New Sheriff for Town

I am lucky enough to have a season ticket at the local football team. I say lucky, it has been a rollercoaster in recent years however, currently, things are looking good.

We have a new, young, inspirational manager who treats football like a business and matches like a process – it is extremely refreshing to witness pragmatism, data use and EQ replacing hope, punts, and old school platitudes. I was fortunate to meet this young gentleman, albeit briefly, and he was engaging, bright, inquisitive, and knowledgeable. I could understand instantly why the players are currently so disciplined and engaged to the process – winning games and promotion.

It is very clear that our manager has assembled a group based primarily on character. The playing group all have access to the local gym and are, without exception, respectful and polite. They can all play and fulfil a role in the team, no doubt, but without the character, especially at our level, skill is only occasionally beneficial. 

In a recent interview the boss talked about objectives: they set five for each game. None were met in the previous game, and all were completed in the game this week – intriguing. Identify, measure, analyse, feedback? Sounds like a great business model – revenue/quotes for sales targets, NC’s/DIFOT for operations, audits/reports for accounts, Client Audits/Error reports for CS. To improve it you must be able to measure it.

During the same interview our man was asked about changing the team even though players had played well in the previous game – we pick the team for each individual game based on the attributes of the opposition was his reply. Right people, right work, right result.

Our future as a club and business looks in safe hands, for now..