John Collins is a man with a strict ideology on sport, and doesn’t mince his words.  Work hard and you will get what you deserve.  That’s what he believes.  He is as straightforward in person as he was on the pitch; setting an example, putting in the effort, imposing a positive, encouraging influence on those around him.

Those who have witnessed his time as manager of Hibernian football club will agree.  They play simple but effective football; using their heads for thinking and feet for playing.  He tells them: “You build from the back.  The ball is round because it is meant to roll, not fly through the air.  Be relaxed in possession, but if you don’t have it, get after it.”

Within a few months of his appointment, he took the Leith men to their first trophy in 16 years, winning the Scottish League Cup with a 5-1 win over Kilmarnock at Hampden in March.  He did in a matter of weeks what other managers tried to do for years.  He started out his coaching career just as he conducted his playing one – winning.

And the secret to his success?  “As long as you give it everything you’ve got.  Nobody can give it any more than their maximum,” he told In The Winning Zone in an exclusive interview at Easter Road. 

“Unfortunately, too many don’t give their maximum, they just give enough,” he added. 

“Talent’s not enough.  You’ve got to have all the other attributes.”  And what are they? “Sacrifice, eat properly, sleep properly, train properly, drink the right drinks, rest at the right times.  It’s a lifestyle.  It’s got to be like that for a professional athlete.  It’s not what you do while you’re here for two hours.  It’s what you do when you’re not here that effects how you perform, how you recover, how you are the next day.”

It may have been OK back in the day (or even Collins’ day for that matter) to take advantage of life as a professional footballer.  After a morning training session, the day – and the money – was free to be spent as you pleased.  Trips to the bar, the bookies and the burger-joint weren’t an uncommon way to spend the afternoon.  But no more; in the modern, ultra competitive, media-crazed football world, a high performance athlete must also be a high performance person.

“A lot of players come in and sweat for two hours and then think they can just leave and lead a normal life like normal people, but they can’t.  If you are an athlete you push yourself to the limits daily, so nutrition and hydration are massive.  If that’s not done properly then your chances of success are much lower.”

Collins knows that this is a problem in professional football.  Too much time and money can lead to these inevitable pitfalls.  But the former Scotland star looks to the intangible rewards as the end to justify the means.  Hard work is worth it:  “It’s not money; it’s the satisfaction that you have beaten your personal best.  Money can’t buy that feeling you get inside.  You’ll never beat it.  That gives you something that’s there for the rest of your life.  Fifteen years later you will be able to close your eyes and remember that.”


Of course, when Collins wants to close his eyes and recall his own career, he needs to book a block in his diary.  It takes a long time to reminisce the highs of a twenty year playing stint studded with success. 

He commenced his professional life as a Hibs player in 1984, winning Scottish Young Player of the Year at 20.  In 1990 he became Celtic’s first million pound signing, and in 1996 controversially left Glasgow for the sparkling streets of Monaco, where he won a French Championship in his first season, and made the semi-finals of the Champions League in the following one.

And while some players would choose to wind down their careers after turning 30, Collins spent his twilight years in the world’s most frenetic and competitive league, the English Premiership, playing for Everton and Fulham. 

Oh, and he won 58 caps for Scotland, scoring twelve goals, and played in the World Cup and European Championships.  He had quite a time of it.

But it is Collins’ experiences in France that have shaped how he thinks as a coach.  His musings on the need for a French style football academy system in Scotland have been well publicised, but, judging on what our cross-channel rivals have achieved, who can blame him?

“It seems like I’m always piping up about France,” he joked.  “But the French system is miles ahead of the Scotland and England academies.”

“The players leave school and leave home at thirteen, and most get their education and football side by side.  It’s like being in the army to a certain extent.  They are programmed.  They don’t eat rubbish, they sleep at the right times, they do their homework.  They are given discipline.  They need to get their marks in the classroom to be allowed to train, so if they don’t make it in football, they still have their education.”

Of course, the issue in Scotland isn’t with the concept, it is with the cost.  The expense incurred would be enormous.  It isn’t cheap to house, feed and kit out hundreds of kids, let alone cover the teaching, coaching and facility expenses.  But, if the French can afford it, why can’t Scotland, or at least the UK?

Well, like or loathe it, the systems in France were paid for, in part, by the taxpayer – hardly music to our ears.  But it is an investment in sport isn’t it?  Isn’t that one of the reasons we pay taxes?  Plus the clubs can invest too.  It will only stand to benefit them in the long term, as Collins acknowledged.

“The clubs in France go to the academies.  They don’t need to buy players because the town is producing them.  That’s why they do it.  They produce the players, the small clubs sell them and the money goes back into the academy.” 

It is a self perpetuating system.  And it makes a difference; “A huge difference” according to the Hibs boss.  “They [Scottish players] only come in here [to the club academies] at sixteen, so already the French have three years head start.  That’s two or three years of touching a ball every day – that’s millions and millions of touches.  So by the time they hit sixteen they are already better technically, and physically, because they are stretching and eating a proper diet.”

There is no doubt the French academies have been a success.  Just look at the players that have been developed and the success the country has had.  The system has been in place for just over twenty years, and the role call from that era is simply phenomenal.  Zidane, Henry, Petit, Desailly, Deschamps, Viera, Makelele.  The list is never-ending.  They have won the World Cup (1998) and the European Championships (2000).  French club teams have been punching way above their financial weight in the Champions League (including Collins’ Monaco, finalists in 2004), and of course they also made World Cup Final in 2006.

So why haven’t we done the same?  Well, for one, as we mentioned, the cost of constructing such a system is immense.  But, secondly, and more worryingly, we don’t even have the facilities in place to cater for what we are working with right now, as Collins is quick to point out.

“They say we are a sporting country but we’re not really when it comes to equipment and facilities.  I mean, how many proper astro-turfs are there in Edinburgh and the outlying towns?  In our climate grass pitches are probably a no-no for six months of the year.  You can’t use them because they are water-logged.  A simple artificial pitch with floodlights can be used 24 hours a day at any time of the year.”

He continued: “It would make a huge difference.  If they have the proper facilities then they can be coached non-stop.  You can coach the young kids any time, rather than these 8 or 9 year olds being outside in the freezing cold wind and rain all winter.  You can’t coach them like that.  You can only keep them warm.”

Collins is doing his best here in Scotland however.  It is the only way he knows.  And his methodology reflects the coach he is, and the pragmatic footballer he was.  The essence of his formula is to get the basics right, and build from there.

He nods towards the flipchart in the corner.  “That’s proper coaching.”  There are four words written on the board: Explanation, Demonstration, Correction, Repetition. 

“It comes down to repetition.  If a player puts a free kick in the top corner, people think that’s talent.  No it isn’t.  That’s practice.  Talent is nothing without repetition and practice.”
 
He continued: “The biggest mistake in football in this country is there is no correction.  They set up drills, they repeat, but unless you correct the errors, which a lot of coaches don’t, you become very good at faults. 

“That’s the secret.  And that’s always when it becomes hard.  To tell young kids in the weather conditions in this country ‘Stop’, so you can correct the mistakes.  That’s where the indoor facilities will help.”

It all makes sense.  Collins trains his Hibernian team to play football.  This is often difficult in the driving rain on a sodden, bumpy pitch, but they do it anyway.  He has seen the benefits of first class structuring, quality facilities and correct coaching, and, never one to idly watch, he has implemented it into his own team.

“People say I’m a purist but I want a team to win, and win in style.  I’m looking for the performance.  If the performance is right, and I don’t get the result, then I can accept it.  But too many people say it’s all about the result, but it’s not all about the result.  It is about the performance and the preparation.  And more often than not, the result comes with the performance.

“All I ask for from my players is to play well, try as hard as they can, stick to the game-plan and play how I want them to play.”

Playing to his game-plan, how he wants, brought those players a trophy in a very short space of time.  Imagine what could happen if the rest of Scotland takes note of what he says.

RO

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