Stevie Frail admits he’d almost closed the door on coaching when a call from an unknown number paved the way for his return as Motherwell assistant manager.The voice on the other end of the phone was Stuart Kettlewell and despite barely knowing each other the duo have struck up an instant winning partnership to get the Steelmen flying.
Frail may have boundless experience on the training ground after six years as reserve and youth coach at Celtic, three years in charge of Northern Ireland U19s and stints as assistant at Dundee United and Hearts as well as an extended spell as caretaker boss at Tynecastle during the Romanov years.But for the past 15 months he’d been working as a director of football for PLG agency and failed applications for the U23 manager jobs at West Ham and Newcastle convinced the 55-year-old his time in coaching was up.
That was until Kettlewell came calling and after losing just twice in 14 games together Frail couldn’t be happier to be back in the dug out.He said: “I was working with Liam O'Donnell and Ricky Gillies at PLG.
We'd created a Director of Football role to scout players and help the ones we had on board. I was preparing to go out to a game one afternoon and my phone rang.
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