Courtesy: The FA.com


'A fantastic achievement'

By Graeme Dell

Wednesday, 19 December 2007

Hello again, a little later this week due to our games on Monday and Tuesday, but my piece of the year.

Wow! At last I can look back and know what it feels like to win a game with these lads. Monday’s result was a fantastic achievement by them and although the scenes in the arena with players, fans, friends and families had some resemblance to what you might expect at a World Cup Final, it has been a while coming.
For the players, it was appropriate that they celebrated the 8-7 win in that way and I am glad that there were so many people to share it with them. I spoke to people from what seemed like everywhere who had come to watch, even from as far as Spain.

My phone was red hot through the rest of the evening and well into Tuesday as congratulations came from far and wide, across a number of continents from people we have met over the last four years, ex players, friends and family. It was one of the proudest nights of my coaching career.

It was also great to see Stuart Pearce there watching for the first time, as part of a full house. I haven’t had chance to catch up with him yet with so much going on, but another of our National Coaches, Noel Blake, who came along told me he really enjoyed it.

I have to admit to being quite emotional after the game. I knew this would be a long road at the start, maybe not quite this long, but many issues have limited our progress. I have to save a special mention here for Dermot Collins, our National Manager for Small-Sided Football at The FA, who is a real champion of this programme. He has had to walk into Soho Square on many occasions after some very bleak nights and put some gloss on the learning cycle. This week, he can walk in with his head held high knowing that we have achieved something of which he should rightly be proud of and of which he has been a key part.

This result is just part of the story on our journey as I keep telling everyone, and like the previous defeats, that game has now gone and we have to look forward to the next game and do it all again. Simple really!

Tuesday was a special night for the players, where I had to ensure reflected glory didn’t obscure their vision of the task ahead. Sir Trevor Brooking came into the dressing room before the second game and congratulated us all. He gave a really nice and relaxed speech where you could have heard a pin drop. It was great for the lads that such an iconic figure of the game, who supports Futsal wholeheartedly, would make the effort to come and say well done - but that’s Trevor for you!

However, I have to admit that I wasn’t best pleased with our 2-2 draw on Tuesday. As a coach you want your teams to reflect what you teach them and sadly the effort put in on Monday drained them and we never really got hold of the game to show how they can play. In fairness, we played better against both Andorra and Georgia but I can reflect on two unbeaten games but I guess I just want perfection in what we do.

It was always going to be much tighter and at 2-1, with four minutes left on the clock having had a better second period, I still was edgy that something would give and I had to keep re-circulating players to maintain our movement. Once more the 10-metre penalty provided elusive, as we squandered chances and that’s an area the kickers have to work on. It’s not as easy as you might think but to miss six across two games isn’t good enough.

Elsewhere over the past two weeks, I was delighted to see Sir Bobby Robson, my old mentor from the early nineties, receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BBC. He is a true gentleman and a statesman of the game. I grew up with my coaching career very much around him and took great delight in learning a great deal from him in his time as the National Coach. He supported much of the work that I was doing for The FA at that time and I recall, as if it was only yesterday, sharing evenings with him, Don Howe and my old buddy Mike Kelly at the Crest Hotel in High Wycombe, listening to their views and ways we should improve players. I think much of the way I act as a National Coach these days is down to that breeding, for which I will always be grateful and respectful.

So, we have a new senior team Head Coach in Fabio Capello. There has been so much written about his appointment that now we have to get on with it and start delivering. He is a fine coach whose record speaks for itself so we will all look forward to seeing what new ideas and philosophies he brings to us from one of the other great footballing nations. He will be knowledgeable about Futsal too which will be a real bonus for my programme. Italy has more registered Futsal players than footballers and having worked at Real Madrid, where they have a fantastic Futsal centre at Las Rozas, he will know only too well the significance of the game for young player development.

From here, we are next scheduled to move on to the KL World 5’s in Kuala Lumpur at the end of January. Although it’s going half way around the world I decided to accept that invitation as it’s a great tournament and will really challenge us. We’ve been drawn against Argentina, China, Australia and Malyasia so I will look forward to those games where we will encounter very contrasting styles.

It is also a good opportunity to use it as a training camp for the squad who will play in the World Cup qualifiers in Budapest in February and I hope to use largely the same players for both trips.

It will be challenging for us for many reasons, not least of all the inability to acclimatise properly due to time constraints but learning will be high on the priority list as it always is.

I have found some time over the past month to look at the last year as part of my annual report and reflect on what we’ve done. The real plusses are that with so many more people accessing the game and its benefits being seen by a wider audience we have been able to cement our view that it does act as a key player development tool.

The referees are an important aspect of our game too and they were at Lilleshall a couple of weeks back getting some practice. They are an enthusiastic bunch who the game needs, so their integration has been important. They share our love of this game and we all work well together which is great to see and although there is the usual banter, I see a mutual respect between the coaches, players and referees in the knowledge that we are all learning together, which is a lesson in itself.

Finally, every team has a load of people who make things happen and they are as important as the players. Without them, the show simply doesn’t get on the road or happen in the thoroughly professional manner in which we operate, as you would expect from any England team.

I have always been a coach who avoids the ‘yes’ men. I appoint those who will challenge my ideas and have those of their own that we can capitalise upon. People who will inspire me and who are strong minded and knowledgeable individuals. They are imperative in a strong and focused staff team, none moreso in development environments. My entire support staff have provided the players and myself with unswerving support and loyalty once more this year and their enthusiasm and commitment is unbelievable, so on behalf of the players who have asked me to thank them all publicly, I’d like to express a debt of gratitude.

Have a great Christmas and New Year and my thanks to all of you who email with your comments of support. It’s all appreciated.

Graeme





Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com