JOHN Coleman believes you can't treat football like a job, it has to mean more to you than that according to the Accrington Stanley manager.

The Stanley manager has had two spells at the club and insists his feelings for the club go beyond just being an employee.

Coleman highlighted how some of his fellow English managers do not get the chance they deserve, but hopes the LMA can make changes to this.

"There’s no personal attachment if you're a head coach. In either spell at Accrington, I’ve never considered myself as an employee of Accrington, it’s more than that," Coleman said.

"It’s like a vocation. If you operate like that and like you’re trying to run a household then there’s an element of love and care about it.

"Football in general, it’s the element of love for the game that is slowly evaporating. You see kids who have come through academy’s from being six, seven and eight and they don’t have the chance to enjoy football on the field with their friends.

"Great players and managers have had that opportunity to just find fun out of football. Now it’s an extension of school.

"They’re finishing school and then they’re going to do another two hours of structured coaching, which is just like an extension.

"I think that’s why the drop off rate at 16 and 17, unless they’re going to really achieve high, there’s a lack of interest and no love for the game.

"People are treating football like a job and I think if you do that then I don’t think you should be in it. That’s what’s wrong with football, at the moment.

"Too many people are involved in all facets of the game, being a chairman, a director of football, a manager, a managing director, a player – too many treat it like a job.

"If you treat it like a job then you don’t care enough.

"There’s plenty of good English managers who don’t really get the chance that they should.

"Hopefully, that will change the more the LMA broaden the way English managers operate throughout the world."

Coleman tends to stick with the same starting team if there is no reason to change so some players have been short of minutes on the pitch.

In other competitions, such as the EFL Trophy, the Reds boss has been able to give valuable minutes to players on the fringe of the staring XI and wants that healthy competition amongst the squad.

"We have just highlighted to them that they have to maintain their fitness levels in these games," added Coleman.

“They could be called upon any time and they have got to be at peak fitness in order to take that opportunity. If they get that opportunity then there is no reason why they can’t stay in.

"That is what you want. You want healthy competition for places in the side.

“We haven’t been playing badly this season so there is no need to push any panic buttons just yet, but we are always striving to get better and if players can come in and do well, then that’s great."