No Love Lost Between Fergie and Ince

After 10 years of working as our goalkeeping coach, Tony Coton was forced in to retirement because of a persistent knee problem last season. The former City goalkeeper was regarded as one of the best coaches in the business, leaving United with the problem of replacing him.

However, Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that a deal is in the pipeline. “We have approached someone for the job and we’re waiting for clearance to employ him,” he said. “Tony had to quit because of his knee situation and we didn’t rush to appoint a successor. It was only 10 days ago that we decided who to get. We hope we’ll have clearance by the beginning of August.”

Nothing to report here then, right? Well, apart from the fact the man Fergie has lined up just agreed to join Ince at Blackburn in the past couple of weeks!

Ferguson will be strongly involved in his own replacement process, seeking out which man is fit for the job. Well, if the same is to apply for our goalkeeping coach, Tony Coton has first hand experience of the man we’ve reportedly lined up for the job.

The coach in question is Eric Steele, who has worked with City, Aston Villa, Derby and Leeds, and Coton reckons he’s the best in the business.

“Eric Steele was my goal keeping coach when I was a player at Manchester City, and it soon became evident that after just a couple of training sessions that Eric was a unique and talented coach,” Coton has said of Steele. “Eric was different due to his innovative teaching style. Every session was a challenging and interesting, and his breadth and depth of knowledge was second to none. Because of this I decided to call Eric “The Guru”, a name that he is now known by throughout the premier league.”

Upon taking over at City, Mark Hughes decided that goalkeeping coach, Eric Steele, wasn’t needed. Paul Ince jumped at the chance of having such a well qualified coach and signed him up 19 days ago. With Brad Friedel looking to move clubs, Blackburn will need all the help they can get in the goalkeeping department.

However, reports today suggest that Steele made a U-Turn on his decision to join Blackburn and is on his way to Old Trafford. Ince has now approached Wolves in the hope of landing former Everton and Blackburn keeper, Bobby Mimms.

Welcome to Premiership management, Incey!