“I TOOK a massive pay cut and I started right at the bottom of the coaching ladder.”

That is how Michael Jolley describes his decision to leave a lucrative career as a financial trader with HSBC to pursue a career in football.

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The game has always been the Sheffield-born, Cambridge-educated Jolley’s true passion, but it took guts, and plenty of belief, to walk away from a career that would have had him made for life to try and break through the glass ceiling in football.

“I really had to prove my worth alongside people who were much better known or had playing profiles to give them a leg up,” he said.

“But I was committed to it for the long term and I was never going to go back on that decision once I had made it.

“Now, given where I am today and where I am working, I’m really glad I followed through on it.”

Jolley’s first job took him to Crystal Palace, and he has since had spells with Nottingham Forest, Falkirk, the University of Stirling, and Crewe.

It was Crewe he left last summer to join Burnley as senior professional development phase coach.

“My job here is to try and filter the messages down from the first team to the academy,” said Jolley.

“So it’s been important for me in the first year here to get a good understanding on what the gaffer is looking for, so I can pass that on to the under-21 players and even down lower into the academy.”

It’s fair to say Jolley brings something different to the table. There is no Football League career to fall back on, but he has plenty of life experience from his economics degree and his previous life in London and New York.

And he is convinced that his education and his first career have an influence on how he goes about daily life at Gawthorpe.

“Football coaching is two words and there’s obviously a football element to it, but there’s also a coaching element to it as well, and with all the experiences I’ve had in my life I like to think I can bring those in when I’m speaking to the players and building relationships with the players,” he said.

“All the different experiences in New York, Cambridge, London, everywhere I’ve been, help me to understand how to help the players more which is what it is about.

“Regardless of what context it is, it is about people ultimately. So whether you’re trading in New York or working with Burnley’s Under-21 development players, it’s about understanding people, what they need, how you can help them and how they can move forward.”

During this interview Jolley references Michael Lewis’ iconic book, Moneyball, which has become something of a manual for owners determined to get more bang for their buck in football.

Many have discovered, to their cost, that baseball lends itself far more to statistics than our round ball game, but Jolley believes data can play a part.

“I bring an analytical approach and it’s an area I am really interested in,” he explains.

“On a course with the LMA I went down to Brentford to see what they’re doing in terms of analysis and how they’re recruiting players.

“The analytical aspect of football is something that is really interesting to me. The whole Moneyball thing is something people have looked into and nobody has really cracked it in football, but lots of clubs are looking at data.

“That is something that I’ve got a strong interest in and I’m looking at ways that I can apply it to our benefit here.”

Moneyball tells the story of how Billy Beane transformed the Oakland Athletics using an analytical approach, which was initially met with some scepticism by the old-fashioned scouts. It is a remarkable tale.

“It’s a great story and proof that innovation has potentially great rewards,” said Jolley.

“Trying to think a little bit more radically can bring great benefits, as long as there is a balance.

“One of the things I think is going to be important to us is that we’re not the biggest or richest club, so we’ve got to look for ways we can find an edge, whether that’s the strength of the relationship with our community or some of the things the first team manager does, you’ve got to look for ways to make a difference.”

So far Jolley’s coaching career has seen him working with younger players, and in that regard he could have had no better education than working under Dario Gradi at Crewe.

“I was really privileged, Dario was a huge influence,” he said.

“That club is unique because the pressure there is all about producing players. Although the first team is an important part of that process the production of players is generally the focus there.”

In the wake of another disastrous tournament for an England team, the inquest has begun into what is wrong with our national game.

Much has been made of the technical shortcomings of English players, but that isn’t something Jolley necessarily agrees with.

“I was at St George’s Park on an England DNA session, and the FA are trying to develop a more holistic approach to players,” he said.

“Not just technique, but tactical, physical and psychological too.

“For me the big one where we can improve is understanding the psychology of young players. I think we are improving in how we develop technical players, but there is a big difference between doing a passing drill really well on a training ground on a Tuesday morning, compared to doing it with 50,000 in a stadium where there is some pressure on it.

“The psychology aspect is something we need to understand better so that our young players can go into tournaments and deliver their technique under pressure.”

Delivering under pressure is something Jolley can tell Burnley’s under-21s all about. There are few more pressurised working environments than the trading floor of one of the world’s biggest banks.

“When I was trading there was a lot of pressure to produce results every single day,” he said.

“It may sound a bit clichéd but I think pressure is something you should welcome, because it means you have got an opportunity to achieve something.

“Getting the players to adopt the right mindset and embrace that pressure and see it as an opportunity is definitely something that I try and take from what I did previously to what I am doing now.”

The two careers of Michael Jolley might look to be poles apart, but this young and ambitious coach has plenty of experiences he can use to shape Burnley’s next generation.