New exclusive 14min interview with Magnus Carlsen by Anastasia Karlovich for anyone interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8RGSxSsXy8#t=23

I think Brian exaggerates his experience by a wide margin. He was not really a football coach but more a fitness trainer. The Headcoaches and Coordinates and then the Positions Coaches get the heat. A fitness trainer is only a supporting cast like physical therapists. And Division 2 is not the top level, they may me good amateur athletes but not more (even when some exceptions will be become professional players).

And Tom Landry - one of the most legendary coaches in American Football - has written in his autobiography that the 60`s changed the culture in sports. He had now to learn to motivate athletes because it was not more self-evident that an athletes has to produces his best performance. And Landry coached the top athletes coming out of the Colleges (Division I).

BPaulsen wrote on 11/26/13 at 06:10:33:


This is childish. I’m not talking about American football or powerlifting. I am talking about football. FWIW, which is nothing, I suspect that I’ve both played and coached that at a higher level than you, albeit a pretty low one. More to the point, however, I have however like most Europeans spent 50 years following the game keenly and reading interviews with and autobiographies of managers and players, and my impression therefrom is that top-level managers in that sport feel defeat at least as keenly as top-level players do. I would refer you for instance to Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography, where he writes at some length on the difficulty of motivating modern professional footballers, and Dave Kitson’s various works under the moniker of The Secret Footballer. Jose Mourinho’s book is also interesting on this subject, as is Sam Allardyce’s regular column in the Evening Standard. Harry Redknapp’s many media interviews as QPR unravelled last season would be another good example. Their experience is far, far more relevant than either of ours, and these examples could be multiplied many times. 

As far as I can tell, you have no basis for contradicting this other than your belief that it can’t be so because it isn’t so in your experience in other fields. It seems to be a religious matter rather than anything based on evidence.

Anyone who isn’t convinced has only to look at the respective countenances of Emanuel Adebayor and AVB after Spurs’ hilarious 6-0 shoeing at the weekend. Or for that matter compare Phil Bardsley’s and Paulo di Canio’s reactions to Sunderland losing a critical relegation struggle at the back end of last season. (The former; two-day bender ending in a casino and the tabloids: the latter near-suicidal. Perhaps PB was merely drowning the pain in his own way.)

Goodness they're often just sacked for little/no reason, seemingly for the fun of it.

IMJohnCox wrote on 11/26/13 at 00:01:10:


As stated previously, I follow American football, a sport that has the same ramifications on coaches as European football. I have for 23 years now. I have played it when I was younger. I have worked with the athletes when I got older. I have talked with the coaches both as a player in the past and the strength and conditioning coach of one of their athletes (and in case it hasn't dawned on you, the livelihood of an athlete's trainer is based on their performance improving, which means even in this capacity I have infinitely greater understanding than you ever will on this issue; the head coaches aren't the only people dependent on the performance of athletes!). This idea that you're privy to some special knowledge based on your fanhood is nonsense.

The difference between me and you is knowing the experience of competition both as the athlete competing, and the one coaching the athlete. I've been on both sides of the coin, and I am reasonably sure at this point that you have not.

Of course, feel free to tell me of your experiences in competition and coaching that led you to believe that as a coach more was on your shoulders than the athlete you were coaching. I'm listening.

LostTactic wrote on 11/25/13 at 21:18:11:



This thread really isn't doing this forum much credit. I'll have one more go.

First, it is not a highly-paid sportsman's right to respond sarcastically to a stupid question; this is biting the hand that feeds him and forgetting where he came from, what made him what he is, and his responsibilities to the game.

Second, there were many answers to the question, for example "I started out believing that White must have a forced win and that I should analyse to the end, then I found this line with Qd1-h5 and I understood that there was no forced win, but I couldn't see anything good in the other lines, so in the end I came back to the forcing line with f6/Rf4." I would be genuinely interested now in having a true answer; it was far and away the most interesting question asked in the press conference (well, bar the intriguing one about Carlsen's upcoming bachelor party). If you don't understand this, then I promise you that the problem is with you; either you don't understand the question or you don't understand much about the OTB game.

As to BP, I am sensing that for him continuing to rant is more important than learning something he doesn't know, so I'll stop. Everyone who follows football knows I'm right anyway.

Keano wrote on 11/25/13 at 08:54:22:


Seeing as the only possible reply to the question asked is "yes". I do not agree that it was an "excellent" question. He chose to deal with it using sarcasm/humour, as is his right if he felt it was a stupid/pointless question.

BPaulsen wrote on 11/25/13 at 20:29:12:


I don't want to even go near you BPaulsen for fear of an attack of unheralded abuse but if you are contributing here I have to say it as I see it - you are talking complete rubbish there. In soccer, which is "football" to the whole world, whatever the US thinks, the general trend has been towards mercenary players switching clubs at the drop of a hat for more money. The ultimate responsibility is the manager.