Blues facing mind games

Jun 6 2008 by David Triggs, Chester Chronicle

A TEAM of sports psychologists has been signed up to aid Chester City’s push for League Two glory next season.

Blues boss Simon Davies yesterday revealed he is enlisting the help of a group of Liverpool John Moores University students after they worked wonders with the club’s youth team.

He knows the use of ‘mind games’ may be treated with scepticism by some members of the squad, but the Chester manager has faith in the process.

Davies said: “We’re definitely looking to get the sports psychologists involved.

“I don’t know whether it will be once a week, once a month, or whatever, but they’ll definitely be using our first team players to try and get in their heads.

“It worked quite well with the youth team last year. It just seems a good thing to bring in, especially for the younger pro’s in the group. We should extend that to the whole first team squad.”

Davies was in charge of the youth team when the psychologists were brought in last season. He admits some of the club’s senior professionals are likely to be more resistant to his methods.

“There will be some who will find it hard to take on board and there are a couple who will probably have the psychologist on the sofa by the end of it!” said Davies. “I’ve had a chat with Laurence Wilson and he said he had that sort of thing at Everton and it didn’t work for him, but we’ll give it another go.

“If the psychology thing works with only a few, it’s a plus.”

Davies added: “A lot of it’s down to goal setting for the younger players. It’s different sorts of problems for players who are already in the first team. They will have slightly different problems in their game and their lives.”

As well as getting his players mentally prepared for the new campaign, Davies will also ensure they are among the fittest in the league by the time the season kicks off on Saturday, August 9.

The squad is being called in for selected training dates later this month before returning to full-time pre-season training on July 1.

Davies said: “They’re in from June 17 and 19, then 24 and June 26. They’ll be getting the rubbish out of their systems before they actually come back for the first day.”

More Blues news – page 68.