Former England defender Ugo Ehiogu believes creativity is vital to the future of coaching development in this country.
Ehiogu was speaking at The FA Licensed Coaches' Club Conference at St. George's Park on Saturday - an event themed with 'Developing Creativity'.
Throughout his long career with the likes of Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Glasgow Rangers, the defender lined-up alongside some of the finest talent to grace these shores and he says it's important to encourage that talent to excel.
Ehiogu said: "It's important that teams still have that little bit of individualism and players can express themselves as we don't ever want to take that away from the game.
"I was lucky enough to play with Dwight Yorke for seven or eight years at Villa - and he was tremendous.
"And then when I was at Middlesbrough there was Juninho too. Sometimes you just have to sit back and admire them.
“The next step for me would be coaching someone's first team. ”
Ugo Ehiogu
"On the other hand, we also want to make goalkeeping and defending an art."
The 41-year-old is just starting out on his own coaching career path with Tottenham Hotspur's U16 squad, but events such as this weekend's conference at SGP will play a huge part in his development.
"This is the first one (coaching conference) that I have ever been to, but for me, it's the talking to other coaches afterwards that's going to be hugely beneficial," he added.
"Sharing ideas and experiences can only help our development."
Despite still being relatively new to the coaching scene, Ehiogu is clearly ambitious to progress his career further.
"The next step for me would be stepping up and coaching someone's first team.
"At the moment I'm around good football people, and I'm still learning and picking stuff up.
"As long as I can continue to do that I'm happy, but if an opportunity arises then it's a decision I'll have to make."
