Doncaster Rovers boss Grant McCann's chats with ex-Chelsea and Spurs man amid new LMA course

The Doncaster Rovers boss, along with a clutch of his peers, has been added to a specialist course by the League Managers Association (LMA). It came to light after a recent comment regarding a video call he'd had with former Brighton and Sunderland manager Gus Poyet.

McCann made the admission at Rovers' end of season awards last month saying of the chat Poyet: "It was interesting talking to him about his experiences and one thing he said to me was that in any successful team and any successful changing room, 75 per cent of it is led by the players and 25 per cent by the staff.

"I feel like we haven't had that right this year. We did last year, so that's a big thing for us to look at."

When asked to expand further on the subject, and specifically what the course will entail, McCann told the Free Press: "The course will take place over the next year and the LMA had only about five or six spaces and fortunately I got picked for it.

"Graham Alexander of Bradford, Dave Artell of Grimsby, Ryan Giggs and one or two others are on it.

"It'll be a really good course that gives us an insight into different managers. I'll have a mentor that I'll have throughout the year, who I'll meet up with once a month. The LMA are excellent and are great with the amount of stuff they do for you. It's unreal. Whether that's health checks or going into visit clubs in the off-season - whatever it is, they support you.

"This course will put me in touch with people that I need to try and improve as a manager. I'm really looking forward to it and the first call with Gus was about his experiences as a manager and what he feels you need to make a successful team.

"It was amazing just to listen to him, from his days managing at club level and also internationally and other things. It was an interesting call and I learnt a lot from it."