Monthly Newsletter - July 2024
Hello ballers,
Welcome to my monthly newsletter, July 2024 edition. If you missed any of the previous months, you can check them out here: https://strivefootballacademy.com/blog
We have finally had some summer weather! The last few weeks have seen us finally have some sun which has obviously come with, in true British style, people complaining that it’s too hot!
Summer Football Camp
I’ve had such a good time running our Summer camp for the first two weeks. We have had 49 different ballers attend so far and can’t wait for the next two weeks - starting 19th August. If you want to sign up or after more info, follow this link:
https://strivefootballacademy.com/football-camps
What’s going on?
The Olympics are making all the headlines at the moment, and rightly so. It’s a nice change of pace from the normal off season of transfers and silly rumours.
That being said, the Premier League is back on the 16th of August and here are my predictions.
Winners: I really can’t look past Man City winning their 5th title in a row. Unless one of the other main competitors (Arsenal the most likely) over perform or City severely under perform, I think this season could be over earlier than usual.
Improvers: Spurs showed signs last season of what could be, but they also lacked consistency - with Ange now having a full pre-season with the team, I expect them to do quite well. I really think Man United will do well this year and could even ‘challenge’ (used very loosely) Man City at the top. Chelsea, in my opinion, still have way too many problems in house to do anything other than have a couple of big results here and there.
Back down: It’s always hard to look past the three teams being promoted out of the Championship to be relegated. However, I am really excited to see what Ipswich can do in the top league. I had the pleasure of being coached by Kieran McKenna at the start of his coaching journey at Spurs, so would love to see him do well.
Do you have any hot takes for the upcoming season? Let me know!
Ask me a question
This months question from Louise:
If you could make one rule change in football - what would it be?
I love this type of question! I know a lot of people are of the ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ mindset - however, the way players speak to referees is a real problem. Not only does it cause issues for the referees themselves, but the potential bigger issue is the trickle down effect this has on referees at lower levels and in youth football.
Young players see their idols screaming at referees, getting in their face and being abusive and think that it’s okay.
We only have to look at Rugby to see how a blueprint for how referees should be treated - as equals and with respect.
I don’t think it would be hard to implement… At the start of the new season, introduce a blanket rule that only the captain can talk to the referee and anyone that shouts at a referee is given an instant yellow card/sin bin - yes, even the billionaire Premier league players. We would quickly see a change of attitude from even the worst offenders.
Agree or have a better rule, i’d love to hear it!
Worth a watch
Liverpool beat Arsenal in pre season in this tight game in Charlotte:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItHrwGSHFiY
Australia beat Zambia 6-5 in the Olympics after being 5-1 down!