radgenaldo Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 A Rangers fan mate of mine has a bit of an insight into Murray Park and he was saying the other day that the 1st team train for 2-4hrs (from 10am til either 12 or 2pm) and then they get the use of the other facilities ie gym, conditioning suite, physios etc if they feel like it. He says most of them use the facilities in this time, but there a few who bugger off home (Lafferty used to do it all the time, as did Beattie) and don't return 'til the next session. He was in the main hall they have (an indoor full size 3G pitch like Ravenscraig) and watched some of the youth team playing table tennis while the rest lay about chatting, not exactly a strenuous workout! We spoke about the Paul LeGuen thing where he was shocked at the diet, fitness standards and general attitude of the Reangers team at the time. This reminded me of the time when I was at FP during the day to get some tickets a couple of years ago, I left my Papa sitting waiting in the car and when I got back in he told me "Three young Motherwell players in their tracksuits just came out that wee shop eating pies and then sauntered up into Fir Park". I said it must've been other folk who happened to be wearing 'Well colours, but he was adament. We see and hear about the top teams in the EPL etc having dedicated nutritionists, chefs, personal fitness instructors, morning and afternoon sessions, pool and aerobic and pilates session et al, yet in Scotland we have managers who face a backlash from players who don't like being told what to eat, when to train or getting their sundays disturbed etc. We also see first hand players out on the town getting smashed (Cragg's night in Daniels, 'Well players in Angels, casinos etc), not to mention the daily rag's reports on players out in clubs getting into fights all the time. So, does anyone have an insight into what our players actually get paid for? Do they train for a few hours a day? Do they vary their training between fitness and skills/teamwork, tactics etc or are they expected to do their own fitness? I don't want to single any players out, but its fairly easy to spot those who run out of steam after 65-70mins every week. I just think that if you're being paid c£1000/week to do something you love every day, then it wouldn't hurt to actually take it fully seriously and be as fit as you possibly can be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain7_mfc Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 Mate no matter what your job is you canny surely stop people from going out and enjoying themselves! It's their free time from work they can do with it what they wish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
star sail Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 Don't know about the current routines regarding training etc but I remember some years back when Billy Davies was the boss watching the team train at Dalziel Park. Mio was assistant at the time and he was taking the warm up. He was getting the team to do press ups and it was like something out of Police Academy. Some had their arses up in the air, others were just bending their arms and no more, some collapsed in a heap after about 10. The only one that could do them right was Mio himself and he was older than the lot of them. Nearly pissed myself laughing it was so funny. The picture would have been complete had John Collins been there showing off his six pack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper_no1 Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 From what i remember having working at two different premier league football teams was that the players usually done some training and then sat down for lunch about 12/1pm.(supplied by both clubs at the times i was there) After that the players fucked off home......end of story,some played the xbox/playstation for an hour before heading up the road. Work done. Yeah some players did frequent Uppercrust instead of eating the lunch put on by the club - always found that a bit weird myself but they always tried to keep it under wraps as if it was a top secret mission for chips and curry. (hardly the brightest bunch mind you) Personally i think the way players are brought up abroad and have been for years in academys etc made them more professional. The Ajax youth team wouldnt get away wie a fly sausage roll but they were trained and schooled completely - similar to what arsenal are now doing and many other top clubs. Obviously Motherwell players, mainly due to the size of the club - are not going to be top of the tree athletes and im sure noone expects them to be either - However, there are times when i think they should be a big more professional. Surprised to hear that about Murray Park - they were very very strict on diet etc under Mcleish from my experiences but god knows what is happening in that place now with cutbacks etc. Shame too because that facility should be churning out top of the range athletes like your Ajax or Arsenal with the equipment in there. End of the day - the attitude of footballers in this country is ... ... Shocking, and to be honest - lazy. That is why most of them never make it anywhere else outwith Scotland. It's an attitude problem deep rooted for some reason. My only question would be, £1000 p/w - hope you wern't refering to many Motherwell players wie that sum Players themself need to take a look in the Mirror. Noone at the very top these days goes out bevvying regularly or eats shite. Until about a year ago i was still in fairly regular contact with Arthur Numan who even after he stopped playing was probably fitter than the majority of SPL players just now. He was always looking after what he was eating and made sure his young kids did to. It was a lifestyle choice for him because he was so used to it. The difference is he played at the very top level of the game - sometimes i think (outwith ability) lifestyle has a huge part to play in not just physical but mental fitness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
star sail Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 End of the day - the attitude of footballers in this country is ... ... Shocking, and to be honest - lazy. That is why most of them never make it anywhere else outwith Scotland. It's an attitude problem deep rooted for some reason. My only question would be, £1000 p/w - hope you wern't refering to many Motherwell players wie that sum I think it is a cultural thing. Unfortunately we are a nation of drinkers and pie eaters. Can't see it ever changing unfortunately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper_no1 Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 Your right - go anywhere on the continent Spain/Italy/France for example and go to a supermarket. Inside there is huge freezer sections but they are filled with perhaps frozen fish fillets,prawns,pork,beef etc to preserve them. Not like this country where everything is frozen CRAP, ready meals or bits of reconstituted fish with breadcrumbs or batter on it. Even the refridgeration section of our supermarkets has premade pasta meals, or the like that are full of utter utter crap. Now, i cannot take the high moral ground personally but our country has allowed itself to become a place of absolute crap food that take just as long to make as a fresh equivalent. The whole lifestyle is different and yes that has many different reasons for being but you are right - we are essentially a nation addicted to absolute crap and weaning ourself out of it will not be difficult,if at all possible in the great capitalist game. Shame tae, cause we produce brilliant food as a country but it's so fucking overpriced you need to be of a excellent standard of income to afford it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radgenaldo Posted February 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 Mate no matter what your job is you canny surely stop people from going out and enjoying themselves! It's their free time from work they can do with it what they wish! See, you can if it inflicts on your performance of your job. If you're a train driver and you turn up for work hungover you get the boot. If you're in the forces and you fail your fitness test after a certain number of attempts cause you're too fat through eating kebabs and boozing all the time you get booted out. If you get paid to be a footballer then you should be at the peak of your fitness cause its your job. People pay good money and expect you to be as good as you possibly can be, not running at 80% of your peak fitness just cause you don't feel like it. The England rugby team have a set fitness test and I reckon that a few of the 'Well team would fail it. Its something like level 15 on the Beep test, 100m in under 12secs and set numbers of burpees, pressups, sit ups etc each in a minute. FFS, there's people down the local gym fitter than some SPL players and these people PAY to do it in their own time! I know it sounds like I'm moaning, but as has been stated by others above, it seems that Scottish players and teams have a half-arsed attitude to fitness and training. I think if we were fitter than other teams in the league we could attack harder and faster in the opening stages of a game and not be blowing out our arses towards the end. Or we could take advantage of other teams tiring and capitalise on their diminishing pace etc. How many times do you see players losing the ball then not chasing it back or closing down the opposing players cause they're fucked? Intesresting to hear from Cooper_no1 that it's common place among other teams, but that foreigners have a completely different attitude. I understand that they are schooled from a young age about everything to do with football and whats expected of you, but the general attitude could surely be instilled by our youth set ups? I'd fuckin love a job where I got paid a decent wage to do something I loved, for 10hrs a week and I'd put every ounce of effort into rewarding my employers (and as such, the fans too) for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radgenaldo Posted February 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 Might add BTW, that there are players at Motherwell who DO take it all seriously. And you can see it in tehm during a game. When Mark Reynolds was here, he used to go to circuit training at Wishaw sports centre twice a week and pay a few quid a week of his own money to do it! Pretty sure he was T-total too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daver Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 We all saw the difference McGhee's training made after some of the players were transformed over a summer and we certainly gained some points through superior fitness. I though that reflected poorly on Malpas and Hegarty and particularly on the players who were obviously happy to go through the motions when they could get away with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tino86 Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/9393966.stm Thought it was good insight into how such great players are created, wish it could happen in scotland but i really cannot see that happening, you never know but. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radgenaldo Posted February 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/9393966.stm Thought it was good insight into how such great players are created, wish it could happen in scotland but i really cannot see that happening, you never know but. That makes some good points. I like how Barca say Real Madrid have a similar set up but don't use it! Obviously we're not going to have enough money to run anything remotely like La Masia, but encouraging our youths to have the same values and mind set from a young age shouldn't be dismissed. You could never imagine Xavi having to make the "play fitba or become a ned?" decision when he was young can you?! As for the first team, we could use students of Sports Science, Sports Phsychology, Nutritionists etc to help out. A student would love to have an SPL team on their projects or on their CV when they go looking for work and we could get the benefit of cheap/free info and input. A club with a squad as small as ours should be keeping our key players at the top of their game for the full season. I reckon we could take advantage of other team's lack of fitness towards the end of a season if we were fitter than them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcalf Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 A club with a squad as small as ours should be keeping our key players at the top of their game for the full season. I think we already do this as far as possible. Not really feasible to keep them at their peakfor a full season but JP does well with the resources he has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbcmfc Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Comes back to the point that these guys have been wrapped in cotton wool since they were in there early teens, and told how great they are. Why would they need to work at it? Think of some of the potentially great Players Scottish football has lost to being overweight, or lazy, or having a poor lifestyle, or could have at least done much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Obviously we're not going to have enough money to run anything remotely like La Masia, but encouraging our youths to have the same values and mind set from a young age shouldn't be dismissed. You could never imagine Xavi having to make the "play fitba or become a ned?" decision when he was young can you?! As for the first team, we could use students of Sports Science, Sports Phsychology, Nutritionists etc to help out. A student would love to have an SPL team on their projects or on their CV when they go looking for work and we could get the benefit of cheap/free info and input. A club with a squad as small as ours should be keeping our key players at the top of their game for the full season. I reckon we could take advantage of other team's lack of fitness towards the end of a season if we were fitter than them. The La Masia comparison for me is pretty interesting. I realise it is pretty pipe-dream, but surely that is the only way a club like Motherwell could compete for a league title now? Developing an over-arching club ethos of 'This is the way that we will play football' and developing that structure from the youngest of kids to the first team. As far as I know, Hibs do their best to keep kids living together and on site as much as possible, anybody know if thats the truth? With the Ravenscraig development, it does seem to be a good opportunity to use the facilities to the fullest. The importance and potential of educating a squad of Motherwell players as well as training them to the fullest ability is huge. Falkirk use Stirling Uni's pitches don't they? I can only agree with the idea of involving Higher Education institutions to help, having worked and been around Dundee Uni for a while now, there is a tremendous collection of talented people, including plenty who are happy to get involved in projects in order to stick things on their CV. I don't mean to be having a go at anyone at the club or anything, as I'm happy to admit I'm almost completely ignorant of what goes on, but just my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper_no1 Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 The education thing is a brilliant idea, there is nothing in this world can replace natural talent, nothing - however having someone with a decent level of intelligence and hard work can go a long way. Quite a number of our footballers in this country cannot master basic English, i'm pretty sure they have SOME talent but if they mayby had a brain that worked a bit better they would inevitably improve as a footballer. Look at that game last night, some of the quick thinking was brilliant. None of our footballers in Scotland have a brain with that level of sharpness and intelligence. For me, education is a massive part of football and general intelligence CAN and WILL make people better players,even those will masses of natural ability. Also interesting to note the fitness techniques,get players to get fit while having a ball at their feet. Anyone who has played football at any level in this country knows fine well we concentrate on doing circits and running the legs off ourself to get fit. Aerobic exercises or good old cross country running up steep hills. Yeah that's great and it DOES get your fitness up - but why not do ALL of that,but with a ball at your feet. It makes basic sense to me and look at how comfortable every player is with the ball at their feet, i don't just mean Barcelona etc i mean any Spanish club - even their second division players have far more comfort with the ball at their feet than anyone in our country. It's like the balls a hot tatty half the time - passes are more often than not knee high than across the ground - and players need about three touches just to control the fucking thing. It all seems very basic and inexpensive ways of training people - wonder if Mcleish had simple training methods like that in his report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yabba's Turd Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I know shaun maloney watches every meal and drink he consumes, as in nothing at all that isn't part of his strict diet. Who is to say there aren't others in the scottish game who do the same? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_M_F_C Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I don't care what a player eats or if he likes a booze. If he's turning up and can play football then I don't care. What people gloss over is alot of continental players smoke, even Zidane was a smoker. Look at England they have a top division filled with athletes, dull dull uninspiring football though. Shouldn't be about how fit a player is, should be worried about if a player can control a ball then pass it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcalf Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 The La Masia comparison for me is pretty interesting. I realise it is pretty pipe-dream, but surely that is the only way a club like Motherwell could compete for a league title now? Developing an over-arching club ethos of 'This is the way that we will play football' and developing that structure from the youngest of kids to the first team. "DIGGLE" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siebsbarmyarmy Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I know shaun maloney watches every meal and drink he consumes, as in nothing at all that isn't part of his strict diet. Who is to say there aren't others in the scottish game who do the same? That must explain his constant falling then, lack of iron in his diet makes the wee prick weak and unable to stay on his feet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I don't care what a player eats or if he likes a booze. If he's turning up and can play football then I don't care. What people gloss over is alot of continental players smoke, even Zidane was a smoker. Look at England they have a top division filled with athletes, dull dull uninspiring football though. Shouldn't be about how fit a player is, should be worried about if a player can control a ball then pass it. What you're looking at there is the exception rather than the rule though. Larsson loved a tab as well but given his ability, he could get away with it. Zidane is a once in a generation type player for a nation, if we had 11 boys like that turning up like that every week I'd be delighted, failing that though, some sort of balance can be struck. Someone telling him to bulk up when he first did his knee did for maloney, his top half is too big for his bottom half! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wishaestevie Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I know shaun maloney watches every meal and drink he consumes, as in nothing at all that isn't part of his strict diet. Who is to say there aren't others in the scottish game who do the same? I always thought he was a bit of a porker as well. Might just be a baggy shirt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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