THE BEAUTIFUL MIND GAME

Football is a common denominator that acts like a language connecting millions of people across the world. It creates interest and sparks emotions in a way that regular conversations usually fail to do.

THE BEAUTIFUL MIND GAME takes metaphors and tactics from the pitch and applies them to work and home life in a powerful coaching experience.

The book accurately describes the life of football.

Nigel Howe

Chief Executive, Reading Football Club

Describes the influences of the game from a fan’s perspective. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!

Gary Mabutt MBE

Former Captain, Tottenham Hotspur

Yes mate, I like it.

Jack Wilshere

Footballer for Arsenal, 2008-2018

Walk This Way. Life lessons from Walking Football

  Arriving at Barnet’s Hive to play Walking Football (WF), I felt that same trepidation and excitement as when I first played. I hadn’t kicked a ball in eight years and I later learned that others hadn’t done so in decades. As I looked around at this sample of...
Read More

YOU MAKE AN OLD MAN VERY HAPPY

This is code for saying that I kicked opponents and demonstrated toughness and gamesmanship. My colleagues liked it and to be honest, I enjoyed their plaudits.
Read More

False Starts?

The 2013-2014 Season in the English Premiership is all but nine days old and the other Euro leagues somewhat younger. The oddest thing is that very few of the participants actually know who their teams even are. This is all because the so-called ‘transfer window’ is...
Read More

One Hundred

My attention span and train-of-thought have definitely reduced during the pandemic, I believe the major reason for this is that I have had fewer one to one conversations with people outside my bubble

Read More

Back in the Saddle again

Having taken a half season plus break from the world of blog I find myself lurching back to my old berth on the nag. And what’s brought me back? Racism. I had always planned to return, but with a new range of subjects I have been working on that are still in...
Read More

Creating a club culture for the England Team

Now England has qualified for Brazil 2014, common wisdom suggests we need to build a greater sense of cohesion. Should we bring people’s differences out into the open or conversely do we focus on the things we have in common? These last few weeks have seen some...
Read More

Lessons from Leicester

This week the biggest English football competition was won by Leicester City. This was highly unexpected…

Read More

WFH, xG and introducing xEMx ©

despite having doubts about these metrics, I’m unashamedly jumping on the bandwagon and taking this opportunity to introduce my own workplace metric, Expected Emotional Exchange© or xEMx ©

Read More

You’re up but You’re Down

Depression. It's everywhere. Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian daily sports paper recently carried an article (and it's adequately translated into English here) discussing how 58 per cent of top level footballers suffer from depression. Considering people can be...
Read More

Keep Your Friends Close. Your Enemies Closer Still

When I tell people I both write and give talks on football from a non-football point of view they ask me to explain what I mean... I explain that as a simple, basic pastime, it has so many parallels, so much emotional depth and such a wide ‘contact list’ that it...
Read More

Time, Oh How It Flies

From baby seats to broken minds - what a grandfather’s view reveals about the ever-changing world When, some 18 months ago, I became a grandfather, nothing immediately changed that much. Other than the thrill of new life and the relief that all the parties involved...
Read More
https://www.google.com/imgres?q=picture%20of%20a%20literary%20muse&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2FPrideandPrejudice.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fblog%2Fask-a-literary-lady-how-do-i-become-someones-literary-muse%2F&docid=hvFthJYe0Yyt5M&tbnid=N_u1txTV5AZznM&vet=12ahUKEwjBts2f6PaNAxUEWEEAHWL7BwcQM3oECGIQAA..i&w=637&h=364&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwjBts2f6PaNAxUEWEEAHWL7BwcQM3oECGIQAA

All The Young Dudes Carry The Muse

this current 4-month gap (that is happily now over) has not been the first time I’ve had a break from casting words into the ether, and the only reason I’ve maintained a respectable total is that there have been several periods in which I’ve written one or more blogs per week. 

Read More

WFH, xG and introducing xEMx ©

despite having doubts about these metrics, I’m unashamedly jumping on the bandwagon and taking this opportunity to introduce my own workplace metric, Expected Emotional Exchange© or xEMx ©

Read More

Public Service & The Downward Domino Effect

I prove the point by listing my current ailments, such as backache, creaking knees, and fears of a feeble memory.

Read More

Children of the Evolution

it was an opportunity to do Christmas shopping, take in some frightful West End musicals, and commit acts of heavy-duty socialising that would be filed under the predictable heading; ‘what happens in London, stays in London.

Read More

White Coat Syndrome (turn to God)

Before I read this official version I thought this syndrome was purely psychological. You know the scene, where the doctor lowers their half-moon reading specs further down their nose, looks you in the eye and gives the verdict. Heart-in-mouth, butterflies in the stomach and all that.

Read More

Turn To The Write

I work for a government department in what we can broadly call recruitment and one of my key tasks is to help people find paid employment.  When I first meet a client I try in the first instance, to ascertain what they’d like to do and then what they can do. Last...
Read More

Fresh Faced Imbeciles Laughing at Me

I guffawed so loudly that he paused, looked towards me and acknowledged my laugh with ‘You see”! I was so proud to have been noticed and included in his banter.

Read More

The Cape of High Sensitivity

job is helping people find new careers and supporting them prepare for a new work role. It’s about managing change and shifting self-perception e.g. today I was persuading a former highly-paid investment banker that their present situation means they need to start again, perhaps as a bookkeeper or an administrator.

Read More
The (World) Cup Who Fell To Earth

The World Cup Who Fell To Earth (is Joe Lycett a bully?)

If he was entirely fair in picking on David Beckham. His reasoning is that Beckham has benefited financially and image-wise as a gay icon, he even wore a dress once, and according to Lycett, ought to have condemned both FIFA and Qatar.

Read More