Saints: The Most Intelligent Club in Football?

Anyone fancy a read? Well worth it!

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/performance/training/most-intelligent-club-england

 

That was interesting, especially as I know a 9-yr-old at the club. It does explain why our Academy lads are articulate and thoughtful. I suspect other clubs must find them easy to deal with if they go out on loan. I remember Alan Pardew saying our youngsters are all middle class. Nice lads usually have nice friends....some inner city kids at other clubs seem to keep getting pulled back into trouble. Self discipline is a valuable lesson in life. I bet that most of those that don't make it in football do better in other fields than the average....partly because they have motivation and partly because they had attention and encouragement....sadly something that so many youngsters don't get.

 

Great article. I made no class inference from it, more a universal philosophy that was laudable. Would hope that my kids would benefit from such a system if they had the chance.

Luke Shaw "the dopey one"? Ouch. Not a great line.

 

That is an interesting article and good to see the club trying to make sure the lads have an education too. I would however say that it might make us miss out on some "nasty" talent. I think we could do with someone nasty on the pitch at times. Someone raw and aggressive.

 

Do you think they should start such a programme for the fans only some of them seem a bit thick? They even boo their own players sometimes. Personality profiling of fans could prove interesting. You could sift the bigoted, pessimistic, seen it all, old gits from the over optimistic, rose tinted glasses wearing, happy clappers.

 

I could not agree more. We need to be hard and tough like WBA instead of the polite wimps we have become. The first rule I learned playing football was that you kicked the opposition players hard as possible as early in the game as possible so that you put paid to all that fancy Dan nonsense.

 

I may not be quite as far that ways as you .... but I get you.

Another area I noticed particularly against West Brom was that we need to get in the referee's ear a bit more. Darren Fletcher was in his ear all that game. Nibbling, doubting, questioning, appealing.

 

If I was a ref and he did that, he'd be one miniscule and minor infringement from a yellow card.

 

They are not as strong as you though Fran.

 

As long as our players can pass their GCSE's it doesn't matter if they can pass a football

 

Interesting and paints the club's system in a good light. Nothing in the article to say if Saints are leading the way with this, or just copying what other clubs are doing? I'm sure all clubs pick up things from others and it's only natural that staff who move between clubs bring in new ideas.

It's also fair to say, that as in the business world, consultants can sell you a lot of guff that is costly to implement, but difficult to actually later pin point if it works or not. When a "new industry/science" like this pops up, so does the industry around it to keep it going/growing.

I also, don't see how the difference in the general intelligence of footballers is any different to the past? Blimey, Iain Dowie got a degree alongside playing football (after firstly being rejected by Saints). It's right the club list the players who have been successful, but of course, they won't list the longer list of players who weren't. That's the nature of football, but when you talk about Luke Shaw... well, Gareth Bale was just as "dopey" and he did ok.

If anything, it probably reflects how standards in players regular schooling, plus what their parents teach them, is on the decline?

Nice puff piece though ;-)

 

The club are right to start by setting standards of behaviour. Education would improve overnight if they reintroduced forward facing desks and no talking in class. Standing up when a teacher comes in is a good way of delineating when a class starts, so everything else unconnected with the lesson stops. Discipline does not harm children....they like to know where they are and it helps the quiet child who wants to learn from being overwhelmed by the noisy ones.