A good insight into Man Utd´s training
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A Day with Sir Alex
It was lovely of Alex to invite me to the training ground at Manchester United as he has long been someone I have admired.
I went with Socrates to the training complex and was warmly welcomed by all at the club, Sir Alex commented that he had watched with interest the progress we had made.
I asked him about his views on the academy system and he replied that he thought it was a waste of time, that any good players they had coming through now were players from abroad who they had scouted. Sir Alex then asked me if his Portuguese was correct and then asked Socrates a few things about football. He asked where we had been in Scotland. My answer of Edinburgh, brought the response that this was not really Scotland!
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He then brought Cristiano Ronaldo over to speak with me, he was very nice and showed me a few good dribbling moves, I had seen them before but he executed them very well. Ronaldo is recovering from a slight injury just now. It looked to me that Wayne Rooney was showing off in the background. There was a very good edge to training, even though they have a game tomorrow. Ferguson spoke with the players and they all came over to me to shake Socrates and then my hand, they were very polite and well mannered, I was most impressed.
I asked Alex if he could get the players in more for training and he said with all the games they have it just isn´t possible. I then had a laugh with him regarding comments made by Tony Cascarino this week, as Cascarino had disagreed with a shared view of Sir Alex´s and mine about youth development. Alex said if my plan comes of that we will have the sort of place like Carrington, I laughed a little at this self depreciatingly, but he replied that he was serious and thought I would succeed. Sir Alex then asked if Socrates had been any good for Garforth and he went on to talk very warmly about his experiences with Lee Sharpe.
At this point Socrates was getting cold so went inside for some lunch, I wanted to stay and watch all of the session though. The passing was very fast, Roy Keane was superb, hitting long, fast drilled passes. His conditioning really impressed me. I stayed out until it was just Micky Phelan and myself with Wayne Rooney and two others. Rooney went in goal and I counted the other players taking 36 shots, Rooney saved them all and then came over to me afterwards buzzing asking if I had seen that no goals were scored, he joked that he was ´the best keeper in the club´! I spoke with Rooney then about Everton and about coaching him when he was younger, I told him that he had grown!. He is shy, but very polite, he impressed me. He talked about the Coppel House team ( named after a pub I knew in Liverpool) which he played for as a boy and with which he won an amateur world title apparently. He was laughing about them changing their name to ´The Pies´?
Phelan commented that Ferguson was ´a very unusual man´ and said that he often could not work out what he was doing/thinking, but that the things he did almost always ended up working out. He said you could sometimes guess at the beginning and end of his work but the middle was always a mystery. He said that Ferguson could sometimes be extremely tough but on occasion would be completely relaxed regards things that the staff thought he would react to.
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Alex, stays back from the pitch, allowing Carlos and Phelan to work on the pitch. Alex adds gently spoken and infrequent as the team move and play around the training area.
Phelan then showed me round the entire complex and we talked about the changes he had seen whilst at the club. He commented that Ferguson used to take some of the coaching but now had others do this, but said that Ferguson´s observations of both games and training were wonderful.
The club has a weights room, pool, table tennis, basketball everything, it reminded me of a Brazilian club in that respect and Phelan said they often used different sports to freshen up training. Alan Smith spoke with me and asked when he would be old enough to play for Garforth! His upper body definition also impressed me. He said he was loving his football more than ever and commented that his granddad and he often talked about our progress with Garforth and said that he believed we would succeed with it and that it was ridiculous for a place the size of Leeds to only have one club.
I then met with Paul McGuiness and the Dutch skills coach they have before having lunch with Carlos Queroz. Carlos talked about his difficulties at Madrid with the politics and marketing. Both he and Phelan said they would be happy to come and speak with our coaches.
I then went back to speak with Ferguson and asked him about how he prepared with matches, if he still got in as early on a morning and whether he still enjoyed things the same?
One of the most impressive things at the club was the manners of absolutely everyone at the club, this I think is squarley a reflection of the manager and his personality, dinner ladies, Alex´s lovely assistant Lyn, the staff, the young players, all smashing people, it is a very friendly club.
The players at lunch all wore smart polo shirts and tracksuits and sat together, humble, talking, joking, laughing. They were the antithesis of the image that many top professional footballers project. It really did remind me of a school mates at lunch. The players displayed no ego at any time I was among them, just wonderful manners and warmth.
The staff, sit at a seperate table to the players, they do not mix.
It seems a wonderful way to work and enjoy the game. I have never seen senior players in England that impressed me more in terms of their character, than those I met today in Manchester. Ferdinand, Keane and Rooney, were wonderful and observing them on and off the field, I was impressed with them completely. Rooney has chose the correct club.
I believe that when setting out to accomplish goals, character and personality are far more than critical in terms of your staff, on and off the field. To achieve extraordinary things you must have an extraordinary attitude and mentality. Sir Alex in an incredibly successful eighteen years has instilled a set of values and beliefs at Manchester United, that are obvious the minute you enter his realm. You can smell it all around you.
In my own small way I have made some changes lately at our own football club, Garforth Town.
It was important to do this now rather than later, few more will now be necessary.
I observed many things of interest today, both on and off the training pitch. The most striking and memorable consideration relates to the changes that I refer to having been made at Garforth Town football club. It came from was a large poster board that loomed over Keane, Giggs, Rio, Wazza et al as they enjoyed their lunch. The poster is huge and shows a happy man, it is Sir Alex himself.
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Above is one simple word in large letters ´SMILE´, it appears as a command. I believed that I deduce the intention behind this striking image and the accompanying word, before Sir Alex confirmed this to me himself.
Alex, has put this as a daily, constant reminder in a large room, where he knows all of his staff will pass at some stage each day. I am able to imagine some of the battles that Alex fought inside of the club ( and won) in his early years in Manchester. The battles had to be won in order for the club to be successful and to go on and win premiership title after title. They had to be won in order for the possiblity of the ´european cup´ retuning to Manchester becoming a reality.
The poster strengthens and reminds me of the importance of positive character, the necessary type of character for winners. It is a pre requisite of success in sport and indeed life.
I never, saw one dour, gloomy, negative person in terms of the facial aspect or body language from almost one hundred people at Manchester United that I saw today. Carrington crackles with positivity, smiles, happiness. I can imagine that many have passed through the doors, only to exit quickly, many talented players who failed to heed Sir Alex´s poster warning.
Unusual man, unusually successful, I hope that he stays in football for a few more years yet.
I will keep other observations for our own players, but I would thank Alex and his staff for a wonderful, wonderful day.
Excellent article, vraiment. Désolé pour ceux qui comprendront pas, mais trés trés bon article par Simon Clifford...
