S2.E3 - Jude Bellingham and the 3 lions.

In this episode we take a closer look at Jude Bellingham, and we discuss the value of stories that mean something. 

Transcript

Welcome & Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, howdy folks. Hope you're all well and welcome to episode three, season two of Football Eterno, the greatest podcast you've never seen. Coming to you live from Brisbane, Australia, here in Sunny Queensland. And this episode is titled Jude Bellingham and the Three Lions. And so we're going to get into that tonight. We're going to get into Jude. This episode um arrived at my door early this afternoon and um I felt like I was going to go on a Jude Bellingham rant. Not a rant about him in terms of complaints, just go on a bit of a flow about Jude and see where we see where we go with it. So that's going to happen. I do have some points to anchor me. I am aware that what I can do sometimes is I'll be talking about something, and then something will come to my mind, and then I'm off down that lane, and then whilst I'm down that lane, something else comes to mind, and I go down that lane. Most of the time I'd like to s I'd like to think that I arrive back at the the the main trunk of um the main thrust of what I was talking about. Having listened to some of my podcasts back, um that's not always the case. Um but in life we take the rough with the smooth. I do remember one time a story comes to mind as I say this. I was um I was chatting to a lady and I was I remembered something about um something on my Instagram page. Now anyway, in my mind one of the one of the the gifts and talents that the Lord has given me is what's referred to as working memory. People often say you've got an amazing memory. I just have my memory, I haven't cultivated it necessarily if that makes sense. We all have those. We all have those and it's great to uncover what they are and put them to good use for the for for God's glory. And one of mine, as I mentioned, is working memory anyway. In my mind, I I knew where the the square was on my Instagram page in my mind that I wanted to talk to about. But as I was going through the squares in my mind, I ended up just talking about a few of the squares on my way to where I don't know where the square was, but like um it was down at the bottom, down on the bottom right, anyway. I was I bounced off I I I went on this, you know, snakes and ladder journey down my page telling stories about some of the squares. I wasn't looking at my Instagram post at the time. Anyway, I looked back at this um this lady and she she had a face of absolute sheer sheer panic um while she tried to follow what I was doing. On my side of that, my side of the fence. I was having a just skipping through skipping through a nice meadow. Um obviously I want to I want to um I'm I'm telling the story for someone else's someone else's benefit, I hope. And so and so here we go, Jude Bellingham and the three lines. Um The Lord's given me um a great song today to play. Um so we're gonna we're gonna go with that as an intro. So here we go. It's called Twelve to Twelve by Somba, S O M B R, is how he spelt it. Um I believe that's how it's pronounced, but forgive me if I'm wrong. And um I'm gonna he's got an official video, but I haven't looked at it, so just in case there's any satanic symbolism, isn't it? Oh, there's a Hollywood sign. Anyway, we're not gonna we're not necessarily gonna crack that open. I'll play the lyrics the lyrics page. It has a pizza in the top left. Is that a reference to Pizzagate? I don't know, but we can't um we can't be doing that all day long. Um 12 to 12, here we go. It's a great song. Oh we've got an advert first. Apologies, folks, but it's slightly low budget at the moment, the podcast. So the content speaks for itself. Here we go. Without wanting to sound like Gallon Partridge is an absolute toe tamper, isn't it? I was gonna say didn't want to sound like Alan Titchmarsh there. Um nothing wrong with Alan Titchmarsh his voice.

Jude Bellingham intro

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Alright guys, so um yeah, Jude Bellingham, I mean I mean I mean we've got an absolute absolute world star on our hands here in the in the team. We've got an absolute worldie. And um I've noticed in the media where some people are some people are uh uh would prefer Morgan Rogers to start. And some people are like, I can't believe we're having this conversation. Some conversations aren't conversations, aren't actual conversations that people are having until the media start start having them. Thomas Tuchel has obviously fanned those flames um with some of the things that he's said. Um obviously I say obviously, but he's doing that for a reason. Um if he wasn't a fan of him as a player, he wouldn't take him. I don't think he would bow down to that pressure. Um he's obviously trying to to um he wants everybody to fit into the broader vision and mission of what he's doing and team ethos, you know, amen to that. And um and we've got and um you know uh and we'll come to this in the next part, but perhaps it's an it's a also a piece of mad management for for Thomas Tuchel which which could work out to be a stroke of genius um as a strength of his or it might not work it might not work and it might backfire. Um it might backfire. I hope it I hope it doesn't backfire obviously as an England fan, but we're gonna see, and it's one of the one of the most interesting stories about the England setup and the England journey for me with Jude. Um as an En as as a as an Englishman, as a man born in England, born and raised in England, he typifies and exemplifies so much of what makes us British and proud to be English and British in him as a person as an individual, his personality, his characteristics and how he how he acts as how he operates as a player, like lung busting, um plays with his heart on his sleeve and um and we've got a we've got a world he has a bit of swagger about him. I mean if you if you go to certain parts of the UK you'll see you'll find a lot of you'll find a lot of cockiness, um I'm not pro-arrogance. You just can see you just will get a lot of um cheeky swagger, which when it's tempered with um when it's tempered with the appropriate reverence and humility, it has its place has its place because he scored an over-a kick in the last minute and so uh um you know if he does he's got the technical ability ability to do that. So for him it's like when the ball's goes, well I'll just over a kick that and so we wanna we want to amend that and we want that to be um celebrated and allowed to flourish in the team because when you've got that kind of unique gift and talent. One narrative with England is we don't do we don't do particularly well with our flare player. I wouldn't necessarily agree with that actually. Um not necessarily, but that's not what we're talking about on this podcast today. So what I've got for us guys is just some information, some background information about uh Mr. Master Jude Bellingham.

Jude stats & honors

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Um this is taken from Wikipedia, so may or may not be true. Jude's full name is Jude Victor William Bellingham. I mean it sounds regal. It sounds regal it sounds regal, doesn't it? It's a great great name. Bellingham. I don't know what the back the the origin and the meaning of the word Bellingham is. I might Google that in a second. Jude Victor William Bellingham. Some nice English British um regal noble names in there. Jude's obviously a biblical name as well, it's one of the um books of the Bible. Jude Victor William Bellingham was born on the twenty ninth of June, so he'll have a birthday during the World Cup, um praise God for that. West Midlands mother Denise Mark and his father Mark. Irish descent through his father, Kenyan descent through his mother. His father, Mark, was uh until recently a sergeant in the West Midlands Police Force. Praise God for that. Thank you, Mark. We need we honour our um public servants to put themselves in um in harm's way for uh for the the greater good, so thank you for that. And he himself was a prolific goal scorer in non-league football. Job Bellingham's younger brother is also a footballer. Shout out to Job. Bellingham was privately educated at the primary school in Edge Baston, Birmingham. Played a tennis match in Edge Baston. Um played in this father and son tournament with my dad, obviously. Um and we played against you kind of got drawn pi from with opponents quite far away anyway, so we travelled to Edgebaston. Sounds sounds far away at the time in the UK, actually, it's just Leicester to Birmingham, but now I lived in Australia, not that far. Anyway, these guys, it's the father that played, happened to win the world father and son tennis tournament the year before with his oldest son. Anyway, we got absolutely crushed, but it was a great game. Jude grew up idolising Zined in Zedan, how awesome that he's playing at Real Madrid with the number five on his shirt. Um and he feels it very well. And then Bellingham graduated from Ludford College with a B Tech, level three, the old B Tech i in sport. I thought it was Ludbury University. I played tennis at the Down Maskell Centre at Ludborough University, played against their football team a couple of times for the Leeds Met. Um obviously one of the strongest sports universities, sporting centres in the UK. Um that's a bit of background about Jude. Interesting stuff. Not surprised that he was educated um privately. Um not that he's a tough. I could just tell he's well educated, speaks well, holds himself well, manners. Often these private schools have like um pillars, virtues, values, bastions that they uphold and teach. Um they're all about building character, virtues, all that kind of good stuff. And he does speak well, Jude. He's got that got a level of maturity um got a level of maturity there. I'd be interested to dive into that a bit more. Um anyway, that's an interesting mix 'cause it sounds like he's got really good grounding, but good education, that's obviously priority for his parents. I again again I'm I'm I don't know, but that's where my brain goes with it. I'd love to uh dig into that a bit more. Um the stories stories galord, where every single hu human being created by uh by creator, Jude's got his own story and it's ongoing. Um AI um espouses that Jude's most outstanding statistical metric line is goal scoring direct goal contributions from the midfield alongside his elite passing accuracy and a defensive recovery is dual winning percentages. So what my basically asked it, what what where does he s what statistically where does he stand out? Does goal contributions um he consistently out outperforms his expected goals. Obviously over time that will change because if he consistently does that then he'll have higher expected goals. Um late well timed runs into the penalty box. We saw that during obviously prolific during that prolific season that he had. And he's got very high conversion rates. I don't know the exact numbers on those, I'd like to dig into that, but that's not what we're doing here. Dribbling and ball carrying, um got good stats for progressive carries and successful take-ons. Um and he regularly ranks at the top of the charts for driving the ball out of the defensive third into the attack in half. Um also defensive actions and duels. Defensively belly Jude ranks in the upper percentiles for tackles, interceptions, ground duels won. Um consistently maintains a high, short to medium pass completion percentage while simultaneously posting high numbers for key passes and passes in the into the final third. So I mean, you've got defensive attacking, and this is something that if you've seen that clip recently on the England Channel, England YouTube channel, where Morgan's saying that you can just shift, you can you can change from being like um a great defensive midfielder to attacking midfielder, he's basically got the lot. Um he's what you would call a freak in terms of just the natural gifts and talents he's been endowed with by the Creator. Um and we're seeing them on we're seeing them on display. Um that's just how it is for some folks. Everybody's got their natural gifts, skills and talents from the Creator, and you will experience your relative greatness in Christ when you know what they are and and and you use them, you use your talents in service to him in whatever ways he wants you to use them. Jude's got his at the moment, obviously would sing primarily on the soccer pitch, but that's not all everybody is, of course, um but it without that that he has amazing skills and gifts and talents is is undoubted. Obviously we've got to make the most of those, and that's where personal qualities, attitude, character, all that kind of stuff comes into play. Um The Bible says that to he it's uh him or her who has been given much would be expected. Um and that's that is somewhat true for Jude, isn't it? Obviously there's there is a lot of expectation on his shoulders. You would say some rightly so, some not rightly. Um either way it's there, isn't it? Unmistakably. It's there, and that's something which he has to interact with and um ultimately embrace embrace because i it's there and uh he wants he he wants to have s some of his postmaths chats and he speaks very well. Um dude, he's got a good EQ, good social awareness, social intelligence, can read a room, speaks you know, speaks well about people, clubs, good sense of humour, all that kind of stuff. He's just a good a good all-round all-round bloke. Only twenty-two, still only twenty-two, but a lot of maturity on his shoulders. Um and he was talking about how like you know, like um he has to pinch himself essentially sometimes, like if he can't be happy and and in enjoying life, then you know, something's wrong given, you know, what he's doing, playing for Real Madrid England, all that kind of stuff, right? Which is true. And when you're reaching for what's possible for you, you're at that interface of what can you do? Um how good can you be, right? And so that's always gonna f ultimately there's always gonna be stretch and growth there. That can exist for anybody at different levels, like um Christian Bale said when he finished doing one of those movies and he was training for Batman, he couldn't do one push-up because it he was super thin for the one before it, and so for him that was his starting point. But again, he was at the interface of um of testing and challenge in order for him to grow and make progress, which is which is um a great thing to be doing in life, right? Um We don't we don't we don't want to be um apathetic towards life in general. It's not a good it's not good for us. Um so we're gonna come to Jude's um of the honours that he's that he's had. Russia Dortmund, DFB Pokal, don't know what that is. Um I don't know what that is. Oh, these are some of the things that he's won. Okay, so that was that might be their charity shield. Real de Liga, Super um Super Cup uh um Espana. Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA International Cup, England 117s, UEFA Champions League runners up twenty twenty European Championship runners up, obviously twenty-two every England. Um individual England's men pla England's Men's Player of the Year 24-25 Birmingham City Special Achievement Award, he's super young there Championship Apprentice of the Year, Bundesliga Rookie of the Month, Goal of the Month, Bundesliga Team of the Season 21-22, 2223, Bundesliga Newcomer of the Season 2021, in the Bundesliga team of the season 21-22-22-23 Some Copper Trophy runner up, um the men's youth under twenty world team men's world best youth player twenty twenty-two men's world team twenty twenty-three, world's best playmaker twenty twenty-four, ESPN midfield of the year twenty twenty two-twenty three, Bundesliga Player of the Season twenty two-twenty-three um V D V D V Bundesliga Player of the Season, another golden Golden Boy Award, which is like um some big award. Globe Software Award, Emerging Player. Player of the Year A Globe Soccer Award midfield of the year FIFA Men's World 11 2024 5 Pro World 11 2023 La Liga La Liga Player of the Season 23 24 La Liga Team of the Season 23 24 UEFA Champions League Team of the Season 23-24 UEFA Champions League Young Player of the Season 23-24, the Loreus World Breakthrough of the Year Award 2024, the Athletic European Player of the Season 23-24 and a couple of other athletic awards. Obviously the Athletic being um a pretty good um They're on top of it, those boys, the at the Athletic. Anyway, that's Jude at the age of twenty um yeah, twenty-two, soon to be twenty-three. Um but my take on Jude from a personal perspective is

Jude - my take

SPEAKER_00 23:05

I love watching him almost as much, and we and we get into that stage as much as I w enjoyed or look forward to watching, was uh glued to the screen and mesmerised by Ronaldo Dinazario Lima, R9, Brazilian Ronaldo, and I haven't had that like that for a player. I mean Zidane Zidane for me as well was one of those where I he had he he just had this genius like how he did things, how he brought the ball down, his movement just to just elegant, like his painting, you know what I mean. I remember um Gary Gary Lineker once said, Oh his feet, his feet are like hands, like the dexterity we have it we have in his hands, Zidane has in his feet, and he said that he's bold. Gary Lineker heard someone say the reason why Zidane's bold at the back of his head is because he's got eyes there and he can see incredible player, but for me the the player that I remember being like just peak, like I want I I want to watch this player. Praise God for Cassetta Football Italian on Sunday in the UK when he played for Inter. Because I was like I was not leaving the house, I was watching um Ronaldo. I have that, it's dude starting to creep into that territory for me, which is easily the best compliment I can give him because I want to watch what he does. I I love the way he moves on on the pitch. He's got like a Zidane type air and aura to him for sure. Like he's got that magnitude already for Real Madrid because when he arrived there, he just he just you were like, okay, he's not come to make the numbers up. He's already there, like, okay, Jude's playing. Um it's in just impacts the team, he's make it make a difference, he's on the pitch, you've got to get him on the pitch. He's gonna make a difference. And the way he moves like a control, and it it he's one of those ways top speed sprinting, it looks like he just caps out a bit, so he he could work on a bit more fast um fast twitch stuff with his feet to get even faster because he's still gr he's still growing into his body um at twenty-two, so he'll be he'll be an absolute beast at twenty-five, twenty-six, um, Lord willing. Um but he's not far off now, he's not far off now. Um but he he we will continue to mature physically and everything everything that will come with that. But he's already got that gravitas, is probably the right word to say, he's already got that gravitas on the pitch. He's just he's just um one of the world's best players, without a shadow of a doubt, absolute shadow of a doubt. And um Yeah, he's got that's it, he's got like the z the the Gerard box-to-box physical drive aggression. He's got like a bit of you know, Lampard from a goal scoring perspective, um Skullsey could arrive well in the box as well. Um with like Zidane, the Zidane's sort of swan-like grace, you know, like how Federer moves, he's got a bit of that going on. He just his timing, his timing with the ball and his how he how he runs and his gait is exceptional. It's one of those where with the ball at his feet, it's kind of like no offence to this, but the opposite of um uh Victor Yokarez, um, the ball bounces around a bit when it's at his feet and his speed, and that's something for Victor to continue to work up work upon, and obviously Victor just wants to do what to do, which is get me near the goal and I'll smash it. And um I don't know how many goals he scored today, but I saw the goal that he did take for Sweden today against um Tunisia, and so well done to him. Um but Jude's Jude with the ball again. The one thing about R9 Ronaldo was with the ball at his feet, it was he was almost quicker, it was ridiculous. And when I played when you got the ball at the feet, you can actually time things to look to not to look quicker than you are, but when you're running with the ball at the feet, you could time it where when you go past players, it feels like you just it when it and the timing works where you're like he comes in, you pack you just tap it, you move bubba butt, and you kind of glide through it and things open up. Oh no, I'm at that. Jude has that has that timing. So that's just like essentially spatial awareness where you just know um he just has that. And you can again you can work on it, well, you know, he looks over the shoulder and that kind of stuff, but he's also just got there'll be situations with Jude where there you can't um it's a live, dynamic situation. He did that against um Costa Rico, you know, where he went but beat back three players, and then I think he had a dig or he laid it off. But in those moments, he's just his raw natural intelligence that he has to play, to to to read a moment, to do it instinctively, he's got that. Ese has that as well, just that insane talent, instinctive talent. Um for me I'd like to see as a um I don't say work harder because it's not about that, it'd be more so focus on a goal that makes him appropriately uncomfortable to get the best out of him. Because yeah, I mean, yeah, and there's ways there's ways anyway, there's there's always a key to help unlock somebody to take them to the take them to another level so they're absolutely maxing out. I mean, Jude um Jude's got that hunger and that drive, that real, that British like lion heart passion and drive that the fans love and connect with. And so we have that with certain players, like we love Jack Grealish, for example, because he he um epitomises a lot of our um characteristics that we associate with England and with Britain, and that's something which we can celebrate and harness, right? I think a I think the right fit for an England is someone that can that that um can tune into that, appreciate it, understand that, and work within also improving us um where we need improving tact, you know, tactics, all that kind of stuff. Without it's important that we don't dilute don't don't dilute who we are as our identity. Um I'll come to that later, but we've got to double down our identity whilst uh working on um still working on gaps to improve us generally and doubling down on our identity at the same time because that's what is gonna win you when you consistently win your trophies when it consistently win your trophies. And so um yeah, we're gonna come to this and so the next bit is um

Thomas Tuchel & man management

SPEAKER_00 29:59

man management Thomas Tuchel. I'm just gonna have a drink of this. I don't have any sponsors yet for the podcast, so offers are all welcome. Um offers are welcome. Or prebiotic soft drink, it's referred to, sodah leak, passion fruit. Um yeah, it's just a refreshing burst. Ten calories per serve, but you've got to check the back for per serve. Um because if they've got fifty-nine serves in the bottle, you're in trouble. But yeah, there's only one serve per bottle, so basically it's ten calories per serve. I would just say ten calories per bottle, guys. But hey. Not in your boardroom not in your boardroom just yet. Okay, right, man management Thomas Tuchel. So on the previous episode I talked about seeing some clips of Thomas where he wants to really especially PSG where you're talking about can't wait to connect with the players and you know get hold of them, put his arms around them, he obviously wants to get in there, get mushy mushy with his players, which I love. Um The situation with Jude is I don't know, and that's true, I don't know how it's going. I don't know how it's going. Um but if he turns it into a power struggle, I don't think it's gonna work because I don't Jude's I don't think Jude's that way oriented, and also he is where he is at his 22, and whilst he can l he is doing extremely well, um I don't know, there's like a due to and and I don't I'm this isn't I'm not saying anything I don't literally don't know anything really about Tom Stuchor whatsoever. I'm just I'm just kind of tuning in to like how do we get the best attitude and because there is there is there is a there will be a way now certain managers could can do things a certain way, for example, Mourinho had a certain way and certain style of players, and he was obviously quite adaptable in changing it, but it still fits into his way of doing things. Slatan, John Terry, all these guys speak about you know, basically to bleed for this guy, and how Slatan how Mourinho turned, you know, Slatan just said he made me feel like he was basically just a lion on the pitch and helped bring that out of him. That's awesome. With Jude, what's the way to go? Don't know. I don't know, and sometimes you can ask a player, but they might not know either, because they might go, look, I just need someone to know how to how to help get the best out of me. And so sometimes I think I've listened to Jude and I think, oh, is it after the New Zealand game where he was a bit like I'm not sure I'm I'm coming in. I mean he's he's wonderfully honest. But um, you know, there's a time where we all need a hug, and then when we all need to be pushed to our next level in an appropriate way, basically. I I'm not a fan of um uh somebody going to the next level, let's say, from a development perspective, with um detrimental consequences. Let's say, you know, for example, Andre Agassiz writes in his book about yeah, my dad helped me become a great tennis player, but I'm not sure the trade-off as far as Andre Agassiz is concerned might have been worth it. Maybe, maybe, maybe not. But anyway, you I'm alluding to a point there. And so um because what I'm what I'm what I'm wary of or conscious of is that when Jude scored that over a kick and he said who else, firstly, I d I don't have a huge problem with that because I don't firstly I don't necessarily understand the context the full context about it. Obviously he was getting some you know, he gets pushed and probed by the media and he and on the whole he does very well. Sometimes he he bites back a little bit because he's like hey and he's very uh normal and honest with it, which it and so he's got an authenticity there and a genuineness that I like. And he's still a young man, and there's a lot of a lot of weight and pressure on his shoulders to take. And so there's there's a GDK, and I know there's a lot being done in the game about player welfare, absolutely, I'm sure England will be on top of that. Um and w you know, we're talking about exceptional circumstances and situations here, and we're you know, we're talking about the top at the top of the game, the top of the profession. And with Jews, one thing the media would try and do, or the snake in the media, let's say, um, which isn't necessarily one person, it's just the s the snake, the serpent in the media that is um doesn't want that basically wants to is is it i exist to the detriment of players ultimately and it's it's it's selfish and self-centered, um and doesn't really care what's going on, as long as something's going on, they might push a narrative, push a push a scenario, a narrative to probe to get a reaction and response, and then report on it and make money off here and be like, oh look at this, and it's like they totally just engineered that. There's plenty of examples of that where the media will try and put your arm around you one at one minute, whereas it's really just a politician's handshake, it's um the other hands cross behind their back, if you know what I mean. And so there's a di there's a level of deception and snakiness there, um, which is uh uh again if we go biblical um we know where we find that origin. And with Jude, the media might want to necessarily put put continue to put the weight of expectation on his shoulders so that um either he either he essentially has like cracks as a person, which which again if you look at people like Britney Spears or something, it's just oh look, she shaved her head and listen, oh great, let's report on it. Um so they'll want they'll want that to an extent, and that's going a bit MK Ultra, but these things are out there, folks, and this is part of the world, an element uh uh uh uh uh a layer of the world that exists and very much exists in sports, in media, um and entertainment. I'm not gonna go too deep on this, but like I say, there y there's there's there's things out there, there's institutions out there with that essentially have have ill intent or at at at their core uh are self-centered self-cent self-centered greedy, um which is the anti antithesis of um the kingdom of God essentially, which is service uh servitude, others oriented, right, for the for the benefit of all. Because if everybody participates in that, then you've got all the care and attention that you need, um, because it's because it's it's you're giving out left, right, and centre, and it's coming to you left, right and centre, so you everyone's taken care of. Um and that's um the best way to operate is a the best way to structure things is always a kingdom. You've got to have depends on the king who's on the depends who's on the throne. Uh in our instance we have um uh Jesus Christ on the throne, he's the king of the king of kings, and in his kingdom everything flows and works perfectly because the one on the throne is perfect. Um and so when we come back down there, down to where from Jewish perspective, we've got the media will be pushing things with Jude. Um one element is that he basically cracks, can't deal with it, and then they'll just report to follow that route through wherever it goes. Another thing would be that he um takes on too much during the game. So he he because he's got he knows he can influence games, he knows he can grab games by the scruff of the neck, he knows it can be like, right, just give it to me, I'll make something up and I'll do it. And you can see that in some of his previous games for England where he's just everywhere, leaving it all out there, um you know, just flying around the pitch like a thoroughbred horse. Um it veers off that way and essentially tries to do too much in the game. Thomas Tucker went up there and could pull it, and then he's frustrated and boom, and then

The key for Jude

SPEAKER_00 38:45

something happens there. So this is where Jude has to obviously continue to have great people around him, which it looks like he does, praise God for that. Whereas it key for him is going to be his decision making. So if I was speaking to Jude, I would say key for you, Jude, is to understand your role, your role as a um let's say a king in the team, and what that actually means in terms of not not not shrinking, just utilising your natural skills, gifts, and abilities and talents for the benefit of the team, not trying to be a teen wolf like a movie team wolf, not trying to go too far, but also not um you know if you feel like there's an there's a natural instinctive intuitiveness that you just want him to celebrate and for him to continue doing. If you feel it, do it, if you see it, do it, because that what's got you here will you know there's things to double down on, and um and it'll be tempered with not trying to do too much because part of what he can do is bring out the best in players around him, amen for that, on and off the pitch, on and off the pitch. And also um just strike that balance, like the perfect decision making, which um there'll be ways to access that for him, but essentially if he if that could be something he could be conscious of is like one of his great gifts is his decision making is decision making, his judgment. Um wisdom, I mean the th these are things which again the Lord endows people with, the spirit of wisdom, a spirit of understanding, seeing the bigger picture, um, you know, really seeing the bigger picture in many, many ways, right? And so, for example, if he's throwing goal in the last minute, does he square the ball to Wally Watkins for a tap in? Or does he try to take the shot on himself and it's saved, or something like that, or try and do so one thing there would be if he if he double thinks or he's it th the influence there from the snake would be in that moment for him to make the wrong decision. Now, how do we know what the wrong decision is? Well we'd a time will tell, but also he will know himself, and so he's got a I'd have to speak to him most likely about that, but essentially that's something key to focus on is decision making. A not to overthink it, but to be aware that one of your natural skills, gifts and talents is your decision making, and so what something would be like to to watch back games and footage or moments in games where somebody can see whether he's made an incredibly good, great decision, and just to take him back into that and say what was what was existing in that particular moment for you, take him into his in take him take him back into that not without hypno don't need hypnosis, you just ask the right questions in the right space, take him back then. So when he taps into that, he's found his um his pathway, his river, if you like, that enables him to activate that so he can he can duplicate it more often. Again, this is all without overthinking, but essentially once you've once you've unpacked it, you can pack it back up, put it back in the box, and he's away, and he's got he's unlocked a key about himself and um chocks away. You don't need to revisit it unless there's a need to revisit it, right? Um and he might become more curious and there's ways to work with players in that regard, so definitely his decision making there. Um definitely his decision making there. Alright. Next

Nations & styles

SPEAKER_00 42:22

bit is nations and styles, and so one thing that I was chatting about someone from work today is that nations often what you see is they have their own styles. For example, um there's Jurgen Kinsman, I referenced this in the previous podcast, Jurgen Kinsman's episode on the overlap with Gary Neville et al. is a great one, and um they did a great job of letting him tell his stories, but I did probably because they were super interesting. I that they were, and he spoke really well, Jürgen Kinsman. Um and he was saying about because he because he played in France, played in Italy, played in England, like he one thing he great story about how his dad sort of said to him, You and other coaches at certain times said you need to go overseas, mate, and that's part of who you are. And amazing, amazing how so important other people play these roles in our lives to give us this this feedback, and if they see something bold enough to say it. But principally Jürgen was talking about how in Italy losing was like that you just didn't lose because it you had you to save face. And so even if you dr even if you drew, um you're okay because you've saved face. Losing was just like the worst. So that culture was orientated around that, and they call that catanaccio, I believe, which is this defense, right? And now we do associate that, like you see, um I can't remember the guy's name now, the Juventus um centre half with the with the the the nose almost as big as mine. Um you celebrate tackles and blocks like like it'd scored a goal, and they're awesome, just people that live for defending, right? They just lived it, live for that. That's something you associate with. So you also associate incredible fair players, but but that's woven into their culture and their their identity. That would be always something to double down on honour because that's part of their identity, and that's a great thing. Often what we see, what we can see in the world is sometimes there's a in certain countries, like for example in England, like a St George flag, and I don't know where it's at now, but can sometimes be associated with like fascism or neo-Nazism or skinheads, and it's like um it they can they want often what the enemy wants to do is try and erode people's sense of national pride um and a recognition of a um the positivity of a culture and its identity, right? You wanna you want to get rid of the bad, keep the good, keep what makes you you, right? There's a there's a quintessential English Englishness about England and Britain that is part of its identity and it's to be celebrated and it's woven into our fabric and our DNA, and that also comes that also has its representation on the on the football pitch. Um we love you know Euro 96, um I mean what swept through the nation, the country at that time was just amazing. I lived it, I was fortunate enough to live it and also watched My Some of the Death about sixty-not times and loved it, captured it really well. Um so much there to be celebrated that was alive and well in England at that time. Um you go back to Italian 90 with Terry Butcher bleeding, you know, it we it's this heart on it's this like leave it all out there, heart on the sleeve come on the the the extent to which we get behind the teams and the players, we want them to fight, we want you know battle, right? That's just woven in, it's woven in. And someone might say, Oh, you've got to be tactically disciplined. If we try and be the best at what another country does well, we we'll we'll A we'll lose ourselves and we won't be able to do it because that's not naturally in our in our DNA and fabric. Do we need to adopt look at um best practice but yeah, of course, obviously, of course, and there's been huge strides made in that area. Look at what England's been doing at some of its other tournaments, and and whilst riding the main horse of uh um our national pride and our identity culturally and how that shows up on the pitch, because that's also going to create the best connection with the fans. And as you've seen at Arsenal with Mikhail Arteta, that symbiotic relationship between give the fans something to cheer about and it it it boosts the players, it takes you to it can take you to another level. Novak Djokovic on a tennis court semi-final final where he it's a huge rally and he wins it with a you know backhand down the line and he roars. You can't do that with when there's no crowd there. You can give it a crack, but you're not gonna be able to reach that without everything, with all the conditions being there. He probably can't play that shot in practice because you can't duplicate those can those conditions. As Simon Jordan often says on Talk Sport, the jeopardy, there's got to be something on the line, that meaning that takes players, athletes to another level that's that's beyond a previous a previous something else that they've previously been able to experience where they either surprise themselves, but they pop into a new level where they're like, right, this becomes it let's make this the new norm for a while, let's let's get there. And you need opponents to do that. That's why there's it's always appropriate to have healthy respect for your opponents, because I remember George Saint Pierre, George Saint Pierre writing in the way of the fight, there's no opponent, there's no contest, there's no contest, there's no challenge, there's no test, there's no growth, you can't you can't get your hands on a trophy and feel that feeling with the sweat and sweating the mud all over you without the without the challenge in the opponent. The reward is part of the journey and the testing. Look at Arsenal, right? I'm sure if they if they didn't have the challenge that they had dropping back, then having to come back and previous season, it wouldn't have tasted like it tasted. And if you ask them how well how good did that taste, they're gonna say, yeah, it tastes pretty good. And so it's all woven into it, right? It's got to be woven into it. That's just how it works. No one's gonna give you the World Cup, right? It you wouldn't want it anyway. Oh, here's the World Cup. I don't you don't want it, you want to earn it, right? You want you want those fights, those challenges, you want to play against the best, you want the opportunity. And so um you look at Brazil with the flair players, um they look like a young they look like a younger, naive, somewhat naive um uh version of themselves. They don't have the same I don't know whether it's uh it's men, they don't have the same kind of men in the team. I'm not sure what's going on there, but they're in a they're in a growth phase or a renewal phase, Brazil. You know, I don't know how often they've gone and got a non-Brazilian manager and Ancelotti, obviously a great manager and a great bloke, um, interested to see they could hit they could hit their strides, they need they they need a raw Brazil, they need to put a performance on against the top team again because their confidence has been walloped after that German after Germany game, haven't really recovered from that Germany game where they got absolutely spanked. Um, but we know what they're about, right? And we want to see that, we want to see that on the pitch. We know what the Dutch are about, we want to see that identity. Um certain up-and-coming nations have got to kind of find and forge their identity, and that's a great thing to see. You see that with some of the African teams, Ivory Coast. Love watching those, love watching Ivory Coast. Um, Morocco's got a strong, you know, a strong identity, they've got things to they look like fighters, these blokes. Um tenacious fighters, you know. Anyway, there's so much to dig into at what you see on the pitch that manifests on the pitch that for me is is one of the wonders of the World Cup for sure is how cultural identity weaves into um performances on the pitch. And um that's why I think that's why I think it's so important to bring the best of your country to the table. Um because that's what the World Cup's about. It's a it's nation against nation. It's fantastic, fantastic thing. It's amazing how sport plays its role in in the broader the um the broader cultural piece and what it can do, what it can do for people, what it can do for nations. Um I see sometimes well, I see a lot of times in the corporate world companies that struggle with identity and how that impacts essentially that company's performance, its ability to make decisions, hire, retain, all that kind of stuff. Because essentially, if you don't know who you are and what your lines in the sand are and where you're going and that kind of stuff, you're just going to struggle. You see it in in sports, the the the clubs and the countries that have clarity on that and a project focused to it, essentially, um give themselves the best chance of success. Either way, when you make a clear decision like that, it's better to take a line and suddenly make a clear decision and move forward with it than it's to be, I don't know, I'm not sure, to have a lack of clarity. That that that will um that will ripple through a team and hurt a team and you and people won't know where they're going because they're not uniting around anything. And if you've got poor leadership or you don't have that clarity, you're on a high you're on a hiding to nothing, basically. So um example out

The example of Arup

SPEAKER_00 51:24

in the corporate world would be a company like Arab, who started by a guy called Over Arab, who have very clear principles, uh part of his character and his DNA, which that business, he's not with us anymore, but that business um does a lot of work to honour, to A, identify and codify and draw out, okay, what made Over Arab Arab, and how did the business grow to be successful thro through him as a as the founder and the leader? Let's take that, extract that, study him, um, um understand that, articulate it, communicate it, and then we'll keep pulsing that out through the business. And they have boards of you know, trustees and working groups that essentially look to try and make sure that the business isn't in all things because a global business now um operates with those values in mind and those principles. It's so it kind of keeps him alive without him being here as best you can, because someone I would argue that if if that company isn't doing that, then it isn't any is no longer Arab, it's just another business and um it can lose its way. Whereas if they keep doubling down on who they are and their identity, when you have someone like that who's a pioneer and it's never if you're gonna be Arab, then that's it's got its name on the tin, and so that's the right way to go about things. And they've held they hold a lot of value, inherent value by but by doing that in the marketplace, um, both to the talent they're looking to attract clients, projects, everything. It's like, well, actually, back in the day, Arab was super suited to these types of projects. Okay, well, why? What was unique about Arab? Why? And then how do we continue to pursue that and communicate that? I would I call that return on intention, essentially, um, where you occupy the space, you win projects that no one else can win because your story, your narrative, you do what you do really well and you keep doing that. Um you you you pour in who you are and you let that you let that um that you let those rivers find go wherever they're supposed to go. If they're supposed to go into Africa, our water projects in Africa, great. If it's supposed to go to a high rise in Tokyo, great. But that but if it doesn't then all good because that's um that's not a space you're supposed to occupy. Everything has its place in the

Jurgen Klinsmann and Germany

SPEAKER_00 53:37

world. Um Jurgen Klinsman was talking about when he got asked to be the German manager. Basically, he said, look, guys, he'd been living in the US for some time and he and spoke to a lot of coaches there anyway. I definitely recommend watching that episode, guys, of the overlap. Um and he spoke about how basically Germany was struggling. Came over to Jürgen, he was like, Look, guys, if I'm gonna do it, I want to do it my way. And so he was big on data analytics, loads of other stuff, which now is absolutely commonplace, but at the time it was it was it was new, it was pioneering in soccer in football. Anyway, what was great about it was he basically said, Look, guys, well, it what you've been doing hasn't isn't working, so we might as well try something else. If it doesn't work, we don't do it. Engage really well with the players, and they had some early successes, I think, and it and it and it took so that what he was doing took, he got accepted by other players that maybe had some some some good results, some right timing, some good results, and boom, they're away. When you look at Alex Ferguson, right, like um there would have been you know, I think he struggled initially, but there was a point where it star the tide started to turn and then boom, and then you know, they never they never looked back. And so that seemed to be the case with German with the German team and his philosophy. He obviously was a German German man, German player, played in the national team, understood that identity, and it brought in some new things which took them to the next level. So that's an example of looking at what's what's um what's out there, what can work well, um, bringing those in without compromising the core of your identity, basically. And he actually brought them back, actually got all the players together and said, Who do we want to be? Did a brainstorming session where they put certain keywords that would have embodied what they were talking about, um, and then they went from there. So it sounds like I mean I would love to see a documentary of that, but that's that's just a gr that's also just a great leader in what Joggen McLinsman's doing. Um he might not have thought himself as that, but actually his style, which would have been different to it, because how Jose Mourinho would have done it, it worked really well. So there's so many ways to be a great leader, and there's so many things that can make up a great leader, but um that's an example of um right person, right place, right time. Um if he came in now, would it work don't know, but it was right person, right place, right time, and there often is a um uh there's a that timing, that that a there's an apex of time where certain things collide, if you like, or unify at the right time where they line up and poof something something magic happens. And my hope is that um it's here with England in the World Cup. If it's not then I um I put my hand up to help England in the next one. Um yeah, put my hand up to help England in the next one. I've got a few good ideas about who I'd call into that for sure. Um get Rhea Ferdinand involved as well. Um okay that's most of the things I wanted to talk about. Oh no, the three lines, sorry. A couple of other things to go before we finish.

3 Lions and the rise of a nation

SPEAKER_00 56:50

Um Three Lions and the Rise of a Nation. I've got that written down here. I don't really know what that's about. Interesting, the three lines I mean one thing I like to do is look at um there's a guy called Joey Derso, J-O-E-Y dot Derso, D-U-R-S-O, and he talks all about why certain countries what's what's in a badge and what it means and breaks it down. I find it fascinating, very interesting. That's his that's his um Instagram profile name. Um I haven't seen I haven't seen to I was looking for if he did one about the three lines, I couldn't find one. Um couldn't find one. But I for example, interested in the Arsenal logo with the gunnery, right? The Arsenal gunnery, their history, where the how they where they came from, how did they get that name? Interestingly, Arsenal changed the direction of the cannon from left to right, I think, to be more looking forward, new direction. These these cultural pieces, when they actually mean something, where where it actually comes out of a genuine, meaningful conversation, they carry that meaning, and so that they're really powerful tools to create um progress and movement and ways that people can grab hold of and ride, the way with where you've you've got meaning in the power of story, right? Harnessing the power of story because it's it's it means something. It's got real inherent deep meaning, it's got incredible value to it because it's coming from um history, real people, real times, real challenges, real origins where things were birthed and created that the that you know these important parts of society, right? You know, it can be incredibly powerful. When you pe when you get places and team that come in where that it's people are disillusioned, where you've lost that identity, the opposite of that is is confusion, chaos, right? Um you're not gonna you you can't unite around anything, right? You you're not you're gonna get you're gonna get smashed by another club or another organization, another team that that um that has a unifying messaging, unifying, it unifies around its key identity, key principles, something like, for example, um, and this you know, obviously marketing and and brand nick does a great deal in that, but but again, when it when it when it matters, when it's meaningful, um when the connection is there between the people in the organisation, leading the organisation and and the connection there, you um that's moving towards optimal conditions for success. There's a lot more to it, but that's you've got to have something at your epicentre, right? Um the three lines comes from stems back from the twelfth century, King Richard's lion heart. Be tapping into that lion heart, that's one thing I like about Jude Bellingham, it's got a lion heart. Um he's just got that, you see it on the pitch like he'd would die. You just like I remember playing with this playing play for YMCA unless then there's a guy, centre half paddy. Oh no, what was his name? It wasn't Irish, by the way. I can't remember his name. Anyway, he would literally like put his face in front of someone was gonna some the ball broke to a striker in a in a in a busy box and the striker's gonna crack it, gonna f fire one in from about eight yards. He would just put his face where the b he would put his face where the ball is. Like he would just die to stop a b he was insane. Like I was like, blame me, like how much he'd just put his body in that on the line to stop a to stop a goal or something. He sometimes would slide in when a striker would just you know do a dummy shot and just jinx past him, but but the extent to which he would slide in to try and block something was like he'd be sliding about f five seconds later we'd we're taking kickoff and he's still sliding somewhere off the pitch. Like just the heart and the the heart and the effort that he put in was great. Didn't have the talent of Jew Bellingham, but he but he had that, right? And so talent without drive or ambition or or anything like that, it's just sitting there, sitting there without wheels, right, no engine to rev. So yeah, I'd tapp it be tapping into that. I'm sure England do this right, but tapping into that and really trying to bring it live for the players. What does this mean, these three lines? What was going on at the time? Well, interestingly, it's spoke about when King Richard came in, other monarchs had certain lines that were associated with them, and then when he came into power, he united those into one. So there's some story behind this unification, right? Now I I've not been back to the UK for some time, but I'm certainly interested in what's going on there. Um I don't hear great things, I don't hear great things, and again, what can happen here with countries is is is there can be an erosion of national identity. I've touched on this before earlier in the podcast, but um where for example in in America, let's say you have lots of national pride, the flags, cars, you have loads of that everywhere. People can say what you want about it, but you have I'm just saying you have that there, right? Um you have it a lot, you have that a lot in um South American countries, people you know, passionate, love their countries, and we have no we have no problems with it in certain nations and Japanese, right, you know what I mean, right? But when it comes to the UK, it seems to be like this hotbed um where there's been so much mixed in and misassociated with it, and again, there has been obviously extremists in certain areas that I would say actually that's that that's not those let's say um you know skin edge and stuff like that. That that movement or that period, you know, there was that football violence, that kind of stuff. That's obviously not what we want. Um that's not what we want. There's n there's there's there's um there's there's deeper roots to that that can't that that there's a whole other podcast, but essentially that's where our fighting spirit um um was fractured in ways where we took we turned, you know, men turned on families, we turned on one another, country, you know, and obviously you get that tribalism a lot, and you get that with clubs and stuff like that. Again, what I'm saying is there's a there's an appropriate level of that where it's optimised and maximized in our DNA, um and if it's not given the appropriate avenues, then it might want to find a home in other places, and then you've got you know um political challenges, socioeconomic challenges, all this kind of stuff that can go on on a macro and a and a and a and um a micro level which um can can can cause combustion and and tipping points and all this kind of stuff, right? But essentially there, for example, there would be a way to unite Great Br you know Great Britain. We have when we go in the Olympics, oh, it's Great Britain, I we know someone's from Scotland we can we can do that in its appropriate places in space. And I think we have to find uh something for us all to unite around. Um and perhaps it is a fight, and there's ways to fight. In the Bible talks about our fight, it's not against flesh and blood, it's against principalities, powers, spiritual places. And the weapons of God are mighty for bringing down enemy strongholds, and so there's ways for that that those battles to find an avenue. Um there's healthy sports you can engage in um you know boxing, rugby. The sport can play a really healthy role in me in in in everyone's life, male and female, and as we know, violence shows up more typically, statistically, more in men. Um there's more suicides with them because the the method the methods by which men t attempt to save their own life they're more successful than women, which is what I hear, because essentially if they do things in more violent ways, it's more f it's it's it's um yeah more violent more violent with the suicide attempts. And so again, uh there's uh broad strokes here and I'm and I'm moving into fields where I don't have appropriate you know all the right data, but what I'm saying is is that um we want to see a we want to see we do want to see Britain great again. Um we and and we really want to identify what is it that makes what is it that made Britain truly great again, because people say, Oh the Empire and Colonel, I'm not talking about that. I'm saying what what made us great, what positivity, what did we pour out that was um for me I would say positive associations of Christianity, what good do we have? What are our roots and our foundations that are good that are pure, that it that that God approves of, if if you will? And how can we how can we reconnect with that and pulse that out in a way that sees us to return to a return to glory for God's glory and for the for the essentially the benefit of humanity? Um and England can England football team can play a role in that. Scottish team, great game. I mean I my fa my ancestors, my roots are from Scotland. Kilgow's my family name actually means church on a hill, comes from five, which I believe is around um Aberdeenshire, apologies if that's wrong. Um but I f I I feel a strong association, strong tie to Scotland through my ancestral roots. I've been to Scotland and it felt um yeah, f felt I could feel it felt it powerful to be there. It felt like there was a felt like it had roots and bones in that land, if that made sense, right. Now someone could go back and say, well actually your ancestors came from they were Nordic or and you've got Gaelic and all the on. Yeah, there's a lot of that mixed around there, but but essentially and I I'm happy to explore that I also feel a strong connection to Scotland. I I basically support any any British team, if Wales are in the World Cup I'd want them to win. Scotland, obviously, I want to win, I wanted to win the games, England I want to win the games and you know, um and so on and so forth. I don't want to get too much involved in in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland conversations at this stage, but um I don't know enough about it. Don't know enough about it. But essentially the um obviously there's been huge battles in the past between these two nations, but that was also um potentially a power struggle um where there was a a a a desire for things to be conquered, and that's not necessarily what needs to happen for us to have a unified Great Britain. That's not what needs to happen. You need to have synthesis of ideology or a meeting. So we what can we all gather around? Well, like we can all gather around this, right? If we can meet around that, then we can actually all gather around and um do our best to live harmoniously. Now, when you if you have a tyrant king or a king that wants to dominate, then you're gonna you're gonna struggle because you've got to do something. You've got to do something because if you don't, your your people, your land are in trouble. So there's a level of self-defence there which is appropriate. Um and uh that should always come after attempts, appropriate attempts at discourse, because if we can get somewhere with discourse, then uh happy days. Alright. Um That's that um

The glory of the LORD at the World Cup

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

yeah, that's that. I'm I'm really keen to see what the Lord continues to do through the World Cups. Great. Enjoying it so far. I really loved how the German players prayed with the Kuracau, Kurakao, I've said that wrong, butchered that. Players after the game. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about where you have the battle on the field and then they unify around that wire because that's the most important thing in their life. They can unify that because they're stiff with the players where we're brothers, ultimately we're brothers in Christ. Christianity is inclusive, everybody sinned, and Jesus died for everybody since. If you operate at that level and just focus on that, not something else that's lower than um, we've got a great chance at unification because we're all created, we've all been created by God, we've all sinned, we all need a saviour, Jesus Christ is the King of the universe. Um I know that because He's revealed Himself to me. People that don't yet know that are are those that have yeah, three years four years ago I I was one of I was somebody that didn't know that, and then he revealed himself to me, and so that now I know that. And so that's basically all that's going on. There's a wonderful domino effect happening um where one candle helps light another candle, it's all the Lord's doing. But I pray that um yeah, I pray that that the Lord continues to um be glorified through this tournament and that it's a blessing to everybody, um, everybody's safe and well, and we enjoy the World Cup, and also we can tap into um yeah, it's a good thing to tap into the deeper meaning of things. It's not just a superficial sport. Um there's some great stuff at pla there's some great stuff at play here of real meaning and value. Um I've seen a few clips of some people that uh who are let's say conspiracy theorists, but they'll show like the opening ceremony where someone does the Illuminati sign with the eye or sing eye. There might be that stuff going on there because this is this the world is the way it is, and there are enemy forces at play. Thankfully, praise God, I have a lens of looking at it through, yeah, okay, well Jesus Christ is still on the throne, he's been given all power and authority. So the enemy will be doing what the enemy will be doing. I like to focus on. For example, the German player that scored, put his crown down for Jesus. The players playing after the game, the Scottish guy, that winger number 17, I don't forget his name now. Great testimony on the BBC where he spoke about how um finding God has been really helpful in his life, so praise God for that. And well done to the BBC for not being afraid to publish that and write about it. Obviously, they're doing a piece on the player, and the player talks about that, but you get some places, some some media outlets. I'm not saying BBC is the best thing in the world since sliced bread, I'm just talking about well done to the BBC for publishing that story. Um it was nice to see this morning and nice to read. So praise God for that. Um and uh yeah, great result for Scotland. Um, great result for Scotland. They hung on in there, um, obviously wanted to win, they got the win, and away they go. Really looking forward to Scotland-Brazil. I

England vs Croatia and the need for courage

SPEAKER_00 1:11:25

mean, that's gonna be an outstanding game, outstanding game. And England, Croatia obviously coming up on Thursday morning. I actually like that we've got I I I I think Croatia is an incredible nation, strong faith-based nation, Christian faith. Um Catholic, but I'd say I'd say Christian because because I'd say Christian, and that's me. Um and you know, four million people, again, there's so much in there. Um Roy Keane touched on it, he said the warriors, the Croatians, he's absolutely right. But again, such a great story under that. Like, why are they warriors? You know, incredible players, and um, so much to be proud about their nation. Um I think it's good that we've got them at this game. I don't know if they're the force, it's I don't think they're the force they were, but don't you know take that back because say that you par about the Croatian team because they've they'd never you never you'll never get an easy game again, they're never gonna give you the game. Um and got some great talented players. I mean I was chatting to someone in Sauna the other day about this was pre um pre-war, if you like, when it was Yugoslavia, obviously Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro. I don't know, I'm gonna know all the full ins and outs there, but I'm saying so that Robert Prokin Robert Prozenecsky was for me Zadaneski, he was touching stuff, it was insane. Um Sanisa Mahayovic, best probably best left foot free kick you're gonna get in world football ever. Um Dejan Stevikovic, Dejan Oh no, it's not Vicovic, Stoykovic. Played for Milan up front, left-footed player, incredible player, loved some incredible players to come out of that nation. I've only named a few those, there's many, many, many. Obviously, Luca Modric, incredible player. Anyway, I like that we've got that challenge at the start. I think it's better than us playing against like a Panama or something like that. I don't think we get much value out of those. We might get a win. If we don't win playing brilliantly, it doesn't seem to do the job. I think we're at our best when we do have a tough challenge. Unfortunately, with some challenges that we've had of late um in semi-finals and finals, I mean amazing, we've just have just been a little step too far for us. But I do think we um play our best when we rise to the occasion and we and we're not scared. This is something which is really important. Remember when we played Brazil when I didn't know that, I just felt like we we shrank and we went we we shrank. And we've got to come out and be like Nat, we've got to come out and be brave. Um The righteous are as bold of the lions, we've got you know three lines, lion heart. I want to really be I want to be really be tapping into that because where fear where fear might and this is where you've got to have honesty and good group chats with the players, where where fear is if it's there, you've got to name it. You gotta name it, talk about it, get it out. So what is it you scared? Oh actually I'm scared of um I don't know what it might be. Some some underneath some people might be scared of success because they're scared of the spight be scared of the spotlight, what it brings or they're scared to be in a new echelon of their career. Anyway, there's all sorts of things you can tap into your players, good sports psychology around stuff like that. But essentially we want to get to the root of it and and then we want to do things, put things into practice where help eliminate fear and um we move forward, we show courage. Courage is courage is what you do in the presence of fear, not uh necessarily eliminating it. Essentially, fear will start to to dissipate and die off when you take steps where the rubber meets the road. So where um in a moment where you've got a choice, you make a courageous choice, and that gets rewarded and celebrated irrespective of the consequences, because you've got to reward the appropriate inputs if you want eventually you want the right outputs. If we start saying only be courageous if it's gonna be 100% success, that's nonsense, you're never gonna get anywhere with that. Obviously, you can do a lot at youth team level to show that, but we're talking about let's say that England-Brazil game, players in the Premier League where we say all on the top of their game, la la la, we come up against another nation like that, and I think fear fear won out, right? With key players and key moments. One thing I like about English players at the moment is that they're not afraid to go overseas. Often, even though the Premier League is one of the strongest, if not the strongest league, because people grew up in England playing it, they don't have that a the cultural experience broadening their horizons, etc. And secondly, um you don't you might not know how good you are as an English player unless you go and rip it up in La Liga or Real Madrid or something like that. So good on uh Anthony Gordon for going to Barcelona. How brave is it to go to Barcelona for a start? Like well done him. I've seen some clips of him where he talks about his process, his learning, and so if he keeps going like that, he'll have a very good chance of being successful. Um ultimately in the long run over a long period of time because he's got he's got an attitude of learning and growth and a student mindset, and so well done for him for going to to Barcelona. I hope that it goes really well for him. Um and yeah, you've got your Jordan Sancho, obviously Jude going to you know, Jude Jude, stuff like that. Harry's done that now, and this is a good thing for the England team. Um I think it's a it's a good thing, it's a good thing, it's a good thing. Um because sometimes we need that somewhere else. Not everywhere, for example, you you know Italians where the most of the Italians we had this argument discussion before where you'd say, right, the best thing is actually you need sixty you want Italian Italian had a great national team, they had about sixty five percent Italian players in the domestic league, and they always talked about England was about thirty odd per cent because we obviously we we brought in foreign talent, brought a lot of money, brought the best talent in, less opportunities for England players. I understand that. People would say, Oh, well it creates a crucible where it forces them to be great. You've got to find the right balance there. You essentially you need pathways. You still need pathways. Anyway, um The Italian players even if they're all playing in Italy, they didn't give two hoots about another country because they had a strong they were courageous, they had a strong sense of national identity, and they played their game and they they essentially believed in themselves and they they just did so it it's almost like fear didn't really come into the equation because it just didn't really come into the equation. They they were united, they didn't really have didn't seem to have any fear of what the f you know, they were united with the fans, there was the you know, it just seemed like they were, as an example, all moving together where it's like we're going here, we're gonna try our best. If they didn't win, they they can walk to the fans and say thanks for cutting and they're still unified. Whereas in England, what can sometimes happen again, the media can play their role is uh the fans can turn on you and stuff like that. It's like if the players do what we know the fans want to see, then if the then the fans are gonna be happy. And we had, for example, Italian 90, because it didn't start that well, um, loads of pressure on um Bobby Robson, a great manager by the way. And um and then it came good and we had that run where we went through, you know, again England '96, you know, only fond memories and and goodwill went to the players there because they um A, they want to play with a level of level of freedom, permission to be themselves, kind of thing, right? Tony Van was a great manager at the right time there. But you know what I mean, right? We we could have won it on another day, we could have won it. Um and there was there was so much in that that was that was wonderfully British, right? Um and that that's my point, is some of the English I don't know who was the manager, there maybe Capelle, but that Brazil game, there was so much that was off that meant we came up against the team, um Brazil had the awe at that time, we shrank, you know, this didn't really happen for us, right? And so, and we there wasn't really that much belief there. Whereas if we're like, well, I don't need belief, we I'm gonna focus on playing courageously and giving it our all, and when the whistle goes, the whistle goes, and I've left it all out there in the right kind of way, right? And so if you do that, um if you do that, you're gonna um you're gonna feel proud of yourself, right? And so it will be what it will be, right? There's so many things that you don't need to worry about, and I know this is easy to focus on what you can control, and again there'll be sports psychologists galore for this. I'm sure they were at the time as well, and we still saw that we still saw that um fear creep, basically. So we want to stomp on that, or wanna stomp on the enemy's head when he tries to bring that in. Anyway, that is the um end of the podcast. Um there's a lot in there, isn't there? So thanks for tuning. Thanks for tuning in, thanks for listening. And um we're gonna end with a song.

State management and the podcast close

SPEAKER_00 1:20:30

We're gonna end with a song. I was gonna go with Hey Jude. I think it's the Beatles, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna play that song again because I like it. Oh yeah, I was gonna say Music is a wonderful tool to influence state. Your state, your not just your emotional state, energetic state, right? Good song comes in when you wanna get it, you wanna get dancing. One thing that's good to do when things can feel like they're getting a little bit too serious is um is a bit of humour, a bit of laughter, and that's something else which is wonderfully British is our sense of humour. I was saying to someone that I think it's probably because the weather was so bad um over the years that we just we all sat huddled around it, the the rain dripping through the roof that we just had to force us to make to make jokes and entertain ourselves, and that's why we've got essentially obviously the best um uh the best sense of humour that the world has ever seen. By country mile, and so that's a great thing, we want to keep that as well. Hopefully Thomas Deagle's got a good sense of humour. And just Capello trying to have a laugh with Capello. Ugh. Hopefully, you know what I mean, but you get you get my point right. And so Harry Redknapp would have been good value. I would love to have seen Harry Redknap as young manager for a bit. I mean, come on. He just couldn't have failed. It would have just been like he's not gonna fail to Harry Redknap. We just want you know, we want him doing the job. So anyway, it didn't happen. And um I mean Big Sam got the job. As if Harry Redknapp didn't get it. Anyway, it's a crime that criminal that didn't get the job for a bit. Um just a bit, you know. But that's what I mean, it's where you go right what about the tactics and ticket I'm not saying Ariel doesn't know tactics, but he knows football and he knows how to get players in a great you know, bring the best out of players, get players in a good state. Remember Brafel Van der Bart saying at Tottenham, he's like, What's how you do tactics? And he's like, and just kind of like picks a good team, lets us play, and so you know, sometimes we can overcomplicate things. Can overcomplicate things. And I was saying a great example of um one of the masters of state management is Tony Robbins. Obviously he spent his entire life studying that and um and tools to do that. He was at a uh once heard him talking about a workshop that he did, a seminar that he did in his early days where anyway he got a let's say uh a hall and a hotel that was actually right near a train station. So he would have had, I don't know, let's say he had a hundred people in it. And they didn't realise that one of the reasons why it was it the the the the booking price was particularly favourable was that it was right by the train line. Anyway, um being the massive in state management that he is, what he did was he said any every single time the train because he could tell people getting frustrated, so he said, right, every time the train comes by, we're gonna everyone's going to just start laughing hysterically. And everybody did it right, and I I can't remember what it was, but he did it as I was at one of I did one of his events, uh I I did his training course, one of his training courses, um to be certified. Anyway, some you learn some amazing stuff in it. Like the what the why behind why he does certain things. Incredible to to get behind the workshop. Um get behind the f see it from a workshop perspective, right? Um how the tools work and why he uses them. But it I also did one of his um online events because I don't at an event anyway. He told he told that story and then he basically did it. So you would just be you'd be in the seminar, and then anytime you heard this particular you heard it, you just started laughing hysterically. Anyway, it worked, like it's so y you can't do that. Once you do it, once you if you just went home now and you started laughing, making yourself laugh and you're laughing hysterically, there'd be a point where you would just you actual laughter would kick in and it can become its own runaway train part in the pun. Anyway, obviously laughter is great medicine and um you've got to have the right mix, you've got to have the right people in your camp. Um someone invaluable to a team would be someone who's just who's just funny. Or like um has their own quirks and stars where it it it just it it it in its own way it's perfect, but if someone was trying to be perfect, they'd probably mess it up because sometimes things just happen seemingly innocuously um and it all fits together and it works. And so um key for me would be knowing when to sh when when to um when to be quiet, obviously. Um I heard a quote somewhere saying, never miss a good opportunity to shut up. So I'm gonna do that now. I'm gonna go back to 12 to 12, somber. Thanks for tuning in, folks. Praise God. And um I'll see you again soon.