SIMON CLIFFORD AND INTEGER

Founded in 2016 by Simon Clifford - one of the most experienced and highly regarded one-to-one coaches and innovative thinkers in modern English football -  Integer Football is regarded as a forward thinking training programme, striving to develop today’s youth football players. 

Simon’s journey in football started over 30 years ago, as a primary school teacher with an extraordinary vision and ambition to change the way football is played and coached in the UK, and to model this on the great side who inspired him in the 1994 USA World Cup – Brazil. Having secured funding from a teachers union, armed with a video camera and a notepad, Simon travelled to Brazil. Once there, he worked with the football governing body of Brazil, top flight clubs, futebol de salao clubs and high-profile former players with the aim of understanding the philosophy and methods behind their training. With this new-found knowledge, he was able to create an inspired and new way of coaching and training in English football – creating a syllabus that had never been seen or heard of before. It was this very syllabus that allowed Simon to create the first youth soccer schools of their kind, focusing on various technical aspects of football such as close control and improved skill levels whilst also placing greater emphasis on fitness and strength, all inspired by the Brazilian way and futebol de salao. The soccer schools were very soon on all corners of the globe, and were seeing unbelievable success particularly in England, producing elite football players, such as Micah Richards, Ryan Fraser, Oli McBurnie, John Bostock and more, with coaching alumni including Michael Beale and John Herdman.

““I’ve been in the USA, Brazil and Europe, worked in football, I am 50 years old, but I’ve never met a person like him. Simon Clifford’s perspective and intelligence is just so interesting”
”
— Socrates

Given the unbelievable influence Simon had on youth football and the extraordinary work that was being done, Simon began to work in top levels of football in the UK. His experience in elite football spans across the past two decades, in which time Simon has worked with some of the world’s greatest players and held senior positions at Premier League level, including Head of Sports Science at Southampton FC in the mid-2000s, whilst also working with the English FA and England national team. In working with stars such as Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, all the way down to training and educating youth players, Simon has developed a unique and forward thinking approach to the development and training of players, with the extraordinary ability to create bespoke individual training plans for players of different ages and of varying ability, allowing for them to develop in all aspects of the game and to go on to achieve unbelievable success.

In this month’s blog post we are going to focus on a situation I encounter with players a lot across the different age groups from academy to professional, but particularly the scholars and young professionals.

As a player, you might be working hard, feeling like you’re doing everything that you should be doing and that you're playing extremely well, but not getting picked. You may have given your life to football. It could be that you’re in a situation whereby you have gone onto a scholarship contract and then been offered a pro contract, but not really getting into the U21s or around the first team. This could go on for some time, but I say to the players that I work with who encounter this that they must remain two things: patient and positive. This is all I ask of them in these moments. Going through this can be quite confusing and a players’ emotional life can be difficult when faced with this, but in this situation you have to remain patient and positive, as things in football can and do change very quickly. 

I have so many examples that I could give you even over the last couple of years where something changes from not being in the picture, not being in the side at all, not being in the managers favours or feeling like nothing's going to break for you and being quite down as a result, to everything flipping on its head and changing in a matter of days. You've got to be ready for that. So just remain patient. You don't know what's going to happen. Football changes quickly. Suddenly your team has got three suspensions or an injury, or the manager is replaced. Now what?

Particularly when we are younger, we have got to remain massively patient in the long term. This can be more difficult the younger we are as a year can feel like a lot longer then. It can be really tough, but if you've got the help around you, you've got to stay patient. 

In addition to this, you've also got to be positive. Nobody ever has won a place on a team or won recognition from bad behaviour, bad body language, moaning or complaining. It is very easy when this is the default mindset to get into a negative cycle because you end up thinking “well, what's the point of any of this anyway? I'm never going there. It's never going to happen for me. He's doesn’t like me.” The point would be that maybe the manager may well start to like and notice you if you can go around the club every day with the best body language that's ever been seen. Speaking to every member of staff, walking with your chest out, shoulders back, walking tall and running the opponents and teammates into the ground each day. All of these details add up. This positivity must also be applied to matchdays too, even if we are on the bench; be the best person on the bench that's ever lived. Lead the game from the sidelines. I always used to say you see who really cares about a team if you do a freeze frame of everybody's face after the team has scored. Is your teammate really happy you've scored? Is the centre half happy that the team has scored? They should because the TEAM has scored, but sometimes people are not. You've got to be team first. You've got to be so positive it's untrue. If you only play a minute, make it the greatest minute ever - still be a positive force around the place all week; be ridiculously positive.

A bonus point to add to these main two would actually be process thinking. How hard are you working? Are you doing all that you can? Are you doing all you should be doing each day? Because if you are, nobody should be able to live and compete with you at the club. 

As human beings, we have a tendency to take the path of least resistance – to do as little as possible. We've got a tendency each day to be lazy and we've got to work against that. If you're patient – and  not just putting in the work for three weeks or a couple of months, but maybe for a whole season or more – eventually you can't be ignored. Your patience and positivity will win through because other people don't act like this. The people that are against you (teammates in competition with you for places) will eventually fall by the wayside because they won't have the positivity, intent and constancy that you've got. You’ll wear them down! If you’re process interested and driven whilst taking into account all the little tiny details, you cannot go far wrong. How far are you running each day? How loud are you in training? How positive? What's our body language like? Pep Guardiola says he often picks the team on body language through the week. Amorim – the new Manchester United manager – has said he takes into consideration body language again and even the player’s clothing. All these little things become big things and can make a huge difference to a players possibilities for selection.

If you are ticking off those three boxes, the 3P’s – patient, positive and process oriented – it's all in your control. In time, things are going to come good for you. And if not at your club with that coach, other people are going to notice you. People are going to talk about you in training and tell others. Teammates and staff won't understand why you're not playing. Eventually you’ll wear the manager down and if you've got competition on the pitch such as a fellow centre half, you'll wear them down too – you’ll knock anything in your way, out of the way… you will!. 

I could think of great examples how I supported players the last few years at the highest levels where we've just had to go through this situation all the time and it breaks like a miracle for them suddenly. They've gone from one realm of not getting a look in at all, to the form of their life and international callups and recognition with interest from other clubs all over the place, but it wouldn't have happened if they didn't stick with those Ps: patience, positivity and process. Concentrating on the process and focussing on that and not outcome as much, what are the things we can take into our control? Are we working on our psychology and mindset each day? Are things such as our nutrition and sleep where it should be? These the things that are necessary for success that we must do. How are we socially with our teammates and management? These are all things to consider and look to get as perfect as we can. But expect nothing! Just keep working. Get it right this week. And the next. And the next. Just lead a life in this way in any case. Eventually with all that good, you cannot be ignored and you will get to where you deserve to be. Be that good you can’t be ignored, this is the way to go! 

Patience. Positivity. Process.

A Happy and Holy Christmas to all,

Keep Moving Forward,

 Simon Clifford 

Integer Football is a bespoke individual training programme based in Harrogate and Leeds, that works to create better players from the inside out. We focus on all elements of the beautiful game to create a total footballer prepared for the game of tomorrow. To contact our team and to find out more on how you could join our programme, please see our Join page.