From now until 10pm, discussing issues in sport. Nige has already linked a lot of what he's been talking about back to Saints, and they're talking Saints more later in the show. Sounds interesting from the opening 15 minutes. Link: http://talksport.com/radioplayer/live/ Will attempt to summarise. DTLW
Just been discussing how clubs handle players leaving the club, in relation to Sterling. Mentioned the Chamberlain situation in relation to that, and said there were lots of situations already happening behind the scenes with the player prior to the move.
Now talking about Luke Shaw. Mentioned agents using players as a cash cow. Said he monitored and managed how much time Luke got with the senior team and in the team, and eventually Luke saw sense and changed agents. 'There were situations going on' Adkins basically letting on that Luke's previous agent was angling for a transfer before he'd even properly made his breakthrough at Saints.
Adkins: "Young players need good senior pros to set an example and keep them in check. Every club needs senior pros to look after the young players."
Just been talking about joining Twitter. Detested it at Saints and didn't get why the players spent so much time on it. Encountered similar trends elsewhere, so signed up expecting to just get absolutely battered and hit with abuse, then probably leave. Can understand why more now, said there's loads of great things going on, but you have to use it in the right way. Said he's both enjoyed it and hated it. Said he had a sit-down meeting with a certain young player who said to Nigel he was using social media for six hours plus, per day. Adkins told him what else he could do with that time that would actually benefit his career. Said too many players use their social media to show off their lads holidays, parties and nights out and it doesn't create an impressive professional image.
Adkins now talking about life as a physio. Said he ended up doing a degree in sports psychology because of conversations in the treatment room. Said he would check some players over and find no actual 'injury', so he'd press players on why they'd bothered coming to see him. Said it was relatively common to hear that they'd split from their partner, they're bored, losing access to the kids, developing a drinking habit, spending too much money at the casino, getting caned by the fans and so on. Thinks people just look at players as being 100% if they cross the white line to the pitch, and don't consider that someone is having a tough home life, struggling with other issues or are generally at a low point in their life or career for whatever reasons. Adkins said society and football are mentally weaker these days, and not firm enough with people. Said he doesn't think people who misbehave are actually punished as they used to be, and they should be. Said there seems to be some sort of strange culture of pandering to those who step out of line, rather than getting them back into line ASAP. Said that even in school, bad kids used to get punished and take a hit, and now that doesn't happen and he doesn't necessarily agree with that.
Adkins talking about the transition from Scunny to Saints. Talked about developing time management. At Scunny he could be involved in everything and know absolutely everyone at the club. Said at Saints that just wasn't possible, it's a massive club and a far bigger operation. But still, everyone likes a 'good morning' from the manager so he provided that. He said you have to be able to delegate and make sure that you keep tabs on things, but accept that you can't have overall, complete control of absolutely everything across a club as big as Southampton.
Talking about developing himself. Used to go on every type of 'course' going. Went to the physio courses, sport science courses, football coaching courses, business management courses, analyst courses - every type of course. He said that helped him as he could tell everyone he fully understood their scenarios, and had been in their position and seen things from the same perspective, and found that it helped him to pull together different departments with less difficulty. Said all the different departments naturally snipe at each other, but at Saints he had a really great set-up and things worked really well.
Remember that if anybody misses this they can tune into talkSport's listen again facility soon after it finishes.
Does that stay on there long TSS? I've just boarded a plane and really want to listen to that tomorrow.
Now discussing the play-offs. Compared cup finals and play-off finals. Said that play-off finals can be strange, as they're one-off games. Said he loved the way Derby were playing earlier this season, thought they were superb and played great football. Described them as outstanding. Said he went and watched them again late this season and couldn't believe the performance he was seeing. Said sometimes it's hard to understand how these things happen to a team with such high quality. Adkins said when he first left Southampton he spent time with Hamburg, and had access all areas. Said he went back to Saints a few weeks ago and did the same, said Saints have a system with 6 or 7 managers lined up to replace the current manager, depending on different outcomes. Said he thinks that's the way it has to be, and he doesn't think there's anything wrong with it - he accepts it.
Adkins talking about life pre-Southampton, and when Southampton came calling. Said he felt ready for Southampton when the club came calling. Adkins said to give yourself a good opportunity, you need to prepare yourself properly. Said when he got offered the job at S****horpe, the first question he was asked by local radio was 'how can a physio become the manager?'. He said he answered about his career path, about Bangor City and leading them into the UEFA Cup and then gave examples of the boot room philosophies of other clubs - said it instantly shut down that question and people accepted it. Said the supporters at Saints were 'magnificent'. Said he went back at the weekend and they were magnificent again. He said it was a very, very driven and a very, very ambitious environment. Was invited to meet Cortese, had a good conversation and after a period of time - became the manager. Great players, Kelvin Davis and Dean Hammond were two brilliant senior professionals. Rickie Lambert was a talisman, but there were several young players. Wanted to have a senior group, surround them with young and hungry players - Lallana, Chamberlain, Schneiderlin, Cork, Shaw. Said the ambition of Adkins and Cortese was always to have three players for every positions - one senior, one younger, one academy. That was the pecking order. Said that JWP began training with Adkins at 15, also brought Shaw, Chambers and Stephens into the fold and put them in the first team dressing room to see how they handled the experience. It's a very good example of how to get youngsters into your first team. Said you have to win games of football at the same time as blooding youngsters. Said he blooded nine youngsters at Reading, but had financial issues and other off-field issues and ultimately, they were not winning games while waiting for a new owner to arrive. Really good youth system, but had a heavy defeat at Birmingham. Said that if he had not suffered that heavy defeat at Birmingham, he would not have been sacked. Said that the goalposts moved for Steve Clarke. Seven months is now the latest average figure for a Championship manager. Said it doesn't give him time to 'wait' for a young player to be 'ready' to perform at the top of their game.
This is why they still have academy lads acting as boot boys at Saints...Gives the youngsters some humility and provides them with a direct link to the senior team.
Adkins now talking about Luke Shaw since leaving Saints. Said we need to be respectful of Luke. Said he spent a lot of time 'looking after' Luke, and how he was affected by agent issues and had his head turned. Had a lot of people looking at him, even at youth level. Said he played him in cup games alongside JWP. Saints did a lot of 'caring' for young players. Said there was a special support network just for Luke, led by Matt Radcliffe - who is now physio at United. Luke couldn't physically manage a full ninety minutes in Jason Dodd's team, so had to have 30 minutes here and there as they worked with him. Luke is now at one of the biggest clubs in the world. His financial situation has changed. The people he's surrounded himself with have changed. It could be too much too soon. If you're gonna be a top, top, top player you make your debut by 17 - but then it's about how you develop from there. Matt will have a big responsibility for Luke at Manchester United.
Adkins talking youth development at national level. Said he thinks we don't place enough importance on it. Thinks we have a challenging culture in this country when we think about 'burnout' and clubs and countries working against each other, rather than working together. Thinks England should put out their strongest team and just try to win these tournaments, we should take them more seriously. Said that at Reading, one of his players - Stephen Kelly - hardly ever had a break due to his Republic of Ireland commitments. We need to change the psychology and attitudes surrounding the squads - once you've had an England senior call-up and then go back to the U21s, it's a case of 'oh, I've been demoted' and there isn't the same level of enthusiasm and commitment again.
Adkins talking about management styles. Talking about communication, both verbal and non-verbal and also in terms of watching the game. Said he'd prefer to watch from an elevated view in the main stand, as it's easier to assess and oversee your team's performance - but you have to balance that with the value of having a manager pitch side. Said that at Saints, he would always sit next to Kelvin and ask him 'what did you see from that half?' and 'what have you identified from that first half?'. Believes goalkeepers have potential to be great leaders and managers/coaches, as they have a wider view of the game and are quite good at assessing football. Said he actually tried to sign Courtois at Saints. Looking to get back into frontline management as soon as possible, but happy to keep studying - was at Southampton at the weekend, Leicester Tigers rugby the days prior and MLS the week or so before that. Will go wherever, to assess various different sports, to make himself the best he can be. Finished by being asked who the best PL keeper is. He said Courtois - and said he tried signing him at Saints.
One good thing about Luke...he has come out and said he wants to play in the summer tournament (against the wishes of Van Gaal). I agree our best players should play in the youth tournaments....winning is a habit.
