Coaching career started as a college team coach

Wei Le made another call, this time to another acquaintance.

"Wei, you're calling now and a fish is slipping away!"

Kenny Jackett, who was unemployed at home, has been living a leisurely life recently. After discussing with his wife, he decided not to return to football so soon. For this reason, he rejected the contract offered by Rotherham, which is also a Championship team.

"The main reason is that I don't want to meet you in the league. Look, you met Rotherham in early March, didn't you get beaten 1-1? If I were to lead the team, you would definitely not be able to keep the draw!"

"Then I would probably win directly!" Wei Le laughed. He and Kenny Jackett are very familiar with each other. Although they have not been together for a long time, they have similar personalities and are almost friends regardless of age.

"Anything? Don't delay my fishing!"

"The Wolves are in trouble now."

"Hmm?" Kenny Jackett's face became serious, and Wei Le heard the sound of putting down the fishing rod on the other end of the phone, "Tell me in detail."

Wei Le then told Kenny Jackett about the current situation in the team and Gao Hongbo's analysis, but he concealed Gao Hongbo's name and replaced it with "a senior coaching veteran".

"Your senior is quite capable. Who is he?" Kenny Jackett was curious. "If it's inconvenient, forget it. I'm just curious."

"The former head coach of the Chinese national team."

"Wow!" Kenny Jackett almost choked. "That's really capable."

"I thought you would be a little dismissive. After all, you are not completely unfamiliar with Chinese football..."

"That's not the case. Anyone who can be the head coach of any country, even the head coach of a small country like Montserrat or Tajikistan, is capable - as long as the country has a complete league system."

Hearing the other party's evaluation of Gao Hongbo, Wei Le was somehow happy. Perhaps it was because his country's team had been looked down upon for a long time. However, he quickly put aside these random thoughts and turned the topic back to the Wolves.

But Kenny Jackett didn't want to give his thoughts directly, but kicked the question back, "Tell me what you want to do first?"

"Me?"

Wei Le thought about it. In fact, he probably had his own ideas, but they were not mature yet.

"I think the first thing is to take a vacation. It is true that the players are too tired and under too much pressure. Those who are not on the national team are already on vacation. When they come back from the national team, I will try my best to arrange rotations so that everyone can go out and have fun."

"That's good."

"Then I think I have to solve this problem for them thoroughly."

"How thoroughly?"

"Take a... psychology class."

——

Will players have psychological problems?

Many people have misunderstandings about football players, or athletes in other fields and other sports, thinking that they make a lot of money, so how can they have psychological problems?

But this is really a big misunderstanding.

Psychological problems and physical injuries are both factors that may affect the career of football players. The most famous case of psychological problems affecting careers is the German genius Deisler who ended his career early at the age of 27 in 2007.

The gifted Deisler was once dubbed the "heir of Effenberg". It was not physical factors that defeated him, but mental illness.

The pressure from fans under the guidance of the media and the inaction of the club made it difficult for Deisler to find life under pressure.

"I don't have a specific timetable for my return. In the past few weeks, I realized that I don't want to be surrounded by pressure anymore. It should be a long time before I officially return to the court, and the most important thing at the moment is that I can find myself again." Perhaps Deisler has never enjoyed peace on the green field.

Another regrettable thing is that in 2009, Enke, a German goalkeeper who was suffering from depression, committed suicide, but his teammates rarely knew the huge inner struggle Enke faced.

For a long time, the football world, and even the sports world, has always regarded psychological problems as a shameful topic, because in the past stigmatized cognition, psychological problems are only for the weak, which seems to be contrary to the pursuit of the so-called higher, faster and stronger sports spirit. They want to attack the city, they are fearless, and everyone takes it for granted that as long as they work hard, they can overcome almost any adversity...

But it's not like that, because they are players, but also people.

Psychological problems and mental illness are not the same concept. Of course, the Wolves are not in such a serious situation at present.

However, psychological factors will actually affect the players' decision-making, which is why the Wolves' "mental illness" will lead to the WolvesBenítez's team has been in ups and downs.

The problems that Wolves have to face are actually similar to the problems that Deisler has not gotten over - essentially, they are the problems of "finding oneself".

Deisler's problems appeared after his serious injury in 2001. At that time, Deisler, who was playing for Hertha Berlin, reached an agreement with Bayern Munich and was about to transfer to the Bundesliga giants.

However, after being exposed by Bild, Deisler endured doubts from fans of his parent team. Under the media's exaggeration, Deisler was criticized as a "traitor", which made him very sad.

Neither Bayern Munich nor Hertha Berlin gave Deisler enough support. They asked Deisler to remain silent in the tide of public opinion, and silence was further understood as arrogance and rudeness...

Deisler fell into self-doubt. He didn't know whether he could be called the so-called future of German football, nor did he know why he was criticized by fans who once loved him.

Where will Deisler go next? He himself doesn't know.

The Wolves, on the other hand, are in doubt of their own abilities. Although they are ahead of their competitors by some points and occupy the dominant position at the top of the standings, the Wolves players are still under pressure to win the championship.

Benítez's team took advantage of the Wolves' low form and won consecutive victories, using two three-pointers to recover the four-point gap of the Wolves. Now they are only three points behind!

The Wolves have no room to lose, and such pressure has given the Wolves players a great sense of urgency.

Under the pressure of this sense of urgency, the Wolves players are in a contradiction. They have defeated the giants Manchester United and are not inferior to Liverpool. They have represented the future of English football in the praise of some media.

But is it really like this? No, they themselves know that their football still has a lot of room for growth.

Therefore, the lack of ability in reality and the expectations of the media and the pressure of winning the championship have caused the Wolves players to fall into self-doubt. Fortunately, this doubt only affected the on-field state of the Wolves players, but not the off-field state.