LIFESTYLE - SUMMER 2017

LIFE : STYLE

interview by Sarah Rigg

exclusive... when Johnny met Jimmy

‘security breach – I used me mate’s passport. I went such a place and they never checked.’ We were doing it 20 years ago. JOHN: The reason it first happened was because we ended up with each other’s passports by mistake. JIMMY: So from there it just became a bit of a game, didn’t it! IS IT HARDWORKINGWITH YOUR BEST FRIEND? JIMMY: We’ve got different views about some things. John trusts me to go about my job day to day knowing I will do the best for him. He gives me a free rein, to be honest. JOHN: Our relationship wouldn’t work if we had totally the same opinions. And we do argue (laughs) we fight like cat and dog. But there’s a reason behind that. You’ve got to have a forceful opinion in this game. I’ve watched Jimmy develop in his managerial career throughout the years and it is quite a satisfying experience. I used to take on a lot of the coaching, and gradually I have stepped aside and let Jimmy take it on. I have seen howmuch Jimmy has blossomed and how good a coach he is now. Other people, I’ve worked with couldn’t hold a candle to him. HAVE YOU SEEN JOHN CHANGE OVER THE YEARS JIMMY? JIMMY: Yeah, he’s a lot more laid back than he was in the earlier years, but then there was a lot more pressure on him. I’ve taken a large chunk of that, training wise and whatever. Um, yes – a lot mellower – not that you’d think it sometimes. (Both laugh) He’s mellowwhen he gets the right results. If not he certainly lets the players know! JOHN: Early on I decided to treat players the way I wanted to be treated as a player. For the best part, we have achieved that. We treat them as adults. 99 per cent of players will respond brilliantly and that’s why we have teams that will go through a brick wall for us. You get the odd percentage that doesn’t and who takes the mickey and doesn’t agree with what we’re trying to do. Or they have their own agenda. JIMMY: You’ve got to be really careful how you talk to people these days. Whereas in the past you could say whatever you wanted to say, now players take it to heart. And they’ve got platforms and places to go to report you if they think you are too hard on them. JOHN: The other thing, everything you do gets publicised quite quickly on social media. Everyone goes out with a camera. Twenty years ago – you only went out with a camera on your holidays. There’s a vehicle now for people who are mischievous and people who have got a hidden agenda to spread misinformation. For example, I could have a laugh and a joke with you and someone could overhear it – I’m not taking offence – you’re not taking offence, but they want to make it into a problem. HOWDO YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLES DIFFER? JOHN: They’re similar JIMMY: Very similar.

WHEN DID YOU BECOME CLOSE FRIENDS? JOHN: We really hit it offwhen we played for Burscough, and I can remember the day quite clearly. We used to get picked up by the Assistant Manager at 6 pm to go to training. We were standing there on the main road in Kirkby and by half six there was still no sign of him. At seven o’clock – still no sign. JIMMY: There were no mobiles in those days either. JOHN: So we made an executive decision to go for a pint. And that pint led to another one, then another one and another one and we ended up staying out until about two in the morning. I had to go to work at the council next day and Jimmy was unpacking at a meat factory. That was the start of the friendship really. We’ve been inseparable ever since. JIMMY: It’s true. John was the best man at my wedding. JOHN: And Jimmy gate-crashed my I’VE NOTICED THAT ASWELL AS SAYING THE SAME THING AT THE SAME TIME – YOUR BODY LANGUAGE MIRRORS EACH OTHER A LOT. JIMMY: Well we played in the same position; both playing up front together, so if you build a rapport with someone on the pitch, you tend to trust them in everything you do and can sort of second guess each other. JOHN: And we have been mistaken for each other. JIMMY: We’ve actually used each other’s passports as well. JOHN: That was our party piece when we use to go away. JIMMY: Someone did it recently didn’t they – it was big news. Someone said, wedding. He was only 16 – so he shouldn’t have even been there!

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JIMMY: There was always something going on, kids playing football, men coming out of the pub playing pitch and toss, it was just a hive of activity where we were brought up. DID YOU HAVE HAPPY CHILDHOODS? JOHN: It was, it was. Very happy. JIMMY: We were always out weren’t we? As kids, we went out in the morning and had to be dragged back in for tea. JOHN: (Nods in agreement) We’ve got only good memories. There’s a fine line between happiness and what makes people happy. Wealth for example. It doesn’t always follow that because you’ve got a lot of money you are happy. Kids today have never had it so good. My dad never had a car and my mum never had a car, so I had to walk or get the bus everywhere. And that was just the norm for 50-60 per cent of people in our area. And so you didn’t get ferried here, there and everywhere. I wouldn’t say our families were poor, but they weren’t well off, and most families back then had more than four kids. Four was probably the minimum really. You wonder how they made ends meet! As a kid, my trainers were always hand-me-downs. My kids tell me that money doesn’t make you happy. They say money buys you stuff. And stuff makes you happy! I don’t subscribe to that, though.

iing in the boardroom at Accrington Stanley Football Club is Manager John Coleman and Assistant Manager Jimmy Bell – finishing each other’s sentences, mirroring each other’s body language and trading good-humoured insults and anecdotes. These childhood pals are inseparable both on and off the pitch and they clearly define what the kids today call ‘brothers from another mother!’ Holidaying together, godparents to each other’s children (three daughters for John, three sons for Jimmy)... and suffering life-threatening injuries within three weeks of each other at the end of last year. John’s accident happened first and then Jimmy’s – coincidentally on the same day as John’s 54th birthday. HOWDID YOU FIRSTMEET? JOHN: We’ve known each other since we were kids but we really became good friends when we played at Burscough. I’m a couple of years older than Jimmy. JIMMY: I lived on the main road, Bewley Drive in Kirkby, and John lived on Bracknell Avenue. I was born about three of four doors away fromDennis Mortimer who won the European cup and John was born around the corner fromPhil Thompson, who won the European cup for Liverpool. JOHN: It was a hotbed of football, to be honest. JIMMY: It really was a hotbed. JOHN: You have to understand that growing up in Kirkby at that time 45 years ago, every second you got, you were on the football pitch. That’s all kids wanted to do in Kirkby. We probably knew each other back then but weren’t really aware of each other. We’ll have been on the same field playing football, but not really friends because he was a bit younger than me. Jimmy went to the school facing my house and I went to a Gallic school, so I had to walk about two miles to school. That probably kept me fier than anything because invariably I was late, so I was always running to school. LIFE : STYLE caught up with the pair for a pre-end of season chat...

As a kid, my trainers were always hand-me- downs John

John’s mellowwhen he gets the right results. If not he certainly lets the players know Jimmy

Above: John and Jimmy. Opposite: Brothers from other mothers... John and Jimmy have shared the good times and the bad.

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