Thomas Frank’s right-hand man, Justin Cochrane, has been announced as Tottenham’s new first-team assistant coach, and it isn’t the first time he has worked for Spurs. He had some interesting things to say about his time at Hotspur Way back in 2022.
Cochrane is one of three members of staff who has followed Frank from Brentford to Tottenham as the Lilywhites embark on a new era.
The 43-year-old has had an extensive coaching career, having been in charge of England’s youth sides at different age group levels.
He served as Man United’s director of development before joining as Frank’s assistant at the Gtech Community Stadium, but interestingly, the English coach also spent a short time as an academy coach at Hotspur Way at the start of his career.
Justin Cochrane opens up on his time at Tottenham Hotspur
In an interview with Training Ground Guru podcast back in 2022, Cochrane gave an interesting insight into his time at Spurs.
He revealed that he forged a close relationship with the likes of Kieran McKenna, John McDermott, Chris Ramsey and others, insisting that the experience informed the style of football he has aspired to implement in his coaching career.
Cochrane said: “I was doing my B License, along with Kieran McKenna (now Ipswich Town manager), Jim Hicks (now Head of Coaching at the PFA) and Paul Davis (now England U17s assistant). I knew Kieran was a professional at Spurs, but he had had an injury and was looking to move into coaching.
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“I think Jim and Kieran said to John McDermott (then Head of Academy Coaching and Player Development at Tottenham Hotspur), ‘There’s a keen young coach who lives close to where we train and he’s interested.’
“I had an interview with John and got the job and then I worked closely with (Head of Player Development) Chris Ramsey and it changed the way I thought about football. Up until then, I thought, ‘We want to develop these players to win games and beat whoever we’re playing’.
“Chris really stripped me back and was like, ‘We want to play the right style and have the best players on the pitch – that will be a good predictor of future success.’ My coaching reflected that. I worked with the U11s, U12s, U14s, U16s and then the U23s at Tottenham.”
Cochrane reveals his philosophy on youth player development
Not only is the incoming Spurs assistant coach aware of the ethos of Tottenham, but his experience with the North London club’s academy also gave him plenty of insights into the intricacies of player development.
In the same interview, Cochrane spoke about the considerations about loaning out young players, which is something he and Frank will have to make a lot of decisions regarding this summer.
He added: “When a player is ready to play men’s football, that’s a good time for them to go and experience that. But at the same time you have to be very careful (and I experienced this at Tottenham) of sending a player out on loan, they play no games and then actually come back worse.