Welcome to ‘Dugout Diaries’, a content series in partnership with the Premier League highlighting a new cohort of coaches working hard to make elite level football more diverse and inclusive for the next generation, on and off the pitch.

Recognising that representation remains an issue in professional coaching, over the last five years, the Premier League has worked hard to put pathways in place to make the space more representative of the players who make up the modern game.

Launched in 2020, the Professional Player to Coach Scheme (PPCS) is a joint initiative by the Premier League, PFA, and EFL to increase the number of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic players moving into coaching roles. Introduced soon after in 2020/21, the Coach Inclusion and Diversity Scheme (CIDS) is a Premier League programme to boost the presence of male and female coaches from Black, Asian, and mixed heritage backgrounds in full-time roles across English professional football.

Former Brentford professional Toumani Diagouraga, with more than 600 appearances to his name, is part of the PPCS and currently coaching at Middlesbrough. Moaz Karim, Imran Hamid and Eva Egginton are currently on the CIDS programme and are due to complete their placements at Chelsea, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest respectively. 

As all four participants near the end of their placements, VERSUS sat down with the coaches at St George’s Park to learn about their experiences on their respective programmes and why it matters to have more diversity on the sidelines.

What is it like being part of world class set ups?

Imran: Being at Manchester United Academy has really given me an insight into how important it is to put the player first. Players need to feel that they're respected, they're cared for, they're loved, that their best interests are at heart. And I've learned that it's so important to develop the person and not just focus on football. The players take part in the Duke of Edinburgh award, so that holistic side of the development has been something that's been key at Manchester United.

Being an ex-professional player, what surprised you the most about transitioning into management?

Toumani: What surprised me are the hours and the dedication that go into coaching. As a player you just turn up to training and everything's done for you. You don't realise that the coaches have spent all day setting up the session, coming up with what the session's going to be.

What does coaching mean to you?

Eva: Coaching is about developing young people, it’s about developing people first and footballers second. But also that ability to trial, error, fail, pick themselves up, progress, and live and breathe through those stumbling blocks that are natural to within elite sport.

VERSUS: Why is representation in coaching important?

Imran: Players make up a diverse database. They come from all around the world with different experiences, different cultures, different ethnicities. And I think they need to have people who can understand them, and understand some of their previous experiences.

Moaz: Lived experience is important. You have certain lived experiences and that's why variety in academies is so important. If staff don't have similar lived experiences to players they could be judgmental in certain ways or have the wrong idea of what a person is going through.

Toumani: I think it's really important because that is what is real, that is what society is. Society is diverse, on the pitch is diverse and in the crowd is diverse There's no reason why it shouldn't be diverse when it comes to coaching roles.

CIDS works to support women coaches in men’s football. What more can be done for women's representation?

Eva: More can definitely be done for women – not just outside the pitch from your medical teams to your psychologists – but on the pitch coaching boys, too. There's a lot of value in getting more faces on the grass and I think schemes like this are really beneficial.

How has the programme helped you and developed your coaching skills?

Imran: The course provides excellent facilitators with vast knowledge. We've also got the fantastic players that come and enjoy the facilities and the training experiences with us, so we get opportunities to coach players that we might not normally coach.

Moaz: The mentor support has been fantastic. One of the best pieces of support for me actually has been the academic side. We have access to the academic studies and the journals and being able to work on a project which is quite unique in terms of development in football. We try to look at the next frontier of how we can use brain training and cognitive development to help players improve.

Toumani: We've visited the army to work on how to deal with high pressure situations and leadership. We've done so much that I would have never been able to do by myself. The Premier League has actually opened us to a new world.