As an experienced football manager, Steve McClaren knows a thing or two about motivating his players. Honest.
Appearing on Sky Sports News on Monday morning, the former England boss revealed how – on two separate occasions – he’d taken a rather unusual step when trying to get the best out of his teams prior to very important games.
Instead of inspiring them with his own words of wisdom, he stuck on a tape of Al Pacino…
Yep, McClaren used *that* ‘inch by inch’ speech from Any Given Sunday, in which Pacino plays the role of Tony D’Amato – Head Coach of the Miami Sharks.
“I’ve done it a couple of times,” McClaren explained. “We picked a moment from Any Given Sunday. The speech by Al Pacino, have a look at that.
“We did a film. It’s an inspiring talk that Al Pacino gives about how you win big games and how it’s won by inches. It’s fantastic.”
Referring to Middlesbrough’s League Cup final victory over Bolton Wanderers in 2004, McClaren continued:
“We played that an hour before the final… After the film, everyone was motivated but emotional and in that right state.
“There was some tears. It was emotional, it was inspiring and I knew then that we were going to go out and we were going to win the game.”
Say what you will about Steve McClaren, he’s got excellent taste when it comes to sticking on a tape of someone else giving a motivational speech to inspire his players. pic.twitter.com/VFm0wKeVBI
— Si Lloyd (@SmnLlyd5) February 19, 2018
And for anyone not yet aware of the speech, here, go and educate yourselves:
It’s not clear if Steve delivered the same speech in Dutch the second time he used it…
