Last weeks of June, season ended and the new season already scanning the horizon. In this period of 1’5 – 2 months, it’s time to take decisions. Decisions that will affect the rest of the season, therefore the relevance they have is very important. During this period then, we believe that every club, coordinator, technical director or board of directors must do the exercise that involves the following two steps:

1. Valuation of the season completed

Right after the referee’s final whistle of the last official game, it’s time to make judgments. Evaluations to judge if the work has been done well or not, depending on the established objectives, to make decisions and start working in the next season.

As we know, in high performance football the demand is always maximum. It is very easy to look away from the easy, the result in the leaderboard, the “luck”, the level of arbitration … But it is worth doing deep self-criticism and stop to think about all the relevant aspects to keep in mind identify the “why” to help us make sound decisions.

• Preparation of the previous squad.
• Individual performance of the players.
• Global performance of the team.
• Expectations exposed.
• Achievement of the objectives set in the short term (important not to value them at the end, but during the season.
• Achievement of long-term objectives.
• Quality of the training process.
• Competencies of the technical staff.
• Resources used by the directives at an economic and human level.
• Values ​​that identify the club, and actions taken to respect them.
• Game model established.
• DNA of the club.
• Important decisions made during the season.
• Established roles.
• Injuries and management of them.
• Etc.

It would not make any sense to start taking decisions within a club without taking into account all these aspects listed above, among others.

2. Preparation for the next season

Once all these aspects have been assessed, it is time to get down to work. And before acting, be very clear that the direction of the club or the team will depend on the whole structure of it, from top to bottom and bottom to top, so it is important to be clear that to reach our destination, all The members of this ship must have the same vision and mission. We will not arrive if they do not all row in the same direction.

Important questions:

• Are we still betting on the technical staff?
• What budget do we have? What resources do we have to increase it?
• What players do we renew? Who do we ignore? Who do we want to incorporate?
• What priorities do we establish? How do we negotiate salaries with players?
• What objectives do we propose for the next season?
• Which objectives and intentions has each player?
• And plenty of other questions.

Competencies such as the ability to lead, human management, negotiation, understanding of the game, scouting, physical preparation, etc. they are essential to start the next season on the right foot.

So it is basic and fundamental, to have all these competences clear, to establish roles in the different members of the ship, which as we said, will have to row all in the same direction since the captain can’t navigate alone.