Wednesday 30 September 2015

English colleges system playing it's part?

Playing football everyday is an unbelievable privilege.

I was fortunate enough to be on a sixth form programme where I trained four times a week, sandwiching in a game on Wednesdays, and played to a good standard as well.  Once you reach sixteen it is very easy to stop playing football entirely so the idea of increasing your playing opportunities is incredibly enticing. What better way is there to spend two or three years of your life, than doing something you love?

Me (central behind ball) playing at Birmingham
City's training ground
The sixth form course I enrolled on (a BTEC Level 3 Diploma) led me on to my university course, while I also had access to complete other qualifications that I could add to my CV and improve my skills for working in the football industry. Whats more, I had some amazing experiences (overnight away trips, tour abroad, visiting academies) that I will hold with me for the rest of my life and made me a better person for them. It was fascinating to see the change in people you met at sixteen that I saw a completely different person in them two or three years later.

There are people I now know, and I am sure this is the case elsewhere too, that have been afforded the opportunity to go to university that a few years back the thought may not even have slightly attracted them. Even though I am a fairly academic person, I was not sure myself what I could do or where I could go that would benefit me when asked about my next step.

Vardy - Stocksbridge Park Steels to England Senior team
Across the country now there are various similar programmes offering males and females leaving secondary school the opportunity to combine their studies with playing football and this system is producing some exceptional footballers out of it. From my course alone, Britt Assombalonga has now had millions of pounds spent on him by Nottingham Forest and Peterborough United. I was fortunate enough myself to play in an incredible team in my second year of my course, where we romped to the league title playing stunning football and scored over one hundred goals.

Players from that team are now at Huddersfield (on the bench for the first team just last week) and Sheffield United, whilst others have gone onto play in the USA, the Phillipines and Australia and a few more are fluttering around different non league sides, who I'm sure will get their break at some point. I have heard more stories of other sixth form programmes that have had players sign with professional clubs or go on trial with them, so it is clear this is the case nationwide rather than just a one off.

So not only is this system developing people through football, by offering the chances of social mobility, a better living, a career for these young men and women but it is also a structure that is helping to develop the game of football too. These courses can be seen as potential source of revenue for some clubs, or can improve their squad by finding players missed out by the talent identification system in this country, and believe me there are many.

We have already seen the rises of Charlie Austin and Jamie Vardy to the top level, so who is to say there will not be more late developers with a big impact?



Saturday 12 September 2015

Make this grassroots season your best yet!

As coaches, volunteers, officials and parents we will all be gearing up for the new season in grassroots football. Along the way there will be thrills, tears, highs, lows and most certainly rain. But we don’t ever regret it, do we?

I thought I would share some of the ways I hope we can make this year the best yet.

 Started on a positive note with the parents

Ask a coach or volunteer in children’s football about what pains them most during the season and quite often the response will be “parents”! But it doesn’t have to be that way. Reinforce the expected standards of behaviour and club values with a pre-season meeting. This can simply be after a training session, before the first game or at an organised event but doing this gives a clear and honest communication with the parents of the children at your club. And if you do have the parent who ‘knows the game’ or is living their dreams through their offspring, then the likelihood is that when they see the expectations you hold for them, they won’t stick around for too long.

     Create a safe and pressure free environment for the kids

Only when your players feel absolutely comfortable can you see their potential unfurl in front of you. Ever had the child who is fantastic in training who fails to produce come the match day. It is quite possible that they are feeling under pressure. Do you have a ‘win at all costs’ philosophy? Is there a rivalry between the two teams even before kick off? Are the sets of parents rowdy and expectant? Create a safe environment by reminding the children they are here to enjoy themselves and learn, encourage pre-match handshakes, install a respect barrier!

      Have you download the Kick It Out app?

This can lead on from my last point. Have you ever been at a game where you have seen an incident, involving a form of discrimination, that is simply unacceptable but you do not know whether to take action, or how to? As a player previously, in particular, and as a coach now I have experienced that feeling. These can appear at games or training sessions, and can be quite overt or come in more subtle forms. If you have not seen it already, the Kick it Out app has a report function, where you can make a complaint in a very concise and simple way. It also has the option to evidence your complaint with a photo or video attachment. Importantly, you can have complete confidentiality. The app covers ninety five percent of smartphones, so what is to lose by downloading the application? Discrimination is still rife in the game of football and we can help set an example in grassroots football that it will not be tolerated.

     Listen to the children!

Empowering and giving ownership can be a great way to inspire confidence from your players. And what’s more, you might learn something along the way! As Club Welfare Officer at a grassroots club in London, this year I decided to work with the younger teams to devise a new code of conduct. A lot of what they talked about was in fact already in the previous documents, but there were some valuable insights which we will be implementing into the new codes of conducts. It has also showed that we value their opinions and that we trust them to help with making such key decisions.

     Be the best you can be for your players

Nearly all coaches within grassroots football are volunteers, and have full time jobs they have to focus on. I can appreciate that, having been there myself as well as studying. That said, we should still strive to be the best version of ourselves when coaching or volunteering. Attending courses organised and take place through the Football Association can be fantastic for learning (particularly the Youth Modules, which I advise any coach to enrol on to) but are quite costly and difficult to find places on. Simply preparing and evaluating can help your children make the most of training and matches.
     
     
We can't all be like Jose
     
Stay off the pitch!

Okay, so this is just a bug bear of mine and even I have found myself stood a couple of yards on the pitch and asked “what am I doing?” To me, coaches who constantly stand on the pitch are not making any positive difference whatsoever. It can be intimidating (for your players, the opposition and the official), it shows a lack of self-control and quite simply, you might get in the way! Taking a few steps backwards will not harm your view, in fact it may improve it.

And those are just six of the ways that we can strive to keep improving the state of grassroots football. There are even more, that I'm sure you have in mind, to add to the great job those involved are doing year in year out. 



Tuesday 1 September 2015

Are football fans addicted to transfers?

It is safe to say that money has become a rather important factor in football. Little else sums up contemporary football better than how much money there is in the sport. Logic suggests that with more money than other clubs, you increase your chances of tempting their talented footballers to yours. In addition, with more money being offered, the selling club can happily profit from or reinvest the transfer fees they receive for those players. This is not always the case of course but the general feeling is that with enough finance, clubs can get the man they want.
For whatever reason yellow is the theme of transfer deadline day

Young players are able to demand transfers, in the tender years of their careers, in order to force a move to more successful clubs. Those clubs can hoover up the best talent from across the country (with the help of EPPP - for another time), because the initial money they spend is pocket changes to them. And we lap it all up. 

Football is evermore becoming a ruthless business, with the fans baying for blood when results are not how they would like them to be. There is a desire to compete at the highest level by clubs and their fans, for differing reasons, in equal proportion. For the clubs themselves, the revenue and broadcasting rights (in England in particular) bring untold riches. The gap between the richest and the poorer clubs is increasing year after year and if clubs do not act quickly and smartly, they will be the ones left behind. For the fans, Champions League football has developed into the pinnacle of elite football, the holy grail you might say. Unless you support clubs who play in the elite competitions your view is worth less than others. Fans of lower league clubs might even now have a 'second team', one that is successful and have easy access to via TV or the internet.

And the simple solution to improving a team, or increasing their chances of winning, is seen as signing new players. 'Fresh blood', 'competition for places'. It is an easy thing to suggest, and easy for the head coach,  rather than actually doing their job than improving the players they have at their disposal (Harry Redknapp, I'm looking at you). And with this culture of the 'armchair expert', such is the amount of football fans can access nowadays, it is simpler to suggest new players than how the team can improve individually and collectively, on the training ground. After one signing is made attention can immediately turn to another position in the team that needs 'strengthening'. And this leads to the question I ask in this blog: are football fans addicted to transfers?

Such is the hype around transfers that adults will unashamedly admit to booking a day off work for the final day of the transfer window so that they can slouch on sofa, eagerly anticipating whichever bizarre way Jim White chooses to announce himself to the Sky studios with his bright yellow tie for all to see. White can be thankful to the career boost from the fanfare around transfers as he has become something of a cult hero, presenting as the face of transfer deadline day.

A transfer deadline day "classic"
What is it about making new signings that the fans just love? A club rarely makes outstanding signings 100% of the time, with no guarantee on the outcome of any deal. Regardless, it is greeted as a sign of ambition, and that is important to many within the game. Some signings can be just as much about of being seen to mean business than even improving the first team.

Could it be argued that in England this thirst for fresh faces affects the development of our home grown talent? Not in the typically argued 'them bloody foreigners' way but that, in general, if a club feels the need to continuously replenish their playing staff, how on earth can young players stake their claim for a first team place? Without that initial opportunity, how can we know whether we are producing the talent that we are told is not being developed after every international tournament failure?

Not that signing new players is bad, far from it. A good signing can dramatically improved a team's performances and have a positive effect. However there are just as many cases were deals are seen as 'flops' that have blocked off the chance for someone else, already at the club, to step up and show their worth.

I'm not sure how the amount of players that are brought into a club within one window can be slowed down, or if it ever will! Whether there are too many transfers between clubs, and too much money thrown around, is all very subjective anyway. A more cautious approach by any club would be met with riots! With the impact social media now has news travels at incredible speed, fans are desperate to be the first to find out and stay in the loop, and that shows no signs of slowing either.