We are very optimistic there is a way forward, otherwise the very unsatisfactory status quo can only continue and get worse for players, fans and the clubs.”Meanwhile, six months after losing out to Germany in the race to stage the 2006 World Cup finals, England’s standing in the world game is at its highest point for years, David Davies, the executive director of the Football Association, claimed yesterday.”It was a bitter, bitter disappointment to lose that particular battle, but many positive things came out of the campaign,” Davies said.”The campaign had two main priorities. The first and main one was obviously to secure the World Cup, the second one was to lift the profile of English football around the world.”There is no doubt about our success there. As a result of the campaign we have forged strong, close links with South Africa and other emerging countries. We are co-operating on a wide range of initiatives with Asia.”There was a time, not so long ago, when our stock was so low we were struggling to find opponents who wanted to play us in friendlies That has all changed. I think we will probably go to South Africa and play a friendly there in the next year or two to forge even stronger links with a country that will play a more and more important part in world football.”. When wages in English league football were scandalously held at a maximum of £12 per week, with bonuses of £2 a win and £1 a draw, one of the hardest sporting educators I’ve ever known sent players out with a reminder of life’s pressure ringing in their ears “Don’t forget the rent,” he’d bellow. When wages in English league football were scandalously held at a maximum of £12 per week, with bonuses of £2 a win and £1 a draw, one of the hardest sporting educators I’ve ever known sent players out with a reminder of life’s pressure ringing in their ears.

“Don’t forget the rent,” he’d bellow.
There was also something brutal about the benefits of numerical advantage – “it’s easier playing against 10 men, even easier against nine” – but that’s another story and not for the faint-hearted.Times change. Primitive forms of motivation – “don’t forget, these people shot at your fathers during the war,” were the last words Welsh players heard from their manager, Jimmy Murphy, before taking on East Germany in a World Cup qualifying tie 40 years ago – have gradually given way to the scientific.What got me on to this was the two stirring performances Dagenham & Redbridge gave against Charlton Athletic in the third round of the FA Cup, not so much last week’s effort at home when they narrowly lost a replay after extra time, but the quite remarkable feat of almost getting through at the first attempt against opponents from the Premier League. Since this was achieved without much in the way of blood and thunder, Alan Curbishley’s frank admission that Charlton could easily have lost by three-nil was bound to get people thinking.Dagenham have only two or three players who can look back on league experience and are no higher than mid-table in the Nationwide Conference, so was their form an endorsement of the probability that technical standards in the Premiership have declined, notch by notch, over the last three seasons? Forget about the energising effect of cup football It is mostly romantic tosh anyway Upsets usually spring from complacent application. Since Charlton were not guilty as charged in some newspapers, was there some other explanation for the equality Dagenham were able to establish in more than three hours of football?In one of the prints I frequently turn to in the course of my researches, I came across the fact that Dagenham had welcomed the input of a sports psychologist, Dave Elliott.

Elliott, 53, was born and raised in the East End of London and by his own admission was once so full of himself that “Jack the lad” was a pretty accurate description. “I was into all that macho stuff,” he said when we spoke this week Elliott’s life changed when he got into psychology. “I found a better way of life,” he added.After sorting himself out, Elliott was drawn deeper into the powers of motivation he has since employed in sport and business. Three years ago, he became involved with Stevenage Borough when they drew Newcastle United in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Predictably, given no chance, Stevenage gave a terrific account of themselves both at home and in a replay at St James’ Park. In a letter of thanks, the then Stevenage manager, Paul Fairclough, wrote: “The way you helped us change our beliefs with your powerful yet simple programme has been nothing short of amazing. I was sceptical at first but I’m now a disciple.”Of course, Elliott, who is presently working with Wimbledon, isn’t alone in this field. Glenn Hoddle employs a sports psychologist, John Syer, at Southampton. Because of Hoddle’s past association with the faith healer Eileen Drewery this, I guess, is where the subject gets touchy. Mention psychology to some of the game’s older guys and they immediately think of a snake oil salesman.