As I watched the Liverpool v Manchester City game yesterday it was interesting to see how the Manager and Captain of Liverpool played down their chances of winning the league, saying that what was important to them was to focus on the next game.
Liverpool have 4 games to go, and if they win all 4 they will be Champions for the first time in over 20 years.
You can feel the excitement, the expectation in Liverpool, who have now won 10 games in a row, but if they don’t win their remaining 4 then they won’t win the title.
Their Manager and Captain know this, they understand that they need to maintain their focus, keep their eyes on their prize.
If they get carried away, over confident or start to celebrate too soon, then they will end up with a great season, but no trophy.
Too often people fall at the final hurdle, they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, they lose their grip, their focus and that’s it, that elusive success has slipped away.
We need to remind our teams that all our great work to date will count for nothing if we don’t seal the deal.
In football they often use the old cliche of ‘we need to take it one game at a time’ and whilst it might be an old cliche it’s also very true.
Focus on the next step, the next game, success is earned by what we do each day and we need to keep being successful, we can’t just expect that because of previous success future success is guaranteed.
We need to keep on working, just as hard as we have done before if not harder, one final push to achieve our dreams.
They need to block out all external noise, all of the complements, all of the praise and the adulation, and ensure that they don’t believe their own press.
Their destiny is now in their own hands, but those hands still need to do the necessary work. It was a great result, a great obstacle overcome, but success still needs to be earned and achieved.
Their attitude has to be one down, four to go.
Anything else and they could find themselves empty handed at the end of the season.
Gordon Tredgold