By Wayne Goldsmith

Read the title of this article.

Now read it again.

Read it one more time.

Now, just to be sure you get it – You can’t buy a football premiership!

Here’s why.

Many, Many Football Clubs all over the world in all codes have tried to “buy” a premiership over the years. In fact one the main reasons some football codes have put a salary cap in place is to ensure one club can not “buy” a premiership by recruiting the majority of the best players available.

However, if the Football Administrators did their homework and studied their history, they would realise putting a salary cap in place to stop one team dominating a competition is unnecessary – you just simply can’t buy a football premiership.

Football – You Can’t Buy Greatness.

Buying a premiership is where one team attempts to use financial resources and other inducements to buy the “best” available players, coaches, support staff and facilities and create a Super Team that on paper should be invincible – on paper.

In Australia, Clubs in AFL, NRL and now the Super Rugby have attempted to buy a winning team – and failed.

A quick glance overseas and you can easily find attempts to create a “Super Team” in soccer in the UK and Continental Europe – which failed.

OK – now someone is going to throw the inevitable Premier League soccer example into the argument with Chelsea and Manchester United seemingly able to throw limitless cash at their quests to win a title and remain highly competitive year after year after year.

However, look at the players they recruit, look at how they recruit them, how they play as a group under pressure, look at the quality of their coaches and look a little deeper than the superficiality of the big name signings and you will see there are three other critical ingredients in place:

Winning clubs have at their heart a winning culture, built on respect, honesty, integrity and a commitment to something greater than themselves. They start with this at the core, then build a winning team around the culture – a culture which grows from within – one that is driven by coaches, players and staff with real integrity, honesty, humility, passion and commitment to a common goal.

Winning clubs create a champion team – they do not buy team of champions. Big egos, selfishness, mercenary attitudes and dishonesty have no place in a winning professional football team and ultimately bring the Club unstuck.

Winning clubs have an egalitarian approach to team success. There are no “rock stars” – no one person who is bigger than the rest of the team. Everyone works hard and contributes to the success of the team.

So if history is against trying to buy a premiership, why do so many Clubs still try to do so? It seems logical that if you have the best players with the best coach and the best support team you should be unbeatable.

The main reason is the real nature of the Performance Culture. A player who has been successful in one team and in one culture may not necessarily perform in another Club with different players, coaches, staff, playing style and environment. A coach who has been successful in one Club may not be able to repeat success elsewhere with different people, systems and structures.

Just throwing a group of the best players and coaches together and saying, “now get out there and win” has not, does not and will not work – anywhere in the world.

A Ferrari fitted with Ducati brakes, a Honda transmission, a Porsche engine, a Renault body and a Jaguar suspension system does not make a great racing car. The best cars in the world have been built from the ground up with parts and components designed to fit together to produce maximum performance. Buying the best parts available, bolting them together and sending the car out to win an F1 is ludicrous.

So too is trying to buy a football premiership.

So how do you put together a premiership winning team?

Contact me now for more information on creating a winning culture.

Wayne Goldsmith