Time is Running Out - Deadline Day Decisions

Deadline Day - the culmination of months of preparation for recruitment teams, managers and club hierarchy as they look to seal those late deals that might make the different. Wether players entering or leaving the building, the pressure grows as the clock winds down and the window slams shut (it always slams - never gently closed!)

The day can of course, be quite calm. Deals completed in the days previous and nothing is untoward. No last minute dashes to the MRI scanner, no hastily chauffeured players lost in traffic, or turnarounds on a busy motorway as the club is gazumped by a rival. Here's a lot of the grizzly details!

 

One of the main roles of any manager is to pick the team, and while its joy all round for the team selected, for some there the ignominy of being 'dropped' - or 'rested' / 'rotated' or 'not filling the requirements posed by the unique tactical structures presented by the personality of the opponent in the transitions in their strategy'. You're out!

But the psychology of communicating this to the player in question means it is fraught with danger for the head coach. Wrong tone to the wrong player at the wrong time and carnage can ensue and problems created that could have many unforeseen reverberations! 

Welcome to Episode 8 of Breaking Lines