Jill Scott opens up on coaching ambitions and learning from Pep Guardiola
Former Lioness and European Championship winner Jill Scott has outlined her coaching ambitions as she prepares to work with academy players at Manchester City.
During an interview with Gary Neville on in partnership with SkyBet Scott discussed the next step in her career, after the news was first reported a few months ago. Since retiring from professional football following England's win at Euro 2022, the former City midfielder has mainly undertaken media work.
Sunderland native Scott worked for ITV as a pundit during the Qatar men's FIFA World Cup and weeks before was crowned 'queen of the jungle' after winning I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here. But coaching will be her primary ambition over the coming months, with the former England star becoming a staff member at her former club.
"Coaching is a big passion of mine – I love coaching," Scott told Neville. "I even did a grassroots session the other day and I had little six-year-olds checking their shoulder before receiving the ball, and I just get a real buzz out of helping people.
"I’m going to be doing a bit of coaching at Manchester City, it got blew up a bit as if I’m going to be Pep Guardiola’s assistant. That’s the media world that we’re living in. It’s going to be coaching girls and boy's academy. In terms of the detail that Man City provide, it’s so interesting.
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"I’m excited about that, I’m obsessed with passing drills. Sometimes I’ll sit around on a Friday night watching old Bayern Munich passing drills on YouTube, looking at bits of detail. I know that’s my passion but I’m not ready yet to go into a full schedule of football."
Scott revealed that whilst she will not be working with City's men's team, she has watched Pep Guardiola's sessions in a bid to learn and also taken note of his assistant, Rodolfo Borrell and his methods.
Scott played for Man City from 2013 until her retirement in 2022 (Charlotte Tattersall)She said: “I’ve watched some of Pep Guardiola’s sessions, I took my nephews along to watch a session. I’ll be observing the academy training in the first few weeks and seeing how they work but it’s hard to learn from Pep because he’s always a genius in his own head.
“Sometimes you can watch a coach who is very structured, but he’s very emotionally intelligent and you’ll see his session go one way and then he’ll change it. There are some coaches you can follow and some who are just a genius in their own mind.
“There’s a lot of coaches with good detail at the academy – the assistant of Pep, Rodolfo [Borrell], we had him coach us at the women’s team – he used to work at Barcelona. I hung onto every word he said on receiving the ball in the pockets. I’m excited, I’m going to go in there and ask as many questions as I can because I have a lot to learn. I’m nowhere near a finished article of a coach but I know I’ll work hard to get better.”
Scott also reflected on some of the coaches that inspired her most during her playing career, over a coffee with the former Man Utd defender. And the former Lioness revealed the former manager who she text immediately after winning Euro 2022 at Wembley.
"After the Euro 2020 final, the first person I messaged was my first coach I had at Everton," said Scott. "It was Mo Marley, who coached me at England – she was just a fantastic person. When it wasn’t a professional game, she did everything voluntarily.
"As soon as we finished the game, I didn’t want to go on the phone or take videos – I just wanted to take it all in – but I just sent her a message.
"It was a selfie with me and my medal and said, ‘without you, this wouldn’t have happened.’ She coached so many of them players as well – she was the only person I wanted to message."
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