Sells Goalkeeping Academy Director and professional footballer spent an afternoon recently with psychologist Jeremy Lazarus. Jeremy, who is carrying out psychological profiles on sportsmen, conducted an in depth interview into the workings of a professional footballer.

To find out what makes a professional footballer operate please read the first part of this in depth interview.[/b]

0.1    Why did you become a professional goalkeeper?
(A) Football was always something I wanted to do from a young age. I stumbled upon being a goalkeeper, and I was fortunate enough that I was at the right place at the right time, playing in front of the right sort of people. I had the opportunity at the age of 10 to take this on to a professional level.  I was involved weekly, monthly, yearly with Norwich City.  And I just enjoyed it.  To be honest it was one of them, once you’re in that environment that’s all you wanted to do.  You get the opportunity you end up going down that line.

0.2    What do you like about being a goalkeeper?
(A) I enjoy what I do, I work very hard at what I do. I get a lot of satisfaction.  Whether it’s the fact of being a professional footballer, or whether it’s the fact of being a goalkeeper, I don’t know, I couldn’t really differentiate.  I just enjoy what I do.  I work in a professional environment, I work with professional people, and it’s not until you see the other side of society, how society works, that you realise the professional environment you work in.

0.3    What’s important to you/motivated you about being a goalkeeper?
(A) It’s not even so much about being a goalkeeper, it’s the general thing – I have a general rule to myself – you’ve got a god-given talent.  You either decide to throw that talent down the drain – unfortunately you see this far too many times – a lot of young players, a lot more talented than myself, whether it be an outfield or whether it be a goalkeeper, decide to throw that talent down the drain, because they don’t fully understand what’s needed to become a full time professional, and to come to the level of playing first team football week in week out.  There’s a lot of players out there that can quite easily go out and play 1, 2,5, 10 games.  It’s whether you can do it for 40 games, for 20 years, that’s the difference.

0.4    What do you dislike about it?
(A) There’s lots of aspects.  There’s the fact that every Christmas, for the last 15 years, I’ve never been able to have a proper Christmas, I don’t get any time off.  That’s a general thing in football.  You’re going to get abuse every now and again, you know you are, but that’s what you do, you put yourself on that pedestal, that’s a professional environment that you put yourself into, and that’s why you enjoy what you’re doing, and that’s why you work so hard during the week to make sure you limit the amount of times you’re going to make a mistake at the weekend.

0.5    What would you say are the key aspects of your personality that make you suited to being a top keeper?
I work very hard in what I do, I always have done.  I’ve been fortunate that I have worked with some very good coaches.  In football terms I pick things up very very quickly, I have a good understanding of the game.  But for me the biggest, the biggest thing is your work ethic.  As a goalkeeper, if you want to work hard, you have a good chance of making it in the game, as long as you have a level of talent, you have a good chance of making it in the game.

0.6    What do you understand by the term ‘Mental Strength’?
(A) How you deal with situations, when those situations go bad. Anyone can have a good mental strength when things are going well and you’re keeping clean sheets and you’re dealing with games in nice situations on a nice sunny day.  When you’ve got to go up and play up at...Burnley on a Tuesday night when it’s chucking it down with rain and you’re having a bad time, that’s when you need mental strength.  That’s my analogy of it.

0.7    How do you keep motivated if/when you’re not in the team?
(A)  I’m going through that at the moment.  I’m not in the team.  I’ve been fortunate that nearly all my career I’ve always played 1st team football so I’ve never had that disappointment.  Now I’m coming towards the end of my career, I’m out of the team and I guess psychologically I’ve gone to a different place a little bit.  I’ve realised I’m coming towards the end of my career, I’ve realised that I’m actually going to enjoy playing football.  When I was younger, my life was all about playing first team football, and I possibly didn’t enjoy it to the level I do now, it’s quite funny. So I don’t enjoy not being in the team, but I actually enjoy playing my football better, because I’m more relaxed about it.