The 'brutally honest conversation' was the catalyst for a remarkable, and deeply gratifying, transformation. The dark cloud that had been hanging over the club for weeks had lifted.
The training ground was once again a place of energy, of focus, of a quiet, and determined, professionalism. The players were not just a team again; they were a better team. A team that was more honest, more accountable, and more united than ever before.
Our performances on the pitch reflected our new, and hard-won, sense of collective purpose. We were not playing the beautiful, free-flowing, football of our early-season purple patch.
We were playing a more pragmatic, more resilient, and more intelligent, brand of football. We were a team that had been through the fire, and had come out the other side, harder, smarter, and more difficult to beat.
