I is for Inclusion

One of the most contentious topics for grassroots football coaches is what you do with the less-gifted players. I’ve heard managers defend their practice of always picking their strongest line up by saying that the others have to earn a place, to improve to the point where they can challenge for a spot in the starting line-up (although how they are meant to get the experience to improve if they’re never given the chance to play is never really explained.) At the level of professional clubs and – possibly – potential future professionals, I can see the argument, but for the vast majority of grassroots teams that kind of elite attitude seems to me to be entirely wrong.

Outside the world of professional academies, football should be about inclusion to a greater or lesser extent. Young players should know that they will get a fair share of playing time and opportunities to improve. I’ve known managers dismiss players as being ‘not good enough’, and even one who claimed to be inclusive by adding the caveat that he included all of the boys ‘who were likely to carry on playing football as adults’. Implied in that statement was confidence in his own authority to decide which boys fell into that category and which ones didn’t.

As I’ve said before, when I ran a kids’ team I never turned players away, as long as they were willing to take the team seriously and buy into our ethos. There were several boys who joined us who (if I’m honest) I didn’t think would ever be good enough. Almost without exception those boys amazed me and developed way beyond my expectations. Most became solid, dependable members of the team, some blossomed into genuinely good footballers; all of them gained skills – on and off the pitch – that will stand them in good stead for later life. One lesson that coaching a grassroots team taught me is that a coach’s relationship with his players is a lot like an author’s relationship with his characters: in both cases it’s more important to understand the person and give them room to develop than to stand in judgement on them.

I is also for Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics, a fantastic book by Jonathan Wilson. That was the book that introduced me to Jimmy Hogan, the subject of the previous post in this series, and the donor of the name for the main character in Foul and Fair. Wilson’s book made a fleeting appearance in one of my early drafts – a Christmas present given by Joao to James – but that detail didn’t make it through to the final version of the story.

By the very nature of its topic, Inverting the Pyramid is a book that requires updating from time to time. Having been initially published in 2008, last year’s 15th anniversary edition is the second revised version to hit the bookshops. I must admit, while I bought the first update I haven’t (yet) invested in the third one, although the prospect of seeing what Wilson made of the 2022 World Cup from a developmental perspective is already beginning to tug at my sleeve. If you’re interested in a deeper understanding of where today’s game came from, you can’t do better.