“I’m a fan of the game but I recognise that I know only a fraction of what the guys down this hallway know. They’ve lived it. They’ve played at the highest levels. They’ve earned their scars and their coaching badges and they know the intricacies of what happens at a level I never will. My challenge is taking what they know and combining it with what I know to get disproportionate gains.

“I have to avoid the perception that I’ve come here from Olympic sports - with a Ph.D. - and know a lot more than they do. That isn’t the case at all. We have simply come to this place from different paths. Our work has to be collaborative, not competitive.

“The important parallel with the Olympics and here is to be as clear as you can be with the footballers, as you are with elite level athletes, about where they need to be at given points. When they have that information they are more responsive.

“Often there is an assumption that because the coaches know the standard required to play first team football, their athletes must know it too. This is not an assumption we need to make. We are going to work to bring clarity to our players about everything that is required to reach the highest levels of the game.”