Premier League giants Everton have employed former Toffees midfielder Keith Southern as an academy coach since 2017.
Everton coach Keith Southern has admitted to the Blackpool Gazette that his personal ambitions could force him to look beyond life at Goodison Park, even if he is loving his time on Merseyside.
In late 2017, a man who started his professional career at Everton returned to where it all began as he looks to make a name for himself in management.
Former Blackpool, Huddersfield Town and Fleetwood midfielder Southern is an academy coach at Goodison Park these days and the 38-year-old will only benefit from working alongside the likes of Carlo Ancelotti, Duncan Ferguson, David Unsworth and co in the north west.
But Southern has ambitions of becoming a first-team manager sooner rather than later one day and he is under no illusions that he may have to make a tough decision about his future eventually.
“I love my role at Everton. It’s a fantastic football club with some amazing people,” said a man who once captained The Toffees’ reserve side without ever making a Premier League appearance.
“I’m learning every day with top coaches, learning new things all the time and trying to become that student of the game by taking everything in. But I do have an ambition to manage at some point.
“That may come in the next six months, in the next six years or after that, I don’t know. I’m perfectly happy as I am right now but I do want to manage.
“If I turn 55 or 60 and I’ve not taken that step and had a go, then I think I will regret it, so at some point I do want to manage.”
The likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Sol Campbell and Joey Barton have all made the step up to management in recent seasons, honing their trade at the likes of Derby, Macclesfield and Fleetwood.
And if Southern makes an impression at one of the biggest and best-connected clubs in English football, you would imagine that opportunities will start to present themselves sooner rather than later.
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