I’m delighted to speak with football writer and consultant, Ben Lyttleton in this episode. Ben has always been interested in the psychology of performance. After writing his first book, Twelve Yards: The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty he started working with clubs to help them improve their penalty taking strategies and record. Ben has also written the fantastic book EDGE in which he discovers the innovative methods some of the world's top football clubs use to develop talent.

And it’s this book we mainly focus on, specifically we speak about team cohesion; teams taking a holistic approach to developing players; what makes teams successful; retaining players; the transfer window and buying players at the elite level; types of motivation; decision making (Cruyff Football); resilience and creativity.