Research Paper on Leadership & Culture in Academy and Professional Football Part 2
This is the second part in a two-part series looking at the area of Coach leadership and culture in Professional football that formed part of the research element of my Masters in Sports Management.
The research was titled “An investigation into how coach leadership and cultural factors affect an Irish footballers time in English Academy & Professional Football: A player perspective”
Hughes (2018) discusses relationship leadership with the example of Pep Guardiola while at Barcelona. Guardiola is admired for his eloquent, well thought out and inspiring speeches that encompass relationship leadership perfectly. It is an approach where the leader puts his efforts and focus on building relationships through creating identity, trust, and a sense of belonging. Where a conventional leader in sport looks decisively at how to win and perform. A relationship-based leader looks at how to nurture connections, relationships and create a culture. The key findings portrayed are to create a sense of belonging by establishing a clear, vivid identity, and be vulnerable through showing emotions, which creates safety and trust. Finally telling the truth creates a strong relationship illustrating honesty and trust.
After being de-selected from academy setups, a lack of social support existed. With players’ having the opinion that clubs just wanted them out the door. Coaches’ discouraging players from committing to education while involved in the academy football setup, as it will lead to them becoming tired and not performing, has a major significance upon them being released with potentially little or no education based on when they came into the academy system at 16 years of age (Brown and Potrac, 2009, O’Flaherty, 2019).
Relationships
Relationships with coaches played differing roles in participants’ time in England. Some of them valued them, while others went about playing without being close-knit with coaches. Ross, as a goalkeeper, felt that he was often separate from the rest of the team, so didn’t have the comradery in training as much. He relied on the other goalkeepers and his coach as a support system for him, in a position that he says can be stressful at times.
Gavin spoke about outfield players that would be very close to the manager and had a good relationship, that had both positive and negative impacts on team performance and culture, although he “would have always been one who kept my head down and tried to work hard and I think they (Coaches) all would of seen that.”
All participants saw the coaches as quite welcoming in terms of asking questions, doing extras, and improving their football. They felt, “it definitely comes down to the player's attitude and the coach’s attitude and if the two work well together you are onto (Building good relationships).”
Aidy Bothroyd described how a club’s hierarchy and often many coaches’ see players as cattle and don’t treat them as human beings. He notes that if you want to get the best out of a human being, forging a positive relationship is essential, while making mistakes and learning together (Calvin, 2017), encompassing the ethos of transformational leadership. Often, in a football environment where there are many players, a coach may not need to have a direct personal relationship with a player in order to forge one, it may be collective. Some of the participants said that they didn’t have a personal relationship with their coaches. The necessity for Ross as a goalkeeper to have a close relationship with his coach and other goalkeepers is important and amplified in the term “Goalkeeper Union” commonly used in football circles. Where goalkeepers see themselves as the last line of defence, and need that reassurance and direct relationship. The outfield players such as Gavin don’t necessarily feed off a direct relationship with a coach as much and that is why he used the term “kept my head down”.
Confidence & Trust
Each of the participants spoke of different levels of confidence when making the move to England, they were excited as it was all they wanted to do, although a few were naturally apprehensive and taken out of their comfort zone in the club.
Mark spoke of how certain coaches choose wisely in regard to what players they could get stuck into about mistakes, “he never really seemed to get into the lads that lacked in confidence, which I know, I assume he was doing on purpose.”
Ross discusses how he had the utmost confidence in himself to do well, and that he had trust in his coaches back home to guide him in the right direction, while they had confidence in him also. “I would have kept in touch with a lot of them, so yeah, I really believe they thought I had a chance.”
One participant spoke about how when players’ mentality and the way in which football was managed, played and coached changed in the late 2000s, many managers didn’t adapt. When a different approach was needed, they followed the same route “I think they were very insecure and paranoid as well, didn’t know who to trust as well so didn’t have too many people who would challenge them on things either that doesn’t help.” He compared it to another one of his managers who adapted “(John) was very self-assured, a decent honest man, that you could probably trust and he wouldn’t say things behind your back and would say it how it is….He would have been a good delegator…He had good people around him that he trusted to look after other things.”
The area of confidence very much feeds into relationships, the participants felt that their schoolboy coaches brought confidence out of them, and some of them kept in touch as means of open channel communication upon moving to England.
The football academy environment is made up of mainly youth players. To build trust among youths, leaders often try to create a space where “authentic conversations” can occur through practices such as how their day was, or their family, and consciously taking the time to check-in with youth which is essential in a football environment especially those who are living away from home for the first time (Griffith and Johnson, 2019).
Daley (2009) mentions that trust is only relevant in circumstances involving some level of risk. How players rely on managers to tell them all the right things, to make them improve and get a professional contract, is seen as essential to trust. However, some of their participants spoke about giving a manager full trust when they first met and the manager’s actions caused the player to re-evaluate whether they lost part of their trust. While others saw trust as something you can only build from scratch. This research found that some players could trust their coaches, while others couldn’t however, they had to find a way to deal with them for the sake of their careers at a particular club.
Many football clubs run on tight budgets, with small squads and therefore can’t afford too many injuries. The incidence of severe injuries was 29%–40% lower in teams where coaches employed a transformational style of leadership and communicated a clear and positive vision of the future, supported staff members, and gave staff encouragement and recognition (Ekstrand et al., 2018).
As mentioned previously coaches often live in a tight personal bubble of being extremely autocratic and trust little or nobody including staff, senior club management, and players. Nesti & Sulley (2015) discusses the need to operate in a culture where trust is viewed as essential. The role stress and anxiety have in the leadership behaviour of a coach is often given little consideration. The average lifespan of a coach in a role is two years, with 56% of first-time managers never getting another opportunity (Calvin, 2015). A manager is therefore cautious in expanding their span of control and trust, as negative results will result in the manager losing their job, with uncertainty as to their next role. Those who are unable to trust will only have short-term success (Nesti and Sulley, 2015) in the role and in turn question their long-term viability, at a time when the top coaches continuously praise those around them.
Problem-Solving Approach
One of the participants spoke about one of the differences that existed in the leadership between football in England and Gaelic Football in Ireland.
“It was very productive, half-time team talks what’s the problems here, you guys tell us what the problems are and how you are going to sort it, it was all player led and player-driven, whereas with the soccer it was more this is what is wrong, you have done this wrong, why did you do this, and a very aggressive style, but not really giving them the information to help them going out in the second half.”
If leadership skills can indeed be fostered through sport, it is likely that youth can learn these behaviours both experientially and vicariously through their interactions with influential social agents, namely coaches (Turnnidge and Côté, 2018).
Following on from the results, the point was made that a contributing factor in GAA players collectively solving problems was due to the amateur nature of the sport, the players in most cases have got a college education and have jobs in business or another industry. They, therefore, are using their knowledge, experiences, and problem-solving skills from their job and bringing it into how it can be effective in sport.
In football, managers may attempt to intellectually stimulate their players, testing their ability to creatively find solutions to problems, in order to achieve high performance or behavioural excellence on the pitch (Bass and Riggio, 2012). Although, in many cases, players feel that some managers are too authoritarian and don’t feel confident in voicing their thoughts collectively on how to improve.
De-Selection & Further Career
There were various reasons as to why the participants returned home from playing football in England. In two of their cases, their contracts were up and took it well, believing they would be back in England in the space of a few months however it never materialised.
“When I came home, I was thinking I am 100% going to get somewhere else here. All I was focused on was going back over to England.”
Two of them spoke very negatively about the de-selection process, John mentioned that the club tried to get rid of him a year early and they went about it quite badly. While Paul even though injury effectively ended his time in England, he had previously been released from another top Premier League club, after having a mixed experience in the club due to the academy staff who had signed him moving on before he moved to England.
While the other two cancelled their contracts at their clubs due to becoming annoyed with coaches, club administration, and their experience. One of which fell completely out of love with the game due to his time in England.
The words “Felt Cheated” were mentioned a number of times by nearly all participants in some form over some experience they had while in England. All had varying levels of success in playing competitive football or sport when they returned home. When asked whether they fell out of love with the game for a period after returning home, a number of them agreed they had. Although all of them felt the sacrifices were worth it and they would do it again.
“There were a few lads I would have played football with before, who were in the League of Ireland. I went along and trained a few times at that, but my head wasn’t really in it.”
“so you were going to go 4 or 5 days here and I think he was offering me expenses and 100 quid, so it would have been 100 quid plus petrol, so maybe 200 quid, which you know to go up, to give 5 nights and then coming from a background of no education, where are you going to get a job, the only places they are going to hire you probably were pubs and different shops and that, and you are going to have to go into them straight away and tell them, I am going to have to leave at 4 o’clock to go up to training or earlier, I can’t work this day, I can’t work this night.”
“That week where they knew they wouldn’t have a game, I would travel down from Dublin for training and there might be 7 lads there, and you are going this is, what are my doing”
It was found that having a strong athletic identity resulted in emotional disturbances, including anger, betrayal, feelings of failure, humiliation, high levels of anxiety, and identity crisis post-de-selection (O’Halloran, 2019). Each participant dealt with de-selection in different ways, some were happy to be home, while others felt they were hard done by. English players post-deselection often have the opportunity to come back up through the football pyramid, which Duncan Watmore did after being released by Manchester United, reigniting his career at Altrincham before getting a move to Sunderland. Whereas Irish players may only have the option to come home, often getting into a rut, playing League of Ireland football, and potentially never being provided with the opportunity to return to England. Some of the participants described the culture in some League of Ireland clubs to be “shocking”, where finances were limited in comparison to the top 3 or 4. However, the lack of support structures in many clubs leads to often detrimental consequences in the months and years following. Josh Lyons after being released by Tottenham Hotspur at 16, spiraled into depression before committing suicide ten years later (Taylor, 2020).
Referencing back to education and its importance in de-selection and further career, essentially it is the lack of education in those tentative years in the academy while they are young and haven’t been offered a professional contract that affects them post-deselection. Not having the ability to get a decent job straight away nor in many cases having the heart to go back and do a leaving cert and college education at an older age. This was a regret of every participant in not recognising the value of education when they were younger. The increasing creation of player care teams in many clubs is to be admired in forging long-term support bases and providing resources for those players that have been released.
In football, only 180 of 1.5 million boys who play organised youth football in England will become a Premier League pro, a success rate of 0.012% (Calvin, 2017). In 2018 a UK study conducted by the Professional Players Federation found that more than half of former professional sportspeople had concerns about their mental or emotional wellbeing after retirement (Lawlor, 2020). Loss of identity, regret, and being unable to control their lives all were reoccurring sub-themes that came out of research interviews and are supported by further accounts such as Lawlor (2020).
Kelly & Waddington (2006) ask the question, why do players generally accept the arbitrary exercise of authority by coaches? They conclude that procedures and managerial authority have been long established in football, coaches follow in the footsteps of the way coaches behaved while they were playing the game. This is undoubtedly having a major negative impact on how young footballers develop both on the pitch, but also mentally and how they go about building careers after football, be it after a short period and being released or alternatively after having an established career and then having to adapt to a life that is totally different and, in most cases, lacks coherent structure. The positive stories serve to restore some faith in football leadership; however, the negative ones illustrate the importance of the tide needing to change in coaches moving to a more transformational method of leadership and football clubs being run differently. Carlo Ancelotti is an example of a manager whose leadership has ticked all the emerging themes in how to go about each of them in the correct manner, with considerable on-field success (Brady and Forde, 2016). However, it can be said building such a mentality is difficult to just pick up and go with, it grows on someone in conjunction with other parts of their personality.
Based on the research findings and insights gained from interviewees who have gone across the channel at a young age to play football in England, along with various books. The advice Kevin Doyle provides to parents and youths who have been offered trials in England at 15 or 16 I believe is to be heavily considered. He believes that youths should stay at home, play League of Ireland football, finish their schooling, have a good attitude, and get all the coaching they can. If they are then good enough, clubs will come calling (Lawlor 2020). This varies in comparison to the majority of accounts discussed in which players get trials in potentially top clubs at 15/16, may get signed on a 2-year youth contract, in more cases than don’t get the professional contract and are back home, broken with no education and not knowing where to next. It paints an extremely bleak canvas, however, two of the hinging principles that need to improve are football education and support. Clubs and coaches need to get away from the “Do you want to be a Premier League footballer, then you need to do this mentality” because as previously mentioned the percentage of those that make it is 0.012%. They need to provide the information and support that will benefit them in the long-term and not the short-term, and if that means giving tough advice now that they won’t make it at the top level, then it is a lot better for that youth to deal with it then, than leading them down the garden path to hit them with that same advice a few years later when things such as education are harder to complete and it will be much tougher to take. Till things change in that regard, we will continue to see this extremely ugly side to football.
Particular books of interest relating to football leadership, culture and business, that are readily available online and in good bookshops are in this part are: -
1. Chris Brady & Mike Forde- Carlo Ancelotti: Quiet Leadership, Winning Hearts, Minds & Matches
2. Damien Hughes- The Barcelona Way, how to create a high-performance culture. (Also co-hosts a High-Performance podcast with BT Sports Jake Humphrey, interviewing leading high-performance athletes and coaches)
3. The Athletic website, an excellent source of brilliant content, looking at the issues discussed by top UK football writers. (A particular article of note is Daniel Taylor’s ’13 years down the drain. Just like that’ The Premier leagues forgotten kids
4. Damian O’Meara- When the world stops watching “Life after the game” (A book released in September 2020 providing in-depth insights into the struggles and life choices Irish sports stars have made and had are retiring.)
5. Michael Calvin- Various books, in which he gets accounts from some of England’s top managers, scouts, youth players, while also being embedded in Millwall FC for one, illustrating the challenges of football with little resources.
· No Hunger in Paradise
· Living on the Volcano
· The Nowhere Men
· Family
· State of Play
Various Journals Listed below are a good read if the accessibility exists. The most notable however would be Brown & Potrac (2009) “You’ve not made the grade son’: de-selection and identity disruption in elite-level youth football” which really identifies the key issues in youth football in England and was a key reason for me wanting to research further the particular issues that exist. While Kelly & Waddington (2006) explores Abuse, Intimidation, and Violence as Aspects of Managerial Control in Professional Soccer in Britain and Ireland.
References
BROWN, G. & POTRAC, P. 2009. You’ve not made the grade son’: de-selection and identity disruption in elite-level youth football. Soccer and Society, 143–159.
DALEY, C. 2009. Perceptions of Trust in Football Contexts: A Multi-Methodological Approach. Doctor of Philosophy, University of Northumbria.
EKSTRAND, J., LUNDQVIST, D. & LAGERBACK, L. 2018. Is there a correlation between coaches’ leadership styles and injuries in elite football teams? British Journal of Sports Medicine, 52.
EUBANK, M., NESTI, M. & CRUICKSHANK, A. 2014. Understanding high performance sport environments: impact for the professional training and supervision of sport psychology. Sport Exercise Psychology Review, 10, 30–37.
GOULD, D., COLLINS, K., LAUER, L. & CHUNG, Y. 2007. Coaching life skills through football: A study of award winning high school coaches. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 19, 16–37.
GRIFFITH, A. N. & JOHNSON, H. E. 2019. Building trust: Reflections of adults working with high-school-age youth in project-based programs. Children and Youth Services Review, 96, 439–450.
KELLY, S. & WADDINGTON, I. 2006. Abuse, Intimidation and Violence as Aspects of Managerial Control In Professional Soccer in Britain and Ireland. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 41.
LAW, G. & BLOYCE, D. 2019. ‘Pressure to play?’ A sociological analysis of professional football managers’ behaviour towards injured players. Soccer & Society, 20, 387–407.
MILLS, J. P. & BOARDLEY, I. D. 2016. Expert Premier League soccer managers’ use of transformational leadership behaviours, and attitude towards sport integrity: An intrinsic case-study. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching.
NESTI, M. & SULLEY, C. 2015. Youth Development in Football: Lessons from the world’s best academies, London, Routledge.
O’FLAHERTY, V. 2019. The Career decision-making process of Irish underage international footballers. Doctor Of Philosophy, Dublin City University.
O’HALLORAN, L. 2019. The lived experience of ‘critical moments’ in Premier league Academy Football: A descriptive psychological phenomenological exploration. Doctorate of Philsophy, Liverpool John Moores University.
PAIN, M. & HARWOOD, C. 2007. The performance environment of the England youth soccer teams. Journal of Sports Sciences, 25, 107–126.
PANKOW, K., MOSEWICH, A. D. & HOLT, N. L. 2018. The Development of Leadership in Model Youth Football Coaches. The Sport Psychologist, 32.
PANKOW, K., MOSEWICH, A. D. & HOLT, N. L. 2019. Athletes Perceptions of Pragmatic Leadership in Youth Football Coaches. The Sport Psychologist, 33.
RICHARDSON, D., GILBOURNE, D. & LITTLEWOOD, M. 2004. Developing support mechanisms for elite young players in a professional soccer academy. European Sport Management Quarterly, 4, 195–214.
ROWOLD, J. 2006. Transformational and Transactional Leadership in Martial Arts. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 18, 312–325.
SHIELDS, D. S., BREDEMEIER, B. L., LAVOI, N. L. & POWER, F. C. 2005. The sport behaviour of youth, parents and coaches: The good, the bad and the ugly. Journal of Research in Character Education, 3.
TAYLOR, D. 2020. ’13 years down the drain. Just like that’ The Premier leagues forgotten kids [Online]. [Accessed 12th of April 2020].
TURNNIDGE, J. & CÔTÉ, J. 2018. Applying transformational leadership theory to coaching research in youth sport: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 16, 327–342.
