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Interview by Sarah Malone

Dr Conall Murtagh, the First-Team Fitness Coach at Liverpool FC, will soon be celebrating a decade working with the English Premier League club.

Murtagh joined as a sports scientist while studying for his PhD in 2012. He then became the Fitness Coach for the men’s under-18s in 2014, and joined Head Coach Jürgen Klopp’s staff in early 2016. His tenure with the first team coincides with one of the most successful spells in the club’s history.

“When you come through the door each day there is a desire and expectation to be world-class,” he tells the Leaders Performance Institute. “Working under this philosophy is the ultimate motivation for me.”

Recipe for success

Liverpool, who won the League Cup and FA Cup this season, have played the maximum number of games possible – 63 in total and the most of all teams in the Premier League – the first time an English team has competed in every possible match in a single season since Liverpool themselves completed the feat during their FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup-winning 2000-2001 campaign.

The Reds ended the season with almost a full complement of players thanks to the work of Klopp and his multidisciplinary staff which includes Murtagh, a former footballer himself and UEFA A Licence-qualified coach. It is a demanding environment. Murtagh’s fascination with sports science and physiology began long before his own playing days.

“I was obsessed with how the human body worked, particularly how it responded to training and games. That led me down the study of physiology and then sport science. When I was playing as a professional, I had no real knowledge of sports science until I started studying and playing semi-professionally. The individual response to training always intrigued me. How the day after the same session, some players would turn up fresh as a daisy, while others arrived feeling sore and stiff. We could also all do the same gym intervention programmes and yet some players’ sprint or jump performance would shoot through the roof, while others’ stayed the same.”

Murtagh believes that different players inherently have different capacities for physiological adaptation from physical workload. Therefore, they require a stimulus tailored to their individual needs in real-time; something that is very difficult to provide consistently in a team sport environment. That is the challenge Murtagh embraces, as he and the wider staff strive to keep all squad members in peak condition.

Zone7 adoption

Liverpool, much like any Premier League club, has an array of player monitoring and intervention tools at their disposal. For the 2021/22 Premier League season they have also enlisted Zone7, a data-driven artificial intelligence risk forecasting system, to support their development of personalised player workload management processes.

The collaboration, amongst many other important cutting-edge processes adopted at Liverpool, has been a success. Under the watch of club practitioners, Liverpool’s first team – according to Premier Injuries – have seen a 33% drop in days lost to injury this season compared to last. When narrowed to ‘substantial’ injuries (long absences marked by 9+ consecutive days lost), this drop increases to 40%. Goalkeeper and illness-related absences are excluded from the breakdown.

In essence, Zone7 empowers human decision-makers who oversee athlete workloads. These professionals are often tasked with making recommendations in highly pressurised situations. By analysing the extensive, disparate datasets generated and collected in elite sporting environments, Zone7 can detect injury risk patterns that may otherwise be invisible. In some instances, it can go a step further by making proactive recommendations to mitigate the identified injury risk. Importantly, Zone7 will often suggest increasing workloads in particular areas to lower risk. Reducing workloads or simply prescribing rest is not always the right solution.

“We know that adaptation for the human body is a dynamic process,” says Murtagh. “Every time the player performs a training stimulus we must reassess their body’s adaptation balance.”

“As a multidisciplinary team, we assess every player every day. Zone7’s AI works alongside our extensive internal monitoring processes by effectively identifying more complex data patterns that could indicate whether a player has good rhythm or has deviated from it. If our monitoring system identifies that the player is not in optimal rhythm, we intervene accordingly from a multidisciplinary perspective.”

The productive use of Zone7 requires pragmatism. No credible AI solution will claim it is correct all the time and periodic false flags are a natural consequence. Murtagh, however, is unfazed.

“You can never say [a Zone7 risk alert] is a false positive when you’re flagging the player,” he says. “Some players do receive flags and we do not detect anything to suggest they are at an elevated risk. There is such a fine line between someone getting injured or not, we try to identify when the player has sub-optimal rhythm and we intervene appropriately.”

Zone7’s data science team has evolved their solution this year by introducing a new ‘Workload-Simulator’ component, which enables practitioners like Murtagh to input projected workloads and simulate players’ future injury risk in advance.

“The thing I like most about Zone7 is that they’re constantly updating the algorithm, constantly evolving, constantly on the front foot in this field,” added Murtagh. “To have the AI working in our environment to support our internal monitoring system gives us a certain sense of safety around our player management recommendations. The simulator is a brilliant feature, which will be used more and more as the system evolves.”

With a full season behind them, and tangible success metrics to point to, Liverpool and Zone7 have extended their working engagement by another two years, a move that also includes Zone7 adoption across the Liverpool Women’s and Under-23 teams. Rich Buchanan, Zone7 Performance Director, says that “working with Murtagh and Liverpool FC is hugely important to Zone7. It shows that our technology, in the hands of progressive and experienced practitioners, can exist and evolve, in one of the world’s most elite sporting environments.”

By Sarah Evans

Real Madrid Head Coach Carlo Ancelotti is the first coach to have won each of Europe’s five major leagues.

On Saturday, he will also attempt to win the Uefa Champions League for the fourth time as a coach (to go with the two he won as a player with AC Milan). His track record is all the more remarkable given his longevity. The La Liga title he won with Real earlier this month comes 18 years after his Serie A triumph with Milan.

Here, the Leaders Performance Institute explores five attributes that explain why Ancelotti is still at the top of his game.

1. Ever the democrat

Ancelotti states that his leadership style stems from his character. He is a democrat that doesn’t like to simply impose his way of being on others. “My style is not to impose,” he told the Leaders Performance Institute in 2015. It is a belief to which he holds firm. “I would like to convince the players of what they are doing”. He believes that this way of operating earns him the buy-in of the players, which means they are more likely to get behind him and give their all, rather than if things were simply forced upon them. This approach also makes the players accountable. Ancelotti will often ask the players tactical questions and opinions on the match strategy, knowing that they will understand the strategy more if they’ve been involved in the decision-making process. He wants the environment to be that of adult to adult, and allows players and staff to have opinions, feel valued, and help in designing both the vision and the strategy of the team.

2. Process over outcome

Win or lose on Saturday, Ancelotti always analyses his methods systematically, and if his team have lost but knows he couldn’t have done anything else to change it, then he is able to compartmentalise the defeat. It is this process, rather than outcome, focus which makes him so consistent. Perhaps his most notable loss was the 2005 Champions League Final against Liverpool in Istanbul. His team at the time, Milan, were leading 3-0 at half-time, but Liverpool pulled off one of the most historic comebacks in football history and eventually won the match on penalties. However, Ancelotti was seen chatting cheerily in the bar later that night. He believed his team had played well and so didn’t dwell on the defeat.

3. A cultural chameleon

Ancelotti – who has coached some of Europe’s most illustrious teams, including Milan, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid (across two spells) – stresses the importance of getting to know the characteristics of players, the culture and traditions of a club, and then integrates his leadership style within that. Even if something has made him very successful at one club, he won’t just come in and assert that style on another. Ancelotti understands that there are many cultural differences from club to club and within different countries, and he has to adapt his style to get the best out of the players and team he is currently at.

4. Humility and professionalism

He has won almost everything as player and coach, yet he still wants to listen to what you have to say. People enjoy talking to him, he values what they say and that helps him build relationships with the athletes. He is the ultimate professional and has an unquestionable desire to win, which makes him so well-respected. He protects the team from the stressors of elite football by not showing the pressure he’s under. He takes the situation – but not himself – seriously, and can often be found telling jokes in the changing rooms before a big game to help diffuse the pressure.

5. A refreshing sense of perspective

Ancelotti has a strong sense of the big picture. He has the ability to take daily updates of physical, mental and emotional energy levels of people and align them with the group’s daily needs, as well as the team’s overall season objectives. By ‘staying in the moment’ with individuals, he is able to prepare for and think about the bigger picture. As he said: “football is the most important of the less important things in the world.”

By John Portch

One thing is clear: diversity is a competitive edge and EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] is an area where all teams can be doing better.

Kevin Yusuf Coleman, the former Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Brentford FC [now the Diversity & Inclusion Lead at the BBC Studios], is speaking at November’s Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London. The English Premier League club have been noted for their work in delivering upon their EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] goals.

At the top of the conversation, he highlights the findings of some research conducted by management consultancy firm McKinsey. “If you’re in the top quartile of gender and ethnicity you’re about 25-30 percent [more profitable],” says Yusuf Coleman. “Just in terms of pure cash, if you’re a more diverse and inclusive organisation you do better, as well as it being the right thing to do.”

In this chapter, through Yusuf Coleman’s words, we highlight four factors to consider when trying to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.

1. EDI must be intrinsic

Yusuf Coleman emphasises that EDI must be part of your cultural identity, not just some add-on, which is all too common. “I’ve spent most of my life in sport trying to justify why EDI was a good idea and it was really refreshing to come to an organisation where it was already front and centre,” he says of a club situated in one of London’s most diverse areas. “It was already one of our two biggest priorities and it was more how we do it than why.

“It makes logical sense for us to have an understanding of having an inclusive environment for staff to work in, an inclusive offer for our fans and players and wider communities. It makes perfect business sense as well as being the right thing to do.”

2. Accountability is key

As Yusuf Coleman says, every staff appraisal at Brentford includes a section on EDI accountability. “If everyone is accountable then they will make it relevant to them.” Equally, your staff and athletes can play a fundamental role in bringing EDI to life. “You never design a programme, or anything that’s supposed to help any particular community without them being part of it.”

EDI can also be tracked. “It has to be something physically practical that you can measure so it means something to everyone, otherwise it is a slogan and when the next CEO comes in there will be another slogan and another acronym.”

Yusuf Coleman recalls his time as Equality & Diversity Manager at the Football Association [FA]. “We had monthly poll surveys where you had lots of questions around inclusion and belonging and you looked at how much people strongly believed in them or slightly believed in them and how that changed every month. And actually, over a period of two years, you saw the change in how people feel about the organisation. You have to be clever about things you normally can’t measure and it can feel like fluffy clouds, but you have to find a way to try and measure them.”

3. Create experiential learning opportunities for staff

“EDI, to really get it, you have to understand it and feel it,” says Yusuf Coleman. “People from diverse communities, from under-represented communities who might have experienced discrimination, for example, will understand it more because of life experience. And if you’re from the majority, if you’re a white middle-aged man like me, you don’t have those experiences to inform you.”

Experiential learning is a crucial tool. “We all talk about the ‘70:20:10 rule’ where if you experience something it’s much more impactful, especially around EDI,” he continues.

During his time at the FA, Yusuf Coleman arranged for a staff visit to the Neasden Temple, which is about 2km from Wembley Stadium but not a place most staff had visited. “[It’s about] being creative and helping people to experience diversity and inclusion for themselves is going to be more impactful than paying for corporate trainer a lot of money to come in with a white board for a few hours.”

4. You never succeed at EDI

Yusuf Coleman clear on that point. “You never succeed at EDI – no one is ever successful,” he says, adding that organisations should revisit their EDI strategy every two to three years. “You might be more ambitious in three years’ time or you might revisit the same thing. Never think of it as something you’re going to achieve. It’s ‘are our indicators good? Are we ahead of society? Are we leading society? Can we be seen as good practice or are we flagging behind?’ That’s really your only two litmus tests. As businesses, you don’t have to be more diverse than society, you don’t have to hit every target, one thing that’s really key is being humble and knowing where you are.”

By Sarah Evans

Framing the topic

This was session one of our three-part Performance Support Series focusing on the overarching theme of talent development, with the title ‘Synchronising Player & Coach Development’. Across these sessions, which are being hosted by Edd Vahid, Assistant Academy Director at English Premier League club Southampton FC, the aim is to understand the challenges faced during transitions for talent, whether this be players or coaches, and explore a number of interventions to positively influence this in your environments.

Understanding the challenge

• When we say ‘challenge’ within this session, it means the transition of players through the pathway from academy to seniors.
• First and foremost its crucial to understand what these challenges are in relation to transition.
• The challenge of transition is at the heart of most sporting visions.
  • UK Sport – ‘Keep winning and winning well’ places a requirement on young athletes to have an impact on the senior stage.
  • Southampton – ‘Be the Number One Player Developer in Football’

 Aims of the session

1. Provoke thinking on player/athlete transitions
2. Create space(s) to reflect on existing approaches and challenges
3. Explore the utility of several sense-making models
4. Encourage a commitment to action

Discussion points

How effectively is your club / organisation facilitating the transition of an talented academy player to first-team player? Or in turn, how are you facilitating the transition of talent coaches within your environment?

Pre-Mortem: Your highest potential academy player / coach does not transition into the first team / elite environment. What would have contributed to this outcome?

• Opportunity: pathway, lack of bumps in the road, long-term injury.
• Competition: insufficient game time, too much expectation, mentality.
• Assessment: coaches decisions, selector bias, positional decisions.
• Differences between professional sport and Olympic sport, and individual vs team sports.
• Pressure to win games now, focuses on short term rather than a longer term developmental outlook.

Performance = Potential – Interference (Timothy Gallwey)

The reality of transitions is that they’re a zero sum game, meaning that if someone makes the step up into the senior team, someone else will move out of that space.

Challenges in creating effective transitions

• Recognising the landscape or ecosystem you operate in.
• The tension that exists between the first team environment, which naturally prioritises a shorter term focus, than a development environment that has a longer term outlook and possibly greater stability.
• Trust and Empathy: the heart of talent development work is trying to influence the trust that the senior staff have.
• Vision: the aligned vision between the first team and academy. Club’s vision led by board must have buy-in across the organisation.
• Individualised element: everyone’s pathway is so different, so it’s important to create a system that acknowledges that individuality.
• Ensuring there are aligned processes between the various stages of the pathway.

Sense Making Models : Pierre Bourdieu – Habitus, Field, Capital

• Habitus: ‘The Individual’, a product of their history, influenced by a multitude of factors. Their history will influence how they perceive, how they think and ultimately how they behave moving forwards. Are we preparing these individuals to be a ‘fish in water’ in the senior teams?
• Field: e.g. The training complex. A social arena where people compete for resources and demonstrate their power. The new ‘field’ establishes the ‘rules of the game’ and the individual must adapt if they want to succeed. This could be their attitude at training, their image, where they sit in the changing room etc. How well are we preparing them to make a good first impression?
• Capital: The currency that is going to influence success – physical qualities, cultural qualities, reputation you come with.

How well do we know our players’ Habitus? Their History?

How well do we understand the Field, and the Capital required to succeed?

Task: What are the key influences on the First Team ‘Field’? For example, the pressure to win on Saturday?

70% of behaviour is determined by our environment. Therefore if most behaviour is understandable then we need to understand where the behaviour comes from.

Understanding the landscape – O’Sullivan, Bespomoshchnov and Mallett (2021)

• Microsystem: the immediate environment – e.g. an individual playing in the academy.
• Mesosystem: the interconnection of settings – e.g. interconnection of academy and senior team. Things that can influence this are the managerial tenure, which in football on average is 18 months, financial incentives, and the average age of players in the senior team.
• Exosystem: the broader context – e.g. the Premier League, with many players being brought in from overseas, player contract length, and the transfer spend of the club.
• Macrosystem: cultural elements – e.g. the role of the media and social media.

In summary:

1. Successful transitions are critical to our talent development aspirations.
2. Understanding the transition challenge precedes intervention.
3. The transition challenge is influenced by factors that exist on multiple levels.

“There’s a tension there that exists between knowing what you’re going to cover and responding to the humans that are in front of you,” said Iain Brunnschweiler, the Head of Technical Development at English Premier League club Southampton FC.

“We’ve tried to evolve a curriculum, a player development framework, that manages that tension. We want to cover specific topics and we also want to coach the player that’s in front of us.”

Brunnschweiler was speaking onstage at Leaders Meet: Coach & Player Development on the 24 March at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, where he was joined by England Netball Head Coach Jess Thirlby to discuss the progress being made in coach and player development.

During the session, which was moderated by Dan Clements, the Performance Coach Manager at Wales Rugby Union, the duo discussed:

• Why curriculums need to be carefully implemented [3:00];
• The value in playbooks and the implications for creativity [12:00];
• The most meaningful learning experiences they provide [16:00];
• Finding work-life balance [24:00].

John Portch: Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

A Industry Insight brought to you by our partners Science in Sport.

“I always say: everyone is always excited for someone else to change,” says Jeremy Bettle, with a wry smile. “It’s always difficult when you have to deliver that to the person who has to change.”

The Performance Director at MLS champions New York City FC is the first guest on the Science in Sport Industry Insight podcast series, where he joins the Leaders Performance Institute Editor John Portch and Science in Sport’s Director of Performance Solutions James Morton to discuss his first season at the club, which culminated in the championship.

Bettle spoke to the pair about his arrival in the Big Apple, with Morton sharing from his own experiences of working with seven-time Tour de France winners Team Sky/INEOS Grenadiers and in English Premier League football.

Also on the conversational agenda were:

• Why Bettle feels he has not always handled change management well in the past [4:00];
• The difference between comfort and complacency in winning teams [14:00];
• The reasons why people management are often at the centre of innovation [20:00];
• Why enjoyment should be a practitioner’s personal priority [22:00];
• Reflective practice and how different questions can change mindsets [29:00].

James Morton: Twitter | LinkedIn

John Portch: Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

By Edd Vahid

Fifa describe the transition from talented academy player to first team regular as a ‘delicate phase’. The term ‘delicate’ arguably underplays the challenges characterising this period.

Whilst many young players harbour dreams of playing Premier League football, the well-publicised reality is reserved for a minority. Enhancing the existing transition rate remains a priority for most academies and requires a collaborative approach engaging key internal and external stakeholders.

Before exploring existing and future interventions, an awareness of the current landscape is important.  According to the Football Observatory, during the first half of the current season (2021-22) the average age of a Premier League player has been 27.16 years old with only 4.2 per cent of these players younger than 21 years old. Significantly, 59.5 per cent of players currently plying their trade in the Premier League would be considered expatriates (i.e., their origin exists outside of England) who have been secured on lucrative and often long-term contracts (the average stay in a Premier League club is 37 months).

A gross transfer spend of £1.4 billion by Premier League clubs during the two available transfer windows this season, significantly eclipses the €380 million combined outlay by clubs in La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany) and Ligue 1 (France), and reflects a generally positive trend in expenditure since 2003. These insights arguably highlight a league that present limited opportunities and favour more experienced players. Young players are competing for game time with the finest players in the world. This clearly represents a challenging landscape for young players with Premier League aspirations, and clubs with a desire to facilitate the transition of academy graduates.

The challenges evident on the pitch are often further exacerbated by an incentivised short-term focus and instability that can characterise off-pitch activity. Indeed, in 2021, Statista reviewed the average tenure of Premier League managers in the past ten seasons. According to the report, the average tenure at Southampton Football Club (accurate as of 08.11.21) during this period was 513 days. Our current Manager, Ralph Hasenhüttl, has surpassed more than 1000 days in post and offered a stability that encourages a more future-oriented outlook. Coupled with the financial incentives available when winning games, managers might understandably prioritise short-term results. Arguably, young players may require time before delivering game impactful performances at a Premier League level. Clubs must negotiate this tension, and there is evidence of positive progress in the past decade.

Despite the challenging context, since the inception of the Premier League-led Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) in 2012 a positive increase in home grown talent is evident. Notably, last season young English players were securing significant game time domestically and in European competition relative to their homegrown counterparts in the big five leagues (i.e., Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1). Specifically, English under 23 players ranked second for domestic minutes (behind France) and first in Uefa club competitions. Given the challenges presented, this represents a positive return and evidence of sustained progress.

Whilst clubs must ultimately take responsibility to review their pathway and explore ways to improve the transition rate of young academy players, organisations occupying leadership roles in the wider footballing ecosystem (e.g., leagues and governing bodies) represent important collaborative partners.  For clubs, a clear and agreed vision, the existence of trust and empathy, underpinned by aligned processes responsive to an individual’s needs, appear to represent necessary elements. Firstly, an ownership and board-led long-term vision that acknowledges the club’s youth development aspirations is critical. A clear and agreed vision importantly provides a framework for decision making. If youth development is prioritised, this should have clear implications and evident impact on the decisions related to player transfers, contracts, and general investment.

Creating a viable pathway for talented young players is important. Victor Orta, the Director of Football at Leeds United Football Club, recently highlighted a policy that protects space in the squad for young players. The approach represents a deliberate attempt to create a pathway that facilitates the development of homegrown players. Separately, during a 365-day period commencing in February 2021 our first team played 40 games in the Premier League. These fixtures were fulfilled with the use of 32 players, a figure broadly reflective of the average across the league. Significantly, more than a third (n = 11) of these players would be considered academy graduates; each player accruing varying levels of game time and sustained activity with the first team.

Given the relatively short tenure of a head coach or manager, it is vital that clubs employ guardians of their philosophy. Radically Traditional studied organisations who have enjoyed sustained success.  These ‘centennial’ organisations, as they termed them, were characterised by two distinct headline features, namely a stable core and a disruptive edge. A new manager arguably provides the disruptive edge that is necessary to evolve. This might involve changes to a playing style or training methodology. Complemented by a stability that safeguards an organisation’s identity, this represents a formidable partnership for progression. An instable core where purpose and identity are frequently negotiated ultimately creates confusion and inhibits continuity.

Deploying strategies that help support the development of trust between an academy and first team is vital. In his 2006 book Speed of Trust: the one thing that changes everything, Stephen R Covey considered trust a function of character and competence. In a transitional space this has implications for both staff and players. Senior academy staff and first team personnel must develop relationships embodying trust. An absence of trust will be debilitating and potentially impact the opportunities presented to young players. Whilst character arguably exists on an individual level, competence can emerge from a shared understanding of player development and potential. A shared understanding is often the product of a regular dialogue, which effectively serves to calibrate people’s views of individual players. This might involve discussing match performances and sharing training observations. Importantly, frequent feedback amongst staff operating in the transitional phase (i.e., academy and first team) should help enhance a player’s experience by clearly identifying agreed areas for development.

Empathy is closely intertwined with trust. It is important that both parties (i.e., academy and first team) appreciate and seek to understand their respective challenges. It is also important to acknowledge the inevitable tensions that exist. For example, an academy affords a time and space that is rarely available to a first team, which is under constant scrutiny from media and fans. Results in a first team setting represent the essential currency and this can conflict with the developmental needs of transitioning players. Arsène Wenger described management as ‘living on a volcano’, presumably in acknowledgement of the intensity and uncertainty inherent in the profession. Michael Calvin later adopted this phrase as the title for his 2015 book Living on the volcano: the secrets of surviving as a football manager, which provides an insight into the challenges experienced by managers. The competing tensions further emphasise the necessity for a vision that transcends a pathway and the importance of a clearly defined and stable club purpose.

The partnership between academy and first team staff is helpfully supported by aligned processes. This might include similar playing styles and approaches to set plays, which are designed to minimise turbulence during this critical transition. Indeed, our B team model at Southampton was introduced under this premise. The B team are philosophically aligned with the first team, operating a playbook that encourages a consistency in approaches to training and games. Ideally, individual development plans for the highest potential players are co-created amongst selected first team and academy staff. This should ensure a common language is deployed and a shared understanding of the demands and expectations evolves. Additionally, a schedule that permits regular opportunities for academy players (and staff) to observe and participate in first team training provides an important benchmark for performance. In recent seasons this has more formally involved a season-long sabbatical for selected members of the senior academy coaching team. Importantly, these interventions should help determine the training and competition needs of each individual player.

Facilitating a successful transition from senior academy player to first team player is difficult. However, this difficulty can be mitigated if an ownership-led and collectively agreed vision promoting young players is supported with an infrastructure characterised by the interdependent features of trust and empathy. As previously mentioned, each club is ultimately responsible for supporting the development of their players and creating conditions that enhance an individual’s progress. However, clubs operate within a broader ecosystem, and it is important to acknowledge the important role of leagues and associations. For example, the Premier League and Football League have effectively collaborated to provide young players an opportunity to feature in competitive fixtures against senior teams. The initiative, introduced during the 2016-17 season, invites senior academy teams to participate in the Football League Trophy. This opportunity complements the under-23 fixture programme and adds to the breadth of experiences that are necessary to prepare young players for the challenges evident in the senior game. Whilst it has not been universally accepted, the intent is clear and should be recognised.

The Premier League have previously reported the valuable role that a loan experience can have in a young player’s development. Specifically, there is evidence to indicate that a loan (or multiple loans) can provide a helpful platform preceding future Premier League appearance milestones. Whilst causality could be speculated and is likely to be individually determined, it is important that a loan system permits an appropriate degree of flexibility. A scenario where a young player has restricted playing opportunities and is locked into a loan experience for several months is counterproductive for all parties.

It will also be interesting to observe how the re-introduction of a rule permitting clubs to make five substitutions during Premier League fixtures will impact young player’s next season. Clubs will continue to be able to name a total of nine substitutes in their match day Premier League squad. Whilst intuitively this appears to present more opportunities, clubs must be mindful of an unintended consequence that could see young players deprived of meaningful game time and restricted to the role of an observer. This further emphasises the importance of detailed individual development plans with clubs ensuring their highest potential players are exposed to the appropriate training and match stimulus during a critical stage of their development.

Gareth Southgate recently called up 26 players to the England international squad in preparation for fixtures against Switzerland and Ivory Coast. The initial squad comprised players from 15 different teams, with individual development histories reflecting the diversity in transitioning experiences. A minority of the group have enjoyed Premier League opportunities as a teenager with their parent club, transitioning seamlessly following their academy experience. Several have negotiated the lower leagues (as both permanent and loan players) with carefully crafted and deliberately implemented development plans. Others have enjoyed less refined journeys that have seen them respond to setbacks during the infancy of their career. Each player has a unique story, which further emphasises the importance of a footballing ecosystem that is agile, responsive, and capable of facilitating multiple pathways to a first team transition. This outlook is broadly consistent with the conclusion Fifa reached following their extensive research into the transition of talent.

Edd is one of six Leaders Performance Advisors, a group of leading performance thinkers providing more subject expertise to our member-only content and learning resources. To find out more about all our Performance Advisors, click here.

By John Portch

Brentford Head Coach Thomas Frank has been a breath of fresh air in the English Premier League, but some of his experiences are wearily familiar.

“It can be very lonely at the top,” he tells an audience at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium in November.

“My biggest thing is that I really like my family, friends and social life, and you can’t combine the two. I guess you can, but there’s no balance. So I’m constantly saying to myself to do this for maybe five more years. I’m actually on top of everything so, of course, I like to enjoy the Premier League and I’d like to stay here and all that, but it’s tough. I love it, but it’s tough.”

Frank, if his animated touchline demeanour is anything to go by, lives for the matches at the weekend and dies by the results, so to speak. Session moderator Michael Caulfield, who works with Frank and Brentford as a psychologist, asks how he copes with the work-life balance.

“It’s really simple, actually,” begins Frank in response. “My wife, she has absolutely no interest in football. So that’s good. I have two fantastic daughters, one 19, one 15, not interested in football – especially my 19-year-old daughter – she never knows if we’re playing.” Frank clearly values the division between work and his personal life, although he also tells the audience he has a son who takes a keen interest in football.

The Dane has been the Head Coach of Brentford since 2018, when he was promoted from his role as Assistant Head Coach. Three years later his team were promoted to the Premier League, although it might have been sooner had they not lost the 2020 Championship play-off Final to Fulham. The Bees made it in the end having successfully navigated the playoffs at the second time of asking last May.

As he takes to the stage, Frank has been a Premier League Head Coach for a little over three months and was still coming to terms with the increased scrutiny. “The media circus is totally insane,” he tells the audience. “I’m so happy I’m not on social media – I don’t know if any of you are – I will say get rid of it. It’s not worth it.”

Controlling the hurricane

Brentford made a positive start to life in the top tier. Their opening day defeat of Arsenal at their new Community Stadium was quickly followed by a creditable home draw with Liverpool and the Bees looked at home in the Premier League. Before the clocks had gone back observers were citing their success as vindication of their data-informed approach to performance under the owner Matthew Benham.

Frank had been identified by the club as a coach able to give life to their values when he was appointed Dean Smith’s assistant in 2016. He was as far removed as could be from the managerial merry-go-round that characterises English football and it’s questionable whether he would have been given a chance in the Premier League had he not been promoted with Brentford. Frank had worked with Denmark’s men’s underage teams in his homeland before taking the Head Coach’s role at Danish Superliga side Brøndby, where his tenure lasted three years.

The enthusiasm around Brentford has been tempered in some quarters by the club’s mid-season travails – not that Frank was ever carried away by the external narrative – and the west Londoners retain an excellent chance of staying up at the end of their first top-flight season since 1947. “We never say ‘stay up’, by the way – we try to achieve instead of avoid.”

Frank, who infamously lost eight of his first 10 matches in charge before building one of the best sides in the Championship, has developed a healthy self-awareness, which is just as well given the emotions he feels during matches. After 20 minutes of the 2021 play-off final, Brentford were cruising and the Premier League was within touching distance.

“I was thinking ‘have we done it? Have we done it? No! Just stay cool’,” he said, “and there’s just a hurricane inside you; and it’s for 70 minutes and it’s crazy emotions you’re feeling.”

Caulfield, who enjoys a weekly walk with Frank at Brentford’s Jersey Road training ground, asks how he controls that hurricane. “It’s very difficult. I use a lot of energy to stay calm. I’m quite an open, passionate person, but try to be very level with it. When I’m really shouting or anything I can lose my temper, of course, can I do that but very rarely. I’m aware of it and thinking about it every day.

“I think we – Michael and I – find coming in and among the staff and the players really good. We have a catch-up, walk around the training ground for half an hour. [I ask] How’s the staff? How’s the players? All the information I don’t get. Of course, confidential; so if it’s really confidential stuff I don’t get it. I talk about myself as well. I think that’s extremely important. Trying to work on your weaknesses and try to improve your strengths.”

Confident but humble

Frank, a former amateur player, turned to coaching at the age of 20. He says: “I never had a dream when I started coaching when I was 20 years old, 28 years ago, that I wanted to be a Premier League manager. Step by step, I was lucky and privileged to get all of these opportunities. I studied so much: how to be a good coach on the pitch, how to be really good at analysing games, and how to be specific in what I wanted to do.”

Frank recounts a tale from his time as Head Coach of the Denmark men’s under-17s team, a role he held between 2008 and 2012. “Back then, I analysed the game myself – I had no analyst. I got up, 5:30 in the morning, rewatched the game. It took me three and a half hours because I cut it down so that I could present the analysis to the team.”

Each player was presented with 10 clips and he spent 10 to 15 minutes evaluating those clips with each of them. “That gave them something to improve but also the way I wanted to play. So it was of course their individual development but also in their role. I wanted them to succeed. I don’t have the same time now but I have the same mindset.”

Privileged or not, there was nothing inevitable about his ascent to the Premier League but both he and Brentford made it happen. “In all kinds of sport, money is a big part of it. We speak a lot in football that money is 70 per cent and then the last 30 per cent is knowledge, culture, those margins. I think we do these 30 per cent and maybe let’s say 35 per cent unbelievably well.

“We have a fantastic group of staff where we have this unique togetherness and a really good group of players that we built over time and we’re really strong on culture. Togetherness, hard work, attitude and performance; and that’s what I try to drill into the players every single day. Two things I’ve stolen – I can say that out loud, no problem – I love the All Blacks book, Legacy, and that phrase ‘no dickheads’ – a fantastic one-liner.”

Caulfield says that he uses that a lot and Frank agrees. “You know, we only want good people and I think it’s extremely important. People need to be themselves and express themselves, but they need to think for the team and the club.”

Frank is also fond of phrase he first heard from Stuart Worden, the Principal of the BRIT School, a renowned performing arts college in South London. “His one-liner is ‘the right attitude is when you are confident but humble.’ You need to be confident, you need to trust yourself. I need to trust myself, the players need to trust themselves, but if you’re not humble for the work you need to do every single day, we can never achieve anything.”

He expresses deep affection for his players. He does not let sentiment get in the way of his decision-making but feels he can be better at having those difficult conversations, whether it is telling a player they are not playing tomorrow or that their future lies elsewhere.

“The most difficult thing is to keep everyone happy in the squad. It’s impossible and it’s breaking my heart when I can’t play some of the players who aren’t playing. But I trust my gut feeling and, you know, what I believe in, so I go with all the players. But it’s really tough to see some of them giving their all and they’re just not good enough. Maybe it’s only in my opinion, or maybe they are not good enough. You never know before they maybe move club, or I move, and see how their development is. I think that’s really tough. I haven’t found a way, I try to get around them, I try to speak to them, but that’s one of the things I’d like to do better, because it’s so important.”

It is a journey rather than a destination and Frank still “massively” enjoys developing as a coach. “I know when I was 30 I thought I knew everything, but even now I know nothing and I’m constantly trying to develop.”

His claim to know nothing is self-effacing but he is still trying to find the optimal level of control that enables his staff to grow and permits Frank himself to recharge his batteries. “If you don’t delegate then your staff never grow and you can never take a step back, I think that’s extremely important. But I just love to be hands on.” He then permits himself to future-gaze. “Maybe in 10 years I’ll back off a little bit,” he says, already doubling the five years he suggested earlier in the conversation.

As Caulfield draws the session to a close Frank shares a lesson he learned while listening to some fellow coaches at the Leaders P8 Summit the previous day. “We have a player who’s rarely playing but I think he’s so good for the culture. He’s such a culture builder, because he trains like a beast every single day. Now I think I’ll say that to him in front of everyone, when we meet in the coming days.”

By Edd Vahid

The I news recently published data that highlighted 97 per cent of former category one academy players, now aged 21-26 years old, did not make a single English Premier League appearance.

The data accounted for 4,109 players. Whilst the data can (and should) be further interrogated and contextualised, it helpfully serves as a stimulus for further discussion on what constitutes success for an academy or talent development environment.

Although player progression is a necessary and essential consideration, a broader view of success that acknowledges the reality of Premier League attainment – a CIES Football Observatory report into the world’s top 100 valued players highlighted a majority plying their trade in the Premier League – and promotes the multitude of ways that an academy can demonstrate added value is important.

Our records at Southampton indicate that a player who joins the Academy at 8 years old (the earliest point of registration) and remains in the programme until they are 17-18 years old accrue in the region of 2,500 hours of training and game activity. This figure is probably (at least) trebled when you consider time on site, travel, and other purposeful conversations.

Given the scale of commitment from a young person, their family, and a club, the notion of reducing success to a singular output is unhelpful. It is vital that judgments on success align with an established vision and respond to the expectations of the various stakeholders invested in a young person’s development. These stakeholders are incredibly diverse and demand insight from a performance (or player progression), financial, parental, educational and holistic perspective. Additionally, it is important that system wide markers of success complement individual stories. A system committed to supporting individuals must ensure each unique story is celebrated and prominent in discussions regarding success.

Supplementing holistic development

Whilst multiple variables contribute to the footballing progression of each individual, several tangible performance milestones are often used to define success. These milestones are broadly reflective of the pathway that players are required to negotiate. In ascending order this might involve securing an academy registration, successfully transitioning between phases, the attainment of a scholarship, and securing a professional contract. These milestones generally precede a professional debut and the subsequent accumulation of appearances (and future contracts) at various levels of the game. On paper, this progression is presented in a linear fashion. The reality is certainly less straightforward, with a challenging pathway creating a series of experiences that can supplement a young person’s holistic development.

As a club we have established targets for the previously mentioned milestones. These targets reflect a projection of future success, are generally updated on a three-year cycle, and agreed in consultation with our Board. Explicitly aligning expectations between relevant stakeholders (e.g., Academy staff and Club Board) is critical and should encourage a collaborative strategy that supports success. For example, if a club promote a commitment to supporting young players transitioning into the first team, this must be reflected in the infrastructure and resources allocated. The targets serve as a useful reference that provide a basis for review and reflection. Additionally, these targets should help inform future strategy and investment. Whilst these targets are shared with and available to staff, the focus remains on the processes that are designed to ensure, in Bill Walsh terms, the scores take care of itself!

Academies: a positive financial investment

At the present time, our Academy accounts for approximately seven per cent of the club’s total cost base. Talking strictly in performance terms, if players consistently progress in our pathway this reflects a positive financial investment. Specifically, the cost per year to develop a professional player is significantly less than the financial outlay necessary to recruit a player of an equivalent standard. This could be further heightened with the impact of Brexit and the restricted access to European talent.  Furthermore, if the first team squad features a healthy representation of Academy graduates, the economic value in saved wages and transfer fees is significant. Interestingly, a report by the Twenty First Group highlighted that realised revenue and cost savings from our Academy accounted for more than £30 million in season 2019-20. Additionally, Deloitte’s annual review of football finance 2021 highlighted that Uefa recommend clubs operate a 70 per cent threshold for wages to revenue ratio. Our 2020 club financial statements commented that in the absence of revenue impacted by the pandemic and no onerous contracts, our player wages to revenue ratio would have been 56 per cent. This further strengthens the valuable economic role homegrown talent can play.

In addition to the performance and financial indicators, which will satisfy certain stakeholders, it is important to acknowledge and celebrate the broader achievements of an academy programme. The reality of securing a career as a Premier League footballer is well publicised. Contrastingly, the narrative drawing attention to the skills cultivated on a development journey are arguably less prominent. Importantly, these skills can be highly transferable. Whilst everyone has a different and unique story, an academy environment can encourage the emergence of many highly desirable skills. Indeed, in 2020 the World Economic Forum published research that highlighted 10 skills that would support the future of work. Many of the listed skills (e.g., active listening and learning strategies; complex problem-solving; critical thinking and analysis; creativity, originality, and initiative; leadership and social influence; technology use; resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility; reasoning, problem solving and ideation) are arguably refined during an academy experience. These skills or characteristics are often less tangible than the previously mentioned milestones. However, they should not be considered less important.

Balancing challenge and support

Research has highlighted how resilience develops based on the interaction between challenge and support (see Fletcher and Sarkar, 2016).  Whilst individually perceived, it is evident that an academy environment will consistently present a series of challenges. Inevitably, on a weekly basis there will be opportunities to develop new skills, play in a different position or age group, speak in front of peers, reflect on performance, manage time to maintain academic progress and interact with coaching and multidisciplinary team staff members. Whilst these elements are generally common and often deliberate in their presence, they represent a small sample of activity that excludes less frequent or emerging challenges. This might include injuries, deselection, or a loss of form that characterise the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) nature of sport. With an appropriate level of support, the emergence of resilient young people is a desirable by-product. Additionally, the highlighted scenarios (e.g., developing new skills or reflecting on a performance) can help further refine an individual’s capacity to be adaptable, self-aware, resourceful, and collaborative. These skills have an impact beyond the football pitch.

Positively, the environment can also create opportunities to occupy leadership roles. As an individual progresses through the pathway an expectation for them to take ownership of their development is vital.  This might include speaking with the coach, requesting video clips or data from the analysis team, liaising with the sports science team on their physical programme or nutritional requirements, and discussing their pre-match routine with a psychologist. These interactions help refine a broad set of communication skills whilst consolidating a knowledge of physical development, preferred learning methods and preparation strategies. Whilst primarily designed to support an individual’s progression within a performance pathway, the impact should extend beyond the confines of a football club.

Several years ago, when asked what would constitute success, a former coach within our Academy proudly shared an aspiration that “players would want to repeat the experience, irrespective of the outcome”. This phrase has remained core to my beliefs and reflects the importance of viewing Academy success in broader terms. Success for an academy cannot be considered in binary terms (i.e. Premier League player or not). Success is multi-faceted, with different stakeholders naturally prioritising different markers, and individuals seeking to explore the fullness of their potential. We have an obligation to prepare individuals (staff and players) for the future. We cannot guarantee a young player a Premier League career or a board member a favourable return on investment. Importantly, and within our control, is an ability to demonstrate a daily commitment to a philosophy and the execution of a strategy that maximises the probability of success.

Edd is one of six Leaders Performance Advisors, a group of leading performance thinkers providing more subject expertise to our member-only content and learning resources. To find out more about all our Performance Advisors, click here.

References

Chaudhuri, O.  (2020). The pitfalls when evaluating a successful Academy – there is a holistic financial model that tells a significant story

CIES Football Observatory.  (2022).  Weekly post – most expensive players.  Issue 362

Cunningham, S.  (2022).  Premier League reveal 97% of players who come through top academies never play a minute of top-flight football

Deloitte Sport Business Group (2021).  Annual review of football finance – 2021

Fletcher, D. and Sarkar, M.  (2016).  Mental fortitude training: An evidence-based approach to developing psychological resilience for sustained success.  Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 7(3), 135-157

Vahid, E.  (2021).  How teams can support the non-linear development of young athletes

Walsh, B., Jamison, S., and Walsh, C.  (2009).  The score takes care of itself.  Penguin Group, New York

Whiting, K.  (2020).  These are the top 10 job skills of tomorrow – and how long it takes to learn them

By John Portch

When yours is a winning environment, what steps can you take to ensure that your performance levels bear the extra pressure of expectation that comes with success?

The question is on the mind of Jeremy Bettle, the Performance Director at New York City FC, who won the MLS Cup in December last year, when the Leaders Performance Institute and Dave Slemen and Anna Edwards of Elite Performance Partners [EPP] sat down with him to discuss the steps performance directors can take to become better leaders.

Joining Bettle in conversation are Darren Burgess, the High Performance Manager of the Adelaide Crows who also leads EPP’s search offering in Australia, and James Thomas, the Performance Director at British Gymnastics. The trio work in three different sports and geographies, with systems and structures that vary in their approach, but each brings a sense of vulnerability, self-awareness, and an understanding of the importance of the culture and context they are working within. Their leadership capabilities bind together a great strategy and strong culture, which is essential if teams and organisations are to retain their shape when pressure is applied. Of the expectations and pressure now thrust upon NYCFC, Bettle says: “It’s certainly going to be something new for our club this year.”

Bettle, Burgess and Thomas all have a deep desire to keep learning, which has driven them to the top of their fields and each played a part in a series of ‘firsts’ in 2021. NYCFC’s MLS Cup triumph was the club’s first, while Burgess was serving as Performance Manager of the Melbourne Demons when they won their first AFL Grand Final in 57 years. Also, under Thomas’ stewardship, Great Britain won their first Olympic medal in the women’s gymnastics team event for 93 years.

Thomas tackles the question of pressure from the athletes’ perspective. “It’s been the biggest risk or success factor of the last four years,” he says. “When we look at our gymnasts, they’re phenomenal athletes. They have the ability to execute phenomenal technical skills and they can do it day-in and day-out in the training environment. Where I see the athletes either struggle or excel is that ability to step into a competition environment and deliver it there. With every sport, you’ve got great examples of people who can do it either in a one-off or can do it repeatedly, or they can do it in training and they can’t do it in competition.

“We’ve actually put a lot of time and resource into different pressure environments whether it’s changing training set-ups, whether it’s manipulating timings just to put athletes under more pressure, less warm-up, less time between apparatus, we’ve brought in surprise friends and family to come on the balcony and watch and cheer. We try to exhaust almost all of our coaches and psychologists’ views of manipulating the training environment.” Nevertheless, as Thomas admits, “you can never quite replicate the actual competition environment.”

Burgess, who last year won the AFL Grand Final with Melbourne and previously worked in the English Premier League with Liverpool and Arsenal, finds the same applies to professional team sports. “It’s very hard to simulate pressure, especially with games happening every three or four days in the Premier League, particularly when you’re also competing in European competitions.”

His mind goes back to the two-week period in September before Melbourne took on the Western Bulldogs in the AFL Grand Final. The consensus amongst the fans and media was that Melbourne had the better team but were undermined by the fact that their route through the playoffs meant that they had played one game in 28 days.

“We decided to take the high risk of playing a match simulation,” says Burgess. “It probably cost us a couple of players who were on the fringe of being selected, but in the end, that was how we decided to simulate that pressure as much as we could. We had umpires in, full mouth guards, so it was part of our thought process to try and simulate that as much as we could. We even built up a bit of a rivalry between the ‘possibles’ and ‘probables’ and tried to manufacture that so that the ‘possibles’ put up a good fight.”

Bettle approves of such approaches. “I’m a big believer in exposing people to pressure versus shielding them from it,” he says. “I think there can be a balance there but you’ve got to get used to pressure and have strategies to deal with it. I’m a big believer in process and having done it before; and trying to make these environments a lot more automatic.”

He recalls his time working at the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets between 2011 and 2015 when there were few opportunities to generate pressure because the games came thick and fast. He was struck by the veteran players. “They show very little emotion win, lose or draw. I think because it’s so automatic to them, it really helps them to perform on a nightly basis.” By contrast, however, New York City practised penalties as they progressed through the MLS Playoffs. “Having the guys line up on halfway and having them walk out on their own; and because they’ve gone through it over and over and over again, when we actually get into the scenario, which we did twice in the playoffs, it just felt more normal to us. The guys executed it excellently when it came to it and maybe it helped, maybe it didn’t, but it made me feel better about it anyway!”

The approach is far from universal in soccer, as Slemen points out. Penalties are one of the few closed skills in football that can be practised but the prevailing culture has often been reluctant.

Bettle and New York City Head Coach Ronny Deila also tried to factor an element of fun into the team’s progression through the season and post-season. Though he has often been sceptical of organised fun in a team context, he explains that Deila’s decision to organise team dinners reaped dividends.

“I think the coach did a great job this year of recognising that our team didn’t do well when they didn’t have an opportunity to relax,” says Bettle. “So we started doing team dinners when we go on the road, on match day minus two. They’d have a glass of wine, and we’d have just a really fun night out that felt authentic and not forced. Giving the players an opportunity to enjoy it and not be so disciplined was a bit of a departure from my mindset, but I’ve come to recognise it’s been one of the most valuable things that we did last year, to put a focus on joy and fun and enjoying the experience. I think building that environment, recognising who your players are and how they’re going to respond versus having some really rigid thoughts around ‘this isn’t high performance, we can’t drink wine two days before a game’ it actually helped us.”

Much like in soccer or basketball, Thomas explains that in gymnastics the success of any rituals largely depends on the skill of the coach. He says: “Where I probably see the magic happen it’s been where coaches have managed to really understand the team and the group of athletes they’ve got, where they’re positioned.

“For the men’s gymnastics team, it was very clear in the build-up to Tokyo, they were probably fourth or fifth in the world, and it was very cleverly done by our coach to position them as the underdogs that were going to create the big upset rather than ‘we can’t achieve that’ or ‘we’re world No 1’. It was ‘let’s go on the hunt’. They really put this mindset into the gymnasts that this final 12-week prep was really just about closing the gap. You could see every day that the gymnasts came in with the bit between their teeth about closing the gap. It wasn’t necessarily about winning the medal, it was about ‘how do we get as close as we possibly can?’

“There was a sense of realism, a sense of togetherness towards something and it really pulled them together. It did feel like a team and the feedback that we had from some of the gymnasts who had been to multiple games, said it was the best team environment because they had a really clear purpose and it was really cleverly orchestrated by the coach. That’s where I’ve seen it work its best, through the coach, with a little bit of a framework of what they’re working towards and that purpose.”

Thomas has witnessed scenarios where the use of rituals does not work and puts it down to authenticity, which chimes with Burgess’ views on the matter. “It’s a really risky practice if there’s not authenticity about the ritual, the practice or the theme,” he says. “If there’s not complete buy-in, then you really are in trouble. Let’s say, for example, that your ritual, your belief is ‘selflessness’ and you want everybody to act selflessly throughout everything, the minute that your star No 10 player decides to miss a training session or turn up late or act selfishly in some way, are you going to drop that player? You have to stick to it and then it becomes part of your team’s identity and everybody respects that. Yes, it can work, but it has to work in the right environment and I’ve seen both.”