Professor Martin Roderick noted in his study of professional football that possessing "a good attitude" is often seen as one of, if not the most important, attribute a player must convey to significant others (especially the coaches and manager) to become a professional player. But what is a good attitude?
Being Big Time
Here's a good place to start for you. Being viewed by others as "big time" is a risk in any professional football academy. It is a sign that you do not have a good attitude. But what is "big time", we can dive into the data to unpick that a little. For the following group of players, being ‘big time’ meant that individual players were perceived to be putting their interests ahead of others in a manner that is believed to indicate their arrogance:
James. Say like someone who thinks they are good, knows they’re good and they won’t like
Charlie. [Interrupts] Work for the team
Issac. [Interrupts] Just arrogant basically.
Miles. They think they are better than the group that they are in so like
James. [Interrupts] Don’t bother working as hard as they can.
Q. And being that way undermines your chances of getting a pro in your opinion?
Charlie. Like the coaches explain
Issac. [Interrupts] They will recognize it.
Charlie. Because there are people at our club who are big time.
Connor. Or as soon as they get the pro it normally changes people. I think that’s when they normally start to get ‘big time’ ...
Charlie. I think the ones who are ‘big time’ are probably the ones who have already got pros. They think that they have made it if they’ve got a pro so they don’t want to work because they think ‘I am better than this’.
Issac. Or try and improve because they think how they are at the moment is good enough instead of like not having a pro, knowing they have got to work hard to improve and being a better player overall.
(Year 2, Club 20)
Another group of players expressed a similar view when they were asked to describe what constituted being ‘big time’:
