Why do some great signings fail?

• Cession.Coutinho: "I hope to be in Bayern for many years"
• Dembélé. The thousand messes that make Barça distrustful
• Market: Juventus emerges in the soap opera Neymar

A few days before Tottenham played the Champions League final against Liverpool, Xesco Espar , European champion in 2005 as a Barcelona handball coach, now a High Performance expert, went to Mauricio Pochettino's call. « I made the players walk barefoot on the coals. I already tried it when Pochettino was a Southampton coach . Employing that technique in a soccer team is powerful. Before I explained what performance is, and that it depends on your talent and your emotional state. And I taught them how to manage it. To generate energy. They will say that Tottenham did not win that final. But, despite fitting a penalty goal in minute one, the team did not give up.

Clubs, in one way or another, try to explore neglected roads for a long time. Football, already tied to the show, to the dressing rooms, to the 24/7 media exhibition, and with the players turned into merchandise with which to speculate, has become accustomed to taking a good handful of dreams ahead. Players bought at the price of gold and who, unable to respond to the expectations created - for their quality, for the money invested, for the media exaggeration -, pass from prodigal children to expendable employees. To be the object of voracious criticism . Without many times taking into account some of the reasons why the protagonist is unable to escape the vicious circle.

Philippe Coutinho became a year and a half ago in the most expensive player in the history of Barcelona. The Barça club paid Liverpool 120 million euros fixed by the Brazilian, to which 40 more could be added in variables (the management team of Josep Maria Bartomeu has disbursed 15 million for objectives so far). A season and a half lasted the journey through the desert of a Brazilian hired to ease the duel for Iniesta . It was enough to part with him that Bayern offered 8.5 million euros for a one-year loan, and that the German club took care of the net 12 million euros charged by the player. No one expects in this sport anymore.

But why do the stars fail? Why can a talented player with excellent conditions be separated from the show? What impact does psychology have on it?

The perception of being a hero

«A talent player grows with the perception of being a hero. That everything can and everything gets. When that does not occur is when it is really demonstrated what it is made of. And if you have never worked on psychological strengths, it is normal for you to have problems. Working in quarry we always said that until a talented player did not have his black year we could not know if he was made to succeed . Who speaks is the high performance sports psychologist Javier Soriano , who worked for 10 years in the Association of Spanish Footballers and eight more in the lower categories of Real Madrid. He currently works in the Madrid Football Federation.

Coutinho, the leader of the current Brazilian Copa América champion, saw his light in the Camp Nou dull out. Until the day he couldn't take it anymore and put his fingers to his ears before the whistles of Camp Nou. «The players, so far, have grown up learning physical, technical and tactical skills. But few sites clearly bet on educating emotional intelligence. Therefore, the risk of failure at the first sign of stress, defeat or pressure is very high, ”insists Soriano.

The fear

«The soccer player can feel fear. When he sees chains failures or disappointments, his emotional state subtracts him. When he is in the negative circle, what he does is lose confidence, ”says Espar, who has also worked for Carolina Marín, Olympic badminton champion in Rio 2016 .

When Barcelona saw Neymar flee in exchange for 222 million euros, the Barça club understood that this would be a problem. So he rushed to hire Ousmane Dembélé in exchange for 105 million euros plus another 40 in incentives. And that, just one year before, Borussia Dortmund had only paid 15 million to the Rennes .

« The price generates greater expectation of success. And, consequently, greater internal and media pressure . If there is no one to accompany the player, teach him to manage the emotions, and isolate him as much as he can, the pressure will be so intense that at the minimum sign of defeat you can enter a loop of negative emotion that will lead to failure. Many examples of this type have left us with the history of football and the most expensive signings ”, analyzes Javier Soriano.

The environment

The environments of soccer players, angels or demons? Dembélé, with a family member and a friend as confidants, cook crusher, far from his mother, got used to being late for training. To get injured. To neglect their eating habits. Not to respect their hours of rest. Barça, according to an article from the Finantial Times last March, intended to use devices to control the quality and quantity of the sleep of its players , something difficult given the intrusion of the private life of its employees. "Dembélé would have to ask him a question: 'Do you really want to play football? Because in no big club can you be late for training, to be clueless in a tactical order. You are very badly advised by your surroundings," says Espar.

Neymar, entertained by his soul friends, the Toiss , with his own father in front, and disconnected from the routine of the costumes in the face of a dissolute and typical life of a rock star, is already left over to PSG.

«Isolation is terrifying. When someone does, they feed back comments from their surroundings. And what happens in the environment? That the player is never guilty of anything », Xesco Espar. And Soriano abounds before the media players overexposure: «Before, a player could go home and feel safe in his environment. It was a prevention factor that they have now lost. Now they can't leave without having a camera next to them. In addition to that need that the networks have generated so that the players are continuously active, and that many of them have bought. They are subjected to constant stress ».

The emirate of Qatar, despite the records of Neymar (51 goals in 58 games), seeks to get rid of him without seeing his honor-economic-damaged after starring in the biggest investment in football history.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Ousmane Dembélé
• Neymar
• Coutinho
• PSG
• sports
• FC Barcelona
• football
• First division
• Bayern Munich

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