Managing at International Level with Jamie Day
Jamie Day is an English coach and manager, coming through the youth academy at Arsenal before being sold to AFC Bournemouth. He had a career that took him across the south of England and eventually led to management as a player-coach for then Conference South side Welling United. After winning promotions and becoming a First Team Coach in League 1 with Gillingham, Jamie now holds the role of Head Coach of the Bangladesh national and under 23 teams.
When reflecting on his journey, Jamie said "I was a professional and non league player for many years and had the opportunity to become player manager at Welling United. I then became manager and assistant with a few other clubs and was at Barrow before bangladesh job became available".
The question in your mind now is probably 'how did this job come about?', Jamie explains "I had a a friend who is an agent in Australia and he called to see if I would be interested and then put my CV forward for review which led to a meeting in London". Simply managing at international level isn't enough for Day as he looks to the future of Bangladesh football "We have done well the last 2 years in developing the team and the task now will be to try and win a trophy".
A manager that says that his best moment in football so far was winning the league with Welling United, when looking to his future career, he is ambitious and realises the platform that he has now given himself; "I would like to work in the league again but as manager to test my ability as a coach and if still working as an international manager then qualify for the World Cup".
For all of the international and Football League players that Jamie Day has worked with in his career, Day claims that the best player to work with is neither an international or someone that has gone on to player Premier League football; "Joe Healy is the best player to coach. Great ability and should have played higher than the did". Healy was at Welling United with Day, before moving on to several other Conference and Conference South (now the National League and National League South) clubs, having started his career with Millwall in League 1.
Here at Performance Analysis UK, a rather obvious but big interest of our is analysis in all sports and we take every opportunity to find out what people are doing and how they are using analysis. Day explains how analysis is used at international level with Bangladesh; "We use analysis mainly to assess other teams strengths and weaknesses, we have less time to work with the players (than at club level) so we tend to spend more time on the field coaching but we use more video than data when we do".
From the point of view when using data at the Bangladesh international team, Day explains' "We generally use Hudl and InStat to collect our data and use information on teams/players". When reflecting on the use of analysis in his time in the English Football League, Day says, "I think EFL clubs all know the importance of using all data and video analysis and this could make the difference in games"
Finally, with all of Jamie's wisdom and experience, we asked him how someone that wants to be in the football industry should go about getting into the game; "I believe you need to be as qualified as you can but also know the game and the team you are working for, so you can get the best results from your work".
We thank Jamie for this interview and wish him luck with Bangladesh and his future career.
If you are interested in working in football or know more about what the life of an analyst involves, take a look at our Introduction to Analysis Course here!
