IIRC, he wasn't a psychologist, despite claiming he was, he studied sports science and that seemed to be enough as far as he was concerned.

It seems a very sensible to have a psychiatrist available to check on mental health issues. Hopefully he'll still keep in touch with ex players after they've retired.

Not so sure about the performance related role. I remember reading about ex England football goalkeeper, David James. He once had a nightmare for England in a game against Denmark. He was slaughtered by the press afterwards, partly because he was so bad, but mainly because he admitted that he hadn't prepared as well as usual.

He later explained what he meant by that comment. In the days leading up to the game he had done everything that he would normally do on the training pitch. On the day of the game he prepared exactly as normal. The only thing that was different was on the evening, the day before the game. He'd been led to believe that he wouldn't be playing in the game so didn't spend the 2 hours sat on his hotel bed mentally preparing for the game. Didn't carry out his "visualisation" exercises where he imagined making saves, catching crosses etc. On the morning of the game he was told that he would be playing. He said his reaction was "Oh sh*t, I'm fu*ked" , which turned out to be a self fulfilling prophecy. It did seem ironic that mental exercises designed to improve confidence had become a crutch on which he had become dependent.

Ex England cricketer Matthew Hoggard also said that he liked doing the visualisation stuff. Although he admitted "its a lot less tiring than bowling in the nets".

The game is awash with those little mental 'crutches' though. From the bloke who gets changed ages before the rest [and always puts on his socks before his shorts, left one first.... to the guy who insists on being next to the last out of the tunnel without a ball in his hands.

Even worse, I know fans who are just as bad....

A mate of mine was on the medical staff of a professional sports club. When they had a big game the manager would ask him to "sneak" into the dressing room an oxygen cylinder and masks. The players would all take gulps of oxygen before leaving the dressing room, all proclaiming the massive effect it was having.

Of course it was completely useless as a performance enhancing measure. Any beneficial effect would have disappeared by the time they reached the pitch. But the players swore by it. I think they stopped doing it when the players started demanding it every match.

Worryingly none of the players ever asked whether it was legal. It was, because it was completely useless, but they didn't know that.