for games while helping him to receive more specific and detailed feedback on his players.
The move is in line with the manager's endorsement of American-style coaching models. He has often discussed how his ethos has been influenced by Bill Walsh's book The Score Takes Care Of Itself.
Although these changes do not fully realise his coaching vision, he believes the Gas will benefit from having greater focus on positional groups.
"We’ve got to get the whole football club moving in the right direction," Barton said. "To do that, we need as many good people as we can and getting Whelo to come in… It’s slightly different money to what you’re paid as a player because it always is when you come to the dark side and you start coaching, but he’s been fortunate enough to earn a few quid when he played.
"He’s starting out on his coaching journey now and we’re delighted to have him, along with Danny, who has come in from Blackpool.
"My belief in football is defence, midfield, attack, set-play and goalkeeper coach. I’m very much of the NFL model and I believe in like offensive coordinators. I haven’t got the resources to do what I want to do. I might do when I get up the food chain, but I’ve got more resources than I’ve got last year.
"I believe players improve on matchday, but if you’ve got opportunities to have one-on-one moments with coaches who keep you out doing extras or they send you your coaching clips… The more touch points we’ve got, the more information I’ll gather because it all filters back to me and the more messages I can send quickly because my staff are conduits of my message.
"Now the coaching team has settled down, this is the coaching structure I work off. It gives me more time to observe, more time to step back and see the stuff I need to see as a coach. Last year, the general had to be on the frontline, and we know what happens if the general is on the frontline far too much. It doesn’t bode well for the army."
Former Stoke City and Aston Villa midfielder Whelan played 33 times for the Gas last season, delivering important performances in big games and intelligent cameos as Rovers surged to promotion.
He has been registered as a player for this season and was named on the bench for Saturday's defeat to Forest Green Rovers, but Barton hopes that does not become a regular occurrence, with the Irishman only included because of the absence of Sam Finley and Paul Coutts, which meant the Gas had a lack of midfield cover.
"We’ve brought Glenn in as a coach," Barton said. "He had to be an emergency player on Saturday because the alternative would have been Sam Heal or Harvey Greenslade. If anything would have happened to Jordan Rossiter, no disrespect to them two lads but they can’t do what Glenn can do.
"Glenn can get through on the adrenaline based on his phenomenal career and with the number of international appearances he’s got, he’d just be in position by default.
"That was the call. I’m hoping not to have Glenn on the bench and when Sam and Couttsy come back and we get bodies in, we might have the luxury, but at this moment we haven’t."
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