Ian Cathro was back on home turf yesterday, speaking to young Dundee sports students about the importance of desire and clarity of vision if they want to be a success.
The Valencia assistant manager will follow his own advice in the next few years – even if that means turning his back on a Champions League club in the best league in world football.
Cathro, who used to be Dundee United’s youth academy manager and an SFA regional performance coach, is the number two to Nuno Santo at La Liga’s third-placed side.
Though still just 28, his burgeoning coaching reputation saw Cathro linked with the Rangers job recently.
Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t willing to discuss whether there was any substance to that particular association, but he was more than happy to confirm that, given the opportunity, branching out as a number one, is a matter of when, rather than if.
Will it be in one year, two years, five years?
“I would confidently say it’s not as long as five years away,” he pointed out.
“I don’t have a timeline in my mind.
“The reason I’m back in the country is for my Pro Licence. I had a conversation this week with someone much more experienced than me in the game and he used a very simple phrase.
“It was: ‘if you want to be an assistant coach, be an assistant coach, practice at being an assistant coach and become better at it. If you want to be a head coach, practice at being a head coach and so on’.
“I want to be a head coach, or a manager, depending on what you want to call it.
“You see 10 big road signs that say ‘risk’ but on the corner of one of them there’s one that says ‘opportunity’.
“You need to brave and make sacrifices.
“At a point I’m going to have to do that. I’m going to have to practice being a head coach and make mistakes at it in order to get better.”
Cathro’s job is one that many in football would covet, but he doesn’t look on it as too good to leave behind.
“I don’t view it that way,” he insisted.
“At some point being a head coach is something I’m going to do because it’s the next step.
“I don’t consider that I’ve achieved anything.
“I’m part of something and I do everything that I can to help. Hopefully by the 24th of May Valencia are in the Champions League and I’ll feel that I’ve been part of an achievement, but it won’t be mine. Mine will come in the future.
“When I have achieved something, I’ll say, don’t worry!”
Cathro added: “There have been some bad points, and some mistakes, but I’m working with really good people and intelligent players who I’ve learned from.
“Valencia is a massive football club. The Valencians are very strong and proud people and that adds to the responsibility.
“But it makes it impossible to enjoy because it’s so intense.
“There are bigger clubs around the world but I don’t think the actual environment can be any more intense than it is at Valencia.”
Cathro’s coaching CV is an unconventional one in his home country. And leaving Scotland, first for Portugal and then Spain, was “the best thing I’ve ever done.”
He explained: “If I’d stayed in Scotland forever the only things that would have shaped me as a person and a coach are the things that happen in our game.
“That’s why I left in the first place.
“I wanted my growth to be influenced by other types of football and people.
“I’ve been able to do the vast majority of my growth as a coach and a person in good places.
“I think La Liga is the best league in the world and hopefully that will help me.”
Cathro has broken the “show us your medals” Scottish mould of football managers, but his career path isn’t as rare on the continent.
“Perhaps in a Scottish sense it is,” he admitted. “Because of the lack of a significant playing career and my age.
“I can’t think of many Scottish examples that I could look to. But we are a small nation and there are examples elsewhere. Portugal’s one of them. That’s the nation that exports the most coaches, and a lot of them are that type.
“The example of the young guy who hasn’t had a playing career and has started out by studying or as an assistant exists. It’s just that there aren’t many in this country.”
Cathro was invited to address Dundee and Angus College by course leader Ewan Peacock. The pair have known each other for over a decade.
“I’ve spoken to Ewan a couple of times when I’ve come back home and he asked if I’d speak to the students,” Cathro said.
“I’ve been in their situation before, and had no intention of going to a specific place but had an idea and was working hard.
“If there’s a couple of things I’d try and put across it’s that society’s limits don’t necessarily need to exist. There are various ways to be able to do things.
“If you have a clear vision and an incredible desire to get things done, then you can.
“You have to be willing to make sacrifices and not be everybody’s best friend, but most people who are successful don’t have so many best friends.”