All You Need Is Love

Tonight I'm going to talk about love.

The role of love in football.

It's a tricky subject in some ways. We all have our definition of love and it takes many different forms.

The kind of love I want to talk about is the love we have for the people we work with and for.

Let me explain what I mean.

It is one of my fundamental beliefs that an organisation needs love in it. People who work for it, whatever their motivation, need to feel appreciated, valued and believed in.

That doesn't mean people don't want constructive feedback and challenge. But those things have to happen within an environment of care and respect.

And of course although we talk about this thing called an organisation, it is actually a collection of people.

One of the things someone once said to me when giving me advice about fundraising for my organisation was that people don't give money to organisations. They give it to people.

What that means is that individual relationships are a critical part of how an organisation functions.

So what has that got to do with football?

Well it's no secret that those managers who are most successful are those who are fundamentally loved by their players. Love made up of respect, care and trust. Just look at how Wenger's players relate to him. Or Fergie.

That's not to say there can't be other emotions too. Fear. Dislike. Awe.

But an underlying relationship built on love can overcome those to bring out the best in people.

Which brings me to Mr Capello. A man with a reputation for being a 'disciplinarian'.

How much love has he managed to engender in his squad since becoming the England manager?

One of the things I was really struck by when I watched the last England match was how miserable they all looked.

Now I know you cynics will be saying "so they should they played so badly". But it was more than that. They just looked downtrodden of spirit, lacking in any shared mission or understanding and even a bit scared.

I'm not suggesting all of England's problems are down to such intangibles. There are technical issues too about the choice of team etc.

I can't help thinking, however, that some proper love in the England squad and first team could make a significant difference.

Maybe then players would not be so keen to arrange operations or claim not to be fit enough to play.