Heavy is the head that wears the BIG price tag
Danny Greeves
Helping athletes break through performance barriers with nonverbal behaviour analysis and nonconscious mental imagery.
The European football market was estimated to be worth ￡29.5 Billion pounds in 2023.
That's no chump change.
Whereas individual clubs, such as Real Madrid, generated ￡696.5 Million pounds in 2024 alone.
The huge revenues generated by these clubs gives them tremendous spending power, and one of those clubs in particular, has not been shy in showing it off.
Since the Todd Boehly consortium arrived at Chelsea, they have spent over ￡1.1 Billion pounds on new players.
One of those players, Moises Caidedo, cost a whopping ￡115 Million pounds.
But in what was a very refreshing and courageous interview, Caicedo is one of the few players that has spoken in public about the effects on his performances of this huge price tag.
In August 2024, Caicedo gave an interview to the BBC where he addressed the issue of his eye-watering price tag.
When asked if he lost confidence, Caicedo said: "Yes, confidence. I have the quality and I know the player I am. But sometimes if you are not strong in your mind, it is difficult."
We all know, to some degree, what it feels like to be under-pressure.
It might come in different forms - I'm still waiting for my debut at Stamford Bridge so I can't comment on that yet - but we all know what pressure feels like.
The question is, how do we 'do' pressure in our minds?
If we were to take a peek 'under the hood', what is it that happens in our mind when we are under pressure?
Whether its performance based, financial or family pressure, most people could quite easily describe the experience of it...
To name but a few...
And when you are an elite footballer, playing in the highest-quality division in the world, surrounded by the best players on the planet, these experiences of pressure can show up through significant dips in performance levels.
But how do we do it?
The answer relates to the different types of mental imagery we as humans have.
The one that we're most familiar with, is our conscious mental imagery.
We might tap into our conscious mental imagery when we're planning what to wear in the morning, when we're envisioning the journey we're about to drive in our car, or maybe the daydreams we have about that person from the office. All of these are ways in which we engage our conscious mental imagery.
From a sports perspective, engaging conscious mental imagery may take the form of a player visualising how the game is going to go in their mind. They may visualise scoring that winning goal, or they may visualize over and over again each of the specific processes they need to do to perform at their best.
And that's all great.
But there is a different type of mental imagery, one that runs 'behind the scenes'.
A type of mental imagery that is generated outside our awareness during moments of increased emotion.
This mental imagery is described as being 'nonconscious'.
We can think of nonconscious mental imagery as being those mental representations that our mind generates that are stored outside our daily waking awareness, but such imagery that can indeed be accessed with sufficient cues, relevant questions or through connecting to the subtle signs and feedback our nervous system provides.
This is where pressure lives.
Caicedo alluded to the causes of his experience of pressure, he mentioned:
"you are at a big club, the price, you always have to win every game. I felt a lot of pressure because you know the club, the history, the players who were there."
As Caicedo started to experience the bigger expectations now placed upon him, and the emotion that comes with a ￡115 Million pound transfer, his mind starts to generate big, intimidating images that loom large in his mind and serve to generate that feeling of weight or pressure in the body.
Essentially, the nonconscious mental imagery starts to make his brain perceive a threat. The brain perceives the mental imagery as a real 'thing', and therefore responds as if there were a threat in the environment.
The challenge, is that when these images are stored outside of your conscious awareness (nonconsciously), it can be very tricky to know how to shift them.
As a result, they continue to accumulate, and they continue to sit there, weighing you - or Caicedo - down as baggage.
Some players never quite learn how to shift the expectation and pressure generated by the big price tag, whereas others do.
Fortunately for Caicedo, he has gradually acclimatised to his new environment and is now regularly showing what a marvellous footballer he is. But even this has taken many, many months and there are others that aren't so lucky.
By understanding how pressure is generated in the mind and how this affects performance, we can create tailored interventions to clear and neutralise the nonconsicous mental imagery and more quickly help you, or Caicedo, get back to doing what they do best in a natural, comfortable and enjoyable way.
Who else can you think of who struggled with their big price tag?