Imagine they give you a team tomorrow… What now?
Football is such a vast sport that there are infinite ways to train, plan, and manage a team. Every coach, deep down, is a traveler with their own map and their own way of navigating it. For me, the training process is very much like traveling.
Some trips are hyper-planned down to the last detail, while others are designed with a certain flexibility. Sometimes you know exactly where you will sleep (because you booked a hotel), but not what you will eat (that will depend on what’s on the menu).
When I start with a team, I ask myself the same question I do when planning a trip: Where am I starting from, and where do I want to go?
Macro-principles → They are the big destinations: playing style, team identity, collective values.
Principles → They are like choosing whether you will sleep in a hotel, a campsite, or an apartment: they shape the experience and the feelings.
Micro-principles → They are the details that make the journey easier or harder: the sleeping bag, the sheets, an improvised sofa.
In football, as in travel, you cannot control every moment, but you can define the direction and the rules of the path. The important thing is to be clear about your starting point, your destination, and the elements you will not compromise along the way.
And you—if you were given a team tomorrow… what would your map look like?
