Explained: New Reading Assistant Manager Scott Marshall
Scott Marshall returned to the Reading dugout last week, this time as assistant manager to Noel Hunt.
It’s a summer of change for Reading FC: new owners, two new permanent signings confirmed, three loans, some departures and even some changes among the coaching staff. We have seen goalkeeping coach Tony Warner depart for Wigan Athletic and been replaced internally by Rob Shay. As well as this, assistant manager Nigel Gibbs took a step up to join Ryan Mason at West Bromwich Albion.
For a while, Reading were strongly linked to Richard Beale, who at that time was West Brom’s under-21s manager. However, he appears to have accepted a role at Aston Villa instead, which, historically, makes a lot of sense as he’s never worked outside the Birmingham area before. And, fun fact geography fans: Reading is not anywhere near to Birmingham.
However, Reading moved swiftly to line up a replacement for the replacement: Scott Marshall.
Does the name sound familiar to you? This is not his first stint as part of the Reading parish. As ever, I will fetch the deerstalker hat, polish the magnifying glass and bring to you, dear reader, a lowdown on the latest addition to Noel Hunt’s coaching team.
Who is he?
Scott Marshall is a 52-year-old former defender who made a handful of appearances for teams such as Arsenal and Southampton in the Premier League, but made the biggest impression at Brentford (before they were an established top-tier team). He also had a stint at sort-of neighbours Wycombe Wanderers at the end of his career, before hanging up his boots in 2004.
Though not having had one of the most prolific footballing careers (in fairness, it can’t have been easy getting past the likes of Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Martin Keown in that Arsenal defence), upon retirement he has forged quite the respectable career. Indeed, Adams actually brought him to Wycombe Wanderers as a player during Adams’ spell as manager there, which speaks to the high regard he is held in within footballing circles.
Post-retirement, Marshall spent time working in Oman as part of the Arsenal Soccer School, which is where he initially honed his craft. Marshall’s first move into a more official coaching role came in 2006, when he joined Paul Lambert at Wycombe Wanderers to become a youth coach. After this, he was given an opportunity to return to Brentford (as previously mentioned, the club he had the most sustained playing success) as a youth coach.
This is probably the period of time when he really began to establish his coaching credentials, which then led to a move to Norwich City in 2011, taking over their under-21s side. Marshall didn’t stay in this role for long, as Lambert surfaced once again a year later to bring him to Villa in 2012, giving Marshall his first taste of first-team coaching.
Marshall also had his first spell as a caretaker manager at Villa, after Lambert’s departure, and left shortly after in 2015. Then, some football club called *checks notes* Reading gave him a call, and offered him the chance to come and coach the then under-23 side (now the under-21s) in 2017.
Being the right-thinking man that he is, Marshall accepted this offer. This led to his second spell as a caretaker manager, taking the reigns of the first team after Paul Clement’s (remember him?) departure.
Marshall left Reading in 2018 and held spells at both Charlton Athletic, Colchester United and Swindon Town (let’s not hold it against it, ay?) as an assistant manager. Most recently he was QPR’s professional development-phase coach. This all provides a strong body of work in a number of different roles at different clubs across the last 20-odd years.
What can we expect from him?
Why him?, basically. That’s a somewhat pertinent question because, over the last couple of years, almost every coaching appointment has come from within: the aforementioned Shay, as well as Harrison Gilkes and Mikele Leigertwood. Even Nigel Gibbs, while an external hire last season, had worked with Reading previously.
So yeah, why Marshall? And yes, I know, he’s had previous at Reading.
Well, I think there are three main factors at play here, and a secondary one too.
Firstly, he has around 20 years of experience in coaching. This is significant because Hunt and Leigertwood are both in their relative infancy with their coaching careers, coaching since 2018 and around 2016 respectively. Marshall’s experience will complement our two existing first-team coaches. It’s also worth noting that Marshall seems to be highly regarded as a coach, and his services have been sought-after across a number of years.
Secondly, a lot of Marshall’s coaching career has been based around youth-level football. And as you will already know, dear reader, we have quite a young squad and a tradition of promoting players through our academy pathway. This knowledge around nurturing young talent will be essential for a developing squad.
Third, he has a lot of experience working at this level of the pyramid. He knows the challenges of League One football, and the eagle-eyed among you will also note that a lot of the summer’s recruitment this year has had one eye on people who’ve been able to prove themselves competitive in League One, with a high enough ceiling to step up to a higher level with the right environment. Marshall’s experience will be a real asset to a developing team.
Last of all, yeah, he has had previous with us. I don’t think that’s the be all and end all, but it’s somewhat reassuring to know he understands what our expectations of the club are, and I would expect him to work closely with Peter Scott and Harrison Gilkes, who lead the under-21 and under-18 teams respectively.
Has he worked with Hunt before?
Seemingly not, and the same can be said of Leigertwood. However, Hunt is familiar with Marshall’s reputation, having said:
“Bringing Scott back to Reading is a huge boost for us. He’s not only an excellent coach with a strong tactical mind, but he’s also someone who knows this club inside out and connects naturally with players and staff.
“His experience across the game - both in youth development and at first-team level - adds real depth to our coaching team. I’m really looking forward to working closely with him as we push to make this season a successful one.”
It’s also worth noting that Marshall wouldn’t be coming to the club without Hunt’s sign-off, so despite the fact they haven’t worked together before, this is a positive indication of Hunt’s belief in Marshall being a good fit for us.
Side note: Marshall was part of the coaching set-up while Gibbs was here. That’s most likely a coincidence, but I can’t help but imagine Marshall would have had at least had a chat with Gibbs prior to agreeing the move.
Welcome back to Reading, Scott!