THE Football Association have finally appointed Brian Barwick as new chief executive.

Even that was not without controversy as the FA Commission are still trying to sort out exactly what his role, and the parameters of it, will be.

Certainly he has some problems to sort out. When it comes to grass-roots football, we obviously want as much as possible from the FA and to get our share of the considerable pot that they have to dole out.

The big money will always go to the big clubs. But we have some major refurbishment work to do at Edgar Street and, as a professional club, we don't see any reason why we should be disadvantaged by being in the Conference rather than the Football League when it comes to the size of the grants available.

On things like that we will be hoping that he is batting for the smaller clubs. I always thought Adam Crozier did that in the way that TV and FA Cup prize money was distributed.

Within weeks of his departure, prize money for the early rounds of the FA Cup was reduced considerably.

The FA, in their wisdom, seem finally to have got round to sorting out coaching qualifications.

In the past it was not considered necessary for coaches and managers to have any sort of qualifications. The courses were fairly basic and the whole strategy depended on who was in charge at the time.

When I first started, Alan Wade was head of coaching. The main theme of the courses was to keep possession of the ball at all costs which at times led to a negative attitude to play.

It was all change when Charles Hughes took over. His main philosophy was that goals were scored with five passes or fewer so the whole theme changed dramatically to lumping the ball forward and getting in opposing boxes as often as you could. The technical side of the game was forgotten.

It has taken an influx of foreign players to begin to bring home our technical deficiencies. We can now see the progress being made with Frank Lampard and others of that calibre coming through, players such as Rio Ferdinand and John Terry who are comfortable on the ball at the back.

Better coaching and playing with foreign players has improved English players. Although there are still positions in the national side which look a bit shaky, the goalkeeping position being one, there is no doubt that the England side have some very talented young players that could go on and do well.