Managing Player Discontent in Football

Players who say, “No, no, I just want to play more,”

that I’m unhappy

after spending one year, two years here,” I— they have to leave, they have to negotiate with

the club, reach an agreement, and they have to leave,

because it’s not worth being in places

where you’re unhappy. And the, the greatest difficulty,

forget tactics,

forget whether the opponent is better or worse, taller, dark-haired, blond, that doesn’t

matter. Managing a soccer team is about how you

manage the

people who don’t play, and who still, still have that.

And much of the good fortune we coaches have, in my profession,

is

the humanity of those people. Some people tolerate that

situation much more, and others tolerate it much less.

The ones who tolerate it most, you can live with them much more easily.

The ones who least… in the long run, you have to— but with a hug, okay?

Not as a reproach or anything. You have to say, “Okay,

let’s look for a solution so that

you’re happy and we all come away, uh, happy to look for an

alternative.” That’s the hardest part of our profession