In short, if your child plays football this could be the most important few pounds you spend and the most important few thousand words that you read.

“Like a mini football academy for parents” Premiership Academy Director

Watch the video to find out more or clink in the link for to buy now. How Not To Screw Up Your Kid’s Football Career Before It Has Even Started

Effectively we will train those on the programme to create a business supporting other pros in their mental performance and all of the other challenges involved in being a professional football in the current era.

There will be some opportunities to join Success In Football Ltd and work under the exisiting brand, while others will want to join the programme and set up their own business and brand.

To help us get the programme exactly right we are looking to speak to as many ex-players and soon to be ex-players as possible to make sure the structure and model is exactly right.

If you are willing to spend ten minutes talking to me about our new programme – all market reserach, no sales pitch I promise – please email me richard@successinfootball.com, tweet me @richardnugent or call me on 07932725113.

For the next three months I am creating the opportunity for those of you who have queries about the development of young players, how to engage them, or even simply how to be the best footballing parent possible to ask your questions live and direct on specially arranged conference calls.

There is no charge for the calls (other than the cost of the call) providing 10 or more parents and coaches from your club joining the call.

These calls are certain to fill quickly so if you are interested email richard@successinfootball.com with “Grassroots Q & A” with details of your club and I will send you details of the times and dates available for the calls.

Best regards,

Richard

For more information email richard@successinfootball.

Media outlets should contact Jo Smith on 07704349911 to arrange an interview.

Through all of the work I do in the professional game, through all of the magazine articles for the likes of Four Four Two and The Manager, this is perhaps the most important yet!

Too many budding careers are ruined by well meaning parents putting too much pressure on their child to perform and too many parents end up feeling bad because they thought they were doing the right thing by their child but missed the mark in their support.

“How Not To Screw Up Your Kid’s Football Career Before It Has Even Started” will be available to purchase and download in early June and could be the most important few thousand words you read in respect of your child and the sport they love.

I have recorded a short introduction video including the key principle that all football parents should understand about why their child plays football.

This explains the impact your words have on your body – they literally make you stronger or weaker, more energetic or less energetic and even more or less likely to win.

The Power Of Language

It is not any of these things. Take a look at Everton for example. As I write this they are at the bottom of the Premier League with only three points on the board. Most observers already know this is not where they will end up. The players know this, the chairman, the fans and the manager all know for sure that they will finish in a safe positon – probably in the top half of the league. David Moyes got a standing ovation when walking past the fans at Craven Cottage at the weekend and Bill Kenwright was almost apologetic for not having given him more money in the summer.

A club under pressure? I think not.

At the other end of the scale we see someone like Rob Green – being made England’s number 1 at the World Cup is a dream but did he look like a player at the very top of the pile having been given the ultimate vote of confidence? Not a bit.

So if it isn’t outside influence that is the greatest pressure that only leaves one thing. Us. Our more importantly our thoughts.

Here’s another example. A player I worked with recently was playing particularly badly because his manager didn’t rate him. The player had played in every game of the season so far and was keeping out one of the clubs highest paid players. He had two explainations for why he thought the manager wasn’t his biggest fan 1) He likes taller players 2) He never says “well done” to me in front of the other lads. Reading this you can already see what little sense this makes, but this players was wrapped up in his own thoughts to the point that he had lost his form. If it carried on he would have proved his own point and the gaffa would have had to leave him out.

The reality was that the manager wanted him in the team for a whole number of reasons that I won’t go into here. Once the player knew this he immediately started playing well and scoring again.

Football is a higly pressurised game. Whether you are a manager, player or coach you have to learn to recognise and be able to seperate the ‘real’ outside pressures from these you are creating in your own mind.

So when Nick asked to interview me about mental performance, I could only say yes!

Here is the introduction, and there’s over an hour of great content that I will post over the coming weeks and months.

To find out more about the amazing results that Nick gets go to www.nickgratham.com

Should the pressure being put on BskyB by Ofcom come to fruition, there will undoubtedly be less money in the game in the next five years. Are you willing to wait until that happens before you begin significant reform of how the game is governed and more importantly how it is led?

The focus during this World Cup year should be largely on the progress of the national team and those players who will be striving in the summer to bring the ultimate success for English Football. Instead the media focus is on the fact the sport’s governing body has yet another Chief Executive – along with the accusations and counter accusations that another change brings. While some attention has been given to the wonderful form of the likes of Wayne Rooney and James Milner, many more column inches have been given to the misconduct of various high profile players, including England’s John Terry and Ashley Cole, England U21 international Andy Carroll and several more. While you shouldn’t be expected to be responsible for the private lives of players, governing bodies should be expected to show leadership in their public response to the damage these action causes our national sport.

While I am well aware that there a number of people in the ranks of your organisations who are striving to create change, those of us involved in the game from a business perspective as well as the players, coaches and the public also know the resistance to change is huge. Of course this isn’t just true of English football, but weren’t we the original trailblazers of the game? Isn’t it time to be world leaders again, at least in how we manage, lead and prepare our game for the next decade?

While I have serious doubts as to whether there are enough real leaders in your organisations to create significant change before you are forced to, here is Success In Football’s six point plan to safeguard the current product, as well as improving the standard of the game as a whole.

You are in hugely privileged positions; holding the future of the England’s national sport in your hands. You enjoy the perks and benefits that many others would love to have. It is time to take the responsibility that the position creates.

The Six Point Plan

1. A complete review of the structure of the FA as an organisation. The end product of this restructuring must be a more agile governing body that is able to make decisions in the best interest of the game at an appropriate pace. This by nature will include a significant reduction in the number of committees required to make decisions.

2. A complete revamp of the education available to everyone involved in the game. In reality coaching qualifications have barely changed for at least the last fifteen years. In addition, the fact that each body has its own approach to educating its members shows the current programmes do not deliver what is required. The output must be an integrated development path for players, coaches, managers, officials and even club administrators.

3. An agreement on the areas of control and influence for each of the bodies. While this may be a huge challenge, until there is agreement on what is ‘in scope’ and ‘out of scope’ for each body, the politically driven ‘holding back’ of the game will continue.

4. A shared vision for the future of the game to be agreed by the bodies to ensure that everyone is striving for the same goals. This will be underpinned by performance measurement throughout the governing bodies.

5. Football as a whole to develop a formal approach to learning from other sports and entertainment industries and sectors. While I am sure that Richard Bevan would not admit it publicly, the stark contrast even between cricket and football in England must have been a shock. While there have been some attempts to integrate ideas from other countries and their sports it has been largely haphazard and badly thought through.

6. The safeguarding and development of the sport is put firmly at the heart of the activities of the bodies. The FA, PFA and LMA in particular must hold this to be true in their strategy and operations. This does not mean that financial success is forgone. Instead future rewards and success will be assured.
If you are involved in the game and see this plan as impossible then all the more reason to create pressure for those with the gift of power to take action. In order for the current levels of wealth to continue and for the English game to be re-established as a global leader, significant changes must begin now.

Richard Nugent
Managing Director
Success In Football Ltd.

Messers Wenger and Martinez – both of whom I am a fan of – made strong comments about opposition players that contradicted with what fans, other players and managers could see for themselves on TV.

I know as well as anyone how difficult post match interviews are – after all we train clients to do them well. However when so much emotion is involved these are high profile examples of when taking a more neutral line immediately after the game would benefit everyone involved.

While Wenger has built up more than enough credibility to ensure these comments and the subsequent reaction from Tony Pulis will not have an impact on how he is perceived, I hope it’s a lesson to other managers and players to be sure of the message you want to get across before you the cameras roll.