1.1 Listening to football club employees and players

The best thing about being a footballer is, I would say, waking up every morning, and going to a job that you love doing. As a kid, that’s all I wanted to be, and coming in every day and enjoying your job is a main thing, and playing in front of thousands of people week-in-week-out, there’s not a better feeling.

The best thing about being a football manager, for me, is the development of young players and, ultimately then, prepare in a week to try and win a football match, and then winning it. It’s when a plan comes together.

The best part about the job is match days. Sitting there in the blind faith hope that they might actually win on a Saturday.

The best thing, for me, without question, is being part of the football club, and being part of the stadium development here. It’s been the thing that I’m most proud of. It’s a really exciting place to be, and sport as a vehicle is so engaging and helps us empower people to be able to feel that they’re part of the football club. It removes barriers for communities so, for example, in terms of our dads programme, lots of dads are happy to come here and to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise want to do. So, I still get a real buzz from being out here, and seeing this amazing space, and it’s very inspirational.

I think the best thing is seeing how the club’s grown in the last 10 years, so when I come to work, we work in a beautiful stadium so we’ve got to aim for our pitches to look that beautiful, and the surroundings does give you a lift. It does motivate you, and when people come here, - film crews, supporters, especially away supporters, or any tours – you’re proud of where you work and what you do.

The worst part of being a footballer is actually just losing. When you win it’s great, you get a great high, and everyone’s proud of you. When you lose, you feel as if you’ve let people down, but it’s all part and parcel. You’ve got to take the highs with the lows.

The worst part of the job is coming in on a Monday morning when we have lost, and trying to pick up everybody else because, actually, it has a big impact on morale when a team is not performing well so our job as senior managers is to help staff, pick them up, make sure we can move on to next week, and hopefully, get the result we want in the future.

It is sometimes difficult to combine professional sport with community delivery for the same reasons: things become unpredictable – either you’re doing very well in the league or you’re doing very badly in the league, and that can affect how we’re working on day-to-day projects, but the atmosphere a) in the town, and b) in the club can be very frustrating if it’s at one end or the other because trying to manage a programme over a 3 year period with all that going on can be quite a strain.

The thing I like the least, I would say, is the pressure. A lot of people think it’s an easy job, but when you’ve got 20/30,000 fans, and it’s their be-all and end-all of the week, it’s tough, especially when things aren’t going well, and the teams are struggling etc. it’s difficult to go out and play with freedom under that kind of pressure.

The worst thing is injuries. I’m injured at present, which is very frustrating but you put your body through rigours that it’s not supposed to sometimes, and it’s part and parcel, but it can be very frustrating to especially watch team mates playing and you’re sat in the stands. It’s not very nice.

For me, the worst thing is when you have players who waste their talent, and you work an awful lot of hours trying to help them and they just don’t want to be helped, and I’ve seen many of them sadly.

The worst thing you would say about working here would be probably the hours, but that’s manageable and enjoyable at the same time. If I didn’t enjoy it, then I wouldn’t do it.

People getting the money in football are football players so, for me, it’s about the satisfaction of the job. Of course, everybody’s motivated by pay to a point, but, for me, it is about coming into work every morning, getting out of bed and knowing I’m going to work and enjoying it.

Everybody needs pay. We come to work for money but, as a motivator, I don’t believe it’s that strong a motivator. What’s a real good motivator is the product you provide at the end. If you get praise from your superiors, you get praise from supporters, other groundsmen, it’s very important because we all criticise each other’s pitch, but also, if you have a good pitch, you are recognised within the trade so that’s a great motivation when your peers look at you in that light.

What really motivates me is winning, winning medals, and building a legacy, if you like, so long after I stop playing, things I can look back and say ‘I’ve done this’ but, of course, money is a big factor because football is a very short career, so you need to earn as much as possible while you’re playing.

I think the main thing is playing football and enjoying it, and that’s the main thing – doing a job that you love and always dreamed of doing.