HARTFORD, Conn. – As one of the older heads in the Southampton FC dressing room at the end of an illustrious career, it felt incumbent for Radhi Jaidi to try and pass on the lessons the game had taught him to some of the club’s younger players.

Back then his willing students were the likes of future internationals Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Morgan Schneiderlin, but that experience also proved pivotal in setting Jaidi on the path that now sees him as the Head Coach at Hartford Athletic in the USL Championship

“They always gave me the opportunity to say to them, ‘OK, you need to work on this, and you need to do this,’ and those were little triggers for them to keep working on those things,” Jaidi told the New England Soccer Journal’s Jason York. “Nigel Adkins was the manager. He felt because even my feedback to him was pretty transparent and helped him, he asked if I thought of being around football players as a coach or someone like that.

“That’s when it struck me in my head, and I said, ‘OK, I’m going to go and start my coaching courses.’ And then from there, it built up and I started to build my process to be a coach.”

Jaidi’s new charges had yet to take the field when the 2020 Championship season was suspended days before their season-opener against the New York Red Bulls II due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As with all clubs, the Athletic continue to try and stay sharp while training under social distancing protocols. In the bigger picture, however, Jaidi is aiming to add more building blocks to his own experience as a coach while also laying the foundation for an organization that will thrive on and off the field for many years to come.

“I have the will to work with the first team, and my future objective is to be at a high level working in a first-team environment,” Jaidi told York. “I think Hartford can fit perfectly into that objective in terms of the demands of the job are not just to win games but develop individuals.”

CROGNALE BROTHERS UNITE WITH LEGION: It was a signing that due to its timing shortly before the suspension of the Championship season flew under the radar, but for brothers Alex and Eli Crognale meant everything.

And, it might mean when action returns, for the first time they’ll get the chance suit up on the same team.

After a season in which he earned Horizon League All-Freshman honors for the Bruins, the opportunity came for Eli to transfer to Maryland, where he made 50 appearances and helped the Terrapins claim the 2018 College Cup as a junior. Last fall in his senior season, Eli was named to the All-Big Ten First Team and the United Soccer Coaches All-North Region Second Team, capping a tremendous rise that provided the platform to join Alex in the professional ranks.

“For Eli, him being a professional is an amazing feat and goes to show the hard work and self-belief that he’s had, because people doubted him throughout the years,” Alex told Humphries. “He’s just been proving people wrong along the way. For it to work out where we both ended up in Birmingham is pretty crazy, to be honest. Once we get back on the field together it’s going to be really cool to see how it pans out.”

NCFC PARTNERS ON COFFEE FOR A CAUSE: North Carolina FC players Nazmi Albadawi, Dre Fortune, Manny Perez, and DJ Taylor will be featured on a co-branded coffee blend released on Wednesday in collaboration with Larry’s Coffee named “Possession”. Larry’s Coffee will be donating $1 from each bag of ‘Possession’ sold to the NCFC Youth Financial Aid Fund.