Gareth Southgate continues to push open doors for black coaches to progress in football.
One name to watch is Justin Cochrane who was described this week by England manager Southgate as “a top coach” in the making.
Southgate stressed aspiring black coaches needn't be household names, citing that many of the best managers in the world haven't played at the highest level.
A career playing in the lower leagues has done former Antigua and Barbuda international Cochrane,38, no harm as a current coach.
He has always been passionate on coaching since even as a 17-year-old apprentice at QPR when he started an U10s team in his local area of Edmonton, north London.
Cochrane formed the team from scratch with an advert in the paper and has now been coaching professionally for over 10 years since retiring early to focus on his passion for developing players.
He is rated as one of the best up and coming coaches in the country after making his name in a nine-year spell at Spurs in their academy under Chris Ramsey and John McDermott from 2009-2018.
Cochrane has plenty of qualifications, including a Pro Licence and a BA in leadership and management too.
It helped him coach Spurs players at U12, U14, U16 and then U23 level.
Developing players is his trademark and Tottenham starlets to thrive under him include Japhet Tanganga and Oliver Skipp , who progressed up the ranks into the first team squad.
Plus England U18 international Noni Madueke, who is now thriving at PSV in Holland.
They all benefitted from Cochrane's philosophy of an “attacking style of football which gives the players freedom to make their own decisions.”
He also respected the abilities of smaller technical players as well as looking out for late developers.
It all saw England bring Cochrane in as their new England U15 head coach for 2018-19.
He has since followed his squad up the year groups to the U16s and now the U17s.
On Southgate's evidence, Cochrane's coaching journey could yet go all the way to the very top.
It is a far cry from his playing days at Non League Hayes after leaving QPR with only one sub appearance against Stockport in April 2001 – when he was sent off 17 minutes after coming on.
But he made it in the pro ranks with Crewe, where his first training session was taken by Steve Holland, now the England assistant.
Further spells followed at the likes of Rotherham and Yeovil for the central midfielder.
He eventually hung up his boots aged 31 at Boreham Wood to focus on coaching.
And while many may not have been too familiar with Cochrane before, he definitely has a big future.
