Coaching career started as a college team coach

"Another season is over. Thank you for your hard work."

When Ben Roberts closed the door, his wife in the room greeted him with a smile.

But Ben Roberts was not in a very good mood. He just forced a smile, gently put his backpack on the table, and said nothing more.

Such an abnormal behavior certainly attracted his wife's attention. She couldn't help but feel a little strange - Ben Roberts didn't look very happy after just finishing a season of hard work and finally having a holiday.

"Honey, what's wrong with you? What happened?"

When his wife walked out of the room, she saw that Ben Roberts' old face looked sad.

"What's the problem at work?"

Ben Roberts forced a smile, he thought about it hesitantly, and couldn't say it.

"What's going on?" His wife was a little serious - Ben Roberts looked embarrassed, this must not be a small matter.

"Actually, it's nothing serious." Ben Roberts smiled bitterly, "It's just that I feel a little too tired."

"When I went home today, I looked in the rearview mirror in the car and realized that I was so old." Ben Roberts looked at his wife, whose face was also wrinkled, and his tone was a little lost.

His wife sighed.

Ben Roberts is a goalkeeper coach, and before that, he was a professional goalkeeper.

Having spent most of his life outside in the wind and sun, and not taking care of himself, Ben Roberts is only 42 years old, but to outsiders, he looks like he is in his 50s.

"I thought, when I was a professional player, I didn't have any honors. Now I'm retired and I'm a coach. I've been doing so-so until now, and I haven't achieved much."

Ben Roberts looked down at his weathered hands, which had blocked countless shots. He murmured, "But if this life ends like this, I always feel a little...uncomfortable."

The wife asked, "Are you not satisfied with your current job? When you first said you were going back to your old club Brighton, weren't you quite happy?"

"Ah..." Ben Roberts sighed, "Yes."

"Brighton is my old club, but that was only two years in my decades-long professional career. In those two years, everything was different from now. The American boss hadn't come yet, and there was no news about the new stadium."

"Now it seems that my impression of Brighton at that time is completely different from now."

The wife also sighed.

"Brighton..." Ben Roberts hesitated.

At the end of this season, Brighton finished in 15th place, and after 38 rounds of the league, they actually got 40 points. This may be worth some people's happiness, after all, Brighton was still wasting time in the English Championship last season.

But Ben Roberts doesn't think so.

He thinks Brighton can do better.

At least, Wolves, who are also promoted teams, are doing much better than Brighton.

Brighton's head coach Hughton feels a little overwhelmed in the Premier League.

In Ben Roberts' view, some of Hughton's ideas are outdated.

"Now, it is a trend and fashion for goalkeepers to conduct tactical training with the team." Ben Roberts gave an example, "but Hughton still lets goalkeepers train alone and separates goalkeepers from tactics."

"This..." The wife probably understood what Ben Roberts meant, and at the same time, she also understood another meaning from her husband's words.

He was not valued in Brighton.

Although Ben Roberts hid it well, his wife still felt different information from the few words in the past few years.

Her husband was not happy in Brighton.

Before coming to Brighton, Ben Roberts had only worked as a goalkeeper coach at Yeovil Town in League Two and Charlton Athletic in League One.

This qualification is not good enough for those coaches who come with a halo, at least coaching teams in the English Championship.

What's more, it is difficult to excel in the position of goalkeeper coach, which makes it difficult to change the impression of others.

Since joining Brighton in 2015, Ben Roberts has been on the edge of the coaching team and cannot participate in the core tactical discussions.

For Roberts, it is simply inhumane to let him be a pure "technical coach".

He has his own desires.

Ben Roberts played for England U21 and played mainly for Middlesbrough, Charlton Athletic and Brighton in his career. He retired due to injury in 2005 at the age of 29.

After retiring, he obtained a degree in sports science and coaching at Roehampton University in London.

With his paper "Kinematic Analysis of Goalkeeper Jumping Techniques", he also won Adidas' "Pursuit of Excellence Award".

ButThis did not make his future path smooth.

Whether at Newell's, Charlton or Brighton, whether in League Two, League One or the Championship, Ben Roberts worked hard to get the job done.

In his short coaching career, one of his most satisfying disciples was met at Charlton.

His name is Nick Pope.

Previously, Pope played poorly in a game when he played for Charlton. During the halftime break, the coach was going to replace Pope, and the coaching staff told Ben Roberts this information.

Ben Roberts was anxious at the time, his face flushed and he roared: "Fuck, this decision will ruin that kid. Tell the coach that if he replaces Pope, I will walk out of the stadium immediately."

Then Ben Roberts took out his mobile phone, opened the APP and started looking at the train tickets back to London. The atmosphere was deadlocked for a while.

But the coach followed Ben's advice and kept Pope on the court. In the second half, Pope made several key saves.

Ben Roberts is the kind of coach who is not content with being ordinary.

He has his own thoughts and his own philosophy.

He is like a thousand-mile horse, and this horse is full of personality.

He believes that the future of goalkeepers will not be confined to the penalty area. Therefore, he encourages Pope to participate in more ball passing.

He believes that there is no one-goal or two-goal difference for goalkeepers. Therefore, during training, Ben Roberts will create a very happy atmosphere. He values ​​every goalkeeper, and every goalkeeper enjoys it whether he plays or not.

Ben Roberts always innovates and uses various methods and equipment to improve the training effect, such as using tennis and rackets to improve the reaction of goalkeepers, and placing dummies on wet fields to train rebound shot saves, etc.

When he was full of confidence, Hughton told him that he only needed to do what he should do.

Ben Roberts is old. If he was still young, he would definitely have a good argument with Hughton and argue until he was red in the face.

But the thousand-mile horse is also old.

The reins were rotten and the horseshoes were covered with rust.

If you put a red-hot iron on your heart, you will only burn yourself in the end.

Facing his wife's concerned eyes, Ben Roberts finally just sighed and smiled.

"Let's eat first."