I despair that there are no leaders on the pitch
Ipopped in to see Jamie Carragher at Liverpool’s Melwood training ground shortly before he retired and couldn’t believe how quiet the old place was.
even when the players came into the dressing room from training, they went to their lockers in silence, pulled out their ipads and headphones, and got on with their own thing.
I was taken aback. I’d always associated training grounds with laughter, banter, practical jokes, not just from the players, but all the staff as well. In the end, me and Carra had to whisper our conversation because you could’ve heard a pin drop.
That was five years ago, and if anything I imagine things are even more low-key now, not just at Liverpool but at all clubs.
Football mirrors society so change is inevitable when people in most jobs spend more time looking at their devices and tablets. I went to dinner with friends for my 50th birthday recently and had to insist on a “No phone” rule at the table!
But football suffers in a particular way from a lack of communication because it impacts on the number of leaders on the pitch. If you’re not talking to each other or laughing together in the week, how are you going to give someone a rollocking in the trenches without causing offence?
I watched Huddersfield beat Manchester United on television last month and while I was delighted for my son Thomas, I noticed the lack of leaders on the pitch for United, which goes for most clubs these days.
I’d have been yelling at Roy Keane, he’d have been yelling at me, same with Gary pallister and others. phil Jones has a little bit of that, one of the reasons Jose Mourinho likes him, but when he went off injured, there was nobody else to bang heads.
Camaraderie comes from what happens during the week. The United team I played in was famed for their never- say- die spirit and that was built on the noise of the training ground.
It was all about the interaction. If Ryan Giggs wasn’t looking, someone would pile extra salt and pepper on his plate, people closest would start laughing and soon everyone was joining in to find out what was happening, even the manager. daft but harmless, and helping to build that togetherness you need on the pitch.
The england dressing room of the 1990s had so many leaders in it, I used to think it was like the different heads of the Mafia families meeting up.
Alan Shearer, clan leader of the North east, Tony Adams, head honcho in London, Stuart pearce from the Midlands, me from the North West and so on.
I don’t know how Gareth Southgate replicates that atmosphere for the World Cup in Russia next summer but he has to find leaders from somewhere.
people like myself, Bryan Robson and Roy Keane had tough upbringings and getting through the youth systems wasn’t easy. Nowadays, once a player is cocooned within an academy they have the best of everything.
It means if they are ever given a telling off as senior pros, they don’t like it so you have to be careful. I know a player at Chelsea who took offence to getting the hairdryer from a team-mate and didn’t speak to him for three months after that. There’s no easy solution but the game hasn’t changed that much since my day that a team can’t benefit from having leaders on the pitch.
Ironically, while there are fewer english leaders because of the influx of foreign players, the great Spanish teams have been helped by having vocal guys like Sergio Ramos and Carles puyol alongside all the skilful ones.
Vincent Kompany of Manchester City is one of a dying breed who can verbally sort things out, and he’s from Belgium.
Football does reflect society. You can’t go back to the old days but there wouldn’t be any harm in managers asking their players to cut back on the headphones and ipads. Because once the game starts, they won’t be around to help you.
Managers should ask players to ditch the headphones and iPads . . . once the game starts they can’t help you