METHODOLOGY TO TRANSFORM A MEDIUM LEVEL FOOTBALL TEAM INTO A HIGH LEVEL FOOTBALL TEAM.

This personal reflection is focused on teams from half a table in the elite first division to those who play in regional divisions that seek to be professionals.

For me these are keys to make a high level team from the sports planning section, without going into tactical or sports sections, I will simply talk about how to create a large team from a medium / small one (signing, planning the season or managing means). Team management to make it grow (the work must then give us results in the field), if it is done well it is not difficult for results to come.

"THE FRUIT OF THE BITTER PATIENCE IS VERY SWEET".

Basic patience, in theory with these teams the pressure of immediate results should not matter, for a club like Real Madrid a year without winning any competition is a failure, for a medium / small team it is normal. Having patience is essential to move forward, making a champion team with almost no resources takes time since economically you cannot access what you want and you must advance step by step, with small objectives and increasing the difficulty little by little, knowing where you are. is and moving being aware of the limitations (if necessary, being 3 years in the middle of the table to be able to assemble a team to fight above, it should not be a problem), this time should be used to improve the squad, look for new players, cohesions between the players that are in the squad or grow the young promising players.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MONEY.

The improvement of a team will always come from the economic improvement of the club, the economic well-being must be put above the sports one. Not selling players is very good, but if they give 6 million for a player who is worth 3 million, no matter how good it is, it should be sold, more than anything because that economic income will be worth for the team to improve and perhaps with what was taken out by that player, You can sign 4 or 5 lower level players but they give more balance to the team. Important, it should not be undersold, the basis of this is to get more money than the player is worth, make it difficult in negotiations and get the most out of it.

You have to avoid unnecessary expenses and obsessions with players, you have to sign, but not at any price, just as you negotiate to sell you have to negotiate to buy, you have to always try to pay as little as possible. The most important thing to sign is to have alternatives, working with closed players will force you to end up paying more than what must be paid by having to sign it if or if, having different players to choose from will allow you to withdraw from a negotiation having a player as 2nd option.

The most important thing is the salaries, (not going overboard with them) giving everyone what they deserve (not having poorly paid players or vice versa, adjusting the money they earn to their performance). At the time of signing a contract, look at their requests, if they are fair to accept them, but negotiate them, not be afraid that they leave, the club is above any player and if it leaves, someone will come in its place.

It is important to always negotiate in the summer before your end of contract, if you see that you do not accept the conditions, you can still get a good money for it, if not, it will go free and you will lose any economic return that could have been obtained. There are exceptions, players with whom you are not entirely confident or who are believed to have not yet given reasons to renew. In these cases, it is best to wait until it is considered that they have shown that they deserve the renewal, if they did not go free, but if they do not perform, they would not get much money for them, so they are not a great loss. With veteran players (30 years or more) the passage of a year can considerably lower the player's level, recommendation to make renovations at the end, usually they are not usually looking for a new team since they do not usually have the same ambition as with 18 years.

THE CLUB FIRST, ABOVE EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE.

It is not all about improving the team athletically, also at club level, it should always focus on improving facilities and infrastructures when possible, a better grassroots football will allow better players at a low cost, a better level of training facilities will allow Players improve more and a stadium with greater capacity, will produce an increase in income, always remember, the club must grow hand in hand with the team.

TEAM MANAGEMENT.

Essential, if you manage this aspect well, you have a lot of livestock. The job of a soccer coach is to get the most out of a human group. For this, good relationships between players, maintaining high team morale and demonstrating leadership must be basic. In the locker room the coach commands, no player is above that figure and they must know / respect him. Always keep in mind that players should not be deceived with false promises or that they notice that the coach really lacks knowledge, the player is very clever, not underestimate them (trust takes time to gain but can be lost shortly ). Always have the door open to the players, they are people with their fears / needs, but never tolerate rises from any player, or complaints for lack of minutes, you must be decisive and always think of the group above the individual being fair.

Players should be punished equally, without shaking their pulse, although you also have to have something left-handed, it is not the same to say to a 19-year-old boy that he should not complain about playing little to make clear a man of 30 years you must have patience. With the young boy it still works to show something understanding and tell him to be patient (it is not a sign of weakness but rather to try to redirect his behavior), instead with the 30-year-old man, the best thing would be to be more assertive so that the hierarchy and that this will not change. Important, this does not have to be followed to the letter, each player is a world and you must know what to say at any time.

On the morale of the players is a formula that works every time, which is winning games if the team plays well and wins there will be no problems. But of course, we all know that this is not always possible, so maintaining team morale is something you have to know how to do. If things go wrong it is best to show them that you understand them and try to improve them, showing confidence and faith, in my opinion being aggressive with them should only be used at specific times, such as after a disastrous game or when it takes several games where the yield is very low, only then is effective touch them pride to the players, but only get sink. If, on the other hand, the team is in a very good moment and it is seen that a game is lost due to punctual errors or lack of intensity, if they have to be scolded, at these times this usually makes the team react to demonstrate that they can play just as well. well than in previous games.

What I am clear about and I say from my own experience, is that a tyrant coach who takes advantage of his position to lead a group, playing with the fear of the players in an authoritarian way, even if he achieves the results in the short term, has the hours counted in the long term. It has not managed to win over the group but good results have been the glue and when they get bad results (that come) all explode like a volcano. Cesar Menotti "The only thing the player is knowledge surrenders".

On the good relations between the players little can be done, it is just as easy to maintain good relations as good morale, winning matches and fulfilling objectives the differences are set aside to enjoy the common good. On the other hand, in bad moments a broken locker room can completely destroy the team and the coach's plans, this is difficult to solve and sincerely the best options are a loan (if there is interest in both players, so that the atmosphere relaxes) ) or an immediate sale, even of both to prevent it from happening again with another player. There are ways to prevent it from happening, the best of all is to try to sign players with similar personalities, a carefree player and a professional player will end up colliding if bad streaks come. Try to try to find compatible players, this is seen with some logic and if not the scout can warn how the player will adapt to the team's human group.

KEEP THE BLOCK AND STYLE.

One of the pillars if you really want to have a team and not a group of players. Continuity is vital, both in style and in players.

Let's talk about the style, with this I do not mean the tactical drawing, if the team plays with a 1-4-4-2, a 1-3-4-3 or a 1-5-4-1 it is indifferent to me, the style in this case it is what kind of players does the team have. How you want them to play, if you want an orderly and strong team behind, if you want a team that plays direct football, if you want a sideways style of play in quick transitions, or conversely a football in the central area from the field, or a team that plays with an offensive mentality whatever the result looking to score goals. This is something basic, so basic that we differentiate teams by their characteristics: Real Madrid is a team with a strong attack and goalscorer, FC Barcelona uses ball possession and positional play, Atlético de Madrid is a solid team , hard-working and hard on defense. With a defined style it is much easier to sign and bring players that match that style and it will be much easier for the player to play well. If you know what you want it will always be easier to hit than bringing players without a clear idea. Some teams break with the style of play, thus achieving a team without a clear pattern and without knowing what to play.

Maintaining the block is also important, bringing more than 4 or 5 players to a team during a year is dangerous unless it is strictly necessary (unexpected promotions, sudden drops in level, exaggerated squad aging or locker room breakdown) but in theory if things are done well it should not happen. A team that plays in a block, that knows each other and that has been playing together for a long time will perform much better than a group of new players, with this I do not mean that there should be no changes, it is important that the players vary from year to year to avoid Accommodations, a player who has been a starter for 2 years because it is better that his substitute will perform much better if the substitute is suddenly changed and this threatens to take his place.

It must also be remembered, the style must prevail in grassroots football, all the club's teams must play the same (as much as possible) to avoid adaptation problems for young people when it comes to reaching the first team. To do this, the scouts must search for profiles of children from a very young age who meet the requirements of our style or model.

AFFORDABLE AND QUALITY PLAYER.

There are 2 basic, important and fundamental rules:

-Only sign players when they improve what they have in the squad: It must be considered before signing if the player is really needed or if there is any player in the squad (a player belonging to base football for example) who can fill the position with level enough. The cracks must be signed, the substitutes or replacement players are taken from the base football or the block that is held. If you are going to spend money on a player, bring someone who improves the starting player, not sign substitutes, to have players as a replacement or rotation to pull your own football.

-The team must be fully configured before starting the preseason: Everything else is problems. Problems of exhaustion and needs (and this is known in the market), which only manages to increase the price of the players who want to buy. To avoid all this, you should start working on the squad for next season in January.

First of all you have to plan what the squad needs, in theory in the middle of the season you should be able to see what is wrong, what weaknesses you have and the positions that need to be improved. From here the hard work begins, looking for the candidates, always being clear that they adapt to the style, if you have a team that is based on looking for attacks by the bands, do not bring a player who plays on the sides that does not know how to center. There are people who trust scouts, others who look through statistics from other leagues or competitions and look at the best players. Once the list is made, it is ordered by priority, from players who are more interested (either because of their skills or economic issues) to players who are less interested. From here it begins to negotiate and players with whom it is not possible to reach agreements are discarded, it is important to sign with time, it allows to extend the negotiations and have various alternatives, it does not force to sign if or because there is no guarantees player in position and there is little time to start the season.

The month of January has a great advantage, and it is the possibility of bringing free players who have just signed a contract and have not yet renewed, for this the normal thing is to start searching for players a little earlier, in order to have a list of priorities As soon as you arrive on January 1, in these negotiations, arriving first gives a lot of advantage, although as time goes by the player can reduce his requests but there is a risk that another team will pay for what is requested and take it away. You have to try to have some vision and know which teams are behind the player, depending on who they are facing, whether or not they can compete.

CONCLUSION.

Remember, that this is nothing more than my own vision and a personal opinion, that then each team must act as they see fit, looking for their way, taking more or less risk. As long as it is done with head and logic, it must work.