At this time of year, much of the focus is on retaining and releasing, and it has been the centre of most of the work I have done over the past few weeks. Parents contact me because they have received a decision from a club, and it isn't the news they hoped for. How can we begin to deal with this?
Why do players want to be professionals?
When becoming a professional player hangs in the balance or someone has decided to release a player and becoming a professional seems further away than it did before, I have found it useful to explore with a player why they want to be a professional.
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I'm listening, what do you do?
In as little as 12 weeks, you can begin your journey, independent of the club, on learning the inside game the clubs are playing, develop a career playbook with tangible goals to work towards and plans for dealing with events and have a clear mind on what the future will hold.

Selling Reassurance
Curtis Joseph, Roberto Baggio, John Arne Riise, Paul Merson, Lee Hendrie, Andriy Shevchenko, David James, Vinnie Jones, Paul Gascoigne, Ravel Morrison, Adrian Mutu, Kieron Dyer, Jon Bostock, Fabio de Silva…
Are we doing the right thing?
Instead of thinking "are we making the right decision?", we should be asking "what is the decision we feel most comfortable with right now?" And once that decision has been made, ask "How do we make sure, we make the most of the opportunities that flow from that decision".