Most of which I am about to say most of you know already, but as it's from someone else so it just makes it sound better. During my lecture at Uni this morning we were discussing philosophy in Sport, so obviously I had to mention Mr Adkins and some of his quotes. Most of the people in my course decided to slam me saying 'Adkins is a poor manager' and so on, trust me I gave it to them when they said that but my lecturer backed me up as he himself is a Pro-Manager and has said he has met Adkins on a couple of occasions. So for the next 15 mins he went on about Saints. He went on to say you will not find a better manager out there who goes into as much attention to detail as Nigel, he is a manager who strives to be the best. He went onto say that he won't go into a psycho mode to get the best out of the players but go into more finer details so that players have a better understanding of what they should be doing. Thats why we use the GPS systems to track there work rate and performance every session, he also said they film every session so when they look back on it they can speak to players individually. If they under perform they can use it to get them back up to the standard that is required of them. As we all know he said Southampton are by far the fittest side in the league which has basically been shown in every game so far as we are now able to see games out and score late on, something which we have never really been very good at. Also he mentioned we are lucky to have Dean Wilkins as coach as he could quiet easily be a coach for the Top 4 teams in the Prem and is a very well respected man in the football coaching community. But also went onto say that Wilkins, Crosby and the main man Adkins are all on the same wavelength and know what they all want to achieve. They all stay late on to make sure they are well prepared for the next game. My lecturer also said that the prime example at Southampton is Dean Hammond and that as we all said at the beginning of this season, 'will he cut it at Championship level' but his effort he puts in at training is of a model pro and he is no doubt the best person for Captaincy as it will always rub off on other players such as Chaplow/Schneiderlin who know they have to perform if they want to start. Sorry if I waffled on a bit but just thought some of the things may interest you and how lucky we really are at Saints, obviously some of the things I have said you would already know about but just thought I would back up what has already been said by a completly different person!!
No need to apologise to waffling on. I could happy listen to people waffle on about Adkins and his staff all day long.
to back up the "stay late" comment; I posted previously that I saw Nigel going back into St Marys at 5.20pm in the midle of an international break.
Echo the other replies... keep waffling..! And your reference to the staff staying late reminded me of FLT's lucky day.
Nice words, agree with everything you said. Feel like we are all being rewarded for the hard times and for sticking by the team.
Just goes further to show how good a manager Adkins really is. You cannot fault him for his commitment and dedication to the job in hand. The same can be said of Dean Hammond, a model pro as the SL Saint quite rightly points out.
When the team returned from their first visit to Switzerland they appeared to be unfit or exhausted and I didn't understand how this could happen. Recently on Player they had a video about fitness testing. Apparently every player is tested to the maximum (which varies from man to man) and then his training is individually designed to get him to his peak without exhausting him (hence their little sports bras). This is the field that NA and his team are experts in and why our players can last to 100 min (apparently the length of a football match according to Nigel!).
Sports Coaching, very good course so far. Not gonna lie the Pompey fans in the lecture where not happy talking about Saints for 15 mins!!
as some of you may know i wrote an article about Nige this week, so its always great to read more. its no surprise any of this, i've heard time and time again that he is streets ahead of other managers in his methods, applying analytical data to sport cannot fail to back up an argument. its an approach that you would want working for you in your normal job because their attential to detail and use of these analytical methods ensure that optimum performance is achieved, and it shows that if performance isn't achieved then there is no hiding as to the reasons why. this is another reason why Nigel fits so well with our club as we are running a FOOTBALL CLUB like we would a well-run company, you bring in the best people for the job who work the hardest and use the best methods available. so many managers work on their gut instinct and ego's but we will evaluate every opportunity and method and undertake the right option if it is right for the club, we dont spend money for the sake of it and if a club doesnt want to sell to us we move on. sure we may miss out on some players but we will prevail in the end. as i said, if this was for example a FTSE 100 company you would run it this way, and why can it not be ran the same way? this is why i have ultimate faith in the management of SFC
if a guy is interested in the degree, no need to slate him is there? Your degree is pointless to me, have some positivity for once
Joey B, could you give some examples of degrees you believe not to be pointless so that we can discuss the merits of each? Good post, and nice to know that Adkins is recognised in academia.
Joey B, just wow!! It's called doing something I enjoy. To be fair I did mention in my article that some of you already knew some of the facts. IF your so perfect let see you write an article? Also what degree do you study or have studied?
